External Herbal Remedies for Headaches
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an ancient form of medicine. During the thousand years of clinical practice, it has not only accumulated extensive experience in dealing with diseases, but also created various treatment modalities to help achieve optimal clinical results. Herbal remedies are often taken orally, however external applications are popular too. With delivery techniques like dressing, pasting, rubbing, fumigating or washing, active ingredients in herbs can infiltrate through the skin, enter into the blood stream and then travel to the entire body. It should be noted that TCM external applications are under the guidance of TCM theories, which are designed according to syndrome differentiation. For external herbal remedies, TCM physicians like to prescribe raw herbs, herbs in strong properties or fragrant herbs, which facilitate their effects to be absorbed through skin. The preparation forms and applying body regions also play important roles in ensuring the efficacy.
Headaches are common ailments found in everyday life. Headaches vary in intensity, frequency and duration depending upon the types and how people are sensitive to them. Headache management should be tailored made to individual conditions. It is not uncommon for people to try a variety of methods before finding the most suitable one. TCM uses complementary and integrative approach to manage headaches, some external herbal applications are listed as follows.