I was around 13 when I had my first migraine. A solid block of pain on the right side of my head. That occasional migraine became more frequent over the years. I had a headache 24/7 in one specific place in my head.
In my early 30's, after blood tests, food elimination, x-rays and finally an MRI I was told that I had Chronic Daily Migraines.
Most days were 6-7/10 pain. Those days that were 10/10 I perfected the art of lying down and breathing in such a way that I barely moved. Noise / light were never an issue, the pain got worse when I moved.
Then I got a daith piercing.
I had read that a daith could help.
I got the daith ~14 years ago and I have not had any sort of headache since. Both my daughters who had migraines got a daith and they too have no headaches.
I get the sample size is not useful, but if you have migraines, go into your local proper piercing studio and ask for a daith - they will almost certainly reply "On which side of your head is the pain?"
I had migraines at least once every two weeks for most of my life. Nothing too out of the ordinary, just that 7/10 dull pain in the center of my head that shut me down for 5 or 6 hours.
I'm very skeptical about supposed instant fixes like this. I didn't expect it to work, but I wanted to start getting ear piercings and I figured I'd give it a shot with something not too flashy. I went with my wife to her piercing appointment and convinced them to pierce my left daith while we were already there.
That was at least seven years ago. I haven't had a migraine since. I keep assuming it's placebo and it'll wear off, but it hasn't.
If this is because of the piercing doig some vagus nerve stimulation, do you think a simple, small clip or something placed in the right position could help as well?
Suffering from the occasional migraine myself (3-4x year) it seems a bit too drastic for myself... but my wife has very frequent migraines, anything that could possibly help is worth investigating
I've heard of this piercing so many times and always wrote it off as some mass hypnosis quick fix that would change nothing. Your comment made me reopen that box I closed years ago. I'm very curious now.
Did you get the piercing on your left or right ear?
> Research says it's no more effective than a placebo, but hey, if it works, it works.
The paper you cited doesn’t say this, if anything it says the opposite. It found that it reliably works for some amount of time, but the mechanism is unclear.
“In all case studies and the retrospective study, patients reported substantial reductions in pain immediately after daith piercing; however, headache symptoms recurred several weeks to months thereafter. From the perspective of the Chinese and Western auricular systems, no sufficient explanation for the described treatment effect of daith piercing was found.”
A piercing that takes months to heal and has its own potential side effects (infection for one) does not seem worth weeks of relief after which pain returns. The authors of this study therefore do not recommend this piercing for migraines despite the transitory benefits
“current evidence does not support daith piercing for the treatment of migraine, tension-type headaches, or other headache disorders.”
I have tried vagus nerve stimulation and it worked for about a week and then became mostly ineffective. That is consistent with this study. So, maybe try vagus nerve stimulation first and see if that works long term.
I'm willing to try it! Are you able to wear earbuds with the daith piercing? Airpods Pro are one of my most-used pieces of tech both at work live-streaming classes and at home listening to books and music.
What about wearing a winter hat? I was considering getting one for the exact reasons as you, but I live in a pretty cold area and not being able to wear a hat for 6 months during its healing process is unfortunately a dealbreaker.
In my early 30's, after blood tests, food elimination, x-rays and finally an MRI I was told that I had Chronic Daily Migraines.
Most days were 6-7/10 pain. Those days that were 10/10 I perfected the art of lying down and breathing in such a way that I barely moved. Noise / light were never an issue, the pain got worse when I moved.
Then I got a daith piercing.
I had read that a daith could help.
I got the daith ~14 years ago and I have not had any sort of headache since. Both my daughters who had migraines got a daith and they too have no headaches.
I get the sample size is not useful, but if you have migraines, go into your local proper piercing studio and ask for a daith - they will almost certainly reply "On which side of your head is the pain?"