The Points Where East Meets West

What could be more natural than the union of Chinese medicine and…Botox? It might sound crazy, but a recent study in Dermatologic Surgery details how injecting botulinum toxin into acupuncture points eased migraine pain for a small group of patients in Brazil. Though more commonly used to remove frowns from middle-aged brows, Botox has actually served for several years as a migraine treatment; doctors inject it into trigger points near the head and neck. But Bhertha M. Tamura, the dermatologist who authored the paper along with acupuncturist Bobby Chang, suspected that using acupuncture points instead might be more effective. And since Botox stays in the body for about six months, the new therapy keeps headaches at bay longer than standard acupuncture would. Some acupuncturists have mixed feelings about the idea, saying it goes against the Chinese medical principle of treating the whole patient rather than just the symptoms. Still, a migraine banished is no small thing. “The good news,” says Robin Tiberi, an acupuncturist at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in San Diego, “is that patients are getting relief from pain.”

Enter a comment related to this article

---