Does this help with migraines? I get them off and on through out the year. Stress brings them on big time as does hormones. When I have them, I don’t have visual issues, but I do get some serious auditory issues. I am auditory sensitive on any given day but with a migraine its unbearable. I can’t understand English when I hear it. Any input would be greatly appreciated!
Comment by Chad J. Dupuis, L.Ac.
It certainly can. It’s not my preferred approach (I prefer body acupuncture for most conditions) but, yes, it can be very helpful. We treat many many cases of migraines and while they can be complicated at worst people get serious reductions in frequency and intensity and in many cases we get them to resolve completely. This would be similar for most practitioners around the country as it is one of the more common reasons for a visit to an acupuncturist.
We have a general page on acupuncture for headaches which gets into some technical details of how we approach them in Chinese Medicine. The most important thing is that there isn’t a standard treatment - there is the treatment that is tailored to you as an individual that will lead to the best results. With that in mind, I do find auricular acupuncture limited on its own, but many practitioners will use some auricular points along with body point within their treatments.
For auricular specifically, I wrote about one study using auricular acupuncture for migraines a while back that had good results. And most treatments would include some of the important head area auricular points depending on the patient.
You would do best to see an acupuncturist in your area and plan on at least 3 months of treatment.