I usually get like 2 a year.. and I hate the terrible 3 or so hours that comes with them.. Any tips or pointers on how to better deal with them/ lessen the pain?
Yuck!! I wish that was an option but alas too hot for me. Mine can be triggered by quite a few supplements and stims so I tend to at least try to avoid them. I still have the headache and I'm using tylenol mostly. I might look into the new meds. When I go into the hospital they use an iv drip of benedryl, phenergran and morphine or codeine.Chillies!! incredibly hot ones! ahh i wish i had more info on it. Guy i work with in his 40's has been getting them for years. He told me how he now takes these red hot chillies which somehow release endorphins in the brain and takes the focus off the migraine etc. A recent newpaper in the UK mentioned chillies as well. I'm sure Google could help.
I agree.Decapitation also works nicely.
There's been times when, deep in the throes of a migraine that that seems like an option.
Stumbled over this article while searching for something to help rid migraines: an interesting read but likely not practical medicine for the average person
A recent area of interest is the use of psychedelic mushrooms to treat cluster headaches. Cluster headaches are a type of migraine headache that come and go in “clusters.” A sufferer of cluster headaches may have sporadic, intense, disabling headaches for a few weeks and then a long period of remission with no headaches.
In a correspondence between Dennis O’ Connor and Ethan Russo, MD, in the article Cannabis in Migraine Treatment Study, O’Connor states that there have been several reports of people using psychedelic mushrooms to treat and prevent cluster headaches on a popular internet-based cluster headache forum, clusterheadaches.com. When Russo was asked about this, he provided the following explanation:
The real reason the mushrooms may work is neurochemical. […] To treat migraine (and cluster) acutely, one desires a drug or plant that will stimulate serotonin type [5-HT] 1 (1A or 1D) receptors. To treat headaches preventively, one desires a drug or plant that will inhibit serotonin type [5-HT] 2A receptors. (MAPS.org)
This explanation seems very feasible as psilocybin is known to bind with 5-HT1 and 5-HT2 receptor sites. Due to psilocybin being a classified substance, there has not yet been research to support this idea. Nonetheless, people continue to report psychedelic mushrooms aiding in the treatment of cluster headaches.