Acupuncture, migraines

HOW DOES DR. LEE HELP MIGRAINES WITH ACUPUNCTURE?

By Dr. Daniel Lee, L.Ac. OMD, Ph.D.

Symptoms of Migraines:

Migraines often occurs at rate of 1 in every 10 people. Women are three times more likely to have migraines than men. It is a severe often one sided headache around temple or around or behind one eye lasting for 2 hours to 2 days. Migraines can spread to both sides in severe case with nausea, vomiting, and photophobia. Migraines can have a pre-onset aura 12 to 36 hours prior such as blurred vision, mood changes.

Cause of migraines:

The current theory is that the pain from migraines is caused by vasodilation of cranial blood vessels which in turn increases the inward pressure on the cerebral cortex. Such inward pressure makes migraines patient feel that the head is "splitting or exploding".

Treatments for Migraines:

The western medical approach for migraines is to reverse the vasodilation by using medications to cause vasoconstriction, or shrinking the diameter of the blood vessels in between the skull and the cerebral cortex, the extracerebral intracranial space. Medications for migraines like Imitrex, Zomig, Maxalt, Amerge, Frova, Axert produce selective vasoconstriction to relief pain for about 2 to 24 hours. These medications for migraines come with the unwanted side effect such as dizziness, drowsiness, fatigue, chest, jaw, or neck tightness. A study from Harvard Medical School showed that "Unfortunately, recurring headaches with sumatriptan (Imitrex) develop within the first 24 hours in 20% to 40% of people who have taken the drug."*

Other medications for migraines , like Migranal, are a non-selective 5-HT receptor agonists ergotamine derivatives. It too cause the vasoconstriction to relieve migraines. It too comes with the side effect of nausea and vomiting. Finally, there are analgesics such as Excedrin Migraine whose caffeine does the vasoconstriction but also keeps migraines patient awake at night.

Acupuncture Treatment for Migraines:

According to the Traditional Chinese Medicine, "The pain from migraines is often as result of reduced flow of blood and energy." In my 14 years experience of treating migraines, I have come to the belief that the vasodilation in the brain is our body's compensatory response to the reduced blood flow to the brain as the result of tension. Therefore, the treatment approach for migraines is to treat the root cause of the problem by relieving the tension to maximize the blood flow to the brain. Once the brain senses the normalized blood flow, the blood vessels will, as numerous cases showed, stop its dilation and start to constrict back to its normal diameter in the extracerebral intracranial space in as short as 15 to 30 minutes. This acupuncture for migraines approach reduces the vasodilation by giving the brain what it wants, more blood, not more drugs. In return, the brain gives us what we want, the migraines pain relief, from its own vasoconstriction. In this acupuncture approach for migraines, it not only eliminated the side effect of the migraines drugs, it also vastly reduce the reoccurrence of the migraines. Even for those frequent migraines sufferers, once the tension is removed with 6 to 12 treatments, the result is years of being migraines free. My youngest migraines patient was only 6 years old when he first saw me in 1989 for about 8 treatments for migraines. Now in college, he has been migraines free for the past 13 years. It has strengthen my conviction that treating the root cause of the migraines is the best way to go. That is why I love to practice acupuncture and Chinese medicine. It works with our body by giving it what it needs, not by forcing it to do what we think it should.