Chronic headache is a disease that plagues many people, especially middle-aged and elderly people. Although modern medicine has a variety of diagnostic names and treatments for chronic headache, most of them can only relieve the pain for a while, but the long-term effect is not ideal, besides, long-term use of analgesic drugs will produce many side effects on the body. Wu Jun, Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Nantong Chinese Medicine Hospital
In recent years, Chinese medicine has made new progress in the treatment of chronic headache in terms of acupuncture and moxibustion as well as in the treatment of Chinese medicine, and has achieved good results.
Acupuncture in Chinese medicine believes that the real cause of many chronic headache patients is the compression of degenerated soft tissues in the head and neck. The nerves in the human head all emanate from the upper cervical spine and are then distributed to various parts of the head and face. Many of the important parts of the nerve path, especially at the bends, are held in place by tough soft tissue. This is like the fixtures on electrical wiring or various pipes. In the course of a person’s life, the cervical spine and the head move very frequently, the nerves are repeatedly pulled and the soft tissues that fix them are constantly rubbed and chronically irritated, plus the soft tissues of the cervical occipital and temporal side of the head are strained and aged due to the prolonged pressure during sleep, and a sterile inflammation occurs between the nerves and the soft tissues that fix them, and headaches appear or worsen. And repeated aseptic inflammation and repair leads to adhesions and scarring between the nerve and the surrounding soft tissues, which becomes a chronic headache that is difficult to be cured by any medication.
Diagnosis of nerve entrapment headache: Long-term chronic headache with a fixed location of pain, or one area in the whole diffuse headache is particularly severe, or the whole headache is triggered by one area. On examination, there are obvious pressure points on the occipital or temporal side of the head, and thickened nerves or hard nodes of adhesions can be felt in the painful area.
In response to such a pathological mechanism of nerve compression headache, traditional Chinese medicine adopts one of the traditional acupuncture, the blade needle, to enter the tissue in the form of needles without cutting the skin, reach the nerve compression site, and use the fine needle blade of the blade needle to loosen the adhesions between the nerve and the surrounding tissue, then many chronic headaches can be cured in the long term. Therefore, this new treatment method is welcomed by many chronic headache patients.
Prevention of nerve entrapment headache: High and hard pillows should be avoided, and pillows with loose comfort should be chosen. Hats should not be too tight and local irritation should be minimized. Reduce the triggering factors of headache, such as preventing from cold, humidity and fatigue.