Chronic cluster headaches and migraines – insights from a Chinese Medicine perspective.

As I sit down to write this article, I realise it is not as easy a task as I thought it would be.

As a Chinese Medicine practitioner I was trained to treat people, not diseases; and to consider the whole human being and not just symptoms. I find it very challenging to write about cluster headaches and migraines (ch&m) without relating them to the unique and multifaceted person who experiences them.

This is very important because treating symptoms in isolation from the rest, often gives us relief, however, it may not result in a real transformation of your pattern and a long lasting change. This is an important concept to consider if you are looking for changing a pattern of headaches.

If you suffer from chronic ch&m, I am sure you would agree that they can be so debilitating that it is impossible to function. So much so, that life and daily schedules need to be organised around them. I would like to encourage you to remain persistent determined in your healing pursuits! It often pays off!

Triggers and causes

There is a tendency to look for the one cause of such headaches. Is it structural? Is it stress related?

In my observation there is no one cause or one trigger for ch&m. It is often a combination of things that brought your body to a dead end. It is also important to differentiate between what is causal and which is simply a trigger for your ch&m. Often a trigger is seen or treated as the cause.

Such causes and triggers may be one of the following:

Musculoskeletal, emotional, hormonal, neurological, dental, viral, accumulation of toxic chemicals or heavy metals, old trauma to the head, sinus related (strep) and a nutritional deficiency. (of course one should check to eliminate any other causes such as tumors, blood pressure changes, aneurysm or cyst).

A Chinese view point

According to Chinese Medicine, the liver almost always plays an important roll in the pathology of headaches (particularly if there is involvement of C3 region). This is significant because if you resort to using medication regularly to survive daily migraines, in the long term you are putting more pressure on your already burdened liver. This means that you are gaining short term relief but long term you are deepening your condition. In addition, if there is an emotional aspect (which is very common) to your ch&m, it is your liver that is directly involved in the process.

If we understand that ch&m are a result of physical, emotional and mental changes, it means that a multi faceted approach is important to address all the root causes for each individual. This really means that you might need to step up and make an effort to change - it is a co-operative dance with your practitioner!

Chinese Medicine and particularly acupuncture do not treat disease. It introduces signals in the body to create energetic changes which invite the body to alter its pattern from pathological to physiological. That can be an advantage especially when the physical cause of disease is not clear or seems complicated.

Chinese Medicine divides headaches into two main categories:

Deficient headaches - meaning there is not enough energy, something is missing. These tend to be more dull and improve with adding things like pressure or eating.

Excess headaches - there is too much energy that rises up to the head. These headaches tend to be more sharp and acute. Any input such as noise, light is all too much! You just want to be left alone in a dark and quiet room. This accumulated excessive energy can often be relieved by vomiting. It is a way for the excess energy to escape.

In many cases behind an excess headache there is also some deficiency that would need to be addressed later on. but as a first step, the excess needs to be released. Ch&m often fall under the Excess category.

Both deficiency and excess patterns are further differentiated into more specific diagnosis, however for our purpose in this article it would be best to keep it simple.

Here is one example of a migraine: say there is a viral invasion in the phrenic, vagus or trigeminal nerves. The toxins produced by the virus cause an inflammatory reaction that can be felt along the pathway of these nerves. Pain may travel to the temple, temporal bones around the ear, posterior to the SCM muscle and occiput (Vagus), behind the eyes and jaw (trigeminal) or forehead (Phrenic). Here, the occiput will typically be tight and vertebrae may be misaligned, however these structural changes are a reaction to the virus and not the root cause.

Chinese Medicine would consider this as an excess of coldness attacking the energy of the gallbladder or stomach pathways and Kidney energy (which governs nerves). There is too much energy that needs to be dispersed.

A treatment for this, will typically include acupuncture to offer new signals in order to change the current pattern as well as herbal or dietary advice to change the terrain in the body in order to subdue the virus.

I hope this has given you some insight as to how ch&m is viewed through the lens of Chinese Medicine. As you can see, a holistic approach is vitally important to address the root cause of ch&m for each individual.

Remember, when you embark on a healing journey for your ch&m, consider two things. One - you must be willing to change. Two - acknowledge the whole, not just the localised symptoms.

I invite you to contact me if you have any questions.

In health,

Gal