A single woman in her 40s, suffering from severe headaches for more than 10 years, came to see me a few years ago. She complained of stabbing pains in the left side of her head, and an irregular, pinching pain behind left eyeball.
She had gone to many clinics, and tried many types of medicine which had alleviated the pain temporarily, but it soon returned.
Once she even wondered if she had a brain tumor, but exam results proved normal.
Her pain increased under more stress, leaving her unable to sleep at all during severe attacks. In both wrists, her pulse was very weak and wiry. I noticed that her tongue was pale, with red on the tip and big blue vessels underneath.
In that first moment when I put the very first needle into her foot, she screamed loudly and got a light muscle spasm in her leg. She grumbled, “The pain is in my head, so why are you putting the needle in the bottom of my foot?” But within no time, she was able to relax and get comfortable.
In oriental medicine, there can be many reasons for headaches: external factors like wind, cold, dampness, or heat; a metabolism disorder of the qi, blood, and/or water inside the body; or abnormal function of internal organs, such as liver hyperactivity, or a kidney deficiency.
Each case has its own symptoms, pattern, and treatment. In practice, there are many possible combinations of factors. In the case described above, stress accumulated over a long time led to qi stagnation, then blood stasis, then a qi deficiency, finally resulting in severe headaches.
In these cases, we typically focus on the liver meridian which begins in the back of the foot. This is why I placed the needle first in her foot instead of her head! The good news? In less than one month of treatment she was healed.
Hong(Registered Acupuncturist &TCM herbalist)
