About 45 million Americans experience at least one headache every year, making it a pretty common ailment. Unfortunately, a more significant percentage within that group experience chronic headaches caused by tension and often accompanied by nausea, neck pain, and muscle pain. Aside from over-the-counter and prescribed pharmaceuticals, most headache patients do not know where to turn, particularly regarding migraine and sinus headaches that can last days or even weeks at a time.
Did you know that acupressure has helped patients with headaches for around 3000 centuries? To this day, it is still one of the best options for healing a recurring or severe headache, as well as other ailments.
How Does Acupressure Work?
During an acupressure treatment, muscle tension is released when the practitioner manually applies hands or thumbs on specific acupoints. The overall goal of these simple but effective techniques is to balance the body’s flow of physiological energy. Although you can try acupressure techniques on yourself for instantaneous results, manual modalities are often best left to the professionals who understand the intricacies of the body’s meridians.
For headaches, the easiest methods you can try at home are applying pressure to the hands and temples.
For example, placing your thumb in the space between the base of your thumb and index finger then pressing down for 5 minutes can help ease the pressure. Move your thumb in a circle while applying the pressure. After 5 minutes, repeat on the other hand.
Another method you can try at home is to place your fingertips on each side of your face; using a tiny circular motion, firmly apply pressure to each side of your face simultaneously. After a few seconds, inch your fingers up toward the temples and repeat the procedure until your fingers meet in the middle of your forehead.
Additional Remedies
While you are waiting to schedule a professional acupressure treatment, there are a few other things you can do at home to relieve tension and pressure from your head. They will not provide permanent relief but can help stave off severe pain temporarily.
- Use a cold pack or heating pad on your neck or forehead for 10-20 minutes.
- Dim the lights if your eyes become sensitive.
- Stay hydrated! As a general rule of thumb, drink half of your body weight in ounces daily. So if you weigh 140 lb, try to drink 70 ounces of water or water-based liquid daily.
- Practice destress techniques, such as relaxation, meditation, and other activities that bring calm into your day.
2DotsHealth uses modern, holistic techniques that include acupressure, acupuncture, gua sha, moxibustion, biofeedback, and more! In addition to treating headaches, we focus on preventing diseases and other chronic conditions. We encourage all of our patients to start with a 90-minute consultation which will give us the overview we need to customize a plan just for you.
