| TREATING MIGRAINES WITH CHINESE MEDICINE |
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According to the National Headache Foundation, as many as 28 million Americans suffer from
migraine headaches each year.1 Migraines can be caused by a variety of physical and
environmental factors, including diet, stress, allergens, menstruation, and changes in the
weather. They can last from a few minutes to several days, which in some cases may completely
incapacitate the person suffering an attack.
Migraine headaches are also one of the leading causes of time missed from work. It is
estimated that migraine sufferers lose more than 157 million workdays each year, leading to
a loss of approximately 50 billion dollars per year due to absenteeism and medical expenses
caused by headache. An additional four billion dollars a year is spent on pain relievers for
migraines and other headaches, but many of these remedies either do not work as needed, or
simply mask an underlying condition.
In one of the largest studies of its kind to date, a team of investigators in Italy examined
the effectiveness of acupuncture versus a variety of pharmacological therapies in treating
migraines. Their results, published in a recent issue of the Journal of Traditional
Chinese Medicine, revealed that patients given acupuncture experienced fewer migraine
episodes, missed fewer days from work, and suffered no side effects compared to patients on
conventional drug therapy. They also found acupuncture to be more cost-efficient, estimating
a savings of hundreds of millions of dollars in private and social health expenditures if it
were used to treat headaches alone instead of drugs.
Acupuncture is widely used in the management of headaches. It can be applied as a single
form of care, or as part of a comprehensive treatment program. In Traditional Chinese
Medicine (TCM) migraine headaches revolve around the liver / gallbladder pathologies. This
is very different than the conventional western medical thought. Each migraine patient
presents unique patterns and a skilled practitioner of TCM will treat each patient slightly
different. TCM therapies might include Acupuncture, Acupressure, and Electro – Acupuncture,
Herbal prescriptions, Dietary guidelines and maybe some exercise therapies. The aim is not to
put a “ band-aid “ on the problem but to treat the “ root “ of it.
Many studies have been conducted in the people’s republic of China on the Chinese medical
treatments of migraines. These studies have confirmed that both acupuncture and Herbs are a
safe and effective in the treatment of migraine headaches.
For more information or a free consultation please contact The Healing Arts Medical Center,
Inc. 303.623.1140.
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