Roger G. is a 37 year-old gentleman who came to my clinic a year ago for severe migraine headaches. He had suffered from migraines since he was thirteen, and for the last seven years his headaches had been a daily occurrence, leaving him in constant pain and destroying any chance of leading a normal life. His wife came with him that first day, and said to me, "You have to help him ? our whole family has been affected by Roger?s headaches." Roger gave me a list of all the medications he had ever taken: various prophylactic agents including beta-blockers, tricyclic agents, and muscle relaxants. In the past few years, he had been using more and more analgesic medication to allow him to function well enough to hold down a job. He was taking Excedrin, aspirin, and generic Sudafed three times every day. When he had especially severe headaches, he received Wigraine and Imitrex injections every week.

I started acupuncture treatments on Roger three times per week. After a little more than two weeks, his headaches were significantly reduced. Instead of experiencing daily headaches, he was headache-free three to four days a week. I reduced the treatment to twice per week, then once per week. After three months, Roger was totally headache free. Now I see him about once a month for a "tune-up," and he remains free of pain.

Every year about seventy million Americans suffer from recurring headaches. Twenty- six million of them are identified as migraine sufferers. The goal of both conventional Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine in the case of headaches is to relieve pain and enable people to function well in their lives. But while the ultimate goal is the same, the diagnostic paradigm and treatment modalities of these two types of medicine are fundamentally different. In the remainder of this article, we contrast the Western approach to headaches with the Chinese medicine approach, and also list some Chinese herbal remedies for specific headache patterns.