Welcome!

I used to have barometric pressure headaches but they pretty much were before I had cluster headaches. Now I sometimes get just the 'pressure' feeling on the top of my head and eyes when a storm or change in the weather is coming, not a full blown headache. I've never been able to pinpoint that a change in the barometer has anything to do with my clusters...but that's just me.

Hopefully you've started the ball rolling on a discussion and you'll soon hear from others.

You may want to Google "barometric pressure headache"

Good luck!

Thank you Batch and Rumeke, that's exactly what i was looking for!

Yea im getting tested for my levels of D3 tomorrow, but the past few days ive been taking a multivitamin that has 1000UI of D3, and i also found in my place a bottle of vitamin D3 that has 400UI a capsule. Ive been taking about 3 of those capsules a day, except for the first day in which i took 4, and 2 multivitamins spread through out the day. I know its not the amount that was suggested, my plan was to see what the tests results say and then buy the 10,000 UI one if i was below the 40ng/ML in my blood. Sound like a solid plan? (Ive also been taking 200-400mg of magnesium every day with my multivitamin and 2400-3600mg of fish oil total every day. Sometimes i start to get some slight pressure, but i notice that 300mg of 5-htp seems to help constrict the blood vessels, relieving the pressure, but i doubt a that lose of a dose of 5-htp would help with a stronger attack.

It is also worth noting that since i started taking all these vitamins and stopped taking any of my triggers  such as alcohol the beast tends to remain dormant, except around 10pm i sometimes get what it think others refer to as the shadow. I feel very slight pressure, its kind of annoying because i fear it will get worst, if it doesn't its not all that bad comparatively. I wouldn't be surprised that some more D3 would help, but id rather wait and have proof and then get tested again after so we have more proof that the regiment works.

On a side note i read that magnesium is good for nerves, but i also heard that magnesium dilate the blood vessels, so wouldn't taking magnesium potentially cause a cluster headache to hurt more?

Anon-ClusterHead wrote on Oct 9^th, 2014 at 12:01pm:


Many countries restrict the maximum vitamin D3 dose in a tablet to 1000IU. However many people are importing D3 from the US (iherb.com is popular) so it means that they don't have to swallow multiple D3 pills at once plus it can work out a lot cheaper too.

Of course, do check what the rules are around importing it to where you live.

Its best to take the whole regime with your main meal of
the day to get proper absorption.

Hoppy.

This question has regularly appeared for a good many years. I checked the largest medical library in the U.S., going back to 1987 and found only two citations.

One was purely speculative as to causation.

The oldest one reported that O2 was helpful and that sumatriptan gave no relief.

Clearly, for most people O2 isn't going to be a response when flying commercial air.

I can't recall whether there has been any discussion about the possibility of a secondary trigger, that is, badly congested sinuses.

Any experiences which hint that this may be a trigger for some folks where using a strong nasal decongestant has helped?

I live in a tropical paradise which means air pressure can swing wildly day by day, hour by hour. Never would I say this is actually a trigger, but it certainly plays a part.

The sudden drop is worstest by far. It's a tap on the shoulder to remind me all ain't well with the world.

Then there's what I call 'landing headaches' in aeroplanes and as barometric problems go they're a killer. On descent, usually around the 8,000ft mark, I've often copped the horriblest one-sided headache behind my eye. Easily a Kip8 with a running nose and crying eye, but it's all over once we hit the deck.

Seen many a baby screaming mid-flight and worry the poor little thing has the same problem.

Interestingly I've had the similar feeling during rapid cliff descents and driving quickly down mountains, but never while skydiving.

I truly believe that my 'barometric' headaches are unrelated to CH, but the similarity in onset and pain are terrifying. Happily it's all over in a couple of minutes and all I need is a new pair of underpants.

Anon-ClusterHead wrote on Oct 14^th, 2014 at 5:21pm:


I'm not sure anyone has an answer for that other than from you trying it out for yourself.

There always seems to be a spike of people with episodes around spring / autumn (fall), so it could be that it is the changes that are a trigger, not if it is summer or winter.

Anon-ClusterHead wrote on Oct 14^th, 2014 at 5:21pm:


My Headaches started when I was stationed on Guam, a tropical 12 hour day/12 hour night; always summer location .  That sort of disproves the always summer idea.

Anon-ClusterHead wrote on Oct 22^nd, 2014 at 12:12pm:


I get hay fever, however I had that for almost 40 years before I started with CH.

Around 30% of people have some allergy, but only about 0.1% of people get CH, so whilst there may be a relationship, it is far from clear cut, especially with many allergies being more prevalent around spring, however episodic CH seems to peak in spring and fall (autumn), so again it is non-trivial to determine the relationship.

For 43yrs my CH's were like clockwork. Every Spring and
Fall, twice a day at the same time morning and afternoon.
I could set my clock by it. In CH's their is no rhyme or
reason as far as the  is concerned. We
are all different.

Hoppy.