Acupuncture for Migraines: Insights from Recent Research
- 7 days ago
- 2 min read
Who did the study?
This research was conducted by a team from the Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China, in collaboration with experts in imaging and biomedical sciences. It was published in Frontiers of Medicine (Springer Nature / Higher Education Press) in 2023.
Why was this study done?
Migraines are more than “just headaches” — they can be severe, disabling, and affect daily life. Medicines don’t always work, and some cause side effects. Acupuncture is effective, but scientists sought to understand its mechanisms in the body and brain.
What the researchers did
Thirty-eight people with migraines participated, along with 10 healthy volunteers for comparison.
Migraine patients were split into three groups:
No treatment
Sham acupuncture (placebo-like needling)
Real acupuncture
Each person in the treatment groups had two short courses of acupuncture (5 days of treatment with a 1-day break).
The researchers measured changes in three ways:
Symptoms: headache diaries and questionnaires
Brain scans (fMRI) to see which parts of the brain were active
Blood tests to check proteins and molecules linked to energy and inflammation
What they found
Acupuncture worked better than a placebo. People who had real acupuncture had fewer and less intense migraines.
🧠 Brain changes:
Acupuncture altered activity in the lingual gyrus, cerebellum, and default mode network — areas associated with pain, stress, and brain balance.
🩸 Blood changes:
Acupuncture altered proteins and molecules related to:
Inflammation (calming the body’s stress response)
Energy use in the brain (helping the brain run more smoothly)
Oxygen stress (how the body copes with low oxygen levels)
🔗 The connection:
Blood changes often appeared before brain changes. This suggests that acupuncture initially alters body chemistry, which then helps rebalance brain activity, leading to a reduction in migraines.
What this acupuncture for migraine research means for you
This study demonstrates that acupuncture is more than a placebo — it produces measurable changes in both the body and the brain.
It helps explain why acupuncture can reduce migraine symptoms in many people.
While the study was small and short-term, the results are very encouraging.
Takeaway: Research from the Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine suggests that acupuncture may reduce migraines by calming inflammation, improving brain energy balance, and resetting pain pathways.
Want to learn more?
You can learn more about other studies and how acupuncture can help alleviate migraines in our 'What We Treat' section. And if you feel ready, you can book an appointment online — we’d love to support you.
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