A Cure For Headaches? Piercing Your Inner Ear Prevents Migraines

Many people have sought an alternative for their frequent migraines: an unconventional remedy known as daith piercing, which involves a needle passing through the ear’s inner cartilage fold. It reportedly can cure or reduce the pain associated with a migraine headache.

The process can take 10 minutes and costs $40-$50. Advocates said this method works the same way as acupuncture, targeting pressure points under the skin and muscle tissue, thus relieving the pressure in a sufferer's head, Britain's NHS said.

No medical research has yet determined whether daith piercing is a permanent cure.

“There’s nothing in literature I’ve heard of, nothing I’ve read about, nothing I have studied out there that supports such a procedure to treat migraine,” headache specialist Emad Estemalik says on the Cleveland Clinic's website. “Receiving a piercing in that area will not alter the pain pathway of migraine.”

Still, many people on social media have come forward to share their experiences of getting a daith piercing, including Netra Young, who underwent the procedure early this month.

"Yesterday I got my daith piercing to prevent migraines! I told some of u I was getting it and I want you to know I DID & so far so good!!! I went in with a mild migraine climbing to a dramatic height. As soon as he pierced my ear, it felt like a balloon was deflating in my head !!!! Sweeeet relief.... today was the first day in months I woke up with no headache!” Young wrote on her Facebook page Feb. 7. The post has accumulated more than 170,000 shares with more than 100,000 likes and reactions.

Young also kept social media users updated on her progress in a blog titled, “Sweet Relief.” On day 2, she said she did not experience any headache or migraines. Same went for the third and fourth day, waking up “migraine free.”

The last of her updates was on day 5, and just like the previous days, she was also migraine free. "Guys I am F I V E DAYS STRONG MIGRAINE FREEEE!!!!!” Young wrote on her blog.

The exact causes of migraines are unknown, but it is often described as a throbbing pain at the front or side of the head, and it can cause feelings of nausea, vomiting and increased sensitivity to bright lights, sounds, fatigue, weather changes and other triggers.

In the U.S., more than 37 million people suffer from migraines. Some migraine studies estimate 13 percent of adults in the U.S. population have migraines, and 2 million to 3 million migraine suffers say the pain is chronic, Migraine.com reports.

While daith piercing may work for some, Estemalik said he would not recommend it to his patients.

“The danger of infection from a piercing of this site strongly outweighs any unproven benefit, especially because these procedures are conducted at tattoo parlors where proper sterility may be a question," he said.

There were 249 daith piercings in 2016, statistics show.