Acupuncture De-mystified

Actual cases of acupuncture treatment The following are a few examples from patients treated by me in the past to show what acupuncture can achieve.

1) Patient with severe migraines I can still remember vividly a lady in her early forties who had the most severe migraines imaginable. She was sent to me by a colleague I met at a medical function; he asked if acupuncture can help his patient with migraine problems, so I innocently agreed to try.

Classical migraine is not just a severe headache; a migraine generally affects one side of the head and is associated with nausea, vomiting and light sensitivity (called photophobia). Also migraine sufferers can have headaches triggered off by loud noises, extreme temperatures, dehydration, glaring lights, head and neck injury, exhaustion, stress, sleep disturbances, internal hormonal changes, some foods including food additives, caffeine, cheeses and chocolate, alcohol and even certain odours among other things.

In essence this poor lady had a migraine attack at least once a week, more often twice. Most attacks would last two to three days, with the headache so blindingly severe she had to spend days lying in a darkened room hanging on to a bucket and would call her doctor for a Morphine injection on a regular basis. These attacks had been happening for more than three years and she had all sorts of investigations done and had seen a range of specialists, including neurologists, neurosurgeons, rheumatologists, psychiatrists / psychologists and so on. Naturally she had also gone on her own accord to see all the "alternative therapists" under the sun (except acupuncture) and tried everything suggested - all with no benefit.

When I first saw the lady my heart sank; I am always prepared to help someone in trouble, but I felt quite disheartened before I started treatment, because not only the severity of the problem is extreme, but I was worried that it might take a long time before any result would eventuate. I did my usual explanation to her about acupuncture treatment and how she may need a lot of treatments as her problem was so severe, making sure that she did not develop false hope only to feel even worse if treatment failed. Amazingly when she returned for her third acupuncture treatment, she reported all her headaches had disappeared and she felt the best she had for years! She had also gone back to doing all her housework, including vacuuming which previously had not only aggravated her migraines but can start one.