Conditions
Acupuncture for migraine, with Dr. Peter Caron.
Most people I see for migraine have a medication that helps once an attack starts. Fewer have anything that makes attacks less frequent, and that is the part I treat. Prevention is one of the best-studied uses of acupuncture.
Why it hasn’t gotten better
An attack begins well before the headache does.
There is often a pattern underneath. It might be poor sleep, a stressful week, a tight neck, or a time of the month. The attack may be building for a day before the pain arrives.
I work on that pattern. The goal is fewer, milder attacks, so your medication has less to do.
When to see a physician first
A sudden, severe headache unlike any you’ve had needs medical assessment now, not an acupuncture appointment. So do new headaches that come with vision changes, weakness, or fever. A first migraine after forty should also be evaluated by a physician. I’ll raise any of these on the call.
What it feels like
What people describe when they first call.
- A throbbing headache on one side that can take most of a day
- Light and sound you’d normally ignore become hard to bear
- Nausea, or needing to lie down in a dark room until it passes
- Zigzag lines or blind spots in your vision before the pain starts
- Attacks that cluster around your period, a short night, or the end of a stressful week
- You reach for the rescue medication more days a month than you’d like
If you recognized yourself in that list, the free 15-minute call is the place to start.
How I treat it
Prevention rather than rescue.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture calms the nerve signaling behind an attack and releases the neck and shoulder muscles that help set it off, so attacks come less often.
Treatment settles the neck and shoulder muscles that feed into head pain and calms an overactive stress response.
- Cervical & trigger point work
- Autonomic downregulation
- Motor-point stimulation
Herbal medicine
An herbal formula works daily on the triggers you can’t avoid, like poor sleep or your cycle, to help keep attacks from building.
I read the triggers as one connected pattern that can include sleep, stress, digestion, and the menstrual cycle. An herbal formula works on that pattern every day between visits.
- Herbal formula
- Trigger-pattern support
You should see attacks come less often within the first several weeks.
Fifteen minutes on the phone is usually enough to tell whether I can help.
Your first visit
What happens the first time you come in.
- We go through the history How often the attacks come, how long they last, what sets them off, and what you take for them, including any preventive medication you’ve tried. If you keep a headache diary, bring it.
- I look for the pattern I check the neck and shoulders for the tight muscles that feed into head pain, and I ask about sleep, stress, digestion and your cycle, because the triggers often line up.
- You’re treated the same day Fine needles at those points in the neck and shoulders, and at points on the hands and feet. You don’t need to be in an attack for the visit to be useful.
- You leave with a plan How often to come in at first, and a simple count of migraine days so we can both see whether the number is coming down.
What to expect
How it usually goes, visit by visit.
We count your migraine days from the start, so we can both see whether the number falls.
- Weeks 1–2 Visits are closest together at the start. Keep counting migraine days so we have a baseline to compare against.
- Weeks 3–8 The window where a change in how often attacks occur should show. If the count isn’t moving, we reconsider the approach rather than carry on.
- After that We space visits out and watch whether the change holds. In the trial behind this page, the difference kept growing in the months after the last session.
Typical ranges, not promises. Results vary from person to person.
You’ll know at the first visit roughly how many visits it should take.
What the research shows
In a sham-controlled trial, acupuncture reduced migraine days, and the difference grew after treatment ended.
A 2020 trial in The BMJ compared real acupuncture, sham acupuncture, and usual care in 150 people with episodic migraine. Treatment ran 20 sessions over eight weeks. After it ended, the gap between real and sham kept growing. By the third month, the acupuncture group had 2.1 fewer migraine days per four weeks than the sham group.
The authors concluded acupuncture should be considered for people who don’t want preventive medication, or for whom it hasn’t worked.
Questions
What people ask about migraine.
Something not covered here? Ask on the free discovery call.
Very little. In the neck and shoulders you may feel a dull ache or a twitch. Points on the hands and feet are felt even less. Most people relax on the table.
Prevention is what I treat and what the research supports. The aim is fewer, milder attacks. Keep your rescue medication. If treatment works, you’ll need it on fewer days.
Count your migraine days for a month before you start, then keep counting. A change should show within three to eight weeks. If the count isn’t moving, we change the approach.
Yes, acupuncture works alongside it. Don’t stop or change any medication without talking to your prescriber.
Yes. Attacks around your period are a pattern I look for. I treat the cycle along with the headaches, often with an herbal formula.
Yes, I treat those too. Tension-type and neck-related headaches usually feel like a tight band or start at the base of the skull.
No. Some people I see have a neurologist and some don’t. A sudden, severe headache unlike any you’ve had needs a physician first. So do new headaches with vision changes, weakness, or fever, and a first migraine after forty.
Some plans reimburse part of it. We’re out of network and don’t bill insurers. After each visit we send you a superbill to file with your plan. Check your out-of-network benefits first.
If your question isn’t here, ask it on the call. It’s free and takes fifteen minutes.
Related conditions
Often treated alongside this one.
Headaches
For a band of pressure that builds through the afternoon.
Neck pain
For a neck that won’t turn all the way.
Perimenopause & menopause
For hot flashes and night sweats that break up your sleep.
Start here
Acupuncture can be part of a prevention plan.
In a few minutes on the phone, I can tell you whether prevention is realistic for your pattern.
If you already know you want to come in, book an initial visit.