Linda is 36 years old and first came to see me for help with chronic migraine headaches. She asked me: can acupuncture really help with migraines? I told her I needed to learn a little more about her history and then we would talk about whether I could help her.
Linda had been having migraines since she was 17 years old. They used to come about once a month, just before her period. She managed them with Excedrin Migraine and stayed in bed usually for about half a day. When she was about 25, the migraines started to increase in frequency and sometimes she also had what she described as tension headaches. Today she reports having about 10 migraine headaches a month, and 4-5 tension headaches a month. She has been to her family doctor, and a neurologist, she has taken most of the common preventive medications, and has tried all kinds of over the counter and prescription pain relievers. She has had Botox injections. The medications help a little, especially in the intensity of the headache, but she is still suffering.
Linda was a busy woman. She had two children and worked 30 hours per week as an office manager of a medical office. Her husband was helpful, but he worked about 60 hours per week and traveled frequently.
Linda was miserable. She was stressed to the max and exhausted from keeping up with her kids, the house, work, and managing her migraines. She did not have much of a social life and was feeling trapped.
I told Linda that I was sure I could help her. We would start with acupuncture treatments two times per week for 2 -3 weeks and we would develop the rest of her acupuncture treatment plan after that. I told her we would work on developing some relaxation techniques, things she could do at home and work into her normal schedule. We would talk about nutrition, a topic that can be really confusing since she was always looking for potential migraine triggers in her diet. I would help her figure out a nutrition strategy, simple things she could do and fit into her already maxed out schedule. I would prescribe a Chinese Herbal formula if I thought it would help her. Linda was taking some supplements that she heard could help with migraines. I asked her to her bring in her supplement bottles and we would look at what she is taking and add or eliminate as needed.
I took care of Linda twice a week for two weeks. In that period, she had one migraine, on the weekend. She started taking a Chinese Herbal Formula that I custom made for her and she took it over the next two weeks. Over that first four-week treatment period, she only had the one migraine, and one tension type headache that went away within few hours. She started taking magnesium and soaked in an Epsom salt bath about once per week. She incorporated the nutritional changes I recommended. By the time she was 8 weeks into treatment, she had gone two weeks with no migraine, only a minor tension headache that went away on its own. She was feeling more energetic and generally happier. I recommended she continue treatment every other week for a month, and if she continued to be migraine free, she could come in just once a month for maintenance.
