The Acupuncture Treatment of Vascular Headache

Chief Complaint: right temporal pain
Western Diagnosis: vascular headache
Medical History: A woman aged 40 complained headache for 20 years. the right temporal pain began 20 yeas age, often preceded by nervous tension or over-fatigue, and aggravated during menses. She experienced boring pain in the right temporal region accompanied by cramping pain of the right eye. the bouts usually subsided after 3-5 days, sometimes with slight pain remaining.
Questioning exam: right hemicrania precipitated b tension, fatigue and menses; flushed face; restlessness; irritability; poor appetite with bitter feeling in mouth; constipation.
Pulse exam: fine taut pulse, weak at the left cubit.
Tongue exam: tongue with thin yellow coating.
OM Diagnosis: ShaoYang headache.
in this case, the bouts of hemicrania accompanied by right-eye pain, irritability, and taut pule were caused by endogenous wind from Liver due to exuberance of Yang;restlessness and insomnia were due to disturbance of mental activity of Liver-Yang; and flushed face bitter taste in mouth, constipation and yellow tongue coat were caused by Liver-fire arising from transformation of Yang. Further, inhibition of Spleen by an overactive Liver caused poor appetite.Fine pulse weak at the left cubit indicated deficiency of Kidney-Yin,as this results in failure to nourish Liver-Yin, predisposing to exuberance of yang.
Treatment Principle: Nourish Yin in order to quench fire, subdue hyper-function of Liver and the resulting endogenous wind.
Point Prescription: TaiYang,TouWei, ShuaiGu, FengChi and XiaXi.all this 5 points only select the right site and use reducing manipulation.YangLingQuan, TaiXi, TaiChong select both sites and use nourishing manipulation.retain the needles for 30 minutes each time and once every other day.
Herbal Formula: none.
Lifestyle Prescription: none.
Results: After the first treatment, pat. feels much better. after the third treatments pat.was headache free.one additional treatment for maintenance. 6 months later pat. reported headache free.