Acupuncture for headaches and migraines superior to medication

Acupuncture is superior medication therapy for headaches. Acupuncture is more effective than sham acupuncture (fake acupuncture or placebo) in reducing headache intensity and frequency. More people respond to acupuncture than to medication. These are the conclusions of this massive systematic review, which included 31 studies on acupuncture for chronic headache, including migraine and tension-type headache. This high quality study was conducted by Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, USA and published in the current issue of Anesthesia and Analgesia. 

Bad posture, Blood Pressure and Migraine headache connection?

Researchers at University of Leeds, UK, have found a direct neural connection between neck muscles and a part of the brainstem (called the nucleus tractus solitarius), which plays a crucial role in regulating heart rate and blood pressure. (The Journal of Neuroscience)

This finding could explain why blood pressure and heart rate sometimes change when the neck muscles are injured - through whiplash, for example. Similarly, it is possible that hours spent hunched over a computer may raise blood pressure.

Tense neck muscles also can be a cause of headaches and migraines.

If your neck muscles are tense, I urge you to address this:

1. Stretch regularly, observe your posture
2. Get your partner to massage your shoulders frequently
3. Acupuncture (has long term effect relaxing neck muscles)
4. Gentle manipulation (to correct the posture and to prevent the muscles tensing up)

Image by Steve Evans

Tension headaches: a natural cure = acupuncture + exercise + relaxation

A combination of physical exercise, relaxation training, and acupuncture provide long-lasting improvements for patients with chronic tension-type headaches. This is the conclusion of Swedish study published in the current issue of the journal Cephalalgia.



Frequent use of pain medications can lead to chronic headaches. This is why it is important that analgesics are discontinued as a first step in treating tension headaches.

My comment:
I've treated lots of patients suffering from headaches over the years and have combined acupuncture, gentle manual therapy and sometimes exercise with most of the patients. It is comforting to know that what I find most effective in practice is being confirmed by the research.

More on acupuncture and headaches:
Acupuncture and migraines: a new conclusive study
Acupuncture pain relief
Acupuncture for headaches and neck pain
Laser acupuncture can make a significant difference for tension headache
Acupuncture Relieves Chronic Headache

Acupuncture And Migraine: A new conclusive study from UK

According to a new study published in British Medical Journal, Acupuncture helps to relieve the chronic headaches, migraine in particular. Such are the conclusions of a clinical study, carried out in England and in Wales.

The study aimed at evaluating if acupuncture could be effective, in the case of the headaches, to be integrated into the free care of the system of public health in England.



The researchers followed 401 patients suffering from chronic headaches, mainly of migraines for 12 months.
These patients had been divided in two groups: one received up to 12 treatments of acupuncture for three months, while the others were treated by a usual medication and were used as a reference group.

Researches measured the gravity of the headaches among patients after 3 and 12 months. They also evaluated, the need to take drugs or to consult a doctor.



After 12 months, the results showed that the headaches had decreased twice more in the group treated by acupuncture that in the group which received a medication (reduction of 34% against 16%).

The patients, who belonged to the group treated by acupuncture, counted on average 22 days fewer headaches per year. Acupuncture group had used less drugs, made less medical visits and taken less sick leave.



The researchers concluded that acupuncture produces beneficial and persistent effects among patients suffering from chronic headaches, especially from migraines.


My comment:

In my experience acupuncture combined with gentle mobilisation of neck muscles is the most effective way to treat migraines. Sometimes the researchers are so busy determining what exactly worked and how, that they stop seeing the bigger picture. And in the case of migraine, a combination of therapies is significantly more effective than either therapy on its own. It is important to relax the neck muscles and acupuncture alone is not as effective. There was another study on migraines, where they injected botox into acupuncture points to relax the neck muscles and to stimulate the acupuncture points. The result was a long term relief. However, there are risks involved in using botox, not to mention it is very expensive.

More about acupuncture, neck pain and headache here

Fibromyalgia :: Acupuncture effectively relieves pain, anxiety and tiredness

Fibromyalgia, is characterized by chronic, widespread musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, joint stiffness and sleep disturbance.

No cure is known and available treatments are only partially effective.



According to a research team led by Dr. David Martin, an anesthesiologist at the Mayo Clinic, fibromyalgia patients who received acupuncture reported improvement in fatigue and anxiety, among other symptoms.

Acupuncture was also well tolerated with minimal side effects, the researchers said in the June issue of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings.


The study involved 50 fibromyalgia patients enrolled in a randomized, controlled trial to determine if acupuncture improved their symptoms. Twenty-five in the acupuncture group and 25 in the control group.



In the acupuncture group, total fibromyalgia symptoms were significantly improved compared with the control group during the study period.

Fatigue and anxiety were the most significantly improved symptoms during the follow-up period.



"We found that acupuncture significantly improved symptoms of fibromyalgia. Symptomatic improvement was not restricted to pain relief and was most significant for fatigue and anxiety," the researchers concluded.

Needles May Work Better Than Pills :: Acupuncture Relieves Chronic Headache ::

A study, published in the journal Headache, confirmed once more that acupuncture is really effective in relieving chronic headaches.

A course of 10 acupuncture treatments over a period of six weeks had made a difference in quality of life of adult headache sufferers participating in the study.

People who received acupuncture (and standard treatment) were 3.7 times more likely to report less suffering from headaches compared with those who received standard treatment alone .

CBS News :: Needles May Work Better Than Pills :: October 14, 2005

Acupuncture also has been reported to offer long term relief from headaches in a Swedish study .

Ten sessions of laser acupuncture can make a significant difference for tension headache sufferers

In a recent study on tension headache, researchers did ten sessions of laser acupuncture three times per week on one group and a similar placebo (dummy laser) treatment on another. The results revealed laser acupuncture to significantly relieve the symptoms of the real laser acupuncture group, while the placebo group did not improve as much.

Ebneshahidi NS, et al. Physical Therapy Dept, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran. na_sa_eb@yahoo.com