Throbbing Headache
Headaches are one of the most commonly encountered medical complaints, and the reasons for headaches can be numerous. Most of the time, the problem is blamed on high blood pressure. I once had a patient who visited me and asked me what I could do about her headache.
Upon inquiry, it is revealed that she does have hypertension, but ironically even though she takes drugs for this, she still has the problem. In Chinese Medicine we also place some emphasis on where the headache actually is, namely, on the forehead, tip of the head, sides of the head or the back of the head, each of which has clinical relevance to Chinese Medicine. She reported her headache was on the tip of her head. Not only that, she also has dizziness and tightness of the back of her neck, especially in the morning when she wakes up.
I performed Chinese Medicine diagnostics, and discovered her pulse throbs like a steel string. I told her this really is a result of your high blood pressure. But I also told her that controlling high blood pressure by chronically taking pills isn't the best thing in the long term. I didn't think she listened to what I said because the headache and dizziness isn't helping her concentrate. I did some light massage on her upper back and shortly thereafter prescribed 3 days worth of Chinese Medicine. A few days later she called to tell me that her headache and dizziness had abated significantly, and her blood pressure had stabilized to some degree as well.
Note that in the particular case, the patient told me she has high blood pressure, but I did not actually measure her blood pressure, because this is not really necessary in Chinese Medicine. The Chinese Medicine diagnostic procedure was really meant to uncover the "pattern" of the headache, rather than paying attention to the blood pressure. Essentially, if "blood pressure" is some kind of disease, then in Chinese Medicine we don't need to care about it, yet by treating accordingly, the blood pressure is also positively affected.