Headaches

Headaches, even serious ones, are a part of the daily lives of millions of people. In fact, over 50 million people have experienced some form of severe headache at some point in their lives. Whether a headache is considered minor, or it is a severe migraine, it can take up valuable time during your day and leave you searching frantically for some sort of relief. Some turn to drugs. While this is good for quickly relieving pain for a while, these medications do not get to the root of the problem and address the cause(s) of the headache. They can also cause unwanted side effects, especially if taken over long periods of time.

A safe alternative is Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). These offer a natural and effective approach to relieving headache pain without the harmful side effects that medications cause. Using Traditional Chinese Medicine, an acupuncturist can incorporate a comprehensive diagnostic tool which will help him or her to understand and address the root cause(s) of your pain.

One very important part of getting to the root of the issue is understanding the different headache types. There are many factors in the TCM practice which could play a key role in the root cause or causes of your headaches. Some of these include body constitution, emotional health, excessive work, social and exercise activities, improper diet, physical trauma, and pregnancy. Factors such as specific times when a headache starts,  how frequently they occur, where in the head they are located, what type of pain they feature, their triggers, and which remedies provide relief can also be very helpful.

With Acupuncture and TCM, you can take a natural, holistic, and whole-body approach to your health. Your acupuncturist will start by taking a detailed health history and performing a physical exam to determine how and why your body’s vital energy, known as “Qi,” is out of balance. With that information, they can help you discover what root causes are contributing to the overall problem. This information will help them to learn the type of headache that you are having, and address the underlying cause(s)…not just cover the symptoms.

It is very important to realize that acupuncture is not a “quick fix.” The changes in your body will occur over time, maybe quickly, or maybe more slowly, depending on your overall constitution and health. You may come for one visit to address an acute issue, or several visits to address a chronic problem, the frequency of your visits will be designed to maximize your healing potential.

The Old Man and Worms

There are some tales which can change the listeners life. This could be one of them.

On a misty morning following an all night storm, a little girl walked down her road to catch the school bus. As she drew closer to her stop, she noticed an old man picking small items up off of the sidewalk and tossing them into the woods. As the little girl walked closer to where the man was, she realized that the items which he was tossing were actually worms. The morning sunlight glistened on the wiggling worms which had made their way out of the ground, and onto the road sometime during the night. There were thousands of them.

As the little girl watched, the old man picked up the worms one at a time, and tossed them back into the woods. She approached the man and introduced herself. “Excuse me, but there are thousands of worms stranded on this road. You cannot possibly make a difference with such a huge task.” The old man simply smiled and looked up at the little girl as he picked up another worm and tossed it into the woods. “Made a difference to that one, didn’t I?”

The old man did make a difference. Although the problems of the world may seem overwhelming, we can each make a difference. How can you change a small part of the world today?