According to the WHO (World Health Organization), about 50% of people across the globe experience headaches.
It is one of the most common nervous system disorders. Headaches can be varying levels of severity however, no matter the severity of pain they are still very annoying to deal with. It’s common for headaches to affect concentration and interfere with daily activities.
Patients can experience headaches anywhere on their head and face. Common locations are the occiput, top of head, temples, frontal forehead and face, and one sided behind the eye. The quality of pain can be sharp, dull, throbbing, aching, or stabbing.
Why do headaches happen?
In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), headaches can stem from a constitutional deficiency, emotional stressors (anger, sadness, worry, fear, guilt, overthinking), irregular diet, overwork, childbirth, trauma, or external environment/weather.
I most commonly see headaches stemming from tight/tense shoulder and neck muscles. This is happening more often since many of us are now living sedentary lifestyles where we sit and work on the computer all day. If this is the case, check out my blog post on Tech Neck that gives a bunch of tips to help with that!
Treatment
We treat a lot of headaches and migraines here at the clinic. It is one of my personal favorite things to treat because oftentimes you will have immediate relief or reduction in severity of the headache during an acupuncture session. Acupuncture points are placed on the hands, feet, and locally on the head! I always use the Head Ease essential oil for patients to further help decrease their headache pain. Also try some of the following tips:
- Try a new pillow
- Adjust workspace: invest in a standing desk, good desk chair, and position your monitor to be level with your head
- Rest in a quiet and dark room
- Head Ease (or minty) essential oil
- Facial and scalp self massage
- Some caffeine
- Cold compress
- Sleep
- Withdrawal from stressful surroundings
Acupressure Points
Here are a few acupressure points I recommend. Press these points for about 1 minute each.
- LI4, in the webbing of the hand between the thumb and pointer finger (do not use this point while pregnant)
- LIV3, in the webbing of the foot between the big toe and second toe
- SI3, below the joint on the lateral side of the pinky finger
- Local points like YT, TY, DU20, DU24, GB20 depending on where the headache is located
Acupuncture is able to treat both the underlying issue and the acute condition causing the headache. Acupuncture is not a quick fix band aid that temporarily gets rid of the headache. Specific acupuncture points and treatment plans are chosen and created to make permanent and lasting changes and create a balance in the whole body. Oftentimes we will start with just treating the acute headache and as treatments go on, focus more on balancing the body and treating the underlying cause.