Can Piercings Be a Solution for Migraine?

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

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

One unconventional treatment that has gained recognition over the previous 10 years is daith piercing, which is an ear piercing by the cartilage of the inside fold of the ear (above the earhole). The thought comes from the scientific observe of treating migraine with acupuncture—the situation 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?

In quick, 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 short-term aid for a few days or even 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 location of the daith piercing represents just one acupuncture web site—a single a part of a higher acupuncture protocol that skilled professionals use for migraine aid. Activating this one web site is not going to have the consequences of a full acupuncture process.

2. The piercing web site isn’t exact. Daith piercings usually are not carried out by acupuncturists, which implies it’s unlikely that the situation 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 web site contributes to the irregular outcomes of the piercing.)

3. There’s a excessive danger of an infection and nerve injury. Even in the event you have been to get short-term aid with a daith piercing, the dangers outweigh the advantages. Getting a piercing in that specific location is prone to result in an an infection, particularly in the event you’re not capable of sustain with the day by day disinfection course of (cleansing two or thrice a day). This sort of piercing can even result in excruciating nerve ache. This occurred to one in every of my sufferers final yr who acquired 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’re seeking to discover different secure options, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) is a good supply that will help you resolve your greatest strategy.

This article is for informational functions solely, even when and no matter whether or not it options the recommendation of physicians and medical practitioners. This article isn’t, neither is it supposed 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 symbolize the views of goop.