What Can You Do About Cluster Headaches?

If you have cluster headaches, you almost certainly will be inclined to cooperate with your doctor. There is a surgical remedy for cluster headaches, and there are relatively potent drugs for the condition (including the ergot alkaloids, a class of medication closely related to the recreational drug LSD), but there are also simple changes in lifestyle that may make cluster headaches less frequent or less severe.

Eat more tomatoes and peppers.

Many natural health authorities counsel against consumption of vegetables from the Nightshade family, including tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and eggplant, because of their content of a chemical called solanine. For people who have cluster headaches, however, the detrimental solanine content of the vegetables is probably offset by their useful content of lithium.

A lithium carbonate preparation dispensed from pharmacies as Lithobid is often prescribed for cluster headaches. It is also used to treat bipolar disorder, but the amount of lithium used to treat cluster headaches is much lower than is required for cluster headaches. 

Tomatoes and peppers grown in desert climates tend to be excellent sources of lithium. The soils in some parts of the United States, especially New England, and some parts of Europe, especially Austria, tend to be deficient in lithium, so home-grown tomatoes and peppers in those locations will not have the same effect. Eating 2 or 3 servings a day, or developing a taste for salsa or pico de gallo, may help reduce the frequency and severity of your headaches.

Avoid foods that contain the amino acid tyramine.

Both cluster headaches and migraines can be aggravated by eating foods that contain the amino acid tyramine. This amino acid is especially abundant in meats and dairy products that are about to spoil, and it is relatively abundant in pickled meats, cured meats, marinated meats, smoked meats (although, oddly enough, ham is not high in tyramine), fermented foods such as miso or sauerkraut, most kinds of cheese, yogurt, fava beans, Italian (flat) green beans, snow peas, coconut, Brazil nuts, bananas, figs, red plums, and red wine. Try reducing or eliminating these foods from your diet and see if your symptoms aren't as severe.

Avoid foods that contain histamine.

Histamine isn't just made in our bodies. It also appears in some foods, notably bananas and walnuts. The author of this article gets cluster headaches after drinking banana daiquiris. It is also important to avoid eating warm-water fish that have not been stored under refrigeration. Ciguatera is a disease characterized by vomiting, nausea, dry mouth, numbness in the lips and tongue, blurry vision, and even temporary blindness, followed by an attack of cluster headaches. This problem most commonly occurs after eating improperly stored red snapper, grouper, or barracuda caught in tropical waters.

Try the kudzu cure.

In the United States, kudzu is best known as a nuisance vine that grows over trees, power lines, and houses, especially in the warm, moist climates of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. In Japan where the plant originates, however, its enormous root is used as a source of the starch kuzu. Eaten as a bland porridge, kuzu helps relieve inflammation of all kinds. A study conducted at the Yale University School of Medicine found that kudzu extracts, available over-the-counter from herb shops, help reduce both the frequency (in 56% of users) and intensity (in 69% of users) of attacks, although taking kudzu will not eliminate the disease.

Take a deep breath.

Oxygen therapy is frequently prescribed as a treatment for cluster headaches. If you have access to a "rebreather," hooking up to this portable oxygen generator as soon as symptoms appear may greatly reduce pain and duration of the headache. If you don't have access to an oxygen generator, simply breathing more slowly and more deeply, taking longer to exhale than to inhale, inhaling through the nose and exhaling through pursed lips, may reduce cluster headache pain.