A randomised controlled trial in Italy involving 160 women and studying acupuncture for migraine prevention, compared acupuncture treatment with flunarizine over a six month period. Both groups experienced a reduction in the frequency of attacks and drugs used for relief of the symptoms, but the number of attacks at the two and four month points, was lower in the acupuncture group. This was also the only group to show a significant reduction in pain intensity, and significantly lower treatment side effects.
The researchers concluded that acupuncture could be used to prevent migraine attacks, and it was more effective and better tolerated than flunarizine in the first months of treatment.
(Acupuncture in the Prophylactic Treatment of Migraine without Aura: A Comparison with Flunarizine. Headache Journal, 25 October 2002.)
Author: Robin Costello
I offer traditional Chinese acupuncture in Exeter, from a tranquil clinic a mile from the city centre, and next to the University of Exeter. I graduated originally from the London School of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine’s 3 year full time Acupuncture Diploma (DipAc) course. I am on the practitioners register of the British Acupuncture Council (MBAcC), a regulatory and professional body with an entry standard of a full three year undergraduate degree level training.
I have worked in a hospital in south west China, deepening my knowledge and using acupuncture and Chinese massage (tuina) as the treatment of choice in its country of origin. I have taught Chinese medicine in colleges, the NHS and at university level. I also practise Qi Gong, and Chinese dietary therapy, that is the medicinal use of ordinary foods, chosen to help achieve particular therapeutic effects in different individuals.
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