Neck pain and headaches

Painkillers make headaches worse, stick with acupuncture!

Painkillers often will make the headaches worse, a general practitioner from UK warns in the official advice from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice).

“Instead of taking these over-the-counter drugs to combat symptoms when they flare up, sufferers should try treatments that help prevent headaches in the first place – including acupuncture”

(Source: The Telegraph)

In the land of quaint cobblestones and grey skies, the United Kingdom finds itself grappling with a modern-day conundrum: a headache epidemic of sorts. As the afflicted grasp for relief in the form of aspirin, paracetamol, and ibuprofen, they inadvertently dig themselves deeper into the trenches of discomfort. A staggering five in six sufferers are women, with the path to healing obscured by the very medicines they have come to depend on.

With the aim of breaking this insidious cycle, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) advocates a change of approach. Rather than reaching for over-the-counter remedies at the first sign of pain, Nice implores headache sufferers to consider more preventive methods such as acupuncture. To further illuminate the path to relief, Nice unveils new guidance aimed at helping doctors more accurately diagnose and treat the various types of headaches that plague the population.

With nearly a fifth of the adult population in the throes of debilitating headaches, this modern malady is impossible to ignore. Among the afflicted, migraines and tension-type headaches claim the lion’s share, affecting seven million and 1.5 million individuals, respectively. A rare few – 50,000 to 100,000 – are tormented by excruciating ‘cluster’ headaches, while a staggering one million suffer from ‘medication overuse headaches,’ tethered to the very drugs they believed would bring relief.

Dr Manjit Matharu, a consultant neurologist and key figure in crafting the Nice guidelines, warns that patients with frequent tension-type headaches or migraines are particularly vulnerable to falling into a vicious cycle of worsening symptoms. Consuming normal doses of aspirin, paracetamol, or anti-inflammatory painkillers such as ibuprofen for 15 days or more per month could result in medication overuse headaches. This risk remains, he emphasises, even when taking less than the maximum daily dose.

Dr Martin Underwood, a general practitioner and professor of primary care, reiterates this cautionary tale, stating that the only remedy is to cease taking the medications “abruptly.” This, however, is often a bitter pill for patients to swallow, as they must first endure a temporary intensification of their headaches.

In this battle against the throbbing temples, acupuncture emerges as the only treatment with a robust evidence base, often underestimated but proven to have real benefits. Nice has even previously recommended that acupuncture be made available through the NHS for chronic lower back pain and arthritis.