A short overview of what headache is, and how acupuncture, more specifically an acupressure mat, can alleviate or even cure headaches.
Let's first define a headache!
One common way to define headaches is to split it into three groups: tension headaches, migraines and cervicogenic.
Tension-type headaches are the most common. Migraines affect far fewer people than tension-type headaches and have a much shorter duration but the symptoms are more severe.
Who suffers from headaches?
Nearly everyone will suffer a headache at some point in time. What can acupuncture do for headaches?
Acupuncture has been used to treat headaches from the earliest beginnings of traditional Chinese medicine.
All different kinds of headache are relieved effectively by acupuncture. One big plus with acupuncture is that there are no side effects.
Although there's no cure for migraine, the pain can be avoided and managed using Acupuncture. What exactly is migraine?
Ever experience a severe, pulsating pain on one side of the head? Well, that's a migraine. Acupuncture is so much better than pain relief medicines
In short, acupuncture works better than drugs alone.
Natural healing such as Acupuncture, Eastern and Western herbal medicine, and other treatments gain popularity as health solutions to the mainstream ones.
Acupuncture has a very long history of being utilized for many disease conditions. I confined my investigation into the following conditions: Low Back Pain, Neck Pain, Shoulder Pain, Joint arthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis. Acupuncture for Headaches and Fibromyalgia was not evaluated.
The American Academy of Medical Acupuncture (2004) states: "In the United States, acupuncture has its greatest success and acceptance in the treatment of musculoskeletal pain."So it's well known that the overall state of acupuncture research is poor, but that musculoskeletal pain benefits the most from the treatment.
Low Back Pain: 35 studies were reviewed. The studies were inconclusive regarding acute low back pain results from acupuncture. However, for chronic low back pain, acupuncture was more effective than no treatment or sham treatment in the short term. Also, the data suggested that acupuncture may be a useful adjunct to other therapies for chronic low back pain. Chiropractic manipulation works well for acute low back pain, and its efficacy in chronic low back pain is questionable.
Neck Disorders: 10 studies were reviewed looking at acupuncture for chronic neck pain - in this case pain over 6 weeks duration.
Individuals with chronic neck pain who received acupuncture reported, on average, better pain relief immediately after treatment and in the short-term than those who received sham treatments.
Bottom Line: There is moderate evidence to support acupuncture for chronic neck pain (over 6 weeks.)
Peripheral Joint Osteoarthritis: 16 trials were reviewed looking at acupuncture for knee and/or hip arthritis. Shoulder pain: 9 studies were reviewed. From the little evidence available, acupuncture did not appear to improve the symptoms of RA.
Satisfied customers like to share experiences with others, so in time, your client base will grow. Acupuncture is scary at first.