Migraine
★Overview
Migraine is characterized by recurrent, often one-sided throbbing headache, frequently with nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light and sound, sometimes preceded by visual aura. Chinese medicine classifies it as "head wind" and relates it to liver yang ascending, phlegm turbidity disturbing upward, static blood obstructing collaterals, or deficiency of qi and blood, often triggered by wind, emotional stress, diet, or fatigue.
Pattern differentiation (clinical patterns)
Liver Yang Ascending
Distending or pulling headache, irritability, restless sleep, dizziness, flushed face, bitter taste, rib-side pain, red tongue with thin yellow coating, forceful wiry pulse.
Calm the liver and subdue yang; extinguish wind to stop pain.
Static Blood Obstructing Collaterals
Chronic headache with fixed stabbing pain, dark complexion, often with painful periods or dark clotted menstrual blood in women, purple dark tongue or bruise spots, fine rough pulse.
Invigorate blood and transform stasis; unblock the orifices to stop pain.
Phlegm Turbidity Disturbing Upward
Heavy clouding headache with a wrapped sensation, chest and epigastric fullness, nausea with phlegmy saliva, poor appetite, heavy body, greasy white coating, slippery pulse.
Fortify the spleen and dry dampness; transform phlegm and downbear counterflow.
Connections
Daily care & prevention
Keep regular sleep, avoid staying up late and strong emotional triggers, and track/avoid personal triggers such as red wine, aged cheese, caffeine withdrawal, bright light, or fasting. During an attack rest in a quiet dark room. Massage the temporal region, Fengchi (GB20), Hegu (LI4), and Taichong (LR3); for liver yang add Taixi (KI3) and Xingjian (LR2). Regular aerobic exercise and Baduanjin may reduce frequency.
When to seek medical care
Seek emergency care for a sudden "worst headache of life", headache with neurological deficits (limb weakness, facial droop, slurred speech), fever with stiff neck, new headache after head injury, or new headache after age 50 or a marked change in pattern, to rule out stroke or other emergencies.