As Jeanie Dufour closes her eyes and lets the soft sounds of nature flow over her, Deleon Best leans over Defour’s relaxed body and deftly but gently inserts a needle between her thumb and index finger. She does not cry out in pain, but calmly sighs, then laughs.

Dufour suffers from migraines; Best is her acupuncturist. Dufour lies on her back in one of the four client rooms at Best Acupuncture and Herb Center in Cornelius, surrounded by the soft glow of lamps, pale yellow walls and blue curtains. Soothing nature music plays from a small CD player, and a table fountain flows freely on top of the bookcase.

“I could fall asleep,” Dufour says as Best inserts another needle into the center of her forehead.

Best has been practicing acupuncture in Cornelius for five years. Five to 10 percent of his clients suffer from migraines; the number is higher for other headaches.

Dufour first went to see Best last November. She was having migraines regularly, and she had only recently recovered from a period of time when she had a migraine every day. A physician had prescribed medication and physical therapy, but Dufour did not like taking the medicine and wanted to explore other options.

When Dufour asked her doctor about acupuncture, he said, “Sure, try it. Great idea.”

“I saw it as a viable option,” Dufour says, delighted to have her doctor’s support. “I’m glad to know there are doctors that are willing to look into alternative, or holistic, medicine.”

Pinpointing the cause
“Migraines are a basic pathological condition,” explains Dr. Mital Dalsania, a physician with Presbyterian Neurology Center. “It’s a dilation of blood vessels in the brain.” However, Dalsania explains, there can be several triggering factors, which can be different for each person.

Both Best and Dalsania emphasize the importance of gathering a patient’s headache history and information about diet and liftestyle before beginning treatment. Dalsania asks questions about frequency, duration and intensity of headaches. She also asks about possible triggering factors or other symptoms besides headaches, such as light sensitivity, sensitivity to noise or sensitivity to smell.

“It is a judgment call when a patient presents their history to you for the first time,” she says. “You have to dig out all you can from the patient.”

According to Dalsania, triggers can include birth control pills, menstruation, ovulation, changes in weather, bad sleep, poor hygiene or stress. Other triggers can be diet-related, such as caffeine, chocolate, alcohol, cheese, nuts or artificial sweeteners. Best adds spicy food, perfume and red wine to the list.

Dufour’s symptoms include sensitivity to light and sound, nausea and pain behind one eye. She attributes her migraines to heredity – her grandmother also had them.

Dalsania would add that Dufour was already at a higher risk for migraines, simply because of her gender. “Migraines are 25 percent more common in females, because of their different reproductive stages,” she explains.

Recognizing the categories
“The most common migraine is the ‘classical,’ ” Dalsania says. The symptoms include an aura, meaning the sufferer knows the headache is coming on.

Others include the “common” migraine, when a headache comes on with no warning signs, the “ocular” migraine, when the headache is behind the eyes, and the “complicated” migraine, when there is no headache but there are stroke-like symptoms instead.

But having a headache does not always mean a person has migraines. There can be other causes, such as cluster headaches, strokes, Lupus or connective tissue problems. If one of these factors is causing headaches, the treatment changes.

“That’s why it’s important to gather details about the headaches,” Dalsania says. “I ask how bad the headache is – whether or not it is interfering with day-to-day activities. I try to find out what kind it is.”

Taming the beast
Dalsania and most Western physicians prescribe medication for migraines. For patients with ongoing headaches, they may prescribe a nasal spray, pills or injections. These medications work by constricting the blood vessels around the brain and bringing down the pain level. The response time is about 30 minutes.

For a patient who already has a full-blown headache, Dalsania prescribes steroids, which work much more quickly. The steroids can be administered in the emergency room.

In Dalsania’s opinion, all migraines need to be treated with medication. Best, however, believes other options also should be explored.

“My practice is integrative,” he says. He has studied traditional Chinese, Japanese and Korean medicine. “But I encourage exploring Western options,” he says. “For example, if a patient is taking medication for migraines, and it is bringing the pain level from a 10 down to a 5, then I would encourage that person to keep taking the medication,” he says.

However, he would add acupuncture or acupressure to the treatment to try to get the pain level down to a 2, or a 0.

Best also uses herbs in his treatment. For Dufour, he places a cone of moxa, from the Chinese plant aiyeie, on a needle just below her knee and lights it on fire. The small flame fizzles quickly, leaving smoke and an incense-like aroma in the room. “It creates a warming effect,” he explains, which is another way to stimulate the pressure point.

“If you can be preventative, that’s where Chinese medicine has some wisdom,” he says. “Some people are skeptical, but Chinese medicine has been around for 5,000 years. There must be something to it.”

And Dufour agrees. She receives acupuncture treatment once a week and has seen a drastic reduction in the frequency and intensity of her migraines since January.

“Even if you have a lifetime history of migraines, it doesn’t have to stay that way,” Best says.

For More Information
If you think you may suffer from migraines, contact your physician or one of the following numbers:

Presbyterian Neurology Center
704-384-9437

Best Acupuncture and Herb Center
www.bestacupuncture.com
704-655-8298

Northeast Integrative Medicine
www.northeastintegrativemedicine.org
704-403-7050