A cluster headache is a headache that is extremely painful. The pain tends to be behind the eye, and affects men more than women. I have to admit that I rarely see them in my practice, even though I’ve had hundreds of patients throughout the years with headache pain. Most of them had their pain reduced with chiropractic care. If you suffer from cluster headaches, here is something you might need to know:
While chiropractic care can potentially help a cluster headache (see a chiropractor for a diagnosis), it appears that oxygen is an effective treatment. This study from JAMA shows that giving a patient high-flow oxygen calms down their headache symptoms typically within 15 minute. That’s pretty good. It’s also good that this is a non-drug approach for headache relief.
So, if you have cluster headaches, try to find a chiropractic or medical office where they have an oxygen concentrator or an oxygen tank. That will help an acute episode. If you are in a bind and you can’t get to an oxygen machine, you might try to do some deep-breathing exercises to alleviate the pain.
It it were me, I would certainly get my spine adjusted by a good chiropractor. Getting specific adjustments to the upper cervical spine, when there is an indication, can help to balance out the upper cervical and brain-stem reflexes. Chiropractic care is shown to reduce the frequency and severity of migraine headaches, which involve the blood vessels surrounding the brain by way of neurological reflexes. Chiropractic could probably help with the cluster headaches too from a long-term perspective.
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Todd Lloyd, DC
Chiropractor in St. George, UT
From Pub Med by way of Dynamic Chiropractic.
Great information. Thanks for always staying ahead of the curve!