Tension Headaches

Tension headaches are the most common type of headache.  Everyone gets them from time to time, but in some it may become chronic.  There is no need to suffer, acupuncture can treat your headaches and help you feel better.

You probably know when you have a tension headache.  It is usually a dull aching pain that can come from being stressed out, upset, too tired, overworked, or stared at your computer too long.

There is often accompanied with tension of the neck muscles, pressure in the forehead, temples, or base of the skull.

For most people, the headache will last a few minutes to a few hours, but some have chronic headaches which occur for a long time. Severe chronic headache suffers can have it for more than a few days or months. Most cases are not an emergency, but if you experience an abrupt severe headache with a feeling of a snap in you head or if you headache is accompanied by a fever or trauma, you should go to the emergency room.

How does Acupuncture approach headaches?

Acupuncture and Chinese medicine work by addressing imbalances in the body.  Once the imbalance is corrected, the body works to heal itself.
Each person’s imbalance can be different.   The treatment is tailored specifically to your symptoms and complaints.

When it comes to chronic pain conditions, it is important to consider both the mind and the body, which effect one another.  Chinese medicine is quite specific about this, and each organ is effected by different emotions.

Often with headaches, the diagnosis can be associated with imbalances in the body’s energy, or qi.  Qi is the body’s energy (Qi is pronounced “chee,” and is sometimes spelled “chi.”).

In Chinese medicine, it is said “When the qi flows there is no pain, when qi stops, there is pain and illness.”  When qi circulation is damaged, it is called qi stagnation.  This can often happen from stress and anxiety.  There can also be too little qi, what we call qi vacuity.

Acupuncture Treatment of Headaches

Acupuncture works to correct the imbalance causing the qi stagnation.  An effective acupuncture treatment is based upon a specific and accurate diagnosis.  The acupuncture point selection is tailored to the patients imbalance.  For example, if there is qi vacuity, we may focus on the acupuncture points Kidney 3, Spleen 9, and Lung 5.  But if it is based in qi stagnation, the the acupuncture points liver 3, Large Inesting 4, and Gall Bladder 34 may be selected.

Also combining acupressure with the acupuncture helps to relieve the muscle tension also associated with the tension headaches.  Usually people will feel relief after only a few weekly visits.

Physiological, acupuncture works to reduce pain and inflammation through regulating neural pain pathways, stimulating the release of natural pain relievers in the body, such as opioids, as well as regulating pain relieving opioid receptors.

Acupuncture is also very relaxing.  Most people feel very calm during the treatment and after the acupuncture treatment.  This is because acupuncture does not separate the body and the mind.  The mind influences the body, and the body influences the mind.  So in treating the body we also relax the mind.

written by Joseph Alban

Last Edited 11/14/2011