After 2 Years of Migraine Relief, They are Back

ByShelley
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Eight hundred and twenty seven days with no pain or tension, clear vision, and total freedom. I ate without worry, slept peacefully, and even the weather changes were no match for my daith piercing.

The migraine relief was complete. My doctors seemed impressed and even told some of their other patients about my success. This post contains affiliate links.

So, following over two years of bliss, what happened? Why did I start feeling the migraine symptoms creep back into my life?

Now, what will I do to carry on with the looming, daily threat of intense pain?

Shelley holding her head clearly in pain.

WHY Did My Daith Piercing Stop Working?

I spent quite a bit of time speaking with Dr. Chris Blatchley of the London Migraine Clinic, where he studies the effectiveness of the daith piercing for migraines.

He explained that the reason I had relief is believed to be due to the stimulation of a branch of the vagus nerve located near the ear canal. Piercing this spot, known as a daith piercing, causes swelling and a lengthy healing process.

It’s this healing process that causes the nerve stimulation/migraine relief.

After 2 years, the site is typically fully healed and thus, the stimulation ends, along with the glorious migraine symptom relief I experienced.

For me, this science proves true. At the onset of my recent aura, I frantically began twisting the ring. It didn’t hurt, which told me the area really had healed.

If I twisted and tugged enough, I could make it hurt which immediately alleviated some of the migraine symptoms, but only for brief moments. So, I took the earring out.

Shelley holding her head in her hands clearly in pain.

For five days, I was miserable. I had horrendous anxiety, tension, and the aura got worse each subsequent day. I went back to the tattoo shop and had a new piece of jewelry put in.

Some of the hole had healed in those five days, so it was somewhat like getting it repierced. The MOMENT he broke through the bit of cartilage that had reformed, I melted into the chair with relief. It was as if all the anxiety and pain evaporated from my body.

I got another 2 pain-free months out of this “new” piercing before all the symptoms started reappearing.

I took the daith earring out, and I’m now letting the area fully heal. I plan to have the piercing redone in a few months after the hole has fully closed. My hope is to get another 2 years out of a fresh piercing. However, these few months are off to a rough start.

I saw my doctor and she could see it all over my face,–the defeat, the desperation. After experiencing life without migraines, it’s cataclysmic to face the reality of their return.

How can I provide for my family? Be a present parent? Do any sort of humaning?

She quickly ran down a list of medications to treat the pain. Triptans make me feel like my brain is burning, ibuprofen and acetaminophen now cause severe flank pain, and the others either make you impossibly drowsy or cost a fortune.

I explained that while I’m desperate, I really don’t want to flood my system with medications that will surely cause more side effects and stress. I am more interested prevention than pain management.

Closeup of an ear that has a daith piercing.

Migraine Relief After the Daith Piercing

After doing her own research, my doctor suggested I take 400mg of riboflavin a day. She found a product on Amazon, which included magnesium and feverfew specifically for migraine sufferers.

I ordered it immediately. This is not medical advice. Please consult your own doctor before taking any supplements.

To get through these few months while my piercing site fully heals, I’ve reinstated every tactic from my former migraine days.

I’m using my back buddy (amazon) to reduce the tension in my shoulder, washing my hair with mint shampoo, balancing my diet, getting plenty of sleep, and rubbing migraine gel on the back of my neck.

The Back Buddy helps me find migraine relief.

It’s been 17 days since I took out my daith piercing. I’ve had three full blown migraines lasting 2-3 days each. I started the riboflavin supplement, MigreLief, four days ago and it seems to be helping.

The first day I took it during an aura, and the pain never arrived.

I’ve also stopped drinking coffee. It lowers my blood sugar which can bring on a migraine attack.

For the last 5 weeks, I’ve been taking 1 capsule (half the recommended dose) of a brain booster supplement that contains caffeine. It provides a steady release of energy and I’m not jittery or anxious.

My focus has improved and even my skin has a new glow. I miss coffee more than I’d like to admit and I’m currently looking for something to fill that void, but I have to admit, I haven’t felt this good, mentally, in a long time.

Holding Stopain migraine relieving gel.

To recap, here’s what is working for me:

Once my daith fully heals, I plan to have the migraine piercing redone. Having experienced such a long symptom-free period, I am super aware of how much anxiety I battle each day.

We’ve heard that the daith piercing could help treat anxiety, but I was so focused on the migraine relief, I didn’t notice how anxious I was prior to the piercing.

While I’m having good results from the methods listed above, nothing beat the migraine and anxiety relief from the daith piercing.

Update: Jen, my sister who gets the occasional migraine (nothing like mine) is experiencing relief since starting a ketogenic diet. She wrote about her experience on keto here, and continues to see positive changes.

Still living a keto lifestyle after six months, her anxiety levels and headaches have both improved among many other things. 

The keto diet isn’t for everyone, but it might be something to look into if you are looking for natural migraine relief options.   

Another update: Jen tried the new Cefaly device. It’s an FDA-approved product to help treat migraines. Read her Cefaly review here.

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Mother of two living in Montana. Graduated from Benedictine University with a BS in nutrition science. I love food, fitness, reading, and all things science.

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19 Comments

  1. Hey, if you don’t mind me asking, why don’t you get the left ear daith done? Then hopefully that will last the 2 years by which time your right ear will be plenty healed? I hope that makes sense 🙂

    Reply
    1. Shelley VanWitzenburg says:

      That does make perfect sense! I am considering it. Because all of my pain has always been on the right side, it just doesn’t seem like it would be as effective–but that’s just me assuming. It is definitely worth a try! Thank you for suggesting it. 🙂

      Reply

      1. I was thinking the same thing – I would be getting ALL OF THE PIERCINGS ha ha and see if any of them help. That mint shampoo is something I’m going to look into – mint helps relax me!

        Reply
  2. Taylor Wagaman says:

    Hey! i have suffered from migraines since I was 7 years old ive tried every medicine in the books anything you could possibly think of didn’t work. i decided to try and get my daith pierced i got my left side done and most of my migraines are on the left side i had relief but a couple weeks later i got hit in the head with a softball and suffered a major concussion so i obviously had migraines. I got my left side done a little over a year ago and i wasn’t getting much relief so i took it upon myself to get my right side done. ( because your right side controls your left side of your brain ) it’s been about 2 weeks and i haven’t had a migraine since it’s been pretty amazing considering i’ve tried almost everything and i can finally feel relief! so i deffiently suggest you getting both sides done!!

    Reply
    1. Shelley VanWitzenburg says:

      Hi Taylor!

      Thank you for sharing! I will definitely consider piercing the other side!

      So happy you are getting relief! Migraines at 7 years old? UGH. That’s just terrible. 🙁

      -Shelley

      Reply

  3. Maybe try CBD products?

    Reply

  4. I just found this post, and am interested to hear if you decided to get the left side done, or if re-piercing the right side worked? I haven’t had the piercing done yet, but my daughter and I are going soon to get it done together!

    Reply

    1. Hi Coco!
      I haven’t gotten the left side done yet. I’ve been taking Migrelief and it’s working well. However, my anxiety is back, so I’m planning to get repierced and see if that helps with both the migraines and anxiety.

      Let us know how yours goes!

      Reply

  5. Hey, maybe you can try to get double daith? Meaning two daith earrings next to each other – try to google it for pictures.

    Reply

    1. Oh wow! That looks really cool! Thank you for the suggestion!

      Reply

  6. I’m so sorry to hear about your situation :/ (plus I know that I’m a little late to the party) but my husband had both his tragus pierced to help with his almost daily migraines he was dealing with. I’m not sure if it’s meant to help with all types of migraine or not but it might be worth looking into..? I completely feel your pain with the ‘daily humaning’ thing. It wasn’t until my doctor put me on Topamax everyday and then Fioricet or breakthrough pain that I was able to be out of bead more than 2 days a week.
    Good luck with all your future endeavors!!

    Reply
  7. Keri Gill says:

    My daith piercing has worked great for over two years. However my piercer did tell me that it is very common for migraines to creep back in. Usually starting to develop on the side they didn’t m normally start on. She recommended that if that happened I should get the other side done.
    On a side note I recently had to take my daith out for a job. That lasted about a month and I’ve had a migraine for three weeks. Quit the job and having the daith put back in tommorow.
    Hopefully this helps someone

    Reply

  8. You sound like a heavy sufferer. Why haven’t you tried Botox for migraines? I suffer from occasional complex basilar migraines that mimic a mini stroke. Vision loss, numbness, tingling and speech aphasia followed my immense head pain and light sensitivity. I would get cluster attacks that would land me in the hospital. Botox has been an absolute blessing!

    Reply

  9. Hi
    I have chronic migraines. I am on tonnes of meds bec I had a stroke as well but I get botox injections every 3 months and they were a MASSIVE help. However, the last time I knew within a few days that I hadn’t been given the same amount in each site as before. The pain was horrendous and my forehead moved easily (normally it stops all that and my forehead feels ‘full’). I rang the co Sultanat but was just told to “hang in there”. A few weeks later I got my daith pierced bec I am just trying anything. I’ve only had it a week and have had no relief But that’s ok… early days! Anyway, my point is that the man who pierced me said in 10 months I feel it’s not working then to go back and get a thicker ring in. He said that many are told to do the other side etc but that widening the hole (slightly!) will reactivate the relief. Just thought I’d share this info in case it helps. Migraine sucks 😩so Sharing info is great!! Hope something works for you soon x

    Reply

    1. That makes sense to widen the hole. From my understanding, the point is to stimulate the nerve. So, if the piercing didn’t quite hit the right spot, it’s worth a try to widen the area. I hope you find relief soon!! Thank you so much for sharing your experience.

      Reply

  10. I also found relief with the daith piercing. Mine lasted 3 years. Then poof, stopped. I got the other side done, seems to be working! As soon as it’s healed enough to put my ‘nice’ earring in, I’m letting the original side grow over, so I can just go back and forth. I also got migraine Botox, and the triptans to try if I get a break through one. But just ordered the migrelief s well to add to routine. Good luck with yours, and get the other side done 😊

    Reply

    1. That is so interesting!! Thanks for sharing, Jen. Hope you continue to find relief!

      Reply
  11. Julie Shelton says:

    I just wanted to chime in on the dietary. About 2 years ago, I began seriously cutting a lot of gluten from my diet. I am not a disciplined keto dieter, but with the changes to less yeasty breads, no pasta, limited cheats on cakes/cookies, my migraines have lessened remarkably. I still have the occasional one from the perfect storm of stress/weather/diet/hormones. Tomorrow I’m getting a daith just to see if it helps and I can avoid the use of tryptans.

    Reply

    1. Thank you, Julie! Yes, diet plays a huge role!! My migraines are most definitely hormonal now, but so much more manageable. Keep us posted on your piercing experience. 🙂

      Reply

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