Acupressure for Headaches & Migraines relief in Japan

Everything happens for a reason

I was born into family with a long history of bad health. Most of my extended family has either passed because of diabetes complications or cancer and my immediate family is no better. My mom had a heart attack a few years ago, my sister was born with congestive heart failure, my brother with serious inner ear problems and even I was born with amblyopia (lazy eye) for which I had several cosmetic surgeries for when I was a child. I also suffered and sometimes still do from head splitting migraines.

I was surrounded by illness and because of this I decided to devote my life to helping people heal themselves. It all started with my mom’s acupressure book. Like I said before, I suffered from blinding, head splitting migraines since before I could read. My mom had also suffered for years from migraines and knew how to heal them without medicine because of her book. We found that acupressure for headaches was an effective therapy. For those of you who don’t know, acupressure therapy utilizes pressure points on the hands and feet to treat people. In fact, the entire human body is mirrored to the hands and feet. The point that she used to get rid of my migraines was Large Intestine 4 (LI4) or 合谷 (gokoku) in Japanese. LI4 is located in the depression between the thumb and first finger. In acupressure this point can be mirrored in the inner arch of the foot as well.

To use LI4 for migraines and headaches have someone strongly massage the areas explained above on both hands and feet. Usually 3 to 5 minutes on each hand and foot does the trick. Make sure it is someone you love dearly because this massage is far from pleasant. In fact, it can be quite painful. For migraine sufferers: try to catch the migraine in the beginning stages when you feel vision or bodily changes. Try emphasizing the feet more than the hands if your headache has already set in.

It’s crazy that my future was decided not because of my family’s health but because of our combined illness and ensuing treatment. Indeed our past makes our present. For me I couldn’t be more grateful that I was blessed with a unhealthy family to help me realize my life’s’ passion: helping people to live stronger, healthier and happier lives. And it all started with a book.