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Can Piercings Be a Answer for Migraine?
Deena E. Kuruvilla, MD, a board-certified neurologist and the director of the Westport Headache Institute, makes a speciality of treating folks with headache problems utilizing a holistic biopsychosocial method to analysis and therapy.
In case you’ve ever had a migraine, you understand how debilitating its signs may be: intense throbbing, ache, excessive sensitivity to gentle and sound, and nausea—all with out warning. However the usual medicines aren’t at all times efficient (or they trigger unintended effects), which might lead sufferers to seek for other ways to seek out reduction from their power ache.
One unconventional treatment that has gained reputation over the previous 10 years is daith piercing, which is an ear piercing by way of the cartilage of the interior fold of the ear (above the earhole). The concept comes from the medical apply of treating migraine with acupuncture—the situation of the daith piercing is at a web site of a meridian level utilized in an acupuncture protocol to alleviate migraine signs. After seeing efficient outcomes from acupuncture (and in some instances acupressure), folks started to ask: Can we completely create migraine reduction by piercing the identical location?
Briefly, the reply might be not. We don’t have the scientific proof to indicate that the piercing is useful. And from my expertise of seeing headache sufferers for a few decade, most individuals who get a daith piercing both don’t profit in any respect or have some short-term reduction for a few days or even weeks, after which the signs return. The daith piercing method is commonly ineffective due to three key issues.
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It’s not a complete protocol. The placement of the daith piercing represents just one acupuncture web site—a single a part of a better acupuncture protocol that skilled professionals use for migraine reduction. Activating this one web site won’t have the results of a full acupuncture process.
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The piercing web site will not be exact. Daith piercings usually are not carried out by acupuncturists, which suggests it’s unlikely that the situation of the piercing can be on the exact meridian level the place an acupuncture needle is positioned for migraine reduction. (This variability within the piercing web site contributes to the irregular outcomes of the piercing.)
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There’s a excessive danger of an infection and nerve harm. Even in case you have been to get short-term reduction with a daith piercing, the dangers outweigh the advantages. Getting a piercing in that specific location is prone to result in an an infection, particularly in case you’re not in a position to sustain with the every day disinfection course of (cleansing two or thrice a day). Any such piercing also can result in excruciating nerve ache. This occurred to one among my sufferers final yr who bought a daith piercing and, sadly, developed an intractable ear ache—even after eradicating the piercing, she had a capturing ache that lasted for a number of weeks.
Acupuncture, nutritional vitamins and minerals (particularly magnesium and riboflavin), aware meditation, yoga, and train are all research-backed methods to handle migraine signs. In case you’re seeking to discover different protected options, the Nationwide Heart for Complementary and Integrative Well being (NCCIH) is a good supply that will help you determine your greatest method.
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This text is for informational functions solely, even when and no matter whether or not it options the recommendation of physicians and medical practitioners. This text will not be, neither is it supposed to be, an alternative to skilled medical recommendation, analysis, or therapy and may by no means be relied upon for particular medical recommendation. The views expressed on this article are the views of the knowledgeable and don’t essentially symbolize the views of goop.
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