People who suffer from regular migraines know what it feels like to be in pain. Many people just look for any over-the-counter medication to help take the edge off. Others go to a neurologist for consultation and advice and prescription pills. What if a migraine could be effectively treated without the need for pills or costly specialist visits? The good news for migraine sufferers is that acupuncture has been found to treat migraines, and is an affordable and worthy alternative to medicines and other potential treatment plans.
Acupuncture treatments for migraine sufferers has taken a foothold in medical communities, with more and more doctors and patients looking for alternative solutions to migraine pain. A migraine can be debilitating and last for multiple days at a time. Most regular migraine sufferers have to deal with intense, throbbing headaches that can last for days at a time, and many times their go-to solution falls short of the mark. Acupuncture treatments for migraine relief and prevention has grown a foothold, gaining support with the American Headache Society.
Surprisingly for patients in the Western world, acupuncture has been used to treat migraines for thousands of years. While there are understandable risks and side effects associated with medication and traditional treatments, acupuncture has no associated side effects at all, which gives patients a sense of hope that, if nothing else, their headaches will not worsen or intensify. The better news, however, is that many migraine patients express a sense of relief after receiving acupuncture treatment, and many more say that continual acupuncture sessions can lessen the intensity and frequency of these intense, painful headaches.
Migraine headache treatment via acupuncture can be is a bit outside of the norm. In treatment of severe headaches like migraines, an innovative approach acupuncturists can use is to focus on increasing circulation in the lower body, effectively minimizing the risk of increased dilation of the blood vessels in the head known to make a migraine worse.
While acupuncture for treatment of a migraine currently happening is still being experimented with, acupuncture can be a positive solution to trying to prevent migraines from happening as severely or frequently. Regular acupuncture treatments can decrease overall stress and muscle tension, which can keep migraines at bay. Regularly increasing overall circulation can be an essential aid in keeping migraines away, giving much-needed relief to people who know the amount of pain a migraine can cause.
Photo credit: r.nial.bradshaw / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
