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WHAT TREATMENTS ARE AYAILABLE? ^ 65

Complementary therapies

A wide rangę of complementary therapies are available which, it is claimed, ameliorate headaches and migraine. When reading about these, please bear in mind that they are intended to complement orthodox medicine, not to replace it. This is why we no longer tend to use the term ‘alternative medicine’. If you decide to take advantage of what complementary therapies have to offer, make surę that you have also sought advice from your doctor about your headaches. After all, the vast majońty of complementary practitioners are not medically ąualified. Complementary therapies can, for some people, make a big difference, but there are some things they simply cannot do. If you are having headaches because of a perforated ear drum, for example, no amount of reflexology or homeopathy will alter such a clearly physi-cal ailment. In fact, sometimes complementary therapies can be a problem because they may deal with the pain, making you think that the problem has gone away, but the underlying cause may still be there. Therefore, do the right thing and see your doctor in addition to any other therapies you seek.

Acupuncture

Morę and morę doctors are willing to prescribe acupuncture to their patients, and there is some evidence to suggest that it can work much beyond the placebo effect. It is a part of Chinese medicine, but can be used as a stand-alone treatment. It involves the insertion of very hne needles into the skin, to a depth of around three to six millimetres. A herb may also be burned around the area - a process known as moxibustion. Many people worry that acupuncture will be painful, and for some people it is, although the amount of pain experienced is often smali and most patients would say that this is a smali price to pay for the benehts they receive. There are university courses to train people in acupuncture, and it is generally taken seriously as a therapeutic approach, although it still has its opponents. If you are sąueamish about needles, there is a friendly alternative in the form of acupressure. This is based upon the same philosophy as acupuncture but involves massage of certain points on the body rather than the insertion of needles.

If you can get access to acupuncture or acupressure just before a migraine strikes, you are ąuite likely to experience some relief, and perhaps may avoid the attack altogether. However, this is a difficult thing to do, of course, as there are no ‘emergency acupuncturists’ waiting on cali. Non-emergency courses of