I suffer cluster headaches do to neck problems. which I guess puts me in the cervicogenic headaches category if anyone wants to dispute the difference. their is no difference to me since I believe all cluster headaches are caused by issues in the neck, but what do I know.right. anyway I recently suffered bells palsy . of course the drs. think its was caused by a virus. I don't believe it since the facial nerve responsible is the same one that sends all the pain to my face when I have a cluster headache. anyone care to put in there to cents by all means. please do so.

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That shows the nerve affected by CH, which is the trigeminal nerve which does not go near the neck.

The trigger point for CH has been shown to be the hypothalamus region of the brain through studies where people had CHs induced whilst their brain was being studied in PET machines (Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or ).

Again?  It's your hypothalamus.

              Potter

  Just call yourself Daffy from now on.

               Potter

What about all those that suffer from cluster headaches, that have NO neck issues ???????
when I was first diagnosed, the first doctor I saw believed I had bells palsy and prescribed, lycram ? or similar,  bells palsy is caused by a virus, all pretty well documented in medical journals.
I also had nerve pain shooting across one half of the top of my head, the opposite to the cluster pain side.
please go and investigate your theory, on developing from the neck or lower brain stem, get treatment,  then we will see you back here listening to those who know.
remember one thing, nerve pain travels,  the neuropathic nerve ways are all connected through out our body, some chinese accupunturers  treat the hand area for pain in the lower back !    nerve pain and inflammation TRAVELLS.
my advice to you would be to accept what you have, don't try and out think it, or invent theories that simply wont help,  look at all the options available here, from 02, to vit d3 regime, or perhaps busting with the other stuff.
read all the well informed literature on here from people that have endured this horrible affliction, and begin to manage it.  I can relate to how frustrated you may feel, and without reading your previous posts, have you been properly diagnosed ??  if you have,  and if you've read thru the history on the forum, you'll likely see many others with the same type of theories and some equally wasted time exploring such things as tooth removal, new ubute electronic gismo's that will cure all, but im pickin you'll eventually come to the same realisation as most of us here about what we have, and where it originates from.
I wish you all the best and success in your endeavours, and maybe one day someone will come up with something simple, something new that can once and for all quell this demon that curses us all.....
cheers
colin

I don't think the hypothalamus creates or sends pain signals. The hypothalamus cause the blood vessels around the trigeminal nerve to dilate, pressing on the nerve and causing the pain. Medication we use causes the vessels to contract, reducing the pressure and the pain.
The trigeminal nerve does go near the neck. It leaves under the skull at the neck area and travels up behind and over the ear then to the face.
You didn't break your hypothalamus. You were born that way. Blame it on your ancestors.
I've suffered clusters for 40 years and have never had the neck pain. An ice pack is one of my best friends during an bad attack. Even though there is no neck pain putting the ice on the neck helps relieve the pain in the temple/face.

Headache:lessons learned from functional imaging
British Medical Bulletin 2003; 65: 223-234

Arne May
Department of Neurology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany

Using PET in a larger patient series, significant activations ascribable to the acute cluster headache were observed in the ipsilateral hypothalamic grey matter when compared to the headache-free state44. This highly significant activation was not seen in cluster headache patients out of the bout when compared to the patients experiencing an acute cluster headache attack45. In contrast to migraine25, no brainstem activation was found during the acute attack compared to the resting state. This is remarkable, as migraine and cluster headache are often discussed as related disorders and identical specific compounds, such as ergotamine and sumatriptan, are currently used in the acute treatment of both types of headache46. These data suggest that while primary headaches such as migraine and cluster headache may share a common pain pathway, the trigeminovascular innervation, the underlying pathogenesis differs significantly as might be inferred from the different patterns of presentation and responses to preventative agents46.
Just as it is striking that no brainstem activation occurs in contrast to acute migraine, no hypothalamic activation was seen in experimental pain induced by capsaicin injection into the forehead47. This is important because injection of the forehead would activate first (ophthalmic) division afferents which are the trigeminal division predominantly responsible for pain activation in cluster headache. Thus two other types of first division of trigeminal nerve pain, while sharing neuro-anatomical pathways with cluster headache, do not give rise to


VASCULAR HEADACHE: ARE BLOOD VESSELS INVOLVED?

Taking these observations on acute cluster headache together with what has been observed in experimental head-pain and migraine, the data establish that migraine and CLUSTER HEADACHE, FAR FROM BEING PRIMARILY VASCULAR DISORDERS, ARE CONDITIONS WHOSE GENESIS IS TO BE FOUND IN THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM IN PACEMAKER OR CIRCADIAN REGIONS SPECIFIC TO THE SYNDROME. If further studies confirm these findings, a better understanding will be gained of where and how acute and preventative therapy can be targeted.
================
Neurol Sci. 2013 May;34 Suppl 1:71-3.
Cluster headache: what has changed since 1999?
Leone M, Cecchini AP, Tullo V, Curone M, Di Fiore P, Bussone G.
SourceDepartment of Neurology, Headache Centre and Pain Neuromodulation Unit, C. Besta Neurological Institute and Foundation, Milan, Italy, leone.m@istituto-besta.it.

Abstract
The peripheral and central origin of pain in cluster headache (CH) and trigeminal autonomic cephalgias (TACs) has been matter of debate. In the last decade, a number of information came from both animal and human studies. This paper briefly highlights main data from these studies. Taken together, THERE IS NOW SUFFICIENT BODY OF EVIDENCE INDICATING THAT CH and TACs can be regarded as a unique headache spectrum-syndrome, DUE TO INVOLVEMENT OF SPECIFIC BRAIN AREAS.

PMID:23695050[PubMed
======
Interesting to note that he is saying that the primary mode of action is NOT as a vasoconstrictor but on its effect on the central nervous system. Doesn't change our appreciation of this class of meds but suggests we need to change how we think about the nature of CH.
==============================
Handb Exp Pharmacol. 2007;(177):129-43.   


Serotonin receptor ligands: treatments of acute migraine and cluster headache.


Goadsby PJ.

Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK. peterg@ion.ucl.ac.uk

Fuelled by the development of the serotonin 5-HT(1B/1D) receptor agonists, the triptans, the last 15 years has seen an explosion of interest in the treatment of acute migraine and cluster headache. Sumatriptan was the first of these agonists, and it launched a wave of therapeutic advances. These medicines are effective and safe. Triptans were developed as cranial vasoconstrictors to mimic the desirable effects of serotonin, while avoiding its side-effects. IT HAS SUBSEQUENTLY BEEN SHOWN THAT THE TRIPTANS' MAJOR ACTION IS NEURONAL, WITH BOTH PERIPHERAL AND CENTRAL TRIGEMINAL INHIBITORY EFFECTS, AS WELL AS ACTIONS IN THE THALAMUS AND AT CENTRAL MODULATORY SITES, SUCH AS THE PERIAQUEDUCTAL GREY MATTER. Further refinements may be possible as the 5-HT(1D) and 5-HT(1F) receptor agonists are explored. Serotonin receptor pharmacology has contributed much to the better management of patients with primary headache disorders.

PMID: 17087122 [PubMed]
=================================================================
J Clin Neurosci. 2010 Mar 11.

What has functional neuroimaging done for primary headache ... and for the clinical neurologist?
Sprenger T, Goadsby PJ.

UCSF Headache Centre, Department of Neurology, University of California, 1701 Divisadero St, Suite 480, San Francisco, CA 94115, USA.

Our understanding of mechanisms involved in primary headache syndromes has been substantially advanced using functional neuroimaging.

THE DATA HAVE HELPED ESTABLISH THE NOW-PREVAILING VIEW OF PRIMARY HEADACHE SYNDROMES, SUCH AS MIGRAINE AND CLUSTER HEADACHE, AS BRAIN DISORDERS WITH NEUROVASCULAR MANIFESTATIONS, NOT AS DISORDERS OF BLOOD VESSELS.

PMID: 20227279 [PubMed]

I had a nasty round with Bells Palsy with facial paralysis on my left side, which about 8 weeks to subside completely. 

I went on to have 14 years of chronic daily CH's, always on the right side. I still cannot see any connection of that virus, to my CH's either way - at least in my case.

Marc

I was pushing my daughter on the swing and I got a bad neck cramp, which happen all the time. I sat down and tried to stretch it out but my neck popped , it sounded more like a chicken bone snapping and I new that was bad. an hour later the bells palsy had started to set in. the next day it was fully set in on right side. my headaches stopped though. I really feel that that seventh facial nerve has more to do with cluster headaches then people think. I have problems with a loud ring in my left ear also. drives me crazy , hard to sleep cause it never stops. right ear has mild ring too. I guess my neck injury is causing all these problems. I have to sit most day. rest. cant lift much weight or do much around house anymore without causing my neck to act up which causes headaches to come back anytime. im getting used to my new life though and im more aware of what I can and cant do anymore. I was a mess when I realized this neck problem is contributing to my cluster headack attacks. cause I had to quit doing so many things I used to be able to do. now I so afraid to reinjure myself so for now im healing and taken it easy. hope someday someone will figure this out . for now the pain is at a minimum and I intend to keep it that way if I can.

Another potential explanation:


Link to: cluster-LIKE headache:

IN: "Medications, Treatments, Therapies --> "Important Topics" --> "Cluster-LIKE headache"

you may be on to something ,, look at the symptoms .. like they are the same as bells ??? what if the CH is nothing more than the body TRYING to go INTO bells palsey but not completely succeeding ???? hmmmmmm


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because their hypothalamus has that extra little bundle of nerve fibers.

Barbara my nero refused to listen to my complaints about my neck because they contributed my neck pain at first as just a symptom of cluster headaches. but I finally got them to here me out and they put me on Tizanidine hcl 2mg tab. 3x a day. it took just three days to start working. my cycle began to stop and as long as I don't push myself and try to do to much physical work im ok. my problem is they still refused to see how my arthritis has any connection to ch,even though my MRI shows arthritis and degenerative joint disease c4-5 which if you do some research are directly related to what is considered cervicogenic headaches. so im going to give d3 a try, couldn't hurt at this point.  and yes I agree we are all different as to what cause ch. I know I had a rough childhood, I had a ruptured appendicitis at 8yrs. crashed headfirst on pavement on some crazy homemade gocart at 10. I played tackle football all the time with my older brother and friends up until I was 20. had a seizer at 16. started getting ch at 14. but back then things were different and parents, my parents anyway didn't know anybetter. there were no helmets, no going to the dr everytime you hit your head , no worry about concussion like today. so Im all over my kids today. they wear more protection then riot police whenever there doing something slightly harmful.