There’s a particular kind of headache that sits around the eyes and forehead and gets worse when you bend forward. Most people call it “just sinuses” and reach for a decongestant. Sometimes that’s right. But in clinic, headaches and sinus congestion show up together often enough that we rarely treat them as separate problems.
In Chinese medicine, headaches are mapped by location, not lumped into one condition:
- Forehead and eyes – Yang Ming channel (Stomach & Large Intestine), the same pathway that runs past the sinuses
- Temples – Gallbladder channel, often the “stress headache”
- Back of the skull and neck – Bladder channel, usually tension-driven
- Crown of the head – Liver channel, often Liver Yang rising
Chronic sinus congestion, or Bi Yuan, tends to come from one of a few patterns:
- Lingering Wind left over from a cold that never fully cleared
- Damp and phlegm, often tied to digestion and Spleen Qi deficiency
- Heat, when discharge is thick and yellow and the sinuses feel hot rather than just blocked
Two people with “sinusitis” can leave clinic with completely different treatment plans, one needs warming to clear damp, the other needs cooling to clear heat.
For acupuncture, we combine local points (Yintang, Bitong, Taiyang, GB20) with points that treat the underlying pattern, like LR3 for Liver-type headaches or points supporting Lung and Spleen Qi for recurring congestion. Herbal formulas like Cang Er Zi San for sinus congestion or the Xiao Yao San family for stress-related headaches tend to do the slower, longer-term work. It comes down to a proper consult, tongue and pulse included, not a formula picked off a chart.
If that sounds like you, book a consult with our Northern Beaches acupuncture clinic at Northern Beaches Integrative Practitioners and we’ll work out the root cause of the issue. Book Online or call the clinic at 8406 0679 for a free 15 minute discovery call with one of our acupuncturists.