Acupressure Regions to Ease Migraine and Headaches

Headaches and migraines are two of the most common pains that people suffer form and although a headache may be mild or throbbing and last a few hours a migraine is a more serious condition where the pain may even last for days. In most cases common headache is caused by excessive stress, tension and emotional changes. But migraine is a more complex situation where the blood vessels of the brain enlarge to release chemicals from the nerve fibers that cause inflammation and hence the severe pain.

Causes of Migraine:

Although the precise cause of migraine in not yet known but there are certain specific triggers of migraines and the first and most powerful one is:

• Hormonal Change– That’s the reason two-third of women experience extreme headaches during the time or just before the onset of periods. Migraines become more common after the onset of puberty and gradually decrease after menopause.
• Eating Habits– Yet another major trigger of migraine is the food we eat. Most common triggers of migraine are alcohol, tobacco, caffeine and fermented foods.
• Other Causes– Stress, tension, work pressure, sleeping disorders and changed atmospheric pressure may also lead to severe headache and nausea.

Acupressure to Heal Migraine:

The benefits and helpful aspects of Reflexology are numerous and it can be used effectively for treating pains and aliments. A majority of the pains and irritations above the neck are caused by excess muscle tension and vascular imbalance and therefore can be healed effectively through acupressure and reflexology because the acupressure points in this area are easily accessible and can be triggered with very little pressure. While over the counter medicines can provide instant relief but in most cases it is a temporary one, but reflexology not only treats the problems externally but heals the ailment from within so that you can get over it completely.

6 Most Important Regions to Relieve Migraine and Headaches:

Applying pressure in these 5 specific regions of the body helps in clearing the blocked meridians so that energy may flow freely throughout the body releasing endorphins, the natural pain killer that our body produces.

Forehead Region:

All the points on the face and forehead are yang pints that are full of energy that generate from the head and face and flow downwards.

Third Eye Point– This point is located just between the two eyebrows where the bridge of the nose meets the forehead. Applying pressure on this region helps in improving concentration, reliving eye strain, headaches,  and ulcer pains. Apply pressure for 1 minute and then move to the next point.

Bright Light– This point is situated in the inner corner of the eyes just below the eyebrows. Applying pressure at these points works excellent in relieving sinus headaches and allergy symptoms. In addition, it also helps in improving vision. Apply pressure for 1 minute on both sides.

Temple Region:

In the temple region there are a chain of points that curl around the ear starting from the top of the ear and are situated just one finger width from the ear. All these points have to be worked simultaneously for effective results. Here we have numbered the pints as 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 so that the points can be located in the image with ease. Point 1 is located near the tip of the ear and the rest of the points curl around the ear.

• Hairline Curve (1)
• Valley Lead (2)
• Celestial Hub (3)
• Floating White (4)
• Head Portal Yin (5)

Applying pressure on these points helps in relieving temporal headaches on the sides of the head and migraines.

Face Region:

Welcome Fragrance-This points are located both sides of the nostril. Applying pressure on these points helps in opening sinuses and reducing tension headaches.

Neck Region:

Wind Pool– This point is located at the back of the head, halfway between your ear and spine; between the two muscles that come together. Applying pressure at Wind Pool helps in unblocking nasal congestion, relieving  pain in eyes, ears, throat, headaches and migraines.

Shoulder Well– This point is located at the edge of the Shoulder halfway between the point of your shoulder and the base of your neck. Applying pressure on this point helps in reducing stiffness of neck and shoulders and relieving neck pain. It also helps in relieving other ailments like asthma and spasms.

Heaven’s Pillar– This point is located 2 fingers below the base of the skull on the rope like muscles present on both sides of the spine. Applying pressure on this point helps in relieving aches at the back of the head, neck pains, eyestrain, stress, insomnia and stiff neck. Stimulating the Heaven’s Pillar also helps in cough relief.

Hands:

Union Valley– This point is located in the web between you thumb and index finger. Applying pressure on this point helps in relieving back pain, frontal headaches, tooth ache and releasing tension from neck and head.

Foot:

Moving Between– This point is located in the valley between the big and the second toe. Applying pressure on this point helps in relieving headaches, tiredness of eye, arthritis and foot cramps.

Headaches may be a common problem but that does not mean it should be neglected. But instead of resorting to medicine and pills, know the reflexology zones and give reflexology and acupressure a chance to see the difference. Experiment with the pressure points you have chosen because specific pressure points work more effectively for specific type of headaches and some points might show strong results while others might take more time. Therefore try out each of the pressure points to know which points work best for you.

This article originally appeared on http://www.modernreflexology.com/6-effective-acupressure-regions-to-treat-migraine-headaches/ and was written by Bipasha Mukherjee

What You Can Do About Neck Pain

For many living with chronic neck pain, conventional treatments such as medications or chiropractic care won’t always provide relief.

See Treatment for Neck Pain

Some of our Spine-health Forum members have offered us a wealth of simple yet unique techniques for neck pain management, from their own experience. Keep in mind that not all of these are proven as evidence-based treatments for chronic neck pain, and you should speak with your doctor before beginning a new therapy.

Take a look at some of the best of forum members' neck pain treatments:

1. Stay hydrated

The discs between the vertebrae in your spine require water to maintain disc height and spinal alignment and to take pressure off the spine. Each individual spinal disc is roughly 80 percent water at when we're born, with this ratio decreasing as we age and the disc degenerates.

Over time, maintaining strong daily hydration habits may prevent further degeneration of cervical discs, which may reduce neck pain.

See Nutrition and Diet Tips

Here are tips for drinking more water:

• Some of our forum members have reported that carrying a 1 liter water bottle with them all day serves as a reminder to stay hydrated.
• Pair your water intake with your daily habits, such as drinking a full glass of water after each time you brush your teeth.

Article continues below

2. Be careful how you use your phone

One way you may not even realize that you’re aggravating your neck is by cradling your phone in your neck while you're talking. This puts unneeded strain on your cervical spine.

In addition, many people are starting to experience text neck by craning their neck down to look at their phone while they text or browse the internet.

See How to Avoid Neck Pain from Texting

Avoid neck pain from phone use with these tips:

• Use a Bluetooth or hands-free headset to make calls.
• When you're browsing or texting, hold the phone up high to decrease the angle at which you're holding your neck.
• Take frequent breaks to stretch your neck.

3. Get in the pool

Exercise Importance for Neck Pain Video

Many Forum members note the therapeutic effects that swimming has on their neck pain, specifically in reducing inflammation, providing quick pain relief, and easing neck stiffness. Interesting tips have included:

• Getting the water level up to the neck and simply moving around.
• Squatting until the water reaches the chin, then moving back and forth and to the right and to the left.
• Using a swimming pool that is quite warm.
• Finding a stroke that is gentle on your neck for swimming laps, or consult with a physical therapist or other health professional for recommendations. Depending on your swimming skill, you may be able to do “Texas 25s”—either crawl or breaststroke—which is swimming a length of the pool without taking a breath. If you can do this, then you can get a lot of aerobic exercise without twisting your neck at all.

For some, swimming is too strenuous on the neck. In that case, water therapy, which is gentle exercise done in a warm swimming pool, is often a great alternative to land-based exercises.

See Swimming and Back Pain

4. See a physical therapist

It’s common to think of physical therapy as a treatment aimed at reducing symptoms from a given injury. While this is correct, physical therapy for the neck can also have other benefits, such as:

• Identifying secondary causes of pain.
• Teaching you how to reduce the risk of reinjury.
• Strengthening the weak areas of the neck through targeted exercises.

See Neck Exercises for Neck Pain

See What is the McKenzie Method for Back Pain and Neck Pain?

5. Consider acupuncture

Acupuncture provides varying degrees of neck pain relief for forum members. Some people swear by its effectiveness, while others note success about half of the time. Others get no relief from acupuncture.

One forum member raised the interesting point that the efficacy of acupuncture and deep tissue massage often depends on the skills of the practitioner, making it important for patients to research these treatment methods and to really understand how to identify a skilled professional.

See Acupuncture: An Ancient Treatment for a Current Problem

6. Choose a neck-supporting chair

Maintaining good posture is a good way to keep neck pain under control. A headrest can help to keep your cervical spine in a neutral position, so consider getting an office chair with one...and using it. Also make it a point to use the headrest on your recliner and in your car, when you can.

See Office Chair: Choosing the Right Ergonomic Office Chair

You can make your own gel ice packs with household items.
Watch: Video: How to Make a Gel Ice Pack

7. Use ice therapy in unusual places

Neck pain may also be joined by nagging headaches and numbness or tingling in the back of the head, neck, shoulders, and hands.

Some forum members suggest putting ice on different areas of the body (such as between the thumb and index finger, on the bone behind the ear, on the indent between the middle of the eyebrow) to help achieve relief from such symptoms.

Learn more in the Heat and Cold Therapy Health Center

Watch: Video: How to Make an Ice Massage Applicator

One creative forum member noted using a headband to secure the ice in these different spots and on the temple.

8. Increase magnesium intake

Neck pain is most frequently the result of a muscle strain or sprain. Increasing your intake of magnesium, a mineral that aids in the contraction and relaxation of muscles, may help avoid these pain causing problems.

• Magnesium is commonly found in fruits, vegetables, beans, soy products, and whole grains. Read the nutrition labels on products to see how much of your daily recommended amount of magnesium they provide.
• Magnesium can be absorbed through the skin by taking a bath with Epsom salt, or a similar supplement.
• Some forum members have reported success with the use of magnesium oil, which is applied directly to the skin after a warm shower or bath.

To prevent adverse reactions, you may want to consult with your physician before beginning use of any supplement or oil.

See Food for Thought: Diet and Nutrition for a Healthy Back

9. Use a water pillow

Pillows to Ease Neck Pain Video

Some patients note the rejuvenating effects of water pillows that allow patients to dictate the firmness of their pillow. Specifically, more water equals a firmer pillow; less water provides a softer pillow.

See Pillows for Neck Pain

Various water pillow products are available and may be worth considering if you've tried more traditional neck pillows and braces to no avail.

See Different Types of Pillows

These little-known tips have worked well to relieve others neck pain, and may work for you, as well. Do you have a preferred method from this list, or one not listed here? Let us know by leaving a comment on our Spine-health Forum.

This article originally appeared on http://www.spine-health.com/blog/9-lesser-known-tips-easing-neck-pain

Can Acupuncture Help PTSD?

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can originate from various causes ranging from aggression to violence or disasters. Any situation causing emotional, physical or mental trauma can result in PTSD. The use of acupuncture for PTSD has been scientifically proven to show reduced anxiety levels and stress in individuals. Through such Chinese forms of treatment, it is easier for affected individuals to regain composure in daily life activities.

Typically acupuncture for PTSD is administered by stimulating specific auricular points in the body. These points of the body are responsible for controlling particular brain areas that help control nervous functioning as well as mitigate stress levels. Many soldiers who have been victims of PTSD after violent wars are being treated with acupuncture to provide successful results. Recently, the Pentagon has been investigating the beneficial effects of acupuncture for PTSD on soldiers affected with this condition. As per findings from recent trials, it has been found that combat veterans were relieved of their symptoms and experienced reduced depression, as well as pain. The improvements due to acupuncture were also found to be very rapid and significant.

Many natural remedies are used to treat PTSD disorders in affected individuals. However, out of all these remedies acupuncture seems to be most effective for treatment. Different studies like those conducted by Dr. Hollifield at Department of Psychiatry in University of New Mexico, show that acupuncture can be used successfully as natural treatment for PTSD symptoms like depression, anxiety, insomnia as well as pain originating from psychosomatic disorders. The healing effects of acupuncture last over three months post-treatment. Unlike other conventional psychiatric treatments that are exposure-oriented (in that they require patients to reconstruct traumatic incidents), acupuncture for PTSD does not expose the patient to such elements and hence is safer and non-intrusive.

Studies conducted by the Pentagon have revealed that most soldiers affected by PTSD would be more inclined to accept non-exposure treatments such as acupuncture for PTSD. The biggest reason for this is because the soldiers need not share such traumatic experiences with their psychiatrist. Besides, acupuncture has been revealed to provide rapid benefits to patients through faster healing. Ear acupuncture on veteran soldiers located in Vermont has helped many overcome sleep disorders originating due to PTSD. The benefits of acupuncture for PTSD has translated into greater word of mouth as more people recommend acupuncture as a successful alternative medicine and treatment to conventional treatments.

As per a recent collaboration between Nityamo Lian DOM and another student from International Institute of Chinese Medicine, there has been the development of a conventional "point prescription" mode of treatment along with scope for individual variation. Thus, while the standard treatment details a holistic set of points in the body that need stimulation through acupuncture, these point treatments can also be customized to suit individual cases. Persons with severe PTSD symptoms might require a slightly different form of acupuncture as compared to those persons with milder symptoms.

This article originally appeared on http://www.pacificcollege.edu/news/blog/2015/01/08/acupuncture-ptsd

The Chinese Medicine Meridian System

So, what is a meridian anyway? This is one of the first questions students of Chinese medicine want to understand. Simply put, a meridian is an ‘energy highway’ in the human body. Qi (chee) energy flows through this meridian or energy highway, accessing all party of the body. Meridians can be mapped throughout the body; they flow within the body and not on the surface, meridians exist in corresponding pairs and each meridian has many acupuncture points along its path.

The term ‘meridian’ describes the overall energy distribution system of Chinese Medicine and helps us to understand how basic substances of the body (Qi, blood and body fluids) permeate the whole body. The individual meridians themselves are often described as ‘channels’ or even ‘vessels’ which reflects the notion of carrying, holding, or transporting qi, blood and body fluids around the body.

It is tempting to think of the meridians of the human body the same way as we think of the circulatory system, as the meridians are responsible for the distribution of the basic substances throughout the body just like the circulatory system, but here is where the similarities end. Conventional anatomy and physiology would not be able to identify these pathways in a physical sense in the way that blood vessels can be identified.

It is more useful to consider the meridian system as an energetic distribution network that in itself tends towards energetic manifestation. Meridians can be best understood as a process rather than a structure.

Practitioners of Chinese Medicine must be as knowledgeable about these meridian channels as the Western Doctor is about anatomy and physiology of the physical body. Without this thorough understanding, successful acupuncture treatments would be difficult. A practitioner of Chinese Medicine must know how and where to access the qi energy of the body to facilitate the healing process.

There are twelve main meridians, or invisible channels, throughout the body with Qi or energy flows. Each limb is traversed by six channels, three Yin channels on the inside, and three Yang channels on the outside. Each of the twelve regular channels corresponds to the five Yin organs, the six Yang organs as well as the Pericardium and San Jiao. These are organs that have no anatomical counterpart in Western medicine but also relate to processes in the body. It is also important to remember that organs should not be thought of as being identical with the physical, anatomical organs of the body.

Each meridian is a Yin Yang pair, meaning each Yin organ is paired with its corresponding Yang Organ: the Yin Lung organ, for example, corresponds with the Yang large intestine.

Qi flows in a precise manner through the twelve regular meridians or channels. First, Qi flows from the chest area along the three arm Yin channels (Lung, Pericardium, and Heart) to the hands. There they connect with the three paired arm Yang channels (Large Intestine, San Jiao and Small Intestine) and flow upward to the head. In the head they connect with their three corresponding leg Yang Channels (Stomach, Gall Bladder and Bladder) and flow down the body to the feet. In the feet they connect with their corresponding leg Yin channels (Spleen, Liver, Kidney) and flow up again to the chest to complete the cycle of Qi.

• Arm Tai Yin channel corresponds to the Lung
• Leg Tai Yin channel corresponds to the Spleen
• Arm Shao Yin channel corresponds to the Heart
• Leg Shao Yin corresponds to the Kidney
• Arm Jue Yin corresponds to the Pericardium
• Leg Jue Yin corresponds to the Liver
• Arm Yang Ming corresponds to the Large Intestine
• Leg Yang Ming corresponds to the Stomach
• Arm Tai Yang corresponds to the Small Intestine
• Leg Tai Yang corresponds to the Bladder
• Arm Shao Yang corresponds to the San Jiao
• Leg Shao Yang Channel corresponds to the Gall Bladder

The arm and leg channels of the same name are considered to ‘communicate’ with each other in Chinese medicine. Thus, problems in a given channel or organ can be treated by using various points on the communication ‘partner’. As an example: a problem with the lungs can be treated by using points on the Spleen channel as they are both Tai Yin channels.

In addition to the twelve regular meridians there are ‘Extraordinary Meridians’ that are not directly linked to the major organ system but have various specific functions:

1) they act as reservoirs of Qi and blood for the twelve regular channels, filling and emptying as required

2) they circulate jing or ‘essence’ around the body because they have a strong connection with the Kidneys

3) they help circulate the defensive Wei Qi over the trunk of the body and, as such, play an important role in maintaining of good health

4) they provide further connections between the twelve regular channels

The meridian system of the human body is a delicate, yet intricate web of interconnecting energy lines. If a person masters an understanding of this meridian system they will know the secrets of the flow of Qi energy in the body.

For a colored map of the meridians of the body visit Acupuncture Chart – Main Meridians.

This article originally appeared on http://www.acos.org/articles/the-chinese-medicine-meridian-system/