Headache‧頭痛

Headaches give rise to notable health, economic, and social costs. There are four types of headaches: vascular, muscle contraction, traction, and inflammatory. The most common type of vascular headache is the migraine. Right now, more than 45 million people in the United States experience chronic, recurring headaches and, of these, 28 million also suffer migraines. 　　Many headache sufferers are compelled to take pain-relieving drugs that may only temporarily relieve the pain and can cause undesirable side effects. This leads patients to try, and health professionals to recommend, non-pharmacological approaches to headache care. One of the most popular approaches seems to be acupuncture. 　　Traditional Chinese Medicine does not recognize migraines and recurring headaches as one particular syndrome. According to TCM, one cause of headaches is a blockage in the smooth flow of Qi and blood. Treatments that focus on removing this blockage may treat the specific symptoms that are unique to each individual using a variety of techniques such as acupuncture, acupressure, Chinese herbs, and Qi-Gong to restore imbalances found in the body.

「頭痛」是現下最常見的疾患之一，現代人壓力大，生活緊張，睡眠品質差，由肌肉緊繃引起的頭痛比例也大幅增加。但百分之八十的頭痛原因是不明的，目前常見的治療，除了止痛藥、阿司匹靈等藥外，多無其他有效的療法。 　　針灸在治療頭痛方面有其獨到的效果。傳統中醫理論認為引起頭痛的原因很多，如外感風、寒、暑、濕、燥、火六淫，上犯巔頂，使氣血運行受阻，屬於「外因」；或內傷喜、怒、憂、思、悲、恐、驚七情，久病，氣血不足，失於充養，或痰濁瘀血，阻於經絡，屬於「內因」；還有飲食不節、勞動過度或意外受傷的「不內外因」都可導致頭痛。 　　這三大病因所造成頭痛，其型態也各不相同，治療方式也不同。一般而言，外感頭痛，發病較急，痛勢較劇而無休止，多屬實證，治療以袪邪為主；內傷頭痛，起病徐緩，病勢也較緩，時作時停，多屬虛證或虛中夾實證，治療以補虛為主。