Daith piercing for migraine?

[Watto1]

Since hitting peri menopause, I’ve been getting a lot of visual migraines. I rarely get the banging headache thank goodness but these visual disturbances are getting quite debilitating, especially as I have to drive a lot for work.

I was wondering if the daith piercing works for the visual disturbances or is it just for the headache? Does it even work at all or is it a myth? And lastly, would I look pathetic at 50 years old?!

Any advice would be much appreciated!

I mentioned my migraines to my hairdresser and she told me (showed me) she'd had it done. She said she used to have the aura/flashing lights rather than pain and since she'd had the piercing she's had far fewer migraines. What have you got to lose? If it doesn't work you've not really lost anything. You won't look daft - and anyway it's probably not noticeable unless you point it out.

My neighbour (50ish man) has one and he said it’s a miracle for his migraines. Not sure if he just had the headaches or not

Yes it was a major improvement on mine! From a few a month I think I've had four in total since I had it done about 5 years ago! Go for it!

Have you tried medication? Once I broke the cycle of mine I went from two a week to once a year or less. The aura disappears almost instantly.

(I mean prescription medication not over the counter)

If you're up for it it's worth a try. Fwiw I've had migraines all my life and only about 3 visual migraines and they have been when I was particularly stressed. On numerous migraine threads I've read on here, of the people who've had daith piercings, relatively few have found they've made a difference. That's not very scientific, but if there'd been more evidence it worked, I'd have had it done myself.

Is it better on the right or left? Or both?

I suffer migraines and I had it done, sadly didn't help me! I later learned the piercing site is linked to the vagus nerve, being very close to it - it's essentially an acupuncture point which is why some people believe it relieves migraine pain.

Basically it comes across by research as one big placebo.. worth a try though! It looks nice anyway!

www.healthline.com/health/migraine/daith-piercing-for-migraines#research

Made no difference to me and having researched after the fact, it's not backed by evidence. Also it bloody hurts for ages!!
Holier than thou on insta are a good source of info

Thanks all! I’ve not tried medication from the gp as I find that they are relatively short lived. I pop an eye mask on and sit quietly in the dark for 20 mins or so and it passes (very understanding boss fortunately). However, I can’t do that when driving up the M1! But then again I couldn’t take a tablet on the motorway either. That’s why I was wondering about the piercing.

I had it many years ago, it made no difference for me. I then discovered triptans and these were marvellous, I used to get around 2 or 3 migraines a week and the tablets were life savers

Then all of a sudden in peri menopause they virtually disappeared, I now get them rarely but they now take a different form, more aura and vertigo and stomach migraine, the triptans are still the solution but I get far fewer migraines now

I’ve had one in the 7 years since I had mine done. They were infrequent, but it’s still a big drop.

And no, you wouldn’t look daft. They look great. It’s absolutely my favourite piercing. Much quicker to heal than a normal cartilage piercing.

It is an absolute placebo, which is still a valid form of treating something. There is no scientific backing for it, and even if there was something in the whole acupressure point argument, it would be moot as soon as it healed.

I researched this to death and agree that there is no actual evidence that it works.

However.....

I got the piercing about 5 years ago and didn't have a migraine once. A year ago, it came out and I couldn't get it back in and didn't have time to go back to the piercer so I let it close up. Still no migraines for around 6 months.

Then they started again - visual disturbances and pain that left me hungover for days. So I got another one in August last year and, honestly, I have not had another migraine since!