Doctors Explain A Headache Hack That The Internet Claims Works Better Than Medication

Filed 47m ago · Via HuffPost · The Buffoon Desk

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Bass Walker

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Rijksmuseum · CC0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Social media creators are promoting a trend of clipping a claw clip onto the eyebrow to relieve headaches, with some claiming it works better than medication. Neurologists interviewed say there is a plausible mechanism: the clip applies pressure near branches of the trigeminal nerve, giving the brain a competing sensory signal that can temporarily distract from pain, a concept known as gate control.

But doctors stress the trend itself has never been studied, unlike actual trigeminal nerve stimulation devices, which have clinical research behind them. Any relief is likely to be temporary and limited to tension headaches or migraines caught early, vanishing the moment the clip comes off.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

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A hair clip pinching your eyebrow counts as medical advice now, as long as enough people film themselves trying it. The doctors quoted here are doing the useful, unglamorous work of saying 'maybe a little, briefly, probably not,' which is correct and will never trend the way the clip itself does. If the thing your body needs is a distraction from pain, a stubbed toe works just as well and costs nothing at the drugstore.

Source: Read the original at HuffPost → Scored: Bass Walker · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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