Acupuncture In York

Headaches and Migraines

Headaches are often caused by tense, strained muscles of the face, neck, and scalp, leading to the tight, pressingpain sensation of tension-type headaches. Migraine is the principal form of vascular headache, caused by swellingand stretching of the blood vessels in the head. Migraine often also involves the digestive and nervous systems.

Acupuncture works well for headaches by relaxing muscle tension, and can also help by reducing swelling andrestoring homeostasis to the area.

Chronic headaches may occur because there is repeated everyday stress in someone's life causing physical tensionto arise, particularly in the shoulders. As well as releasing tension, the process of treatment can include adviceon relaxation and dealing effectively with stress. Altogether, this helps to provide a long term solution to theproblem.

Many people suffer from chronic headaches and want to try treatments other than pain-killers. Acupuncture is oneof the most popular approaches. Each week 10% of G.P.s in England refer patients for acupuncture, and chronicheadache is one of the most commonly treated conditions (Vickers et al 2004).

In 2004 a large randomised controlled trial of 400 patients with chronic headache, were given 12 acupuncturetreatments over 3 months. The results showed that acupuncture 'leads to persisting, clinically relevant benefitsfor primary care patients with chronic headache, particularly migraine (Vickers et al 2004).

'Migraine is a more complex condition causes severe pain and other symptoms like nausea and sickness. There havebeen various trials which have studied the effect of acupuncture on migraine. Research which reviewed 12 trialsstudying acupuncture for migraine (ARRC Briefing paper 1998) concluded:

'All the uncontrolled trials demonstrated that acupuncture is highly effective, often helping over 80% ofpatients. This is considerably more effective than a likely placebo response, which has been estimated to be fromaround 30% to as high as 50%. In all the controlled studies, treatment was shown to be more effective in at leastone measure (ie pain intensity or frequency of attacks), with statistical significance reached in two studies. Inthe comparative study, acupuncture performed as well as the standard therapy with the added benefit of a lowerincidence of side effects. Overall the evidence supports the hypothesis that acupuncture is effective in thetreatment for migraine.'

If you are interested in having treatment please contact Harriet or ring the York Clinic on 01904 709688

References

Acupuncture for Chronic Headache (PDF) -Vickers A. J. et al (2004): large, pragmatic, randomized trial.British Medical Journal 328:744

Migrane and Acupuncture:The evidence for effectiveness (PDF) - The Evidence Series of Briefing Papers. Edited andproduced by the Acupuncture Research Resource Centre. Published by the British Acupuncture Council June 1998

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Many people suffer from chronic headaches

Acupuncture is an effective alternative treatment to pain-killers

"My migraine is much better after acupuncture. I have fewer attacks, they don't last as long and I don't throw up likeI used to. The pain isn't so severe and I feel I can live with it more easily." John, 33

"It felt like a miracle. I'd had unrelieved headache for 6 months. Nothing would touch it. After 3 acupuncturetreatments it was completely gone and has never returned." Gerison, 45