A headache is one common problem suffered by millions of people across the globe. A research has proved that about more than 45 million people in the United States suffer from chronic headaches and unfortunately, 28 million people suffer from severe migraines.
To worsen the scenario, about 4 per cent of adults suffer from headache on a daily basis. This is a bad news, but this bitter truth has to be swallowed because, one cannot run away anywhere from this inevitable problem.
Sometimes, the headaches take such a severe shape that people are forced to take pain killers. However, these provide only temporary relief. Sometimes these pain relieving medications leave many side effects to the patients.
The treatments option known as acupuncture has emerged as a boon to people who are suffering from frequent headaches. Even chronic headaches can be treated successfully with acupuncture without having to worry about any of the side effects. The efficiency of acupuncture is such that it has reduced the use of medication in almost all the places across the globe.
According to a study conducted by the University of North Carolina School of medicine showed that acupuncture when combined with management of medical science has a tendency to enhance the quality of life in most people who suffer from chronic headaches.
Acupuncture works well where medical management fails. The medical science based in China believes that one of the primary causes of headache is the blockage in the smooth flow of Qi energy and blood.
The acupuncture treatments primarily focus on eliminating this blockage. It may also require needling of the site of pain in conjunction with other related energy channels.
The duration and frequency of the acupuncture treatment will depend on the response of the patient towards the treatment provided. One can also drink some sort of Chinese herbal formulae along with this treatment.
In order to manage and reduce the frequency and severity of headaches, one requires to do the following:
a) Manage stress
b) Minimize the consumption of caffeine
c) Eating a balanced diet
d) Staying away from fried and greasy foods
e) Limiting the intake of soups
If you are suffering from recurrent headache, you must follow the instruction given by your health care professionals.
Make sure that the acupuncturist that you appoint for yourself is well experienced in the field and had a lot of satisfied clients.
Acupuncture can be referred to as an effective treatment modality. The treatment option has to be applied to headaches starting from the earliest of TCT.
Acupuncture can prove effective in a lot of headache treatment such as migraines, cervicogenic headache and cluster headaches.
Acupuncture works towards relaxing the muscles that become really tense during the times of stress. It also works towards restoring the proper balance of chemicals as these abnormal levels tend to headache.
The best part is that migraine suffers can get remarkable relief via the process of acupuncture. Make sure that the acupuncturists you appoint is well experience and reputed.
When most people consider relief from headache pain, medication, such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen, often comes to mind. There are however, alternative therapies to deal with headaches, and you may find the results surprising.
Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese therapy that has been used for centuries, and many headache sufferers have been drawn to it for its effectiveness in dealing with their headache pain.
People who suffer with chronic headaches know how difficult it is to deal with pain on a daily basis. The pain interferes with your way of life, and taking care of the problem is not altogether easy.
Using over-the-counter analgesics to deal may only be effective in the short-term, as the body can build up a resistance to medications, and punish you with a painful ‘rebound headache’ which does not respond to medication. Because of this decreased effectiveness over time, may people who are faced with long-term headache problems have sought alternative and natural therapies, such as acupuncture.
Thoughts of acupuncture may trigger frightening images in those with a fear of needles. In acupuncture, needles are placed in specific points in the body, for varying lengths of time, in order to ease many different medical problems.
Recent research into the use of acupuncture treatment has shown it may rival medication when used to treat headaches. The studies, conducted in Germany, involved using acupuncture to treat both migraines and tension headaches — the two most common types of headache.
The results published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that indeed, acupuncture was an effective form of therapy.
Advocates of acupuncture maintain that the treatment surpasses the effectiveness of medication to treat headaches. They argue that there are no side effects in the body caused by acupuncture, while there are significant side effects associated with the drugs used to ease headache pain.
Without a full body of evidence to support such claims, one should be wary. The German study shows that there is merit in the use of acupuncture treatment, but it is only one study. There needs to be more studies published regarding the use of acupuncture for headache relief before accurate conclusions can be drawn about the effectiveness of the treatment. It is always possible that a placebo effect is to blame for the results.
When contemplating acupuncture, you should also consider the gateway theory. This theory states that the body can only experience so many sensations at once. Once the body reaches sensory overload, it will begin to discard some of the sensations. This theory is supported by the natural reaction of when rubbing an injury.
Imagine, for example, you have just been bit by a fly. By rubbing the place where the fly bit you, you can relieve the pain. This could be the gateway theory in action, and acupuncture therapy may work in much the same way. Your body may simply be rejecting the pain signals from the headache, and instead focusing on the pain from the needles.
How adept is the human frame at coping with pain? Pain is a natural function of the body and though we may not like pain the normal process of our physiology is to let us know that something is not quite right.
Just visit any ward of chronically sick patients and you will soon attune to the moans and cries of the human condition. These poor people are quite simply in communication with their own systems. Chronic pain of the muscles or skeleton is the highest form of priority communication, warning us of dangers – seen and unseen.
Yet much of modern medicine is unable to help us with the bodies communication system – the nervous system – as it delivers vital messages to our psyche: and that is what pain is.
There is another way however, an ancient and mysterious way, a way that is often veiled and hidden; and that is the way of alternative therapies. Many of these ancient forms of pain relief have stood the test of time and some such as acupuncture have also stood against the intrigue of modern, scientific examination.
Acupuncture for pain relief has been around for many thousands of years and it is an extremely efficient and effective way of dealing with aches and pains. It has proved to be especially effective when dealing with pain in the back. A great deal of this type of pains due to muscle contraction and acupuncture shows itself as able to deal with this kind of pain.
How does Acupuncture and Pain Relief Work Anyway?
In simplistic terms acupuncture deals with the flow of natural energies around the body. In olden times this energy force was referred to as “chi” or “Gi.” They discovered that natural human energy would flow through the body along pathways, which they referred to as meridians. Now when this natural energy flow is interrupted pain is relieved, reduced or simply stopped altogether. A healing of the body often precedes the interruption of the meridians. Of course we find that much of modern medicine is dismissive of the claims of alternative therapies such as acupuncture for pain relief. However, don’t let that opinion put you off in the least.
When you apply acupuncture for pain relief you are in essence righting the flow of painful energies that are pulsing through your body.
There are many benefits to acupuncture and pain relief is just one of them. It is also highly effective when used in conjunction with other forms of pain relief treatments. Acupuncture for pain relief is also safe and relatively non-invasive as the needles used for acupuncture are only designed to sit in the skin and sometimes reaching the layer of body fat, occasionally the muscles are also reached. The needles used are always fresh, hygienic and sterile when dealing with acupuncture and pain relief. In addition the needles are disposable and FDA approved when applied by a reputable acupuncturist. These needles are so fine that they can be compared to human hair in thickness.
Often you will find that upwards of 20 needles may be used for acupuncture and pain relief and mostly several treatment sessions will be required. Once the needles are inserted they may be left there for up to thirty minutes, sometimes being twisted by the hands of the skilled acupuncture expert.
The amazing thing about acupuncture and pain is that the acupuncture needles themselves cause no painful sensations. This is quite surprising for many patients ho are expecting a degree of pain due to the insertion of the needles into the skin. On the contrary, and quite often, patients will feel a deep sense of relaxation during the procedure and some will even fall of into a quite relaxing sleep.
During acupuncture for pain relief the natural pain relieving, electromagnetic signals being relayed by the bodies system are sped up and the pathways improved.
Acupuncture for pain relief has also been successfully used for fibromyalgia, chronic headaches and pain in the neck as a result of whiplash; painful conditions of the hip and knee caused by arthritis are also good candidates for acupuncture and pain relief. For many people with chronic abdominal pain and asthma, acupuncture has been their salvation and finally but not in the least is pain caused by shingles, for which sufferers will also find relief from niggling pains.