Collection: Headaches & Migraines

Where a headache sits points to its channel, and the channel points to the pattern. Frontal pain runs with the Yang Ming and the Stomach. Temporal pain, the classic one-sided migraine, follows the Shao Yang and the Gallbladder and often ties back to the Liver. Pain at the back of the head and neck is Tai Yang and Bladder, the place wind-cold likes to enter. Pain at the very top is Jue Yin and the Liver.

Matching the formula

Chuan Xiong Cha Tiao San disperses wind for the headache that comes on with a draft or a cold, felt across the front and sides. Tian Ma Gou Teng Yin calms Liver yang rising, the pounding, pressured headache that travels with tension and a hot, wound-up feeling. Ban Xia Bai Zhu Tian Ma Tang transforms phlegm-damp for the heavy, foggy head with dizziness and nausea, the migraine that feels like a wet towel wrapped around the skull.

Get assessed rather than self-treating if

You have the sudden worst headache of your life, a headache with fever and a stiff neck, any weakness, vision loss, or slurred speech, a brand-new headache pattern after age 50, or a headache that followed a head injury. Those are emergencies, not herb cases.