It is so hard to pin the onset on a hard blow to the head as causing us have clusters.

We all can remember a time when we had some kind of trauma to the head ie fall, car wreck, hit by baseball bat etc. Plus there are millions upon millions of people that have and did not get clusters.

I guess what I am saying is ...who knows.

In my particular case (and of course, that's completely anecdotal) I've never had any notable head trauma.

There has been some association between head injury and subsequent CH, but from everything I've seen here, it's by no means universal.

Best,

George

Two factors: how old this material is and, how contradictory.

Headache. 1992 Nov;32(10):504-6.

Cluster headache following head injury: a case report and review of the literature.

Turkewitz LJ, Wirth O, Dawson GA, Casaly JS.

Midwest Center for Head-Pain Management, Troy, Ohio 45373.

A relation between head trauma and cluster headache is frequently described in the literature. The percentage of cluster patients with a history of head injury is approximately 16.5 when several large studies are reviewed. The present paper reports another case where there is close proximity between head injury and the onset of cluster headache. A review of the literature attempts to document the supposition that there is indeed a causal or precipitous role for head injury in cluster cephalgia pathogenesis.

PMID: 1468909 
=====
Curr Pain Headache Rep. 2006 Apr;10(2):130-6. Links
Head trauma and cluster headache.Manzoni GC, Lambru G, Torelli P.
Headache Centre, Department of Neurology, University of Parma and University Centre for Adaptive Disorders and Headache, Via Gramsci, 14, 43100 Parma, Italy. giancamillo.manzoni@unipr.it

Post-traumatic cluster headache (CH) is a very rare occurrence. Only one such case has been verified in the literature thus far. On the other hand, a non-casual association is almost certain to exist between previous head trauma and future CH onset. Considering the generally long interval of time separating the two events, it is not easy to accurately explain the nature of the head trauma/CH relationship. Head trauma may damage extra- or intracranial peripheral or central nervous structures, hence predisposing to the future development of CH. However, there also is the possibility that previous head injuries may be more frequent among CH patients because of their lifestyle, which may leave them more exposed to the risk of traumatic events.

PMID: 16539866 [PubMed

LOL...thats true. I didn't have any brain injuries until I started banging my head against the wall during an attack.

As far as the article is concerned, I remember the old articles talking about clusterheadache men were all ruggid and macho. I kinda liked that. 

Of course our studies have clearly indicted that cluster men are all 90% more handsome than the general population.

There is strong research that links the role of the hypothalamus to CHs. So the $64,000 question is why did the hypothalamus start to function abnormally? There are a number of possibilities, everything from being born with a defective one to it being damaged. Obviously a head injury could result in brain damage that includes the hypothalamus.

As Bob has posted, there is published research that shows links between the two.

My CHs started a few weeks after a concussion, so there is certainly a strong temporal relationship between the two.