Relief acute and chronic headaches
With minimal side effects
Acupuncture Treatment for Migraine Headaches
Around 15% of the world’s population suffers from migraine headaches. As a result, roughly 5% of the cases are likely to develop into chronic migraine headaches.
Migraines can be treated using a variety of integrative treatments. Nutraceuticals, yoga, tai chi, and biofeedback are just a few examples.
Acupuncture for migraine headaches is also becoming more popular due to its safe and effective therapy. Patients seeking acupuncture for pain treatment discovered that acupuncture for migraines works wonderfully in reducing their pain frequency.
Acupuncture for Migraines Headaches: Study Explains the Physiology Behind The Treatments
Acupuncture and Its Role in the Treatment of Migraine Headaches
How Does Acupuncture Work?
The movement of energy inside your body is described as “Qi” energy. Qi refers to the idea of a “vital energy” that exists in everyone and signifies a state of inner-connectedness. Yin and Yang are two opposing forces that should balance; one energy cannot be greater than the other.
Acupuncture seeks to redirect the flow of Qi through the body and balance an individual’s innate yin and Yang to restore to reach an equilibrium point.
After your acupuncturist examines you, he will advise you how many sessions you need to include in your treatment plan. Acupuncturists will also know what areas on your body to target with Acupuncture for migraine headaches based on the results of your diagnostic.
Acupuncture Points for Migraine Headaches
FENGCHI
GB20
HEGU
LI4
SANYINJIAO
SP6
ZUSANLI
ST36
SHUAI GU
GB8
TAIYANG
EXTRA1
WAIGUAN
SJ5
SAN JIAO
SJ17 .
Stages of Migraine Headaches
The process of migraine has 4 phases:
premonitory phase, aura phase, headache phase, and postdrome phase
However, many migraine headache patients have said that their symptoms do not always follow this linear pattern.
Therefore, researchers analyze migraine headache symptoms using Positron Emission Tomography (PET) method, an imaging test that uses radiotracers to assess organ and tissue functions.
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Premonitory phase:
Brain regions such as the hypothalamus, thalamus, and cortical areas are active during this phase. As a result, patients experience many symptoms like yawning, polyuria, irritability, photophobia, mood changes, difficulty concentration, and neck discomfort.
Dopamine is used in regulating the hypothalamic metabolism of neurotransmitters to moderate the symptom of migraine.
Aura phase:
The active phase of migraine headache takes place in the sensory cortex, which causes:
- visual scotoma (dark spot in the vision)
- olfactory hallucinations (a phantom odor that smells a scent that is not there, some patients describe this unpleasant smell as burned, foul, spoiled, or rotten.)
- Sensory disturbance (conveying touch, pressure, vibration, joint position, pain, and temperature sensation)
- Language changes (changing in speech patterns which make patients communicate harder than average)
Headaches phase:
The imbalance chemical in the pain blocks our pain receptors after the aura phase. It also screwed with communication between our body’s trigeminocervical Complex (TCC), which refers to the interaction between the top neck, TMJ (Jaw), trigeminal nerve, and the nerves that connect our organs for functioning.
Postdrome phase:
The constriction of blood vessels, which increases blood pressure is the consequence during a migraine strike, which gives patients symptoms such as:
- Fatigue
- Difficult in concentrating
- Nausea
- irritability
Alleviate Pain
Data from Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) investigated the links between acupuncture points and brain activities. Also, acupuncture needles on the skin do not produce pain because the brain releases neurotransmitters or neuromodulators that function by modifying the electrical properties of other target neurons.
Migraine patients suffer from overuse of acute migraine medications, obesity, depression, female sex, and high levels of stress.
The pain receptor has been blocked when the needles are seated on the acupuncture point because they make neurons tough to stimulate. It’s caused by muscles vibrating against high-threshold and small-diameter nerves.
Other research suggests that the needles cause micro-injury, which increases the body’s healing and blood flow response. As a result, Acupuncture for migraine headaches has the capacity for the body to heal itself when we use pain to target another pain.
Migraine headache is a form of disability because it interferes with your daily activities and performance when a migraine strikes.
Common Causes
Patients who are experiencing migraine headaches in the aura result in a higher rate of cerebral blood flow to the brain. For example, migraine patients experienced an increase in their blood flow velocity when a normal person’s blood flow is about 50 or 60 to 160 mmHg.
With an understanding of iron gradients and electrical activity, migraine patients were found to have cortical spreading depolarization (CSD), a self-propagating wave of neuronal and glial depolarization which releases higher nitric oxide levels than normal. As a result, patients with migraine headaches were found to be linked with depression.
Migraine patients experience pain that links to the visual, motor, speech/language, retinal, or brainstem related. Patients are more likely to be at the older ages who were diagnosed with giant cell arteritis, trigeminal post-herpetic neuropathy, sleep apnea, and polypharmacy.
Drug-free Therapy
Because the migraine phase might linger for a long period, using only medical medicines to cure it can occasionally result in additional negative effects. It is safer to stick with an alternative treatment plan that is not involved in a lot of medication such as acupuncture for migraine headaches.
Safer Practice
Migraine has historically been treated with a variety of western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine method.
Because our nervous systems are so complex, scientists have devised several methods to study and interpret the jumble of electrical activity in our heads that cause migraines.
Teaching the pain to get used to drug consumption patterns might have the unintended consequence of the pain becoming accustomed to pain and failing to respond adequately to it. Especially, our brain changes when a pattern is repeated, and the pattern of drug usage behavior can lead to an increase in dosage or even the cause of overdose.
As the result of pain killer medication, it causes euphoric sensations when the drug addiction effect causes a rush in dopamine, which causes the brain to seek drugs more than other healthy alternatives such as physical activities or other healthier goals.
Why choose Acupuncture For Migraine Headaches?
Many treatments of acupuncture for migraine headaches have given greater benefits in reducing the frequency or duration of migraine headaches.
Based on comparative studies from systematic reviews, acupuncture has been shown to be helpful as an adjuvant treatment for primary headache symptoms. Acupuncture for migraine headaches has also shown promising results in migraine patients who are not experiencing the aura phase.
No adverse side effects
In the Journal of Neurology in 2020, a group of researchers published “Acupuncture versus propranolol in migraine prophylaxis: an indirect treatment comparison meta-analysis.” They investigated over 1078 peer-reviewed studies on acupuncture for migraine headaches and came to the conclusion that acupuncture reduced migraine headache attacks considerably. The study discovered that when acupuncture is used instead of propranolol, the frequency of migraine headaches is reduced. In fact, Propranolol resulted in having greater side effects than acupuncture for migraine headaches.
Patients who have not reacted favorably to prescribed treatment have turned to acupuncture. Patients who receive acupuncture therapy for a longer period of time see a decrease in the frequency of migraine attacks. When using a more complete therapeutic approach, it is preferable to teach our brain how to maintain the health of the body’s components rather than teaching it to become accustomed to the usage of painkillers.
Plan A Visit
From a Traditional Chinese Medicine standpoint, Acupuncture treatment for back pain is not just help you to conceive but the overall well-being and mental health of a family, and have a healthy kid.
You’re in good hands
Dan Clark has been practicing acupuncture for infertility treatment for 20+ years and he is also specialized in Traditional Chinese Medicine to address your acute back pain concern.
At Lotus Spring Acupuncture & Wellness Inc, Dan designs a specific care package for any individual. Many patients left Dan with good impressions on the effectiveness of his treatments and his professional style, Dan knows how to make his patients feel informed and comfortable.