Headache and its connection to meridians

Headache is a condition that many people experience during their day. There are over 6 million Australians suffering from chronic headaches, and approximately 15% of sufferers require medication to relieve the pain.

Headache in Western Medicine and Chinese Medicine

In Western medicine, there are five types of headaches: tension headaches, cluster headaches, sinus headaches, rebound headaches, and migraine headaches. Triggers can vary as different types of headaches have different triggers such as dietary, environmental, physical, and emotional.

In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), headaches do not have numerous classifications but are diagnosed based on the location of the headaches to determine which “meridians” or “organs” are affected, causing the pain. Chinese medicine treatment emphasizes distinguishing between “branches” and “roots”, and the same is true for headaches. The root is the identified cause of the headache, the branch is the pain itself and is treated by clearing local blockages and blocking pain pathways. TCM cures the disease by focusing on the root, and the curative effect lasts longer, rather than temporarily relieving pain. A very important method in TCM diagnosis used to determine the root of a headache is to identify the exact location of the pain. Location is important because the meridians have specific pathways through certain areas of your head.

Common location of headaches and involved meridians:

-Temporal Headache: located at both sides of the head involving the Gallbladder meridian of the foot Shao Yang

-Occipital Headache: located at the back of the head involving the Bladder meridian of the foot Tai Yang

-Forehead Headache: located in the front of the head involving the Stomach meridian of the foot Yang Ming

-Vertex headache: located top of head involving  Liver meridian of the foot Jue Yin

Acupressure treatment of Headache

One cause of headaches is a blockage in one of the meridians. When we have identified the location and the related meridians and organs, we can choose the distal and local points along the meridians to treat the headache.

1) Temporal Headache: EX-HN5 Tai Yang       SJ-5 Wai Guan

EX-HN5 Tai Yang Location: In the region of the temples, in the depression about one finger-breadth posterior to the midpoint between the lateral end of the eyebrow and the outer canthus.

SJ-5  Wai Guan Location:

2 cun proximal to the dorsal crease of the wrist, on the line connecting Yangchi (TH 4) and the tip of olecranon, between the radius and ulna.

2) Occipital Headache: GB-20  Feng Chi

GB-20 Feng Chi Location: at the meeting-place of the base of the skull and top of the neck, just lateral to the tendons of the trapezius muscle.

3) Forehead Headache: BL-2 Zan Zhu    LI-4 He Gu

BL-2 Zan Zhu Location: In a depression at the medial extremity of the eyebrow, superior to the inner canthus, or on the supraorbital notch.

LI-4 He Gu Location: between the base of your thumb and index finger.

4) Vertex headache: GV-20 Bai Hui              LV-3 Tai Chong

GV-20 Bai Hui Location: at the intersection of the line connecting the apexes of the two auricles and the median line of the head, 7 cun directly above the posterior hairline and 5 cun behind the anterior hairline

LV-3 Tai Chong Location: Between the tendons of the big toe and second toe on the top of the foot in the depression just distal to the junction of the first and second metatarsal bones.

Application of Bioelectric Meridian Therapy

When using Bioelectric Meridian Therapy (BMT) as a treatment, we also can follow the specific meridians and acupoints to treat the headache according to the location of the pain. BMT is an effective way to stimulate the points that we mentioned above to help the clients relieve muscle tension, and improve local blood circulation, to achieve quicker pain relief, naturally.