DAITH PIERCING RESULTS FOR MIGRAINE. migrainepal.com

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1 DAITH PIERCING RESULTS FOR MIGRAINE.. migrainepal.com

2 MigrainePal was founded in 2013 by Carl Cincinnato. Carl previously worked at several Fortune 500 companies whilst battling chronic migraines. His condition gradually worsened until he could experience 6 separate attacks per week. After 25 years of failed treatments, therapies and thousands of dollars, Carl decided to replace his medical team and get the facts. He also began to share his experience with others as his condition progressed. MigrainePal is a now community of thousand s of others who are going through a similar journey. Today, Carl s migraines are down from 6 a week to 1 every few months. Our mission is to reduce the global burden of migraine through better information, advocacy and support. To find out more visit blog.migrainepal.com/mission 2

3 Daith Piercing Results The results are in from an anonymous survey of 380 respondents who had a daith piercing for migraine. They were asked 3 simple questions: 1. How long have you had a daith ear piercing for? 2. How has your daith piercing affected your migraine frequency? 3. How has your daith piercing affected your migraine severity? I've included plenty of charts and data below for nerds like me. But if you just want the quick answer about whether daith piercing will actually help your migraine condition here are the topline results: How did the daith piercing affect your migraine frequency? Just under half of those who got a daith piercing (47.2%) experienced a reduction in migraine frequency. The remainder stayed the same or got worse. Below is a the breakdown of those who reduced their attacks: 20.1% reduced their attacks by approximately 10-50%. 5.4% of people reduced their attacks by half. 15.8% reduced their attacks by more than half. Interestingly, the most common response was that migraine frequency stayed the same. This group represented 48% of all respondents. Some people also got worse. 4.8% of people experienced an increase in migraine frequency since their daith piercing. Whether this is due to the piercing itself, other factors or a 3

4 combination, was not explored in this survey. See the limitations section below. Half (49.9%) the respondents experienced less severe attacks. 25.9% report 'somewhat' of reduction in their migraine severity. 17.9% report a found their migraine severity had 'reduced greatly'. 6.1% say they no longer experience migraine attacks at all. On the otherhand... a 45.7% of people, the biggest single group again, stayed the same with no change. Interestingly, 4.3% of people found that the pain and disability from migraine attacks increased. Before you jump off... be warned, these results can be misleading! How Long Have You Had The Piercing For? A big factor in the results is how long it had been since they had their piercing. Below is the how long each respondent had their piercing for: The group which had only had a piercing for less than a month had the highest number of people who had completely eliminated their attacks at 11%. 4

5 Going a month without migraine is a fantastic result for many people. But it's not the same as going without migraine for an entire year. Lets see what happened as time goes by: 6% had no further migraine attacks within 2-6 months 3% had no further migraine attacks within 6-12 months 4% had no further migraine attacks for those who had the piercing for 1 year or longer. It should be noted however that the sample size is small in this bracket. There was only 1 person out of 24 (i.e. 4%) who experienced no attacks since they had the daith piercing. A similar trend now begins to emerge with the rest of the results. The results tend to be better the more recent the piercing. Below is the migraine frequency and severity at 2-6 months. 2-6 Months After The Daith Piercing Migraine frequency: Migraine severity: 5

6 To summarise results at 2-6 months: About half of all people stay the same. 3% get worse About half improve in both frequency (46%) and severity (47%). It appears those who respond positively to the daith piercing enjoy an improvement in both severity and frequency Months After The Daith Piercing At the 6-12 month mark... we start to see the trend more clearly. The shine and glow from the new piercing wears off for some people. Migraine frequency: Migraine severity: 6

7 Comments: The number of people who experience complete elimination of migraines has dropped significantly from 11% in the first month to 3% now 6-12 months after the piercing. Slightly more people here stay the same in terms of migraine frequency (53%) and severity (50%) at this point. People who get worse is interestingly lower at 1-2% for frequency and severity. What about longer term? What happens after 1 or 2 years? One Year (or More) After The Daith Piercing Migraine frequency: 7

8 Migraine severity: It's worth noting for this group we only had 24 respondents. However the trends still continues with this smaller group: 67% experience no change to their migraine frequency 50% experience no change to their migraine severity 13-14% get worse with either more frequent or severe attacks (or both). Only 29% of people experience less disabling attacks. Just 21% experience fewer attacks Considerations This research was conducted as an informal and anonymous poll. As such there are many limitations: There was no control over who was selected and who wasn't. It was open to anyone who wanted to help provide answers for others considering this option for migraine. The number of daith piercings was not asked. We do not know whether people had one ear or two ears with a daith piercings. Adverse events, side effects, botched piercings, infections etc were not accounted for or recorded. These may have influenced the results of some people. We did not measure exactly how much the change in migraine frequency or severity is solely attributable to the daith piercing. Some people may claim to have experienced their results entirely from the daith piercing, others may have combined the piercing with other treatments and for others it could only be a coincidence. 8

9 Conclusion The problem when considering whether these results are reliable is that migraines are complex and there are many factors that can contribute to changes in a migraine condition. This includes other non-medicinal treatments, medicinal treatments, environments, routines, season, exercise, diet, lifestyle and amongst other things. Looking at the results overall, it appears that the daith piercing does show potential. Especially in the early months after the initial piercing. For this reason it could be considered a worthwhile tool to help break the cycle of chronic attacks. In the long run there are fewer people who sustain great results. As we saw above, after 1 year around 20-30% are seeing improvements. One might therefore be able to reason that a daith piercing can help break the cycle of frequent attacks but you'll need something more to your improvement over a longer period. There have been concerns raised about the potential for things to go wrong. Afterall, ear piercings require no medical qualifications from practitioners. There is a risk that area of the piercing can get infected, damaged or be put in the wrong position. Like other treatments this are risks or potential side effects which need to be considered before making a decision. Some people may also argue that there is a strong placebo effect which may explain the early, very encouraging results that you've probably heard about on social media. This is certainly a very real possibility. However it is worth mentioning that, placebo or not, the results are real. So if the results are encouraging (at least in the short run), the question we should ask ourselves is, does that make the treatment effective? 9