Does Migraine Piercing Work

Migraine is a neurological condition that typically causes painful headaches, usually on just one side of the head. Migraine headaches are often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light and sound.

These symptoms can interfere with your daily life and, in some cases, last for days. So it’s no surprise that there’s a lot of interest in finding effective treatment options.

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Recently, there’s been some speculation that daith piercings can help relieve migraine. But what exactly is a daith piercing and can it help treat or prevent migraine attacks?

What To Know Before You Get A Tragus Or Daith Piercing

A daith piercing is a piercing of the fold of cartilage that’s just above the entrance to your ear canal. There are currently no research studies to confirm that daith piercings can alleviate migraine pain beyond anecdotal evidence.

The connection between piercing and migraine relief is tied to acupuncture, an ancient Chinese medicine-based approach to treating various conditions by triggering specific points on the body with needles.

Daith piercings for migraine relief gained popularity in the mid-2010s. Supporters of this treatment claimed that the daith piercing activates a pressure point which may help relieve migraine symptoms.

Can You Wear Airpods With A Daith Piercing

The pressure points in the ear are in very specific locations and would need to be identified by a trained acupuncturist to ensure the piercing was in the right spot. Even then, there’s no scientific evidence that suggests daith piercings are effective in treating migraine symptoms.

, the participant’s migraine symptoms improved after getting a daith piercing. The researchers concluded that more clinical studies are needed to link the procedure to migraine relief.

But the researchers also warned about the risks of daith piercings, and the possibility that symptom relief may be the result of the

Can Daith Piercings Really Cure Migraines?

The placebo effect occurs when you undergo an inactive treatment and have fewer symptoms as a result. This is a psychological condition and the benefits of the inactive treatment usually wear off over time.

The researchers concluded that the lack of evidence on the effectiveness of daith piercings for headaches or migraine prevented them from recommending it. The authors of this study grouped other treatments in this category, including reflexology, aromatherapy, and hydrotherapy.

Daith piercings target the fold of cartilage just above your ear canal. All piercings carry some risk, but cartilage piercings are often more risky than earlobe piercings.

Can

The Daith Piercing

Also, the piercing spot is in a very precise location and may be difficult to pierce. It can also be very painful.

If you decide that a daith piercing is worth the risk, look for a licensed piercer to do it for you. Afterwards, be sure to keep the piercing site clean until it heals.

Research has shown that there are a number of other alternative therapies that may help with migraine symptoms. Some may even help reduce the frequency of migraine attacks.

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You measure responses in your body like how tense your muscles are, or other reactions to stress. Then you can learn how to relax, or decrease your reaction to stress, in an effort to relieve migraine symptoms.

There’s no research to date that indicates that daith piercings can help relieve migraine symptoms. This type of piercing can be difficult to do and may result in an infection and other side effects.

Daith

If you want to try an alternative therapy to help your migraine attacks, you may want to look into treatments that are supported by research. Some options include acupuncture, auriculotherapy, mindfulness meditation, or biofeedback.

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Daith Piercing For Migraine: Does It Actually Help?

By Trevor Gerson Trevor Gerson Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar * , Mark Connelly Mark Connelly Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar , Madeline Boorigie Madeline Boorigie Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar , Jennifer Bickel Jennifer Bickel Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar and Jennifer Dilts Jennifer Dilts Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar

Daith

The treatment of migraine is evolving to include non-traditional approaches, as pharmacologic therapy alone is unsuccessful in many patients. Daith piercing, a cartilaginous ear piercing, has become popular as a potential nonpharmacological treatment option for migraine. However, there are no systematic data on the utilization and efficacy of these piercings. Therefore, we investigated the perceptions of pediatric patients regarding Daith piercing and gathered initial retrospective data for patients who had already received it. Patients presenting to a pediatric neurology clinic were invited to complete a questionnaire to assess knowledge about and attitudes towards Daith piercing and their willingness to undergo such a treatment. For those with a Daith piercing, the effects on headaches, function, and mood were evaluated. Of the 171 respondents, 61% had prior knowledge of Daith piercings, 27% knew someone with a Daith piercing, and 60% of patients presenting with headache were willing to undergo piercing. Of the eight patients (5% of respondents) who had already undergone piercing, six (75%) reported improvement in headaches, five (62%) had missed fewer days of school or work, and seven (87%) reported mood improvement. The high proportion of pediatric patients willing to undergo this form of treatment speaks to the desire for and acceptance of nonpharmacologic treatments. Although based on a small sample, the data from children who have already undergone Daith piercing is promising and supports a need for further systematic investigation into this treatment approach.

Headaches are some of the most common diseases in the world, with the most common types of headache (tension-type headache and migraine) comprising two of the top causes of years lived with disability in the world [1]. In children and adolescents, migraine affects approximately 5% of boys and 7.7% of girls and leads to moderate to severe disability in 28% of those affected [2]. Chronic migraine in particular, defined as having greater than 15 headache days per month (at least eight of which are migraines), occur in 2% of adolescents, and can significantly affect a child’s physical, social, and emotional development [2]. The level of disability in children with migraines has been found to be similar to children with rheumatological diseases or cancer [3].

Do Daith Piercings Alleviate Migraine Symptoms?

Preventative pharmacological therapies are used to decrease the frequency and intensity of headaches [4]. However, despite the widespread prevalence of pediatric migraine, there is only one preventive medication (topiramate) which has been aproved by the US Food and Drug Administration for use in pediatric patients (ages 12 and over). Off-label use of other medications to treat headaches in children is common [5]. Overall, however, a large percentage of headache patients do not get complete relief with pharmacologic therapies [6]. Further, certain medications such as opioids or butalbital that are sometimes used (against recommendations) to treat pediatric migraine can lead to worsening headaches and disability in the future [7, 8, 9].

The high prevalence of headaches in children and low efficacy of medical therapies for at least a subset of patients may lead some families to seek nonpharmacologic treatments. Data from two national health surveys have shown that 30% of respondents aged 10–17 years with headache reported using complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) modalities, compared to 17% in those without headache [4]. Similar interest in CAM modalities has been reported in other studies of youth with chronic pain. In one study using data from the National Health Interview Survey, over 1 in 5 youth with a chronic pain condition (headache, abdominal pain, or musculoskeletal pain) had used CAM in the prior year, compared to use in less than 1 in 10 youth without a chronic pain condition [10]. In clinical samples of youth with headache or another chronic pain condition, the proportions of patients that had already tried a CAM modality are even higher (40–60%) [11, 12]. The most commonly used CAM modalities among children with chronic pain were found to be biology-based therapies (special diets and herbal supplements) and body-based therapies (e.g., chiropractice). Common reasons reported by parents of youth with chronic pain for seeking out CAM include that these treatments are “natural” and that they can improve general wellness. Over half of parents of youth with chronic