Oxygen for cluster headaches?

Question:

ok my dad suffers from clusters and he is at the peak of a bout of them.an ambulance was called 4 him the other night and thay gave him pure oxygen wich helped him alot,so he asked his doc 2 prescribe oxygen 4 him but the doc fobed him of wiv sum crap that its very hard 2 get hold of bla bla bla.so my dad spoke 2 his dad who uses pure oxygen because he has Emphysema.so anyway my dad cam away with a spare tank of oxygen from his dad but what i wona know is,can it have any negative effects coz i have read abit on the net an sum places say it can damage ya lungs and sum say it can damege ya brain if u use it 2 much is this true? and does he need a special type of mask? i mean the mask was 4 sum 1 with lung problems,so does he need a diffrent one for his condidion?

Answers:
as a fellow cluster head and O2 user there are no noticeable side effects apart from dryness of mouth. Due too the fact that O2 is corrosive it can scar your lungs if you use it continnually like your Grandad but not for several burst of 20 mins a day like your Dad. If he is using a mask he wants to block up the holes so he only gets )2 not mixed with air. PS the type of bottle he is using will only deliver 2 to 4 litres per min he needs a higher delivery rate 8 to 15 litres per min.
All this info and more i avaliable at the UK sufferers support site www.ouchuk.org lots of info for free telephone help line - they can advise you how to get your GP to give him O2 and even force him to do it they have no right to let him suffer.
And if your Dad's a techno phobe you can join as a supporter and just pass him the info he needs. If you do nothing else buy him a cluster masx (the inventor is a sufferer who makes them for cost only) they literally save lives ( stops people killing themselves! ) the condition used to be called suicide headaches for a good reason.

Mail me if you need any further advice

Obviously I don't really know the medical history of you father. But I was diagnosed with cluster headaches a year ago after dealing with migraines for 77 days straight! But for me I was put on Propranolol which has completely stopped them, much to my relief. I take it twice a day with no side effects and next month I will start weaning myself off of it by just taking lower doses (Doctor's advice). So I don't know much about the oxygen thing but you might look into that medication because I know what a debilitating thing cluster headaches can be. I hope your father gets better!

I'm not familiar with cluster headaches.

However, I can tell you that placing someone on oxygen is standard protocol for every patient. We generally don't strictly adhere to the protocol where O2 is concern, as often times it's not really necessary.

There's been some debate over oxygen as far as the COPD patient goes. High levels of oxygen can affect the hypoxic drive of the patient. The counter-claim is that oxygen in the emergency pre-hospital setting is usually applied short-term and should not have a significant impact on hypoxic drive.

Your doctor would better able to tell you if oxygen has any effect on your father's clusters, or if it's presence was merely coincidental with the end of an episode. For majority of people, excess oxygen has no significant effect one way or the other. Obtaining home oxygen is fairly easy and, depending on your region, may even be home delivered by a service.

The most popular way to administer oxygen long-term is through a nasal cannula (tube under the nose). For short-term emergency application, EMS personal typically use a Non-Rebreather Mask as a significantly higher flow rate (12 - 15 LPM) compared to the nasal cannula (up to 5 LPM).

Oxygen for cluster headaches?

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