Having migraines is not a fun experience. While migraines and headaches are sometimes used interchangeably, they are not the same thing at all.
A migraine is not just your “regular” headache that can quickly go away. They tend to be much more painful and last a lot longer than “regular’ headaches.
Frequent and severe migraines can be the precursor to underlying medical conditions so it is of vital importance to know how to treat and get rid of them.
You can find a variety of tricks to treat a migraine online, and one of these tricks is to treat your migraine using Daith piercings. As strange as it sounds, do Daith piercings help with migraines? Read on to find out!
Do Daith Piercings Help With Migraines?
Whether Daith piercings are an effective treatment for migraines or not is not yet confirmed. However, there are preliminary studies that show Daith piercings can be helpful against migraine symptoms.
You might wonder why Daith piercings are even considered a treatment for migraines in the first place. To give you a hint, acupuncture has a role to play in why Daith piercings are used to treat migraines. When acupuncture is used to treat migraines, the therapist might apply pressure near the area where Daith piercings are done as part of the treatment.
The earring’s persistent pressure on this location is thought to act like acupuncture. According to one theory, the piercing may act to disrupt a branch of your vagus nerve, which flows from the brain down to the body, therefore blocking pain receptors. However, there is no way of verifying if the piercing is made in the right location.
Dr. Fayyaz Ahmed, a neurologist and trustee of the Migraine Trust, has stated, “There is no evidence that daith piercing helps migraine.” Apart from Dr. Ahmed’s comments, very little information is available on the subject. As a result, expert recommendations on this migraine treatment are scarce.
What Do The Studies Say?
In one study conducted in 2017, the participant’s migraine symptoms decreased after obtaining a Daith piercing. However, more clinical studies are needed to link the procedure to migraine alleviation.
According to some researchers, these effects could be attributed to the placebo effect. That is when you perceive a health benefit from a treatment because you believe it will be effective. In other words, it appears to work because you expect it to.
The Bottom Line
Daith piercings are in style and could be seen as a quick fix for your migraine. However, they may cause more harm than good. There are many risks associated with Daith piercings.
It is shown that more than a third of patients who undergo daith piercings later experience infections. Severe infections like cellulitis, or blood diseases like HIV, hepatitis B, or C, or tetanus are also possible.
Other responses to a Daith piercing include skin changes such as dermatitis, allergic reactions, and keloid scars, which are massive tissue growths.
We can therefore conclude that Daith piercings are not an effective treatment for migraines as of now, and recommend contacting a neurologist if you have issues with migraines.