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Headache

头痛 〔頭痛〕tóu tòng

Pain in the head. The head is the confluence of yáng, and the brain is the house of clear essence. Distinction is also made between medial headache and hemilateral headache, although the term headache usually refers to medial headache. The qì and blood of the five viscera and six bowels ascend to the head. Headache may be attributable to the six excesses or to internal damage, and arises by pathomechanisms such as obstruction of yáng qì, lodging of turbid evil in the upper body, ascendant liver yáng, and essence-marrow or qì-blood depletion, etc. The nature, severity, and duration of headaches are all important factors in diagnosis. New headaches (headaches of recent onset) often indicate external disease. Distinction is also made according to the exact location of the pain. The location of the headache can show which channel is affected, and hence which channel should be treated.

Patterns

Greater yáng (tài yáng) headache (太阳头痛 tài yáng tóu tòng): Pain reaches from the head down the neck and back.

yáng brightness (yáng míng) headache (阳明头痛 yáng míng tóu tòng): Pain in the anterior forehead, sometimes stretching down to the eyebrow bone (superciliary arch).

Lesser yáng (shào yáng) headache: (少阳头痛 shào yáng tóu tòng) Pain on the sides of the head or in the temporal region.

Greater yīn (tài yīn) headache (太阴头痛 tài yīn tóu tòng): Pain and heaviness in the head accompanied by abdominal fullness and spontaneous sweating.

Lesser yīn (shào yīn) headache (少阴头痛 shào yīn tóu tòng): Pain stretching into the teeth and deep into the brain.

Reverting yīn (jué yīn) headache (厥阴头痛 jué yīn tóu tòng): Pain at the vertex stretching to the corners of the forehead, accompanied by a subjective feeling of counterflow qì ascent with retching in severe cases.

Headache

External Contraction

Internal Damage

Six-Channel

Miscellaneous

Acumoxatherapy: Select points given under individual types and add the following points according to the location of pain. For frontal headache, add GV-23 (Upper Star, 上星 shàng xīng), GB-14 (Yáng White, 阳白 yáng bái), and ST-41 (Ravine Divide, 解溪 jiě xī). For hemilateral headache, add Greater yáng (tài yáng) (太阳 tài yáng), GB-8 (Valley Lead, 率谷 shuài gǔ), and TB-5 (Outer Pass, 外关 wài guān). For posterior headache, add BL-10 (Celestial Pillar, 天柱 tiān zhù), BL-9 (Jade Pillow, 玉枕 yù zhěn), and BL-65 (Bundle Bone, 束骨 shù gǔ). For vertex headache, add GV-20 (Hundred Convergences, 百会 bǎi huì), Alert Spirit Quartet (四神聪 sì shén cōng), and LR-3 (Supreme Surge, 太冲 tài chōng). For eyebrow pain, add BL-2 (Bamboo Gathering, 攒竹 zǎn zhú). and Fish’s Lumbus (鱼腰 yú yāo).

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