Cluster headaches are the most incapacitating type of all vascular headaches. They will last from 15 minutes to 3 hours. When you suffer from this condition, the headaches will come and go over several days or weeks and after this period they can be gone for months or even years. That’s also the reason why they are called “cluster headaches”.With most people, the headaches will start during sleep. The headaches cause a stabbing pain on one side of the head, usually around one eye. In most cases, cluster headaches sufferers are men and the biggest part are heavy smokers and/or alcohol users. If you can change your habits and eliminate them it’s possible to banish the headaches all together. Another cause of cluster headaches can be found in your diet and lifestyle.

If you want to find out if your diet is causing the cluster headaches, it is recommended to keep a diary of everything you eat during the day. That way you can find out if a certain food triggers your headaches. If so, I would recommend to eliminate this food from your diet during your active periods, and maybe even eliminate it alltogether. Also keep in mind that a lot of ‘normal’ headaches are caused because of dehydration, so keep yourself hydrated by drinking a lot of water. This can cut the number of attacks in half.

Other things you could write in your diary are things you did that day. I recommend this because it’s also possible to trigger a cluster headache attack by smelling something. I.e. gasoline can have a very specific smell that can start an attack, so if you write down in your diary that you tanked some gas that day and after half an hour an attack started, you know that you need to avoid it as much as possible.

It is impossible to avoid everything that can cause a cluster headache, but you can try to eliminate as much as possible by looking out for these things. So if you haven’t started a diary yet, start one today. Note everything you ate and did from this morning on, and you will get a good idea on what causes your cluster headaches.