acupuncture
for migraines & headaches
acupuncture for migraines, headaches
The National Headache Foundation recently reported that more than 28 million Americans experience migraine and headaches each year. It is one of the main reasons people seek medical attention. Acupuncture has become a well-accepted alternative solution to the problem. It is fully supported by medical studies, which proved that acupuncture significantly reduces the intensity and frequency of headaches as well as analgesic consumption (Department of Neurology, University College Hospital, London, England). The Mayo Pain Clinic has used acupuncture for 30 years, since 1974, in cases in which medications or nerve blocks offered patients little or no pain relief.
How acupuncture treats migraines and headaches effectively:
Modern science believes that acupuncture:
can create many biochemical changes in the blood serum to stabilize serotonin, a chemical messenger in the brain and spinal cord, and to release endorphins, the brain’s nature painkillers affects the autonomic nervous system and activates the parasympathetic nervous system to decrease stress, muscle tension, anxiety and irritability and to prevent recurrence. promotes cerebral circulation, allowing the afflicted region to obtain sufficient blood, oxygen and nutrition.
How we can help you
We offer a safe, effective alternative treatment that restores and maintains the harmony in your body. This helps you become pain-free and remain stable over time, with no side effects.
Natural healing vs. medications and surgery – Acupuncture naturally rearranges the level of your body’s chemicals. It creates hardly any side effects and you will not build up any resistance in the long run. You will be healing yourself! Medications are potentially more debilitating and harmful than the headache itself. Studies have shown that headache drugs can cause liver damage or ulcers, or become addictive. Steroid injections used as a nerve block carry life-threatening side effects and shouldn’t be used for prolonged periods of time. Surgical treatments for headache have a less-than-50-percent success rate.
Individually designed assessment – Our diagnosis is based on headache etiology, physiology and patterns of symptoms. From the perspective of Chinese medicine, headache differentiation stems from patterns of pathogenic factors and the headache’s location. Dr. Zhou will analyze your body’s unique individual disharmonies and develop a prescription designed to correct your specific imbalances for long-term success.
Holistic approaches – Dr. Zhou promotes wellness by treating the whole person. She helps relieve not only the symptoms associated with tension headache, migraine, cluster headache and sinus headache but also the causes or factors behind the headaches. One of the main factors that cause migraine and headaches is stress. Because avoiding stress is almost impossible, Dr. Zhou focuses her treatment on helping you recover quickly from stress so that you avoid harmful migraines or headaches. Patients not only eliminate their migraines or headaches, but are also pleased to discover that their stiff necks, anger, anxiety, mood swings, irritability, restlessness, fatigue and allergies (see Allergies) improve or disappear. Also, Dr. Zhou treats many female patients suffering from migraines related to their hormonal cycle.
Treatment plan and prevention – Acupuncture is very helpful for tension, cluster and sinus headaches. Patients often feel immediate relief. Dr. Zhou recommends more intensive treatment for migraine attacks; she advises two visits per week for a couple of weeks, then dropping down to once a week for three to four weeks, with follow-up treatment as needed. Adherence to the treatment plan and maintenance regimes is necessary to change the various underlying causes and fully succeed with the treatment. Dr. Zhou suggests that women who suffer from migraines be sure to make note of their menstrual cycle in a migraine diary. She typically performs treatment before menstruation or ovulation.
Herbal medicine is very effective at maintaining a healthy balance in the body and supporting the body’s capacity to prevent the recurrence of headaches.
Dr. Zhou emphasizes lifestyle changes that play an important role in preventing migraine attacks. These changes include:
Keeping regular sleeping patterns.
Avoiding physical or mental fatigue.
Avoiding alcohol (especially red wine)
Avoiding caffeine (which is a vasodilator)
Eliminating from your diet all foods that may trigger migraines, such as dairy products, chocolate, spices, wheat and corn. Dr. Zhou recommends the “zone diet” based on Dr. Sears’ book “Mastering the Zone.”
Recording events in your life that cause your headaches and that you must avoid, if possible.
Taking magnesium (500mg) daily to increase muscle relaxation.
Acupuncture can significantly improve your ability to ward off migraines and headaches, putting you on the road toward the healthier, pain-free life you deserve!
chinese herbal medicine
Chinese herbal medicine is a major facet of traditional Chinese medicine. The fundamental premise of Chinese medicine is that every condition is the result of energy deficiency, excess, or inactivity in our internal organs.