You have been suffering from headaches for a long time and have tried many methods, but your symptoms still do not improve. Recurrent headaches are not uncontrollable. Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners use traditional Chinese medicine to regulate your body and acupuncture to adjust your blood circulation from the inside out to make headaches not happen. As a result, the frequency and pain level decrease gradually, and the side effects are low. It improves long-term headache symptoms, the whole person’s mental state, and a rosy complexion.

About headaches

Strictly speaking, a headache is a “symptom.” There are quite a few diseases that can cause headaches. Today, we often hear “migraine.” Migraine is a primary headache and belongs to vascular headache.

Common primary headaches:

• Tension headache: Muscles are contracted too tightly and cannot be relaxed for too long, often causing tight pain on the sides of the head, face, jaw, and neck

• Cluster headaches: Come on suddenly, with an intensity High unilateral headache; the pain is often behind the eye socket and on the temporal side, with symptoms similar to allergies (red eyes, nasal congestion, runny nose), often at night, and occurs at a fixed time every day

• Vascular headache: dilation of blood vessels in the head Headaches due to systolic dysfunction, the most common of which are migraines

Common clinical symptoms of migraine are:

• Irregular attacks lasting hours to days

• Headaches on one or both sides

• Throbbing headaches, with regularity resembling pulsating blood vessels

• Accompanied by nausea, vomiting, dizziness, And will be afraid of moving, afraid of light, afraid of noise

Traditional Chinese medicine talks about headaches

Headaches caused by external factors generally have a more rapid onset and more severe pain, while wind, cold, dampness, and heat are common external pathogens that cause headaches. Most of these “diseases” are related to changes in the environment and weather:

Headaches caused by wind pathogens are common exogenous symptoms such as runny nose, sneezing, fear of cold, fear of wind, and pain in the neck, back, and shoulders.
Headaches caused by cold pathogens are mainly cold: The patient is an aversion to cold, sneezing, and runny nose. Heating can temporarily relieve the pain.
Headaches caused by heat evil are mainly swelling, involving the eyes, ears, nose, apparent thirst, and a reddish complexion.
The headache caused by dampness is like being wrapped. The head and body are tired, heavy, stagnant, and have a poor appetite.

Headaches caused by internal causes are mainly caused by changes in the internal environment or bad living habits and generally belong to chronic, long-term headaches:

Ascendant hyperactivity of liver yang or syndrome of internal stirring of liver wind: headache with swelling, blurred vision, dizziness, and irritability
Kidney deficiency: headache with a hollow feeling, dizziness, tinnitus, soreness of waist and knees
Headaches with dual deficiency of qi and blood are often accompanied by dizziness, and there are signs of aggravation when tired and poor complexion.
Headache with phlegm turbid, feeling of dizziness, feeling of nausea and vomiting, chest fullness.
Headaches caused by blood stasis are sharp, stabbing pains that may worsen at night. It is more common in patients who have suffered head trauma.

Note: The above are the common types of headaches. The onset of headaches is affected by too many factors and will change according to the situation. Although the syndrome may combine two or more, practitioners will master the main symptoms, determine the syndrome type, and provide complementary treatment. Patients also need to actively cooperate with the practitioner and return to the office frequently to track the subsequent changes in their condition.

References:

Linde K, Allais G, Brinkhaus B, Fei Y, Mehring M, Shin BC, Vickers A, White AR. Acupuncture for the prevention of tension-type headache. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016 Apr 19;4(4):CD007587. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD007587.pub2. PMID: 27092807; PMCID: PMC4955729.

Doll E, Threlkeld B, Graff D, Clemons R, Mittel O, Sowell MK, McDonald M. Acupuncture in Adult and Pediatric Headache: A Narrative Review. Neuropediatrics. 2019 Dec;50(6):346-352. doi: 10.1055/s-0039-1695785. Epub 2019 Aug 29. PMID: 31466110.

Li YX, Xiao XL, Zhong DL, Luo LJ, Yang H, Zhou J, He MX, Shi LH, Li J, Zheng H, Jin RJ. Effectiveness and Safety of Acupuncture for Migraine: An Overview of Systematic Reviews. Pain Res Manag. 2020 Mar 23;2020:3825617. doi: 10.1155/2020/3825617. PMID: 32269669; PMCID: PMC7125485.

Linde K, Allais G, Brinkhaus B, Manheimer E, Vickers A, White AR. Acupuncture for migraine prophylaxis. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2009 Jan 21;(1):CD001218. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD001218.pub2. Update in: Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016;(6):CD001218. PMID: 19160193; PMCID: PMC3099267.

Linde K, Allais G, Brinkhaus B, Manheimer E, Vickers A, White AR. Acupuncture for tension-type headache. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2009 Jan 21;(1):CD007587. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD007587. Update in: Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016;4:CD007587. PMID: 19160338; PMCID: PMC3099266.

Vickers AJ, Rees RW, Zollman CE, McCarney R, Smith CM, Ellis N, Fisher P, Van Haselen R, Wonderling D, Grieve R. Acupuncture of chronic headache disorders in primary care: randomised controlled trial and economic analysis. Health Technol Assess. 2004 Nov;8(48):iii, 1-35. doi: 10.3310/hta8480. PMID: 15527670.

Natbony LR, Zhang N. Acupuncture for Migraine: a Review of the Data and Clinical Insights. Curr Pain Headache Rep. 2020 May 29;24(7):32. doi: 10.1007/s11916-020-00864-w. PMID: 32472196.

Mata J, Sanchís P, Valentí P, Hernández B, Aguilar JL. Treatment of headache disorders with acupuncture: a 6-year retrospective study. Acupunct Med. 2021 Oct;39(5):452-460. doi: 10.1177/0964528420987571. Epub 2021 Feb 23. PMID: 33618544.