Headache Relief and Acupressure

Headache Relief May be in the Palm of Your Hands

A bad headache or migraine can cause your whole day to come to a screeching halt. Many natural remedies exist for headaches but none are quite as ancient and mysterious as acupuncture. Acupuncture is a form of traditional Chinese medicine that has been practiced for more than 2500 years. To this day, scientists are baffled by acupuncture. Research is hard to do because having a placebo group is nearly impossible. The scientific community is torn on whether acupuncture works for a variety of ailments and nobody understands exactly why it works when it does.

Acupuncture involves inserting needles into the skin at specific points on the body. While this may sound like your worst nightmare, the procedure does not hurt at all. In terms of headaches and migraines specifically, a 2004 study with 401 adults showed those who had up to 12 acupuncture treatments experienced 22 fewer days with headaches over a 3-month period.

But not everyone is ready, able, or willing to jump into acupuncture. If you find yourself in this situation you may want to start by experimenting with acupressure. Acupressure is similar to acupuncture except that it is done using massage rather than needles. You can even do acupressure on yourself. Here are a few acupressure points that you can try the next time a killer headache sets in:

The Great Eliminator – This pressure point is also called Large Intestine 4. It is on the hand between the thumb and the forefinger.

Heart 9 – This point is on the side of the little finger that faces the ring finger near the edge of the nail.

Anmian – On the back of your head about an inch behind the ear at the same level as the tragus.

Back Stream – Located on the base of the little finger on the outside edge of the hand.

To use the pressure points you want to gently apply pressure or massage the area. If you don’t notice anything happening immediately be patient. This may take up to 10 minutes or longer and using acupressure frequently can help increase effectiveness or be preventative. For added support, you may want to supplement with HeadacheFree. If you suffer from migraines, you may want to use MigraGone capsules as a supplement to help prevent migraine attacks from occurring, or if they do, help lessen the migraine pain.

Whether you need to add supplements to your regimen or not, using acupressure in the proper area of your hand at the onset of headache pain may be just what you need to find effective relief. For more information on acupuncture, read our article here.