What is Cluster Headache?
Cluster headaches are extremely painful and happen in cyclic pattens or cluster periods. They are relatively of shorter duration, that can happen daily for weeks or months at a time. The cycles of cluster headaches are followed by the periods of remission, when the symptoms may not be experienced for a very long time, sometime years. They usually have a tendency to occur every year at the same time, that is why it is often mistakenly diagnosed as a symptom of allergy or business stress.
During the bouts of attack a cluster headaches can happen at least once everyday, or the person may have several headaches per day. The pain is so severe that the person may get awakened in the night with intense throbbing pain in the head. The pain is often in the one eye or on one side of the face.
They can happen at any age, but are mostly common between adolescence and middle age.
Causes
The cause behind cluster headache is not very well known, but how it happens in understood. Cluster headache is caused due to dilatation or widening of the blood vessels that supply blood to the brain and face. The dilated vessels apply pressure on the trigeminal nerve, which is responsible for transmitting sensations from the face to the brain.
The exact cause why dilatation of vessels occur is still not known, but according to some researchers, it happens due to some abnormalities in the hypothalamus, which is responsible for regulating body temperature, blood pressure, sleep and release of certain hormones.
Sudden release of histamine, a chemical responsible to fight allergens, or serotonin, which is known for regulating mood, could also be responsible for causing cluster headache.
Sign & Symptoms
Pain of cluster headache comes on suddenly. Sometimes it may be preceded by symptoms like nausea and phase of aura, like it happens in migraine. The common sign and symptoms can include-
- Severe excruciating pain in the back or around one eye, that may radiate to other areas in the face, neck and head
- Mostly a one sided pain
- Feeling of restlessness
- Excessive tearing
- Redness in the eye of the affected side
- Stuffiness or running nose on the affected side
- Sweating on the forehead and face of the affected side
- Pallor or flushing of the face
- There might be swelling around the eye of the affected side
- Dropping of eyelid on the affected side
There are many symptoms in common with migraine, like in cluster headache also the person may have sensitivity to light and sound, but the symptom are one sided and the intensity of pain is unbearable.
Diagnosis
The diagnosis of cluster headache depends upon the medical history of the patient and his description about the characteristics of pain and pattern of attacks.
Homeopathic Treatment for Cluster Headache
Homeopathy can prove to be very helpful in reducing the severity of pain and the cluster period in the case of cluster headaches. The homeopathic medicines given on individual basis can significantly reduce the frequency and severity of headaches and give maximum relief to the patient, by working on the root cause of the disease.
Individualised homeopathic medicines are the choice of treatment in most of the cases of cluster headache. Remedy is chosen individually for the patient, depending upon the peculiar characteristic symptoms, which exclusively belong to the patient. Totality is made after carefully investigating the mental and emotional aspect of the patient, along with his general physical symptoms. Patient’s whole constitution, temperament and disposition is thoroughly understood for the selection of remedy.
AVI homeopathy provides best treatments in the case of cluster headaches. The medicines are prescribed on the individual basis to give the patients the best treatment possible.
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