Headaches and migraines
Headaches are common. That does not make them acceptable. When they arrive frequently enough, or with enough force, they stop being inconveniences and start shaping what you can commit to, how present you can be, how much energy goes toward simply getting through the day.
Migraines carry a particular weight: the prodrome, the aura, the pain, the aftermath. The medication that takes the edge off but does not resolve the pattern underneath. For many people, the headaches keep coming.
What I look for
East Asian Medicine has a long and detailed tradition of treating headaches, not just interrupting them, but understanding them as a pattern. Where does the pain live? What does it come with? What is happening in the days before it arrives: sleep, stress, digestion, the tension held in the neck and shoulders?
These are not incidental questions. They are diagnostic. Tension headaches, cluster headaches, hormonal migraines, and cervicogenic headaches can all look different through this lens. Different patterns point to different underlying imbalances, and treatment is built accordingly. Where tension or cervicogenic headaches involve myofascial restriction in the neck and shoulders, dry needling is often part of how I work. Two people with migraines may need very different care.
What the research shows
Two Cochrane systematic reviews on acupuncture for headache, one focused on migraine prevention and one on tension-type headache, both published in 2016, found acupuncture at least as effective as prophylactic drug treatment for migraine, with fewer adverse effects, and significantly reduced headache frequency for tension-type headache compared to routine care. Nearly 5,000 patients across 22 trials were included in the migraine review alone. The American Migraine Foundation recognizes acupuncture as a viable preventive option.
What to expect
Prevention is where acupuncture tends to show the strongest and most lasting results. Most patients come for regular sessions between migraines, which gradually reduces both frequency and severity. Acupuncture can also help shorten the duration and ease the aftermath of an episode in progress. What patients notice first is usually that recovery is faster. The headache is less disabling. The aftermath is shorter. Over time, the pattern itself changes.
For patients whose headaches are connected to hormonal cycles, the approach draws on both acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine, which can address the hormonal pattern between sessions in ways that needles alone do not reach. Where headaches and stress are closely linked, there is more on how I approach that on the stress, anxiety, and sleep page.
If you have had headaches for years and tried a range of things without lasting results, that is not a reason to stop looking. Chronic headache patterns that have not responded to medication sometimes reflect an underlying imbalance that medication was never designed to address. The first visit is about understanding what your specific pattern looks like.
Headaches that have become a fixture are worth taking seriously. When you are ready to look at them differently, the first visit is a good place to start.