Acupuncture for Migraine
and Other Headaches

In my acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine clinic, headache is one of the most frequent neurological symptoms that is treated successfully.

Headache is a pain in the head that can arise from any cause. It is also called cephalalgia or cephalgia. It is rarely associated with significant neurological disease unless of course it is accompanied by other symptoms or neurological signs such as vomiting or neck stiffness.

Headaches can be divided into an acute or chronic type. Chronic headache is a headache that has a duration of several weeks or more. A positive family history is usually present, in particular with migraine headache.

An acute headache, especially one with a sudden onset should be carefully scrutinised even though a small fraction of headaches arise from life-threatening conditions such as the presence of a tumour or subarachnoid haemorrhage. Therefore, serious acute neurological disease should always be considered with a sudden onset of headache.

Types of Headaches

Different types of headaches will cause different types of pain and the pain will also manifest at a different location on the head and face.

In understanding your headache, you’ll come across terms that describe various kinds of headaches, such as Cluster headache, Histamine headache, Functional headache, Migraine headache, Organic headache, Sinus headache, Post Traumatic headache, Reactive headache, Rebound Headache and Tension headache.

Of all the types of headaches, the following are the most common kinds of recurring headaches.

• Tension headache and neck pain


• Migraine headaches (predominant with females)

  ------ see also Causes of migraine headaches



• Cluster headache (predominant with males)

And while a headache can pass very quickly, you should be vigilant. You’ll see that I’ve included other pages for you to read, as follows:

• Acupuncture Doctor Cautions Do Not Ignore Your Headache Pain.

• Headache Pain Medication or Pain Killer Drugs are NOT Effective.

Sometimes two types of headaches can overlap each other, for example cluster headache with tension headache. So you may also like to read up on these three most common types of headaches so that you can get a good comparison between the various kinds of headaches. That way you’ll know what to expect and what you can do to help yourself.

• Read about research reviews that show true acupuncture works and is more effective than fake or no acup at all. Two recent Cochrane Reviews strongly support the use of acup for migraine and tension-type headaches.

So please click on the appropriate links to learn more about your type of headache.

And if you would like to start a course of treatment for your headaches or migraines, please telephone our clinic on 9796 2388 or email us through this contact-us form