Acupuncture & Health : Acupuncture & Migraines

Hi, my name's Bob Lindy. I'm an acupuncture physician and registered herbalist in St. Petersburg, Florida. Today I'm gonna talk to you about using acupuncture for migraine headaches. So of course there's a variety of different reasons as to why somebody might be getting migraines. Some migraines come associated with menstruation, others with stress, some even with changes in the weather, some from foods, and a variety of other different reasons and triggers that people have for migraines. So it's important when you find a licensed and qualified acupuncture physician that they do a full medical history to ascertain as to why you're getting the migraine headaches so they can choose the best treatment plan in order to address your pain. So usually it's a combination of both acupuncture, herbs, diet, and lifestyle changes that are going to be prescribed to you by your acupuncture physician. So in this case, we're gonna go ahead and work on some pretty basic points that are always very effective for a starting point on dealing with the migraine headaches. For many people, the migraine headaches start in the back of the head and will then travel around to the front of the head, affecting the eyes or the temples. So in this particular case, we might use this treatment either before the migraines come or actually just in that moment, those few hours before it really starts to become debilitating and painful. So we can palpate for this gallbladder point here. It is oftentimes the very starting point for many people's migraine headaches. And sometimes if we catch it fast enough, this treatment will actually stop the migraine from manifesting into a full-blown, debilitating migraine headache that so many people deal with. There's also a number of carefully prescribed herbal formulas that are very, very useful in dealing with those chronic migraine headaches. So once we get those points in there, we'll go ahead and allow them to stay in for about 15, 20 minutes, oftentimes for this particular syndrome, depending on what the particular disorder, the acupuncture who's treating you may actually retain them for a longer or shorter time and very likely will choose some points on the feet, legs, and very likely the hands, and sometimes even on the face. So just depending on what your diagnosis is that your local acupuncture chooses, you'll see different points being used and many more needles oftentimes are utilized. So once we've gone ahead and let these points sit in there for 20 minutes, we can go ahead and remove them. And talk to our patient about the appropriate herbal formulations and dietary and lifestyle changes. So if you're dealing with migraine headaches, find your local acupuncturist. Great place to find licensed and qualified acupuncturists is NCCAOM. So once you've found one, make an appointment to see them to get a full medical evaluation to deal with everything from your migraine headaches to internal medicine disorders and a variety of different types of pain that you might be experiencing. So this is Bob Lindy in St. Petersburg, Florida, talking to you about acupuncture for migraine headaches.