Head & Nerve · 頭

Acupuncture for migraines & headaches

Acupuncture is one of the most-studied tools for migraine, reducing how often attacks come and how hard they hit, without daily medication.

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Understanding it

Headaches have many forms, tension headaches from tight neck and scalp muscles, migraines with their throbbing and sensitivity, and hormonal headaches tied to the cycle. Each has a different driver.

Acupuncture is well supported for headache and migraine, both for easing an attack and, used as a course, for reducing how often they happen. We tailor treatment to your headache pattern.

What we see

Symptoms we treat

If any of these sound like your experience, acupuncture is worth a conversation. This isn't a diagnosis, your first visit is.

Throbbing migraine

Pulsing pain, often one-sided, that can be disabling.

Light & sound sensitivity

A need to retreat to a dark, quiet room.

Tension headache

A band-like tightness from the neck and shoulders.

Nausea

Stomach upset accompanying the worst attacks.

Aura

Visual changes or tingling before a migraine starts.

Menstrual headaches

Headaches that track with the hormonal cycle.

How it helps

Why acupuncture works here

Three layers at once, local, segmental, and central, chosen for what your body is asking for.

一

Supports the nerve

Needling releases the tight neck, scalp and shoulder muscles that trigger and feed many headaches.

二

Restores circulation

Treatment improves circulation and helps regulate the vascular and nervous activity behind migraine.

三

Calms the pain

Acupuncture's central, regulating effect calms the over-sensitivity that lets headaches recur, reducing both frequency and intensity over a course of care.

What to expect

From first visit to plan

Every patient gets the same unhurried four-beat rhythm, the first visit includes a complimentary consultation.

Consultation

We listen, palpate, and map the pattern, not just where it hurts, but why.

Treatment plan

A course of care that fits your pattern. You're never locked in; we re-assess each visit.

Treatment

Gentle needling, often with cupping or electro-acupuncture. Most patients deeply relax.

Aftercare

Simple homecare and what to expect next. We coordinate with RMT or kinesiology when it helps.

A closer look

The clinical picture

Headaches are a common symptom in everyday life, but their causes are diverse and cannot be generalized. The sensitivity to pain and tolerance can vary greatly between individuals, and psychological factors also play a significant role, making the condition complex. Modern medicine classifies the mechanisms of migraines and other types of headaches as follows:

Dilation of intracranial arteries: a primary cause of migraines
Traction of intracranial tissues: associated with brain tumors, brain hemorrhage, post-cerebrospinal fluid extraction
Dilation and traction of intracranial blood vessels: seen in cases of fever, hypertension, cerebral aneurysm, cerebrovascular malformation, oxygen deficiency, and intoxication
Inflammation and irritation of cranial tissues: such as meningitis, subarachnoid hemorrhage
Contraction of head and neck skeletal muscles: commonly known as tension-type headaches
Referred pain from stimulation in specific areas: including glaucoma, refractive errors, and inflammations of the ear, nose, or mouth

In contrast, traditional Korean medicine categorizes headache causes into internal factors, external factors, and other causes. For example, headaches accompanied by a cold are considered external headaches, while those caused primarily by internal factors include hypertension or tension headaches. Headaches resulting from trauma fall into neither internal nor external categories. Traditional Korean medicine further classifies headaches based on their symptoms as follows:

Wind-type headache: dizziness, fever, sweating, muscle cramps, aversion to wind, floating pulse
Heat-type headache: fever, excessive sweating, thirst, chest discomfort, facial flushing, red eyes, preference for cold and aversion to heat, dark urine, constipation, strong and rapid pulse
Damp-type headache: feeling of heaviness in the head, worsens in humid or cloudy weather
Cold-type headache: headache extending to the teeth, chills, cold extremities
Qi deficiency headache: more severe in the morning and alleviated in the evening, worsens with fatigue, general weakness, shortness of breath, loss of appetite
Blood deficiency headache: persistent but not intense, worsens in the afternoon or evening, pale complexion and lips, general weakness, feeling of warmth in the palms and soles
Phlegm-type headache: feeling as if something is covering the head, dizziness, nausea, restlessness, heavy body, excessive phlegm
Emotional headache: mostly due to liver dysfunction, worsens with stress
Food retention headache: caused by indigestion, accompanied by bloating, belching, and acid reflux

Traditional Korean medicine diagnoses headaches using these classifications and treats them accordingly with acupuncture and herbal medicine.

From the clinic

Patient cases

Real outcomes from our practice, shared with consent and lightly anonymized. Individual results vary, your first visit maps what's realistic for you.

Patient case

Patient: 40-year-old woman, Korean
Symptoms: Severe migraines occur 2-3 times a month. Painkillers do not alleviate the symptoms, and the patient becomes bedridden during attacks.
Treatment Progress: Began treatment with acupuncture twice a week and herbal medicine. Two weeks after starting treatment, the patient experienced only one minor headache with significantly reduced intensity and duration. One month after starting treatment, the patient reported no headaches. The treatment was adjusted to acupuncture once a week with continued herbal medicine. After two months with no recurrence of headaches, the treatment was discontinued.

Patient case

Patient: 38-year-old woman, from Eastern Europe
Symptoms: Severe migraines occur monthly since the age of 18, particularly one week before menstruation, persisting for nearly 20 years. The patient regularly takes painkillers and is incapacitated during headaches.
Treatment Progress: Started treatment with acupuncture twice a week and herbal medicine. After two weeks, the headaches one week before menstruation were significantly reduced, to the point where painkillers were no longer necessary. After seven weeks of treatment, menstruation began without any headaches, to the patient’s surprise. The treatment was adjusted to acupuncture once a week with continued herbal medicine. After 12 weeks with no headaches, acupuncture was discontinued, and herbal medicine was continued for four more weeks, then treatment was concluded.

These accounts describe individual experiences and are not a guarantee of results. Acupuncture is one part of a personalized plan.

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