Herbal Medicine For
Headaches & Joint Pain
Like other symptoms, headaches and joint pain can come from many different patterns. So instead of stopping at "a headache" or "sore joints," Chinese medicine asks what kind: where it hurts, what it feels like, and what makes it better or worse.
Those answers, together with the tongue and pulse, point us to the pattern underneath and to the herbs known to help it.
Headaches
Where It Hurts Matters
Chinese medicine maps the channels, or meridians, that run across the head. Where a headache sits tells us which channel is involved, and which questions to ask next.
Forehead & Around the Eyes
This is where the Stomach channel runs, so we ask more about digestion: eating late, overeating, or the headache that follows a big dinner out.
Temples & Sides of the Head
Pain at the temples or the outer corners of the eyes follows the Gallbladder channel, and is often tied to stress and tension. Many one-sided headaches show up here.
Back of the Head & Neck
Pain that starts at the base of the skull often comes with tight neck and shoulders, or with the first signs of a cold.
Once we know where the headache sits and what we see on the tongue and pulse, we can choose herbs known to support that system, rather than only chasing the pain.
Joint Pain
Weather, Damp & What We Eat
Joint pain is something we see often. In our experience, much of it falls into two groups: pain that follows the weather, and pain that follows what we eat.
Weather-Related
Stiff, achy joints that are worse in cold, rainy weather and better with warmth. Chinese medicine describes cold and damp settling into the joints and blocking the flow there.
Warming herbs that help clear the damp and get things moving again.
Food-Related
When food isn't fully digested, Chinese medicine says damp builds up, and rich, sweet foods add heat to it. That damp heat seems to settle in the joints, which can feel hot, swollen, and achy.
Changing what's on the plate, with cooling herbs that clear the damp heat.
A two-week experiment
If refined white sugar or a food you suspect you're sensitive to is high on your list of favorites, try going without it for two weeks and notice how your joints feel. If they feel better, have your favorite dessert again. Often within a day the ache comes back, sometimes more than before. That tells you a lot.
Herbs and food together
Herbs are very good at clearing damp. When food is driving the pain, though, the most important step is cutting back on it, and herbs can help ease the pain while you do. There are classical formulas made for hot, swollen, achy joints from damp heat. We've seen them help, especially when people also cut back on sugar.
This fits with Western research too: diets high in sugar are linked to inflammation, and sugary drinks are a known trigger for gout. For more on how we treat joints with acupuncture and moxa, see knee & joint pain.
Find Relief
Take the Next Step
Whether it's a headache that keeps coming back or joints that ache with the weather, call or text either of us.
New patient? Download the intake forms (PDF)
Print them and bring them to your first visit.