Acupuncture: diseases — симптомы, диагностика и лечение

Migraine is not “just a severe headache,” but an independent neurological disease with its own development mechanism. The attack usually affects one half of the head, lasts from several hours to three days and often leaves the person completely incapacitated. At the same time, migraine remains one of the most underdiagnosed conditions: most people take painkillers for years without consulting a doctor, and do not know that attacks can not only be relieved, but also prevented.

Osteochondrosis is age-related degenerative changes in the intervertebral discs and joints of the spine. It is important to understand: to one degree or another, almost all people after 30–35 years have them, and in themselves they are not a disease. The problem is that this diagnosis in post-Soviet medicine is used to explain almost any pain - in the back, neck, head, arm, heart. Meanwhile, in most cases, back pain is not associated with “salt deposits”, but with muscles and joints, and responds well to movement, rather than rest and IVs.

Tension headaches are the most common headache in the world, and that is why they are almost never treated: they just live with it, swallow a pill and get back to business. It feels like a squeezing hoop or a tight hat, covers the head on both sides, is rarely strong and does not get worse from normal walking. It does not pose a danger in itself, but it has an insidious continuation, which few people know about: if painkillers are taken more than a certain number of days a month, they themselves begin to cause headaches. So rare attacks turn into a daily background, and the person is sure that the disease is progressing, although the reason lies in the package of pills on his desk.

Radiculopathy is damage to the nerve root as it exits the spine. In everyday life it is called “pinched nerve” or radiculitis. A distinctive feature is that the pain does not remain in the back, but “shoots” along the nerve: in the arm to the fingers if the cervical spine is affected, or in the buttock and along the back of the leg with lumbar pain. Along with the pain comes numbness and weakness. Most cases resolve with conservative treatment, but there are several situations in which delay is dangerous.

Insomnia is not just “I don’t sleep well,” but a condition in which sleep disturbance occurs at least three nights a week and affects daytime well-being. Its main feature is that over time it breaks away from the original cause and begins to support itself: a person is afraid of not falling asleep, goes to bed with anxiety, and it is this anxiety that prevents sleep. Therefore, sleeping pills, which seem like an obvious solution, work the worst for chronic insomnia - but the first choice is considered to be something completely different.