I recently attended a hugely successful national seminar entitled:  ‘Migraine and Well-Being: Approaches to Migraine Management’.

The seminar was held in Dublin in association with Migraine Action Week 2012 and was attended by over one hundred people, including lead specialists, acupuncturists, and GPs.

Here is a short summary of the highlights and shared findings of the day’s events.

— Speaking at the event in the Ballsbridge Hotel on Saturday 16^th September were Esther Tomkins (migraine specialist nurse) and Martin Ruttledge (consultant neurologist). Dr Ruttledge opened the seminar by saying that Ireland was ‘phenomenally under-resourced’ in neurologists and then went on to discuss migraine in general, citing studies which found that over 90% of patients attending GPs with headache were diagnosed with migraine.

He highlighted overuse of painkillers as a precursor to Medication Overuse Headache (www.migraine.ie) a topic which received much media coverage the following week due to guidelines released in Britain. He also stated that travel sickness can be a precursor to migraine; that episodic migraine often changes into Chronic Daily Headache or Medication Overuse Headache; and that 87% of patients with migraine get facial/nasal congestion.

Following his presentation, Dr Ruttledge responded to a question from the floor whether he thought acupuncture was a useful and beneficial treatment for Migraine and Chronic Headache. Dr. Rutledge agreed that acupuncture was indeed a successful treatment and that he personally knew several people who had found acupuncture very useful in reducing headache pain.

During lunch attendees had the opportunity to browse information stands relating to various complementary approaches to managing migraine including acupuncture, kinesiology, yoga, biofeedback, physiotherapy,yoga, reflexology, diet and nutrition to name a few. All exhibitors emphasised that their therapies functioned as part of an overall approach to well being. They stressed that they worked in conjunction with other treatments such as prescribed medications and would never advise against a doctor’s instructions. Ref: An Overview  National Seminar for Migraine Action Week 2012 [Adapted from the Migraine Association of Ireland’s report.] —-

From my own experience of working with patients suffering from migraine, I know with confidence that acupuncture does indeed relieve many of the symptoms and has proven to be a hugely successful treatment.

If you suffer from chronic headaches or migraines and would like to try acupuncture as an alternative method of treatment, please feel free to contact me on 087 987 7375 for more information.

Anne O’Conor