My wife has had migraine headaches for as long as I’ve known her, and they have been getting worse recently. She’s tried a number of prescription medications, which either don’t work or have unacceptable side effects. Now she’s started going to an acupuncturist and is starting to sour on western medicine.
Meanwhile the acupuncturist is selling her a variety of Chinese herbs and powders to detoxify her system. The acupuncturist also pulled out some toxins using some sort of suction device that left about 12 silver-dollar-sized burgundy-colored bruises on my wife’s back and shoulders. So far this is costing about $190 a week and is not covered by insurance.
This is all new to me, so I need to determine if there is any validity to this type of treatment for migraines. Does anyone have any experience with this and whether or not the herb and treatments are known to have any lasting effect? Or am I signing up for hundreds of dollars a week from now until who knows when?
I am not a doctor, but I am a lifelong migraine sufferer.
Some people report good results with acupuncture. I had bad results - I went for about 3 months for acupuncture, along with some chiropractice and herbal treatments. 'Round about when things would presumably start to help if they were going to help at all, I got the longest migraine of my life up to that point - 12 days straight. I never went back.
This study says"acupuncture was no more effective than sham acupuncture in reducing migraine headaches although both interventions were more effective than a waiting list control," which I suppose indicates there was some placebo effect with both real acupuncture and fake acupuncture.
I’ve tried acupuncture for pain control and found it to be lacking in effectiveness. Possibly a bit relaxing, but probably no more so than if I’d just laid down for a nap during the day.
Without getting into too much detail, (since this really is a bad place to look for medical advice) what sort of medical help has your wife tried? Has she seen a neurologist or pain specialist, vs the family doc? Has a CT scan been done to rule out the possibility of a tumor? Tried chiropractic? Looked at food allergies?
I’m asking all of this, as I used to suffer from migraines. My primary care doc initially put me in for a CT and started me on a golden-oldie migraine med. The CT was clear, and somewhere along the line, I was introduced to newer meds in the “triptan” family.
Ultimately, it was figured out that I was having cervicogenic migraines - triggered by mis-alignments in my cervical spine. Ten years later, I’m free of migraines. Chiropractic care’s out-of-pocket for me, but it’s been effective and much cheaper than $190 a week.
I suffered from migraines for years. Here is what helped me:
Taking Atenol daily to reduce frequency
Going off of caffeine. I used to get really sick if I was in a situation where I couldn’t get caffeine (e.g., traveling in a different timezone)
Having a supply of Imitrex when I do get them
There is also a new method under research that uses some sort of shock to the base of your head. She should see a really good doctor who will keep trying different remedies until one works.