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Headache, migraine
Sometimes is difficult to determine the reason. All pain is subjective as pain cannot
be measured.
For instance, high blood pressure can be measured, it is low or high, blood sugar
level can also be measured, hormone levels can be measured, but pain cannot be measured.
Pain is created in the brain and the brain interprets how much it hurts.
It depends on several factors:
The more relaxed you are, the less pain you experience, the more tense or nervous you are, the more sensitive you are to the pain.
Types of pain:
1. Tension headache (the most common) – stress-induced headache
Modern medicine explains this type as follow: the muscles in the head become tense and the blood circulation does not work as it should, causing tension and resulting in headaches.
This can be improved quickly with massage and exercise.
2. Migraine headache (vascular type)
This is caused by a change in the tone of the blood vessels (cerebral, cranial).
Migraine also has a neurological cause – there are lesions in the brain that cause
pain in migraine-prone patients.
3. Headaches caused by neck and disc problems (organic)
This is a long, persistent, dull headache that does not subside but increases..
4. Headaches caused by inflammation and other disease e.g. diabetes, upper respiratory tract infection
Headache as a sympton is usually treated with painkillers and anti-inflammatory
drugs. In modern medicine, migraine is treated with specific drugs that regulate the autonomic nervous system or with substances that affect the blood vessels, constrict blood vessels or dilate brain vessels. Migraine is usually characteristic of women (hormone level changes). Men also have a similar headache that radiates into the eyeball. The reason for women can be: menstrual disorders, digestive disorders, stress, personal problems, self-esteem problems.
As our Clinic is a holistic clinic, we are going to look at headaches from this angle. Traditional Chinese medicine also deals a lot with this problem, because there have been headaches for a long time that had to be treated.
According to Eastern medicine, a headache means that a lot of YANG is going up into the head.
The concept of Chinese medicine – YING and YANG concept. According to this concept, headaches are caused by too much YANG going up into the head. In our body there are different channels in which energy moves. When we do
acupuncture, we puncture these points where these channels are and where the energy is moving and the problem can be found.
The energy moves in such a way that, for example, from the end of your finger, the YANG energy rises up to your head, from there it descends through the YING channel to your finger and goes round and round. On the other hand, the energy moves in such a way that YANG energy goes from the head down to the foot and the YING energy rises to the head.
If for some reason there is an obstruction in these channels the flow is not continuous and unobstructed and the CHI system cannot rotate, the YANG energy gets stuck at the head and this causes the headache.
There are several reasons why the YANG energy is stuck in the head:
– CHI stagnation (main cause)
This can be caused by too much stress, anxiety, if the patient is not sleeping properly.
These cause that CHI cannot move, it stops, it starts to stagnate and too much is generated, causing the pain.
For example, if it stagnates in the joints, that’s where it hurts, if it stagnates in the stomach, that’s where it hurts, if it stagnates in the head, that’s where it hurts.
Usually these types of pain that are in the external YANG channel, are relatively easy to treat, is easy to resolve the stagnation (acupuncture treatment).
– Excess and deficiency of pain
If there is too much YANG energy it means that there is not enough YING energy.
The normal level is overturned.
Pain caused by YING deficiency is easy to detect:
Movement improves the patient’s well-being and pain is relieved or eliminated quickly. This may be due to nsufficient oxygen in the body, blood loss, low haemoglobin levels. This is called chronic headache.
– The excess type of headache is when it gets worse with movement, you have to lie down, you have to sleep. This needs to be treated differently.
– Inborn cause
This is caused by kidney failure and pain similar to migraines.
– Traumatic headache
It can be caused by an accident, when you hit your head and you get a blood clot and have headache.
In this case, there is excess blood in the skull. As the pressure in the skull decreases, the pain is relieved).
Headache types are also classified according to where the pain is localised – the side of the head, top of the head, forehead, back of the head or other area.
There are channels in the head. At the back, for example, the bladder canal is connected to the head and if there is a pain there it is a pain associated with the bladder canal. If there is pain at the temple then that is the bile duct. A headache in the frontal area is associated with the gastric canal.
If, for example, the patient gets up in the morning and feels a heavy head, tightness and pressure, Chinese medicine explains this as too much moisture in the body and it accumulates.
This may be because the patient has had some illness and is recovering, or has been working too much, been in the heat too much and the YANG energy in the body has decreased. The spleen and stomach are not working properly and moisture is produced in the body. If mucus is also associated with this, the person may be confused, may have convulsive seizures, high blood pressure or indigestion.
A headache in the back of the head is called wind intrusion in Chinese medicine. It can be from colds, viral infections. If, for example, the neck is stiff and there is pain when bending over then there is wind and cold in the body and you should take a medicine to warm the body.
– Ginger tea or anything with cinnamon. This causes warmth in the body and disperses this cold.
In the case of a temporal headache, the problem is in the bile duct. It’s a migraine- type, severe headache that usually occurs in women.
Headaches in the head are caused by a problem in the hepatic duct. In this case there is a YING deficiency and a fire in the liver duct.
Migraine is caused by Liver chi stagnation, Liver yang rising in the head, Liver fire.
Liver fire when it appears is not the cause of headache but a symptom and often the cause is not in the liver channel but in another channel.
In Chinese medicine, there are two ways of treating migraines.
BUT IT IS BEST TO TREAT BOTH AT THE SAME TIME.
The question is:
Why is the Liver YANG rising upwards?
In Chinese medicine there are 5 elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, water. Kidney, for example, is a water element, it feeds energy throughout the body. When it is depleted, we die. We live as long as this YING is in us. It can’t be recycled, we are born with a certain amount and we use it up in our lifetime. As fast we use it, our life will be that long.
The more alcohol we drink, the more stress we put on our bodies, the faster it is used up. Some people are born with more energy, others with less.
In Chinese medicine, one element feeds the next element. For example, the kidneys feed the liver. The kidney is a special organ whose YING and YANG nourish each other.
If the Kidney is deficient in one, both will be deficient, it will fluctuate and cannot feed Liver YING, Liver YANG will be elevated and pain will arise in the head.
Migraine is caused by not having enough energy in the kidneys!
This causes congestion at first and as it rises the pain increases.
Another important issue:
Why do migranes have indigestion?
The stomach and the splenic duct are opposite the liver. The liver controls the stomach and the splenic duct. If there is too much energy in the liver it damages the stomach and the splenic durct and then CHI from the stomach goes up instead of down. This is why the patient has nausea with headaches.
In treatment, YANG should be dispersed. When you are sensitive to light when you have a headache it is because the liver controls the eyes and if YANG is high it means that the liver CHI is too much in the eyes. In such cases, YANG should be reduced.
In such cases, herbal preparations are given to disperse the YANG. For example, linguistica powder with green tea is given as a treatment for this problem and 70% of patients get relief and the problem disappears. However, there are 20-30% of people who find migraine difficult to treat. Some patients are resistant to the product.
Finally, some important information about migraine.
Migraine is difficult to treat because a lot depends on the patient’s characteristics, mental, psychological and energetic.
If the kidney CHI is weak, it is usually in women because menstruation is regulated by the liver, kidney and spleen. The stronger and longer the cycle is, the less is this renal CHI.
But migraines can also be caused by dieting, trying to lose weight, eating badly, stressing a lot because this weakens the renal CHI. This causes a chronic kidney deficiency, CHI deficiency, energy deficiency and that’s why you get these pains. As long as one is calm, it is in a latent state and as soon as there is an external influence that raises the Liver YANG, migraine suddenly occurs. That is why migraine is difficult to treat because it is a deeper problem.
Headache that start from an external channel (e.g. from a cold) is easier to treat. In acupuncture
treatment, a needle is inserted into a specific point(s) and in half an hour to 40 minutes the patient gets better. But when the cause of the headache is deeper, the treatment is longer and more difficult.
Many patients come to us with this deeper problem of migraine headache because they want to get rid of it and 70% of them get relief or it goes away completely but there is a certain percentage who still have it, but it depends on the person’s characteristics, mentality, psychic and energetic state as mentioned before.
It is very important that usually diseases come from lifestyle! If you have migraine and you want to get rid of it, you have to look at your lifestyle. Your actions, your way of thinking. And many times if you don’t change it, the headache will come back again and again, it won’t go away even if you treat it.
Many people ask about COVID side effects of frequent headaches and migraines. There are also headaches caused by COVID. This is a side effect of the virus, it weakens the YANG energy, creates dampness in the body and this causes the headache. It is also called Fog Syndrome. In such cases, YANG should be increased through diet, e.g. avoid ilk, cold, raw foods and use herbs that increase YANG.
But speaking of COVID, let me tell you that there is also psychogenic headache.
This is called the nocebo effect, when external influences that affect emotions (TV, advertising, mass information overload) cause headaches, so the patient generates the symptoms himself, but there is no problem in his body. The headache can then be alleviated by movement and breathing exercises. But there is the pain that our brain produces, called neuropathic pain. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it hurts. It’s when something in the brain goes wrong. The normal impulse is misperceived by the brain and you feel pain. This is difficult to treat. It’s the psyche that has to be affected.
And one last remark about headache:
High blood pressure does not cause headache, only if it’s critically high, because people with high blood pressure don’t usually feel it, which is why it’s very dangerous and you have to deal with blood pressure problems.
When you have a headache and your blood pressure spikes, it’s panic disorder.
Thank you for your attention.
If you have any questions, please contact us, we can help!
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