Can Piercings Be a Resolution for Migraine?

Deena E. Kuruvilla, MD, a board-certified neurologist and the director of the Westport Headache Institute, focuses on treating individuals with headache issues utilizing a holistic biopsychosocial strategy to analysis and therapy.

If you happen to’ve ever had a migraine, you understand how debilitating its signs might be: intense throbbing, ache, excessive sensitivity to gentle and sound, and nausea—all with out warning. However the usual medicines aren’t all the time efficient (or they trigger unwanted effects), which might lead sufferers to seek for alternative routes to search out aid from their continual ache.

One unconventional treatment that has gained recognition over the previous 10 years is daith piercing, which is an ear piercing via the cartilage of the internal fold of the ear (above the earhole). The thought comes from the medical apply of treating migraine with acupuncture—the placement of the daith piercing is at a web site of a meridian level utilized in an acupuncture protocol to alleviate migraine signs. After seeing efficient outcomes from acupuncture (and in some circumstances acupressure), individuals started to ask: Can we completely create migraine aid by piercing the identical location?

Briefly, the reply might be not. We don’t have the scientific proof to point out that the piercing is useful. And from my expertise of seeing headache sufferers for a couple of decade, most individuals who get a daith piercing both don’t profit in any respect or have some non permanent aid for a few days or perhaps weeks, after which the signs return. The daith piercing strategy is usually ineffective due to three key issues.

1. It’s not a complete protocol. The placement of the daith piercing represents just one acupuncture web site—a single a part of a larger acupuncture protocol that skilled professionals use for migraine aid. Activating this one web site won’t have the consequences of a full acupuncture process.

2. The piercing web site isn’t exact. Daith piercings will not be carried out by acupuncturists, which implies it’s unlikely that the placement of the piercing can be on the exact meridian level the place an acupuncture needle is positioned for migraine aid. (This variability within the piercing web site contributes to the irregular outcomes of the piercing.)

3. There’s a excessive threat of an infection and nerve harm. Even for those who have been to get non permanent aid with a daith piercing, the dangers outweigh the advantages. Getting a piercing in that individual location is more likely to result in an an infection, particularly for those who’re not capable of sustain with the day by day disinfection course of (cleansing two or 3 times a day). Such a piercing also can result in excruciating nerve ache. This occurred to certainly one of my sufferers final yr who received a daith piercing and, sadly, developed an intractable ear ache—even after eradicating the piercing, she had a taking pictures ache that lasted for a number of weeks.

Acupuncture, nutritional vitamins and minerals (particularly magnesium and riboflavin), aware meditation, yoga, and train are all research-backed methods to handle migraine signs. If you happen to’re trying to discover different secure options, the Nationwide Heart for Complementary and Integrative Well being (NCCIH) is a superb supply that can assist you resolve your finest strategy.

This text is for informational functions solely, even when and no matter whether or not it options the recommendation of physicians and medical practitioners. This text isn’t, neither is it meant to be, an alternative to skilled medical recommendation, analysis, or therapy and will by no means be relied upon for particular medical recommendation. The views expressed on this article are the views of the skilled and don’t essentially signify the views of goop.