Welcome to our website on Migraines and treatment through the use of acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Larisa Turin is one of the most experienced acupuncturists in the metropolitan Chicagoland area. The foundation of her success is the unique combination of experience  and education as both a physician and an oriental medicine practitioner. She has over 35 years of expertise in Western and Oriental medicine. She merges the best aspects of western medicine (diagnosis, physiology, and disease etiology) with those of Chinese medicine (treatment of the root of the the disease instead of just the symptoms, restoring overall body balance without the side effects of medications). Larisa specializes in the treatment of chronic and complex conditions, as well as anti-aging and longevity medicine.  

Larisa's knowledge of anatomy as well as many years of experience allows her to perform safe and painless acupuncture.   

Read More about Larisa's extensive experience here

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MIGRAINE AND HEADACHE

Larisa Turin has outstanding experience in treating chronic headache and migraine with Acupuncture. She offers treatments in her AcupunctureChicago clinic located in Chicago. Larisa Turin uses Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture to successfully treat patients with varying degrees and conditions involving chronic headache and migraine.

The effectiveness of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine in treating chronic headache and migraine has been proven experimentally and scientifically.

British Medical Journal published the results of the most recent study of the effectiveness of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture in treating chronic headache and migraine.

Reuters’ correspondent from London (P. Reaney) reported on 3.15.2001 that the study confirmed that Acupuncture is a useful and cost-effective treatment for chronic headaches and migraine.

In one of the largest randomized studies to assess the effectiveness of the Traditional Chinese Medicine in treating headaches and migraine, scientists found that Acupuncture worked better than just conventional treatments alone in treatment of chronic headaches and migraine.

"People using Acupuncture had fewer headaches, less severe headaches and they used less health resources over the course of the following year," Dr Andrew Vickers, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, said in an interview. 

Patients who had been assigned Acupuncture plus standard treatment received up to 12 treatments over three months.

Initially there was not much difference between the two groups but at the end of the trial the scientists noticed a big change.

Patients receiving acupuncture had fewer days of headaches per year, used less medication, made fewer visits to their family doctors and took fewer days off sick than the other group.

There were not many side effects and Vickers and his colleagues also found that the treatment was cost effective.

"For severely affected patients, acupuncture reduced the severity and the frequency of their headaches to make a real difference in their lives," Vickers said.

Use of acupuncture in the therapy of chronic daily headache.
[Article in Russian]

Naprienko MV, Oknin VIu, Kremenchugskaia MR, Filatova EG.

To determine efficacy of acupuncture (AC) in combined treatment of chronic daily headache (CDHA), 90 patients with this disorder were studied, using clinico-neurologic tests. Severity of patient's state was evaluated with Clinical Global Impression (CGI) scale, including scoring of disease severity, global evaluation of the post treatment state dynamics and the index of therapeutic efficacy. Headache intensity was assessed with VAS. A state of functional activity of nociceptive and antinociceptive systems was studied, using nociceptive flexor reflex (NFR). For treatment, the patients were randomly divided into two clinically matched groups: group 1 received combined drug therapy, group 2--combined drug therapy and additional acupuncture course. The results revealed high efficacy of AC combined with drug therapy for CDHA treatment. Most efficient was use of AC in patients with significantly reduced activity of antinociceptive systems and presence of drug abuse allowing to reduce analgetics withdrawal time. Besides, more pronounced clinical effect of AC was obtained in patients with transformed migraine.
Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr Im S S Korsakova. 2003;103(10):40-4.
PMID: 14628586 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Acupuncture in headache therapy.
[Article in German]

Weinschutz T.

Klinik fur Neurologie, Christian-Albrechts-Universitat, Niemannsweg 147, D-24105 Kiel.

Acupuncture is now being increasingly used in the treatment of headache. Acupuncture is a technique originating in Asia, from countries that have a cultural background with a fundamentally different concept of disease and therapy. Up to now, sustained application of acupuncture in Western medicine has been impeded by the lack of a scientifically convincing explanation of the mechanisms of action in terms of neurobiological criteria. Acupuncture is being used empirically in the treatment of migraine; clinical studies have been published. A definitive evaluation of acupuncture based on well-founded clinical experimental studies has yet to be made. The investigation was carried out in migraine patients who were divided into two subgroups in a control group design with two different stimulation techniques. The verum group was treated with the correct point location, normal prick depth and elicitation of a needle sensation. The control group received treatment at points that are far away from the acupuncture points, using a superficial prick technique and without eliciting a needle sensation. The effect of therapy was appraised by means of headache diaries with subsequent interference statistical and individual case analysis. In the present study comprising 81 patients, the incidence of the attacks was significantly reduced in both subgroups. The effect of acupuncture treatment was of comparable magnitude to that of the beta-blocker metoprolol. The advantage of acupuncture treatment consists in the lack of side effects such as gastrointestinal symptoms or an increase in weight. A minor side effect was only reported in one case. In the data analysis with the interference statistical method, verum acupuncture was superior to the control in only one subgroup. The possibility that the addition of further points (distant points) can explain this effect on the basis of the hypothesis of a central modulation of the migraine process is discussed. Acupuncture shows a sufficiently pronounced and sustained therapeutic effect for its use to be considered in a possible interval treatment of migraine.
Schmerz. 1996 Jun 17;10(3):149-55
PMID: 12799862 [PubMed]

Acupuncture versus placebo versus sumatriptan for early treatment of migraine attacks: a randomized controlled trial.

Melchart D, Thormaehlen J, Hager S, Liao J, Linde K, Weidenhammer W.

Department of Internal Medicine II, Center for Complementary Medicine Research, Technical University, Kaiserstrasse 9, 80801 Munich, Germany. dieter.melchart@lrz.tu-muenchen.de

OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether acupuncture is superior to placebo and equivalent to sumatriptan for the early treatment of an acute migraine attack. DESIGN: Randomized, partly double-blind (sumatriptan versus placebo) trial. SETTING: Two hospitals in Germany (one specialized in traditional Chinese medicine and one in the treatment of headache). SUBJECTS: A total of 179 migraineurs experiencing the first symptoms of a developing migraine attack. INTERVENTIONS: Traditional Chinese acupuncture, sumatriptan (6 mg subcutaneously) or placebo injection. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Number of patients in whom a full migraine attack (defined as severe migraine headache) within 48 h was prevented. In patients who developed a migraine attack in spite of early treatment, acupuncture and sumatriptan were applied a second time, whilst patients initially randomized to placebo received sumatriptan. RESULTS: A full migraine attack was prevented in 21 of 60 (35%) patients receiving acupuncture, 21 of 58 (36%) patients receiving sumatriptan and 11 of 61 (18%) patients receiving placebo (relative risk of having a full attack 0.79 (95% CI, 0.64-0.99) for acupuncture versus placebo, and 0.78 (95% CI, 0.62-0.98) for sumatriptan versus placebo). Response to the second intervention in patients who developed a full attack was better with sumatriptan (17/31 patients who received sumatriptan twice and 37/46 patients who had had placebo first) than with acupuncture (4/31). The number of patients reporting side-effects was 14 in the acupuncture group, 23 in the sumatriptan group and 10 in the placebo group. CONCLUSIONS: In this trial acupuncture and sumatriptan were more effective than a placebo injection in the early treatment of an acute migraine attack. When an attack could not be prevented, sumatriptan was more effective than acupuncture at relieving headache.
J Intern Med. 2003 Feb;253(2):181-8.
PMID: 12542558 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Acupuncture in migraine: long-term outcome and predicting factors.

Baischer W.

Ludwig Boltzmann-Institut fur Akupunktur, Vienna, Austria.

Twenty-six patients (19 women, 7 men), who suffered from chronic migraine according to IHS criteria, underwent acupuncture. In order to evaluate the long-term stability of treatment effects, patients documented frequency, duration, and intensity of attacks as well as analgesic intake in a migraine diary, which was kept for 5-week periods before treatment, immediately after treatment, and 3 years later. Data showed improvement greater than 33% for 18 patients (69%) at post-treatment and 15 patients (58%) at 3-year follow-up. Drug intake was reduced to 50% and did not re-increase until follow-up. Treatment outcome was associated with personality traits, but not depending on demographic data or severity of migraine.
Headache. 1995 Sep;35(8):472-4.
PMID: 7591741 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Acupuncture for headache

[Article in German]

von der Laage D.

Klinik fur Anasthesiologie, Medizinische Fakultat, RWTH Aachen.

Acupuncture is being increasingly used as one of the most important non-pharmacological therapies in treatment of chronic pain. Chronic headache, especially migraine and tension headache are diseases frequently encountered. In their treatment acupuncture is a method with very few side effects and is a remarkable alternative or addition in the whole concept of treatment. Open and placebo-controlled studies have shown that acupuncture reduces the frequency and intensity of headache in many patients, as well as the use of drugs. The success rates achieved of about 50-85% are comparable to the results of other methods. In the case of migraine, especially good results are archived by prophylactic treatment with acupuncture during the pain-free period. The concept of treatment depends on the basic rules of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Selection of the acupuncture points is primarily determined by the pain site. Long-term success could be confirmed by follow-up examinations six to eighteen months after end of the therapy.
PMID: 12799832 [PubMed]

Acupuncture for chronic headache in primary care: large, pragmatic, randomised trial.

Vickers AJ, Rees RW, Zollman CE, McCarney R, Smith CM, Ellis N, Fisher P, Van Haselen R.

Integrative Medicine Service, Biostatistics Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue, NY, NY 10021, USA. vickersa@mskcc.org

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effects of a policy of "use acupuncture" on headache, health status, days off sick, and use of resources in patients with chronic headache compared with a policy of "avoid acupuncture." DESIGN: Randomised, controlled trial. SETTING: General practices in England and Wales. PARTICIPANTS: 401 patients with chronic headache, predominantly migraine. Interventions Patients were randomly allocated to receive up to 12 acupuncture treatments over three months or to a control intervention offering usual care. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Headache score, SF-36 health status, and use of medication were assessed at baseline, three, and 12 months. Use of resources was assessed every three months. RESULTS: Headache score at 12 months, the primary end point, was lower in the acupuncture group (16.2, SD 13.7, n = 161, 34% reduction from baseline) than in controls (22.3, SD 17.0, n = 140, 16% reduction from baseline). The adjusted difference between means is 4.6 (95% confidence interval 2.2 to 7.0; P = 0.0002). This result is robust to sensitivity analysis incorporating imputation for missing data. Patients in the acupuncture group experienced the equivalent of 22 fewer days of headache per year (8 to 38). SF-36 data favoured acupuncture, although differences reached significance only for physical role functioning, energy, and change in health. Compared with controls, patients randomised to acupuncture used 15% less medication (P = 0.02), made 25% fewer visits to general practitioners (P = 0.10), and took 15% fewer days off sick (P = 0.2). CONCLUSIONS: Acupuncture leads to persisting, clinically relevant benefits for primary care patients with chronic headache, particularly migraine. Expansion of NHS acupuncture services should be considered.

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