Acupressure for Migraines – Your Secret Weapon Against Pain

If you suffer from migraines, you’ve probably been around the medical block a few times – starting with visits to your GP, who may have then sent you to a neurologist, who then sent you to get CT scans, only to prescribe pain medications that you already knew about. Unfortunately, although these pain medications work temporarily, the more you use them, the worse your migraines will get. And after a while, you’ll need to increase the dosage or try a stronger medication — perhaps even an opioid-based painkiller. You may want to consider acupressure for migraines.

Together with a few changes in diet and lifestyle, your chances of reducing migraines or eliminating them altogether increase dramatically. That is truly good news for people whose lives are dictated by this debilitating yet common problem.

The other thing to keep in mind about migraines is that they can be triggered by problems with the adrenal glands. These two conditions are intimately tied into the body’s delicate hormonal systems. The good news is that by strengthening the adrenal glands and balancing the NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) Stress Response, you can experience massive improvement in the intensity and frequency of migraine headaches.

Migraines differ from other types of headaches in several ways. First of all, they tend to affect one side of the head rather than both sides. They are sometimes accompanied by other symptoms, including light-headedness, sensitivity to light, sensitivity to noise, sensitivity to smells, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, eye pain, and blurry vision.

They are also sometimes preceded by an “aura” phase in which you might see visual disturbances, feel a little weak in the limbs, or experience sensory changes.

Most likely, however, is that you’ll just get the attack straight away. Your window for taking your medication or trying some other pain-prevention method, such as acupressure for migraines, will be very small. Once the attack is full-blown, there’s not much you can do to reverse it, and you’ll just have to weather it.

Once the migraine is over, you’ll usually be left feeling weak and out of sorts, unable to focus properly for a while, and still sensitive to light, noise, and smells. Your mood will also be affected.

Unfortunately for many people who suffer from migraines, migraines are recurring. Sometimes they are chronically so, taking up to half the month, with each episode lasting for a day or two. This makes living a normal life very difficult, and the risk of damaging kidney and liver health due to the overconsumption of pain medications is high. If you are one of these people, you’re probably desperate for an alternative but haven’t found one yet.

The best path for finding relief from migraines is prevention through stress management, dietary changes, and exercise, accompanied with more natural pain relief methods for when migraines do come. Acupressure for migraines is useful for when the pain is starting, and it also works for regular headaches.

How Acupressure For Migraines Works

Acupressure is an ancient therapy from Asia that is particularly prominent in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). It differs from acupuncture in that it uses pressure from fingers placed on specific pressure points on the body, instead of needles that penetrate the skin.

Both of these treatments, as well as the general philosophy of TCM, are based on the idea that there is a life force energy, called Qi, that can be activated or have its flow enhanced through the use of certain techniques, herbs, exercises, or treatments. In TCM, illness is thought to be a result of blocked or stagnant Qi, and therefore having it move freely through the body again brings back health, vitality and well-being.

Acupressure helps to move the energy and blood flow that may have become stagnant or blocked. There are dozens of different acupressure points, each one helping with a specific blockage or condition. Acupressure is particularly useful for relief of pain, tension, and nausea, as well as promoting relaxation, and increasing circulation. Acupressure for migraines utilizes certain points that are directly linked to pain in the head and neck region.

Another important foundation of TCM is the balance between yin and yang – two opposing yet complementary forces that are present in all life. When the yin and yang energies are not in balance — if, for example, one is much stronger than the other — certain health conditions arise. Acupressure can also be employed to bring back the balance between the two, returning a sense of harmony to the entire system.

With migraines and adrenal fatigue, Western medicine has failed to treat the root causes, let alone recognize the root causes in the first place. The focus is put on treating symptoms rather than looking at the system holistically, increasing overall health and well-being, and thus bringing symptom relief as a consequence of these changes. With TCM and other holistic and functional medicine approaches, the focus is on the root cause and the overall health of body, mind, emotions, and environment.

There is a particular emphasis on digestion in TCM, as it is seen as one of the most important aspects of good health and energy flow. Any signs of digestive issues are thought to be predictors of more serious and chronic health problems down the line. Bringing back balance to the gastrointestinal tract and digestion is essential.

This is also how migraines and adrenal fatigue should also be approached, along with the techniques you can learn that help with more immediate symptom relief. What’s great is that acupressure can also help with digestive health, increasing the chances of complete recovery from these debilitating conditions.

Migraines and the NEM Stress Response

Two of the biggest factors that affect both migraines and dysregulation of the NEM stress response are stress, especially chronic stress, and inflammation.

Although the correlation between migraines and stress is not very clear, most people who suffer from them will say that one of the biggest triggers for a migraine attack is a stressful situation. Going through a challenging phase can bring on an increase in the frequency or intensity of migraine headaches.

Chronic stress, whether physical or psychological, also puts pressure on the adrenal glands specifically, and the entire NEM generally. If the adrenal glands are overworked for long enough, you’ll begin to develop Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome (AFS) with symptoms like fatigue, sleep problems, weight gain, mild depression, anxiety, brain fog, food and drug sensitivities, lowered immunity, PMS, and hypoglycemia.

If this continues, the rest of the NEM will dysregulate as well, affecting all six circuits: the hormonal, the metabolic, the neuroaffect, the cardionomic, the inflammation, and the detoxification responses. In turn, each of these circuits will have an effect on migraines, especially the hormonal, the inflammation, and the detoxification responses.

With the inflammation response, studies have shown that certain types of foods that are commonly allergenic are the biggest influencers on migraines and migraine prevention. Just by eliminating foods such as gluten, dairy, chocolate, caffeine, eggs, and sugar, you can actually get rid of migraines altogether, or at least reduce their frequency greatly.

That’s because these foods create a state of inflammation in the gut for most people. They can cause leaks to form in the gut lining, allowing substances into the bloodstream that shouldn’t be there, including toxins, pathogens, and food particles. The immune system then has to attack these invaders. This creates inflammation which keeps recurring as you keep eating these same foods.

As the toxins and other substances circulate, the inflammation can eventually spread to other areas of the body, causing pain in those places. This issue is aggravated even more if your detoxification response is sluggish, making the process of clearing out these harmful substances from the system difficult, and letting them build up over time.

Unfortunately, this is not something you’ll hear from your doctors unless they are holistically trained. So you’ll end up getting prescribed pain medication that will just add more toxicity to your system. Medication may create a temporary relief, yet will end in worsening of the migraines overall, with more imbalance in your NEM.

Inflammation is also a huge stressor on the body and is therefore a main cause of AFS and NEM dysregulation. Your adrenal glands have to constantly secrete cortisol to try to put out the fire of inflammation. However, because it is recurring, they eventually become exhausted, leaving the rest of the NEM to overcompensate and gradually weaken as well.

Migraines and AFS also aggravate each other. Pain from migraines is a big stressor, both physically and psychologically. The hopelessness you feel when you’ve just gotten out of one episode only to feel yourself getting into another is a huge pressure. Plus, not being able to perform at work or be present with your family and friends can make life very stressful.

On the other hand, not being able to cope with stress due to weakened adrenals can trigger more frequent migraines. And some of the symptoms of AFS, such as hypoglycemia, insomnia, food and drug sensitivities, and craving sugar and caffeine, can become triggers for migraines as well.

The solution to both is thankfully the same: doing a detox, going through an elimination diet, then sticking with the adrenal fatigue diet minus any allergenic foods that you managed to single out from your elimination diet. Stress management, rest, sleep, and mild exercise are also very helpful. But always check with your doctor first before making any of these changes so you don’t experience a crash or a worsening of symptoms.

Acupressure for Migraines

Learning the few acupressure for migraines techniques outlined below can be quite useful for temporary pain relief. If you would like to try acupuncture for help with detoxification, digestive issues, hormonal balance, and inflammation, then your best course would be to go to a specialist. In just a few sessions, you can get great health improvements and then continue by yourself with treatments at home.

DIY acupressure for migraines:

• The fragrance points – apply pressure with your fingers on the side of the nostrils.
• The bright light points – apply pressure to the inner corners of the eyes for one minute, then release.
• The third eye point – apply pressure to the point between your eyebrows and right above the nose for one minute and release.
• The temple points – there are several acupressure points in the area above the ears and around the temples. Try applying pressure in different points there.
• The wind pool point – apply pressure to the area between the ear and spine, where two muscles join together at the back of the neck.
• Heaven’s pillar point – at the base of the skull where the two muscles in the back of the neck meet the skull, on either side of the spine. Apply pressure on both sides.
• The shoulder well point – the point where the neck meets the shoulder. Apply pressure on both sides.
• The union valley point – take turns applying pressure with the fingers of one hand on the area between the thumb and index finger of the other hand.
• The moving-between point - this is a point located in the hollow between the big and second toes. Apply pressure there.

When you do acupressure for migraines, it’s recommended that you begin the technique as soon as you feel the migraine coming on. Waiting until you’re in the thick of it will make pain relief much more difficult.

If you choose to try acupuncture with a therapist, ask about the NADA protocol, which is where you get up to five needles placed in different points in your ear. This has been shown to help with pain management and even opiate withdrawal. So if you were put on opioids for your migraines over the years and are now ready to come off of them, this might ease the transition while providing some relief from the pain.