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Headache Relief with Acupressure This is the web page that will focus on headaches. This page will include background, research, articles, how to start using the points, blogs, facebook, twitter connections and all other networking information. The link to the points for relief of headaches are found below. In general you should include the points for headaches along with the specific points for the part of the body or type of headaches that you are working with.
Summary of eBook To purchase the eBook "No More Headaches with Acupressure"Click here. Doctors have reported tremendous success with acupuncture treatment of migraine headaches. In contrast to drugs, acupuncture treatment seems to be very effective in preventing the attacks from ever occurring or rendering them much less severe when they do hit. The study took place at an outpatient pain clinic in the northern Copenhagen area and the patients who participated in the study were either referred by their general practitioners or had responded to newspaper advertisements. Certain patients were excluded from the study; those who were pregnant or had previous experience with acupuncture or beta-blocking agents, those with chronic pain syndromes, and those with known contraindications to treatment with beta blockers. The patients were then allocated to one of two groups: the first group were given a 17-week regimen with acupuncture and placebo tablets and the second group were given placebo acupuncture stimulation and 100 mg of metoprolol daily. The results revealed that both groups exhibited significant reduction in frequency of migraine attacks and there was no difference found between the two groups of patients in the average frequency or duration of migraine attacks. However the severity of the attacks was found to be lower in the metoprolol group but this was also accompanied by a range of adverse side effects. The researchers therefore concluded that acupuncture offers " a valuable supplement to the list of migraine prophylactic tools" being equipotent to metoprolol in the influence on frequency and duration (but not severity) of attacks, and superior in terms of negative side-effects. There is no doubt that this study provides additional weight to the argument that acupuncture should be more fully integrated into western medicine, at the very least as a complementary tool for pain control. However it should be noted that the study, like many others, attempts to define acupuncture treatment in western medical terms, with standardised treatment being administered to every patient in the treatment group without consideration to the specific needs of the individual patient or the more complex systems and meridians (flows of energy) upon which oriental medicine is based. It would be more helpful and certainly increase our understanding of the true benefits of acupuncture treatment if researchers would give thought to the oriental approach to medicine when devising research studies and allow qualified acupuncturists the opportunity to treat each indivdual according to their diagnoses. As in all other forms of holistic therapies, treatment cannot be standardised for every patient because the cause of the problem may differ in each individual case. Hesse J; Mogelvang B; Simonsen H. Acupuncture versus metoprolol in migraine prophylaxis: a randomized trial of trigger point inactivation. Pain Clinic and Medical Department, Skodsborg Sanatorium, Denmark. Journal of International Medicine (ENGLAND) May 1994, 235 (5) p451-6
Acupuncture research in Germany In the German study, patients with a history of migraine attacks were randomly selected to one of two groups ; one group received treatment involving a traditional deep needle insertion on acupuncture points, the other group were used as controls and given a placebo treatment using superficial needle insertion on non-acupuncture points. All of the patients kept a diary of headaches and migraine attacks before, during and after treatment for a period of one year. The results revealed that there was a statistically significant therapeutic effect and marked decrease in migraine attacks observed in the patients in the acupuncture treatment group which was not observed in the placebo group. The researchers concluded that their results indicated that acupuncture ‘is a useful interval therapeutical agent for migraine sufferers’ and called for further studies to be carried out to try and identify and understand the exact mechanism or trigger that is responsible for the treatment. (1) See ALTERNATIVES in health™ Vol 1, No,2, 5. Acupuncture & migraine (Germany)
J Tradit Chin Med 1998 Jun;18(2):99-101 Hu J . Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing.
According to a large nationwide research study undertaken in Denmark, reflexology treatment has a beneficial effect on patients suffering from migraine and tension headaches. The study was conducted at the Department of Social Pharmacy, The Royal Danish School of Pharmacy in co-operation with five reflexology associations. 220 patients participated with treatment being given by 78 fully trained reflexologist across the country. Headaches remain the most common health problem amongst the adult population and it has been estimated that they are the reason for the loss of three mil-lion working days every year. Reflexology is renowned for its ability to help relax and calm patients and for this reason it was considered an interesting therapy to study for the treatment of tension headaches and migraine. Of all the patients who took part in the study, 90 percent said that they had taken prescribed medication for their headaches within the month prior to the commencement of the study and, of them, 36 percent had experienced side effects from the medicines. 81 percent of the prescribed medicine in the acetvlsalicyclic acid and paracetamol group was taken at least twice a week and 72% of the stronger migraine medicines were taken at least once a fortnight which indicates that the majority of the patients were suffering from moderate to severe symptoms. 34 percent had taken medications for ailments other than headaches. Three months after a completed series of reflexology treatments, 81 percent of patients confirmed that reflexology had either cured (16%) or helped (65%) their symptoms. 19 percent of the patients re-ported that they had been able to completely dispense with the medications they had been taking before the study. The reflexologist also found that there was a strong link between headaches and the gall bladder, stomach, bladder, and endocrine hormone meridians. At the end of the study the patients who benefited from the treatment showed less stress on the reflex points for the ovaries, small intestine, bladder, stomach, liver and kidneys than they had experienced on their first treatment. The likelihood of successful cure was found to be greatest for: a) those patients whom the reflexologist found no stress on the reflex zones of the uterus or gall bladder, and b) younger patients who had suffered from headaches for a short period of time. Brendstrup E, Launso L, Eriksen L. Reflexions March 1996, 10
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