Can Dry Needling For Migraines Help Provide Relief?
Migraine headaches can have a debilitating effect on the body and life in general. If you suffer from headaches and migraines, then you are not alone. Studies carried out in Australia found that 4.9 million people in Australia suffer from migraines, 71% of sufferers are women and 86% are of working age.
Chronic migraine sufferers experience at least 15 migraine days per month and most treatments involve the use of analgesic pain relief medication. If you’re finding this unsuccessful, there are natural alternatives that can help sufferers without needing to take pain medication. One of these is dry needling for migraines.
Dry needling is a treatment technique used by clinicians to relieve symptoms in patients with different types of headaches, such as tension headaches, cervicogenic headaches, or migraines. Results show that it could improve headache frequency, health-related quality of life, trigger point tenderness, and neck range of motion.
How Does Dry Needling Provide Migraine Headache Relief?
Dry needling, also called trigger point therapy, uses small acupuncture needles to release trigger points in the muscles of the neck and shoulders which can cause headaches.
Trigger points are areas in the muscles that accumulate waste product and lactic acid causing a tight, painful knot to develop. In the case of headaches and migraines, trigger points can develop in muscles such as the upper trapezius, suboccipitals and sternocleidomastoid (SCM) all of which trigger headache pain.
The cause of trigger points is typically overuse from too much exercise, injury or poor posture. In today’s world of ‘tech neck’, trigger points in the neck muscles are very common and often contribute to neck pain.
These needles break up the tension and adhesions in the muscles and work to increase blood flow to the area, which promotes healing.
Effects Of Dry Needling On Migraine Headaches
After dry needling, you should notice a reduction in neck tension and intensity/frequency of headaches. You will often notice more flexibility and generally feel a lot looser in your neck and shoulders.
The muscles around the neck like the traps, levator scapula and suboccipitals all respond really well to dry needling and we have helped many patients manage their headaches with this technique.
Experience Dry Needling At Dynamic Chiropractic
At Dynamic Chiropractic, our chiropractors are trained in dry needling for migraines and regularly use it to help patients with muscle tension in their neck, head and shoulders.
Since we all use screens so much in our day to day lives, we’ve seen ‘tech neck’ become an increasingly widespread problem in our patients.
We are always looking for the most effective techniques for helping our patients with neck pain and headaches. We have found that dry needling is a great way to help patients with headaches and suggest it as a possible supplement to medication. We can also provide a range of manual therapy treatments.
If you would like help with migraines, chronic headaches or simply learn more about dry needling for chronic pain, please get in touch as we would love to help you!
Our clinic is conveniently located in the Brisbane CBD and has flexible times.
Check out our health tips blog for more advice or book a consultation online.
