Headaches are a common symptom seen by Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine practitioners.
As with all conditions, the way a Chinese Medicine practitioner approaches the treatment of headaches is to first establish the Chinese medicine diagnosis. Once a diagnosis has been made, the treatment is based on re-balancing the body, often headaches can be addressed in this way.
Headaches can have different causes according to Chinese Medicine:
- Muscular tightness – Even if this isn’t the main cause of the headaches, releasing muscular tension will enable a more free flow of blood and energy up to the head, which can relieve headache pain.
- Muscular tightness can often come from dryness, caused by lots of sweating (either from too much exercise, a feverish illness or other sweating malfunctions of the body)
- Invasion of External pathogens – this is usually causing an acute (recently happened) headache. The kind of headache you get when you are getting a common cold. You can try eating a couple of stalks of spring onions in the very initial stage of getting a cold, but we recommend treatment with Chinese Herbs for the most targeted and quick recovery.
- Internal imbalances – For instance if your body has stagnant energy, or some organs are not doing what they should be doing, this will have a knock-on effect and other organs can be affected. When an organ system isn’t do its job properly, we might say “its deficient” essential there is a weakness there. So it might be impaired in it’s functioning. Its important to understand that the Chinese medicine system has a completely different view of what the organs do, this is often an metaphorical observational approach of the body as it works with seasons, cycles and the environment inside and around us.
Your practitioner will be able to work out what’s wrong, formulate a strategy with you to use a one or a combination of Acupuncture, Chinese Herbal Medicine, Cupping, Moxibustion and Chinese Diet Therapy.
The beauty of Chinese Medicine is that it recognises so many internal imbalances that Western medicine dosen’t really care about, so a as a practitioner I see a lot of patients that have chronic headaches but after a whole load of biomedical tests (blood tests, MRI, CT etc) there is “nothing wrong with them”. Chinese Medicine is always able to make a diagnosis so we can treat these cases.
ARTICLE WRITTEN BY: Marie Hopkinson
Marie Hopkinson is a Chinese Medicine Practitioner, Practicing from her clinic in North Perth, WA- METRO HEALTH AND MEDICINE. Marie can be consulted for appointments, while in-person is preferred, Email /phone consultations can be arranged. Marie has been practicing since 2000, completing initial 3-year course in Chinese Medicine at the Perth Academy of Natural Therapies in WA. Marie has been to China for additional training in the Hangzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital (Hangzhou Shi Zhong Yi Yuan) twice as well as completing a Master of International Health at Curtin University in 2006. Marie is passionate about the effective practice and understanding of Chinese Medicine and enjoys the opportunity to educate patients about the benefits of self-help aspects such as diet therapy, as well as teaching Chinese Medicine at the Endeavour College of Natural Health.
For more info about booking an appointment with Marie CLICK HERE.
For more info about conditions treated with Acupuncture, and Chinese Herbal Medicine CLICK HERE.
As with any health problem, we recommend seeking appropriate medical attention, professional diagnosis and immediate emergency help if you have undiagnosed pain or symptoms particularly if the symptoms are escalating (getting worse and worse). If you see a practitioner at Metro health and Medicine they may also refer you to a western medicine doctor (GP or hospital) as appropriate. This blog is not intended to replace a medical treatment or consultation.