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 folks with headache problems utilizing a holistic biopsychosocial method to prognosis and remedy.

When you’ve ever had a migraine, you know the way debilitating its signs will be: intense throbbing, ache, excessive sensitivity to mild and sound, and nausea—all with out warning. However the usual drugs aren’t at all times efficient (or they trigger unwanted side effects), which might lead sufferers to seek for alternative routes to search out aid from their persistent ache.

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

In brief, the reply might be not. We don’t have the scientific proof to indicate 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 momentary aid for a few days or perhaps weeks, after which the signs return. The daith piercing method is commonly ineffective due to three key issues.

1. It’s not a complete protocol. The situation of the daith piercing represents just one acupuncture website—a single a part of a larger acupuncture protocol that skilled professionals use for migraine aid. Activating this one website is not going to have the consequences of a full acupuncture process.

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

3. There’s a excessive threat of an infection and nerve injury. Even for those who have been to get momentary 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 thrice a day). Any such piercing may also result in excruciating nerve ache. This occurred to one in all my sufferers final 12 months 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), mindful meditation, yoga, and train are all research-backed methods to handle migraine signs. When you’re trying to discover different secure alternate options, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) is a superb supply that will help you resolve your finest method.

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 will not be, neither is it meant to be, an alternative to skilled medical recommendation, prognosis, or remedy and may 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 symbolize the views of goop.