Why are we surprised that medication overload might worsen headaches?!!(See link below). When you consider that acupuncturists often diagnose headaches as stemming from a Liver imbalance, it follows that increasing medication and giving an already congested Liver more work to do, ie. metabolise a high level of medication out of the body, will clearly exacerbate the situation.
I have recently treated a patient who indeed found that her thrice weekly headaches ceased when she stopped her medication. In practice I have also noticed that the link between medication overload and headaches is not just limited to painkillers. Many headache sufferers I have treated have often benefitted from reducing or ceasing their medication, where it has been safe to do so. This has been particularly noticable with hormonal medication – such as the contraceptive pill or coil – and anti depressants.
While it is a positive move for medics to encourage patients to come off such high levels of medication what this really amounts to is a temporary detoxification process so that medication may be resumed at a lesser dose.
Acupuncture may offer a much longer lasting alternative to this. Its extremely effective in addressing the underlying cause of the headaches to alleviate them permanently and dispense with the use of medications altogether. And until the body rebalances and while it detoxes, techniques such as battlefield acupuncture can be used to control any pain which may arise.
href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/sep/19/headaches-painkillers”>
