Migraine Acupuncture

Acupuncture and TCM take a holistic, or whole – body approach to health. This means Andrew will take into account your whole self, not just your symptoms, in order to get to the root of your health concerns. You will work together to find out how factors like your lifestyle and emotional and mental well –being may be affecting your health.

Getting the chance to really discuss your health concerns with your health care provider – and having your health care provider really listen – may be new to you . Think of it as your opportunity to form a partnership for better health. The more you take part in your healing process, the more successful it will be.

During your first exam, Andrew will spend time getting to know your health concerns. You may be asked a wide range of questions about your symptoms, eating, exercise, sleep habits, and emotional states – anything that may offer insight to your health. Your first visit will generally last for about one hour. Subsequent visits last about 30 to 40 minutes and are generally very relaxing.

Andrew will also employ diagnostic techniques that are unique to acupuncture and TCM such as tongue and pulse diagnosis.
Acupuncture is a time–tested safe, effective, natural and drug-free way to reduce and eliminate pain. Unlike other methods for handling pain, there are no side effects.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Institute Of Health (NIH) acknowledge the benefits of acupuncture in treating and elimination migraine pain due to a wide range of causes.
Once Andrew has gathered enough information, you will receive a comprehensive diagnosis and treatment plan that will explain:

- Your underlying imbalances

- Your time-line of care

- What types of treatment you will receive

- Getting the most out of your treatment
- Please show up on time
- Don't eat a large meal before you visit
- Wear loose, comfortable clothes
- Be sure to discuss any questions or concerns with your acupuncturist
- Refrain from overexertion, drugs or alcohol for at least three hours after treatment
- Follow your treatment plan between visits
- Keep all of your appointments, as each visit builds upon the previous one
To treat any Qi imbalances, fine, painless, sterile needles will be gently inserted at specific points along the meridian pathways. Andrew will concentrate on acupuncture points related to specific pathology, based on your unique issues and symptoms.
Your actions are a key component of your treatment plan. Focusing on your health and committing to a healthy lifestyle are the best steps you can take for your well-being. Together you and Andrew can heal your imbalances and help you achieve a migraine reduced or migraine free lifestyle.

Even after your symptoms are resolved, acupuncture can assist you in maintaining your health and possibly prevent future imbalances and pathologies. The more you incorporate acupuncture and TCM into your life, the more you ‘ll learn to nurture your body, mind and sprit .

There is a powerful interplay between our body and emotions - the two are inseparable.

In today's hectic lifestyle, we often don't allow adequate time to heal. We use painkillers and anti-inflammatory medications to dull the migraines, pains and reduce inflammation. It's a quick and easy approach, but only a temporary fix.

By covering up pain, stiffness, swelling or aches you may be masking a deeper problem. These are signals from your body telling you that something is weakened and out of balance. These warning signals are telling you to stop, rest and heal.

In the short term, medication may enable you to return to your lifestyle and carry on with your life, but in the long run, it may make your problem worse. Regular use of medication may add to further injury and have unwarranted side effects that could greatly impact vitality and health.
Taking the time for wellness care dosen't just result in better health today – it can affect your future. Think ahead 10 years. How do you want to feel ? What about 20 years from now ? Now imagine yourself in your twilight years, enjoying the wisdom you have earned – and the vitality and health you've worked to achieve.

The decisions you make now will have a direct impact on your future. So make the choice to invest in your body, mind and spirit with wellness care. With the help of acupuncture and TCM, you'll be on your way to a healthier tomorrow.

Migraine


Approximately, 19 million people in United States , over 4 million people in Canada , 5 million people in United Kingdom and almost 231 thousand people in Australia suffer from migraine headaches.

Many people wonder if migraine medication exists whose side effects are not worse than the migraine itself. Too numerous to name them all here but a sample of side effect from various migraine medication include nausea vomiting, reduction of blood flow to the limbs, rebounded headaches, hyperactivity, feeling of skin crawling, trembling anxiety, breathlessness, fatigue, lethargy, insomnia, fibrosis or forming of scar-like tissue in the heart and lungs, and hallucinations.

Understanding symptoms is an important component of developing an effective treatment plan. The “common” migraine will be treated differently than the “classic” migraine in which these are visual symptoms such as flashing lights, blurred visions, dizziness and nausea to name a few.

A practitioner who uses acupuncture to correct imbalance in the body becomes proficient after years of study and clinical experience. Pain control in the Western tradition of giving symptom relief. Treating only the root cause of the problem is the goal of Traditional Chinese Medicine and according to most practitioners, results in a more effective cure than simply treating the symptoms. According to these practitioners, just treating a symptoms such as pain without looking at the entire system could do injury to the organs from which energy was removed in order to overcome the pain.

The diagnostic procedures used by the practitioner trained in Traditional Chinese Medicine are based on individual characteristics that do not lend themselves to acupuncture by formula. A practitioner who has taken a short course in acupuncture has to practice by formula. He or she cannot possibly have the knowledge it has taken a practitioner trained in traditional methods years to perfect. Acupuncture can help migraine sufferers if the practitioner has the proper training and is not offering pain control based on placement of needles according to a formula. Formula acupuncture does not recognize individual differences, nor does it take into consideration the root cause of the problem.

How the needles feel


Response to treatment is highly individual. A drifting, dreamy sense of well-being and relaxation is usual, as an elevation of spirits. The needle itself goes unnoticed or feels like a small pinch followed by a sensation of numbness, traveling warmth, tingling, or heaviness around the area. Following acupuncture it is as normal to experience the desire to continue resting as it is to feel immediately animated , though sometimes this sense of invigoration is delayed until the days following treatment. Most people are relieved to find that treatments are not uncomfortable and in fact, look forward to the experience.

How long will it take


Duration and frequency of treatment vary since each persons' migraine origin is a unique riddle to be solved. Some need only a few sessions, while others need the accumulated benefits of weeks or months of attention. This depends on factors such as the severity of the migraine, how long the person has had it, and the extent to which living patterns exacerbate the condition. A session lasts about a half an hour and is scheduled as often as everyday or as little as twice a month. As symptoms improve, fewer visits are required, individual progress being the yardstick.

Many factors influence the outcome of treatment. Based on animal research it appears that the placebo effect or stability is not the determining factor. In other words, acupuncture works in spite of the patients expectations or beliefs.

Acupuncture is a subtle and potent technique for initiating change that may engender strong, quick reactions as well as gradual transformations away from migraine. You and I need to work together to intelligently evaluate the effects of treatment and mutually determine its course.

Both response and responsibility involve the capacity to react and interact. It is the patient's responsibility to respond as fully and freely as possible.

It is my responsibility to interpret progress and guide the patient, being responsive to his or her desires, expectations, needs, and limitations.

Western medicine emphasis a single cause that triggers a particular pathologic or physiologic process. The linear continuum of time a space links events, and an occurrence in the past only influence a current condition indirectly to the casual chain. Chinese medicine, on the other hand, presumes that if you recognize the existing pattern of disharmony into a harmonic pattern of relationships, the original cause will disappear because the initial conditions in which it was routed cease to exist . For myself as a practitioner of Chinese Medicine the issue is the same as for the conductor of symphony. It is not how the instrument makes sound, but rather the pattern of sound the instrument omits.