You may wish to give acupressure a try the next time you suffer with a migraine headache. Purchasing some pain killing medications is just not always the speediest approach to alleviate migraines. It's totally safe and can many times be a really efficient technique of reducing symptoms.

Many useful results can be the product of acupressure. By applying pressure to specific body locations it is many times possible to reduce symptoms, improve organ function, and promote healing among other things. Acupressure is used on the same bodily areas as acupuncture, however it uses pressure or force instead of needles.

With the strategies we will be talking about in this commentary we will use both the pads of the first two fingers or thumb to apply the pressure. When applying pressure or force you must start out by pressing directly and without much force on a location and then steadily increasing the total amount of pressure until you have reached an amount that is firm, but not painful. By no means put sufficient pressure or force on any particular area that will cause an increased amount of pain, especially within the more sensitive points like the face. As a general rule, you'll want to hold the pressure on each area until a bit of relief from pain is felt, but normally no more than 60 seconds.

Migraine symptoms can usually be alleviated by stimulating some specific acupressure points. Seeing as everyone is different, a location that will help one particular person may not help someone else. For this reason it is beneficial to test out different areas and discover the acupressure points that are most beneficial for you personally. Once you understand which points give you the results you want personally, you can then perform the same routine on the same points each time you experience a migraine headache.

The first acupressure point we are going to talk about is present within the web of the hand between the index finger and thumb. Squeeze this area with your thumb and first finger of the opposite hand and maintain the force on the area until relief is felt or 60 seconds has passed. Once you're done with one hand, repeat the process with the opposite hand.

The upper neck is where two additional acupressure points are seen. There are two points here, one on each side. To determine these acupressure points, start at the center of the neck at the bottom of the skull and move sideways about one to two inches to each side. You can find an indentation on each side of the neck slightly below the skull where pressure or force can be applied with your thumbs.

A third location that has shown fine results for reducing migraine headache symptoms is within the top center of the skull. This point is found in the following manner: Draw an imaginary line from immediately in front of one ear, over the top center of the skull, and downward to a spot immediately in front of the other ear. Next, start at the center of the brow and draw one other imaginary line directly up to top the center of the skull. The spot where these two lines cross at the top of the skull is your next point. By applying firm pressure or force on acupressure points it is usually possible to reduce the symptoms of a migraine headache.