If you’re suffering from cluster headaches, your life might seem unbearable at times. The blinding pain around one eye or along one side of your head lasts for an hour or more, and these attacks can occur multiple times a day, even while you’re asleep. It’s no wonder why cluster headaches are often dubbed the ‘suicide headache.’ But, yoga and cluster headaches – can it help? It’s a question worth exploring if you’re one of the thousands of people who deal with these debilitating headaches.
Understanding Cluster Headaches
Recurring multiple times a day, cluster headaches can be a major disruption to your life. Regular interventions of pain relievers rarely curb the symptoms, rendering those affected with little relief.
What are Cluster Headaches?
Cluster headaches are named for the clusters or groups of intense headaches they are associated with. Unlike migraines or tension headaches, cluster headaches usually manifest with minimal warning, and the symptoms recede as quickly as they appeared, usually within 15 minutes to three hours.
Enter Yoga: A natural approach
Before we connect the dots between yoga and cluster headaches, let’s understand what yoga is.
What is Yoga?
Yoga is a mind-body practice with historical origins in ancient Indian philosophy. It involves physical postures, breathing exercises, and meditation or relaxation. Since emphasizing a healthy lifestyle, yoga has become popular as a form of physical exercise and stress relief.
Yoga and Cluster Headaches: The Connection
It’s unclear what causes cluster headaches, but some theories suggest that abnormalities in the body’s biological clock, the hypothalamus, might be to blame. Yoga could positively impact these factors, potentially reducing the number and severity of cluster headaches.
Yoga’s Influence on Stress and Anxiety
Stress and anxiety are known triggers for cluster headaches. Yoga can help manage these triggers through its focus on mindfulness and breathing exercises. Regular yoga practice has been shown to decrease stress levels, increase relaxation, and improve mood, which could lower your risk of cluster headaches.
Yoga and Your Biochemical Profile
There is evidence that yoga might help correct abnormalities in your biochemical profile that could contribute to cluster headaches. For instance, yoga can lower blood pressure, reduce cortisol (a stress hormone), and increase serotonin (a hormone that stabilizes our mood).
Yoga for Pain Management
Yoga teaches you to tune into your body and its sensations, increasing your awareness of how your physical state influences your mental wellbeing. This self-awareness might help manage the bodily response to pain during a cluster headache.
The Right Yoga Poses
The connection between yoga and cluster headaches now being established, the next step is to investigate the right yoga poses to help manage these episodes.
Child’s Pose (Balasana):
This gentle pose stretches the hips, thighs, and lower back and can help release tension associated with headaches.
Legs-up-the-Wall Pose (Viparita Karani):
An easy pose for relaxation, it may help relieve tension headaches by improving circulatory and nervous function.
Corpse Pose (Savasana):
Savasana promotes full-body relaxation and can help reduce muscle tension, a common trigger for cluster headaches.
