Cluster headaches are arquably one of the most painful conditions known and their only saving grace is that they are fortunately reasonably rare. For instance, although roughly one person out of every ten of the population suffers from migraine headaches, only about one person in three hundred will experience a cluster headache.

A cluster headache generally appears as what many sufferers describe as a hot and stabbing pain behind just one eye or in the region of the temple. Their main characteristic however is that they run to a timetable and will appear at roughly the same time every day often appearing for several days, weeks or months at a time. They also tend to occur without warning, unlike migraine headaches which are often preceded by several warning signs.

Noone is exactly certain what causes these extremely painful headaches though research tends to favor the theory that they are the result of abnormalities in the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is a small gland that plays an important role in regulating the body clock and this might explain why these headaches occur at the same time every day.

Another feature of cluster headaches that sets them apart from migraines is that are far more commonly seen in men than in women. In the case of migraines about three times as many women as men are afflicted but, with cluster headaches, studies show that they are seen up to eight times more often in men.

Standard treatments for normal headaches are almost always useless for cluster headaches and this is one sort of headache for which you have to seek professional advice from your doctor.

One frequently used treatment is that of inhaling pure oxygen for several minutes once the headache begins. This particular form of treatment will not work for everyone but normally works extremely well for those people who do find it is helpful. It cannot however be used to prevent a cluster headache and is only effective in treating a headache once it has started.

Another very effective treatment is that of using a new type of drugs known as triptans which are at present being used for the treatment of migraine headaches. These drugs do however need to be taken in a very fast acting form if they are to be effective and this usually means taking them in the form of a nasal spray. However, in many cases cluster headaches can cause inflammation of the nasal passages rendering this sort of treatment difficult. In these cases, triptans can sometimes be administered by injection.

At the moment there are no really effective preventative treatments available though a few sufferers do find that calcium channel blockers work fairly well. Also, in very severe cases surgery might be considered as a last resort treatment and a number of neurological procedures are available which include procedures which block certain nerves and that remove a section of the brain.