Headache Relief

Tried of headache treatments that don’t work.  At Austin Therapies there are multiple natural health remedies to assist with headache relief.

The Traditional Chinese Medicine view point …

If you suffer from headaches – chances are you’ve spent much time looking for a headache cure or for headache relief. You may have also gone down the Western Medicine route, which is very important, looking for a headache cure.  There are a few causes that need to be ruled out using Western Medical diagnostics and scans – in case the cause is serious, such as a tumour, etc.

Then you get to the stage when you’re either not getting any relief or taking medication that you’re not keen to stay on … what then?

You go searching for headache relief which come in all manner of forms. One of which is Traditional Chinese Medicine, using Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Formulas.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine – we see similar triggers to that of Western Medicine – but diagnose them in a completely different way. We look at the “triggers”, the “location” of the pain, “type” of pain, things that help with headache relief or provide a headache cure for you, as an individual.

The triggers are as follows:

1. Constitution – in other words a genetic pre-disposition inherited from your parents
2. Emotions – anger, worry, fear, shock, excessive mental work
3. Overwork – working too long hours without adequate rest
4. Excessive sexual activity – this is a common cause particularly in men
5. Diet – this could be following too strict a diet or over-eating
6. Accidents – severe accidents and falls
7. Childbirth – too many births close together (including miscarriage)
8. External Pathogenic Factors – from a cold or flu

 Another interesting aspect of diagnosis is the location of the headache, which all go to make up the treatment diagnosis.

1. top of the head
2. at the sides of the head
3. one side only
4. temples
5. behind the eyes
6. forehead
7. back of the head
8. whole head

 Type of pain.

1. Dull
2. Feeling of heaviness
3. Distending pain
4. Stiff
5. Pulling
6. Stabbing / boring
7. Feeling of emptiness

Factors which make a headache better or worse

1. Time of day – morning, afternoon, evening or during the night
2. Activity or rest – worse for movement or better for lying down
3. Weather – worse for hot weather / cold weather / damp weather
4. Worsen with anger, or when you suddenly relax on the weekend
5. Aggravated after sexual activity or better after sexual activity
6. Food – headaches that get worse after eating or improve after eating
7. Menstruation – headaches at different stages of a women’s cycle mean different things too
8. Pressure – some headaches are better for pressure on the effected area and some feel worse

Put all this together and you arrive at 17 different patterns for headaches – confirmed with a tongue and pulse diagnosis too.

This, in my opinion is the strength of Traditional Chinese Medicine – we can identify the different patterns going on in the body, which organs are involved, what lifestyle or environmental triggers are affecting the condition. We then treat the manifestation first (pain) and the root cause of the headache second.

We also use Chinese Herbal Formulas to compliment our acupuncture treatments further.

Migraine and tension headaches lead to loss of productivity and quality of life; a drug free therapy has a major health impact and potential cost savings as well as maintaining participation in the workforce (14).

We have strong evidence to support that acupuncture is effective treatment for migraine and headaches quoted from “The Acupuncture Evidence Project” by John McDonald & Stephen Janz – (2017) as follows:

Headache (chronic tension-type and chronic episodic) [Positive effect]

“Chronic tension-type headaches and chronic episodic headaches were not reviewed in the Australian DVA review (2010) and rated as ‘evidence of positive effect’ in the USVA Evidence map of acupuncture (2014) (5, 6).

“The most recent Cochrane systematic review update confirmed that acupuncture is effective for frequent episodic and chronic tension-type headaches with moderate to low quality evidence (43).

“A brief review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses described acupuncture as having a ‘potentially important role as part of a treatment plan for migraine, tension-type headache, and several different types of chronic headache disorders’ (44).

Studies in Germany and the UK found acupuncture for chronic headaches to be cost-effective (44).”

I’d love to have the opportunity to give you more information and discuss treatment for your specific condition or answer any burning questions that you may have.

Please call Sally on 0421 411 508 or visit our contact page or Face Book page at Austin Therapies – The London Road Natural Health Clinic – Belmont, Brisbane.

Looking for Migraine Relief?

References:

The Practice of Chinese Medicine – the treatment of diseases with acupuncture and Chinese herbs – Giovanni Maciocia (1998)

The Acupuncture Evidence Project – by John McDonald & Stephen Janz (2017)

5. Biotext. Alternative therapies and Department of Veterans’ Affairs Gold and White Card arrangements. In: Australian Government Department of Veterans’ Affairs, editor: Australian Government Department of Veterans’ Affairs; 2010.
6. Hempel S, Taylor SL, Solloway MR, Miake-Lye IM, Beroes JM, Shanman R, et al. VA Evidence-based Synthesis Program Reports. Evidence Map of Acupuncture. Washington (DC): Department of Veterans Affairs; 2014.
7. Steiner TJ, Stovner LJ, Birbeck GL. Migraine: the seventh disabler. J Headache Pain. 2013 Jan 10;14:1.
8. Da Silva AN. Acupuncture for migraine prevention. Headache. 2015 Mar;55(3):470-3.
9. Linde K, Allais G, Brinkhaus B, Fei Y, Mehring M, Vertosick EA, et al. Acupuncture for the prevention of episodic migraine. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016(6):Cd001218.
10. Yang Y, Que Q, Ye X, Zheng G. Verum versus sham manual acupuncture for migraine: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials. Acupunct Med. 2016 Apr;34(2):76-83.
11. Linde K, Allais G, Brinkhaus B, Fei Y, Mehring M, Shin BC, et al. Acupuncture for the prevention of tension-type headache. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016;4:Cd007587.
12. Coeytaux RR, Befus D. Role of Acupuncture in the Treatment or Prevention of Migraine, Tension-Type Headache, or Chronic Headache Disorders. Headache. 2016 Jul;56(7):1238-40. 76. Kim SY, Lee H, Chae Y, Park HJ, Lee H. A systematic review of cost-effectiveness analyses alongside randomised controlled trials of acupuncture. Acupunct Med. 2012 Dec;30(4):273-85.