[00:00]
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Kate Hamilton Health Podcast. So in
[00:14]
today's episode, I chat with Diane Ducarmes, and we have the most interesting conversation
[00:20]
around the topic of migraines. Diane is a wellness practitioner specializing in helping
[00:25]
women decode and overcome chronic migraines. With a deep understanding that migraines
[00:31]
are more than just headaches, she focuses on addressing the root causes rather than
[00:36]
just managing the symptoms. Her approach leverages functional foods and holistic strategies to
[00:41]
help the brain return to a non-painful state. Diane emphasizes the intersection of hormone
[00:47]
health and migraines, particularly during perimenopause and menopause, and she provides
[00:52]
holistic tools to mitigate symptoms. Diane aims to empower women with knowledge and strategies
[00:58]
to regain control over their health and well-being. And that's what our whole conversation is
[01:03]
based around. We talk about migraines and hormone health. We talk about holistic approaches
[01:08]
to migraine relief. We talk about advocating for yourself when getting medical care. We
[01:14]
talk about natural versus pharmaceutical, Eastern versus Western medicine. And we really
[01:20]
talk a lot around inflammation, the vagus nerve and gut health into mental health, into
[01:27]
brain health more so as we're talking about migraines. I think you will get so much from
[01:32]
this episode. It was such a refreshing and interesting conversation. So without further
[01:36]
ado, here is the episode with Diane Ducarmes.
[01:40]
Diane, welcome to the podcast. I am so excited to chat all things migraines today.
[01:50]
And because this is actually a topic that, you know, everyone knows what migraines are,
[01:54]
but it's not something that I've given a whole lot of thought to. So this is going to be
[01:57]
a really, really interesting conversation for me, and particularly around the topic
[02:02]
of gut health, around hormones, around all of these things that I do talk about quite
[02:07]
a lot. And this is going to be a really, really interesting conversation. But look, before
[02:10]
we dive into it, would you like to tell everyone a little bit about you and what you do?
[02:14]
So my name is Diane Ducarmes. From my accent, you can pick up that I'm a French speaker.
[02:18]
I come from Belgium. And every day I help people who are chronic migraine sufferers
[02:24]
become migraine heroes. So these people will have seen countless doctors, neurologists,
[02:29]
chiropractors, acupuncturists, nutritionists in search of answers with no result or no
[02:34]
sustainable result. And they live life that are completely constrained. They have a lot
[02:40]
of things that are forbidden because it triggers them. And they will have endless medications
[02:44]
that they've tried or that they may take, maybe also a really long list of supplements.
[02:48]
And in spite of all of these efforts, these people are deprived of life, I want to say.
[02:55]
And I really want to say that with all heart and all kindness. These are really people
[02:59]
that you might cross and you might see, and you have no idea how difficult and how much
[03:06]
struggle and how much resilience there is behind that individual.
[03:10]
Wow. So when we're talking migraines, we're not just talking about a little headache.
[03:15]
No, we're not talking about a little headache. We're talking about pain that is coming, recurring,
[03:22]
can last anywhere between four hours to a couple of days, can start one day and never
[03:27]
finish. So basically the person wakes up through a traumatic brain injury or after massive
[03:34]
stress, burnout, has had a food poisoning in an exotic country, started her puberty,
[03:41]
or just in childhood it started. And then that pain comes back and comes back in massive waves,
[03:47]
completely invisible. They will do lots of MRIs and lots of CT scans and there's nothing
[03:52]
appearing. But inside the person has pain in the form of labor. Think of it like giving birth,
[04:00]
massive amount of pain. And also a migraine attack is a full body experience. So not only
[04:05]
do they have head pain, they also will experience, for example, numbness in the arms, tingling
[04:10]
sensation, cramps, spasms. They might see dots in their vision, prisms, flashlights. They might
[04:17]
vomit. They might have throbbing pain. They may have almost like a knife point in their head,
[04:23]
or they might feel very dizzy or foggy. So extreme, excruciating pain that is
[04:28]
absolutely invisible. It must be very terrifying, especially the first time because you're like,
[04:34]
I'm dying. What is the symptom? That's exactly how you feel. And it's incredibly common what
[04:40]
I'm talking about. We're talking about one in five women has had that as an experience.
[04:44]
It's genetics. It's only 5% of boys and girls. And the incidence triples to quadruples for women
[04:49]
in puberty. And that's exactly that. They almost feel they're going to die. So oftentimes they're
[04:54]
going to go to the emergency room and they're going to give a really high dose of painkillers,
[04:58]
called a medication cocktail. Or for example, in Australia, we might refer as a green thistle,
[05:03]
which is the highest dose of morphine, to wake up three days later with the diagnosis of migraine.
[05:09]
And they're like, what? You have to be kidding me. I felt like I was going to have a stroke.
[05:14]
In some situations, right? It's not always. Sometimes it can be a lingering, constant
[05:19]
dizziness until menopause. And then at menopause, it hits into full migraines. It's going to depend.
[05:24]
Wow. What causes this in the body? Do we know? That's a great question. To understand that,
[05:33]
we need to go east and west. The reason why we need to do that is because in the west,
[05:37]
you pay your doctor as long as you're sick. And so in the west, we have a massive understanding
[05:41]
of sickness. In the east, you pay your doctor as long as you're healthy. So we have a profound
[05:46]
understanding of health. Now, where does migraine sit? Well, when a person has a migraine,
[05:52]
they're not dying, but they're not living, I would argue. But from a medical point of view,
[05:58]
they're not dying. Their vital signs are still sort of normal most of the time. And so do we
[06:04]
know what it comes from? From the west, if you really dig deep, deep, deep, deep, deep into
[06:10]
scientific studies, no, the answer is no. We're going to qualify this as a genetic neurological
[06:17]
disorder. Whereas in the east, it's going to be said that a migraine is more like a fire alarm,
[06:24]
which is genetic, and which is going to be an alert from the vagus nerve, from the gut-brain
[06:30]
axis to indicate that there's an underlying problem inside of the body. So the genetic
[06:35]
component is the ability to have the alarm, but not the fire alarm itself, not the noise itself.
[06:41]
The migraine only erupts if and only if there is an underlying or multiple imbalances inside the
[06:49]
body. And so in the west, we're going to tell you to medicate, to suffer, to accept, to hydrate,
[06:56]
to move, to not come back, not to do more CT scans, not do more MRIs, just to suck it up. It
[07:04]
comes with a territory. It's because you're a woman. Whereas in the east, they're going to say,
[07:08]
no, no, you just have to listen to your body signals and fix a few things. And then once you
[07:12]
do that, the pain goes away. Very different approach if we look at the east and the west.
[07:17]
It's the difference between treating the symptoms and treating the root cause.
[07:22]
Exactly, exactly. And if you treat the symptom, what is really, really horrible, Kate,
[07:26]
is that if you treat the symptom, what you do is you want to stop the fire alarm. And what you do
[07:33]
is you try to give pain killers. So your body says, your brain says, mayday, mayday, I have a
[07:37]
problem. And you say, will you please stop talking? And it's really hard for people who
[07:42]
suffer because they're after answers. They ask a lot of questions and they never get answers.
[07:47]
And so they're a bit, I think gaslit is even an understatement, a bit ridiculed to some extent.
[07:53]
There's a lack of, in my view, a lack of respect. In 1969, we went on the moon. We should apologize
[08:00]
to these women as a society. We regretfully cannot explain more why you experience this pain.
[08:06]
We apologize. And I'm so sorry that I can't give you an answer versus this is in your head that
[08:11]
you have to just deal with it, suck it up. And if you have more migraines, maybe it's because
[08:16]
you're not taking your medication properly. Is it just a female issue?
[08:21]
Great question. So because it's genetic, you'd think it should be half-half, right? Mother
[08:26]
nature should be fair. And it is indeed fair in the sense that it's 5% of boys and girls.
[08:32]
So men can also have migraines. However, the incidence is going to triple to quadruple for
[08:38]
women when they start to hit puberty. So it's a more of a much more female issue than it is a
[08:45]
man issue. So this would lead me to believe, which I think I'm going to ask you now about,
[08:50]
this is obviously one of the main causes is obviously something to do with hormones then.
[08:56]
Yes. Yes. Namely, not only, but yes.
[08:59]
Let's talk hormones first then and we can dive into the other things afterwards.
[09:03]
So what's the link between migraines and hormone health?
[09:07]
When your hormones start to kick in at puberty, basically your body is a bit like learning to
[09:12]
cycle. And when that happens, you start to have estrogen, LH, progesterone that kick in and to
[09:19]
start to give you a cycle. And when that happens, you have a system inside of your body from an
[09:24]
Eastern perspective called the liver system that kicks in to produce these hormones on a clock.
[09:30]
And when it doesn't do that impeccably well, or when the liver system has too much toxicity
[09:37]
and the estrogen level therefore fluctuates in an abnormal way, that can trigger a migraine.
[09:43]
So imagine the inflammation of the liver system in charge of producing these hormones will be
[09:49]
translated through the vagus nerve to the brain. Now, the massive challenge is the
[09:54]
root cause is going to be that imbalance at the liver system.
[09:58]
If you start to add medication on top of that, you make the whole problem worse.
[10:03]
That's how you can go from episodic to chronic.
[10:05]
Yeah, that makes so much sense that obviously you're taking medication.
[10:08]
It's going to affect your liver.
[10:09]
And yeah, and I want to say something really important.
[10:13]
It is important to go to the doctor. You have to go.
[10:16]
I'm a pro-doctor. You have to see, is your diagnosis migraine?
[10:19]
You have to verify that it's the case.
[10:22]
Verify that there's not something else going on with your health.
[10:26]
But if it is migraine, then mute trying to, because science shows that more medication
[10:34]
leads to more what is called rebound migraines or medication overuse headache, which very quickly
[10:39]
you get it because the more you consume medication, the more you're in pain.
[10:42]
The more you're in pain, the more you consume medication.
[10:44]
So you get into an extremely vicious circle, which is proven scientifically.
[10:49]
So once you have that diagnosis confirmed and you have done your exams,
[10:53]
then just medicating endlessly is not going to be conducive of solution.
[10:58]
And women know that it's just that they also have no alternative currently really to help.
[11:05]
Let's talk a little bit about the vagus nerve, the gut brain axis, because a lot of us will know
[11:10]
that the gut brain axis connects our gut to our brain and has a lot to do with our
[11:16]
mental health and emotional sense. But obviously, this is also a really
[11:20]
important part of this puzzle. Huge, huge.
[11:24]
So I like to compare the vagus nerve to a big tree.
[11:27]
So imagine inside your body you have this gigantic tree.
[11:30]
You have your tree plants its roots in your thorax.
[11:33]
So imagine it's planting its roots around your heart, around your lungs,
[11:37]
around your stomach, around your large and small intestine, around your uterus.
[11:42]
And all of these roots form larger roots that go along your spine.
[11:46]
They connect the hundred billion nerve cells of your body.
[11:49]
They form a bit of a trunk in your neck.
[11:52]
And then they plug in like an electric car in your brain.
[11:56]
I'm going to say like a Tesla in your brain, okay?
[11:58]
What you'd expect from an electric car is like a lot of wires, right?
[12:01]
For all of the job it does, probably expect a lot of wires.
[12:04]
And that's what you'd expect here too.
[12:06]
But all of the wires are somehow hidden.
[12:08]
And so the trunk gives birth to a big foliage, which is your brain.
[12:13]
So dense that it's impossible to find where each of the branches go to.
[12:18]
So where do the root form and where do they go to in the brain?
[12:22]
It's quite obscure from a Western medicine point of view.
[12:26]
From an Eastern perspective, because they have observed symptoms
[12:31]
for thousands of years over billions of people,
[12:33]
they have, based on migraines, remapped the brain in function of the system.
[12:38]
So they're more able to see within the brain,
[12:41]
how does the brain connect to the gut via the vagus nerve in which locations?
[12:47]
Yeah, so that's how it's been mapped.
[12:49]
So yeah, vagus nerve plays a huge role.
[12:51]
Is there any other areas that cause?
[12:55]
So, you know, if we've got hormonal imbalances going on,
[12:58]
if we've got inflammation in the liver,
[13:00]
if our gut health is not in a good position,
[13:03]
the vagus nerve, I presume, has a lot to do with stress as well?
[13:06]
Completely, absolutely.
[13:08]
So here you're bringing in gut-brain access.
[13:11]
You're also bringing in emotions, and emotions are incredibly important.
[13:15]
If you've gone through trauma in your childhood,
[13:18]
Western science has proven that your vagus nerve will be altered.
[13:21]
And if your vagus nerve is altered
[13:23]
and you have a genetic predisposition for migraine,
[13:25]
then you will have migraines that are quite strong.
[13:28]
And that will be anxiety and stress related.
[13:30]
The problem is the stress causes migraine,
[13:33]
but then the migraine itself causes stress
[13:36]
because there's the anxiety of the pain itself,
[13:38]
and so you become in a very vicious circle.
[13:41]
Another quite unfamiliar way to have migraine is, for example,
[13:46]
if you have blood clots in your uterus,
[13:48]
or if you have cysts on your arteries,
[13:51]
then those, when you menstruate,
[13:53]
the vagus nerve will pick up the anomaly and send the signal as well.
[13:58]
The reason why I know that is because when we remove them,
[14:02]
then the pain goes away,
[14:03]
and that's how we go from being a migraine warrior
[14:07]
to become a migraine hero.
[14:08]
And so that's how we know.
[14:09]
It's just because we've seen the facts
[14:11]
that once these blood clots get removed,
[14:13]
or these cysts get removed,
[14:15]
then the brain no longer complains.
[14:16]
But this can also be a part of it.
[14:18]
So really think of any problems that really,
[14:24]
you know, it can be thyroid issues.
[14:25]
For example, thyroid issues will be picked up by the brain.
[14:28]
The person will get medicated for years, for decades for the thyroid,
[14:31]
and the medication is going to contribute to the migraines over the years.
[14:34]
Same for contraceptives too.
[14:36]
They will impact the hormones,
[14:38]
and therefore they can have an influence on migraines as well.
[14:41]
Let's talk perimenopause.
[14:43]
So as women, we're so lucky that we get to go through this wonderful time
[14:47]
with all these lovely symptoms,
[14:49]
and this is something else that can get a little bit worse for us during this time.
[14:53]
Absolutely. I love that you say that.
[14:56]
The same way that there's this incidence that triples or quadruples during puberty,
[15:01]
when women go through perimenopause and menopause,
[15:04]
there's again, almost you could call it a musical chair.
[15:07]
And for some, they're going to be much better off after perimenopause.
[15:12]
For some, they will be much worse off.
[15:15]
And for some, it's just going to change.
[15:17]
For very few, it will manifest in the same way.
[15:19]
And so during the perimenopause time is a massive time of transition
[15:23]
where indeed the hormones and the systems are going to change in nature.
[15:27]
So the job of the body is changing.
[15:30]
And in changing that job, in that transition,
[15:33]
all of these hormonal fluctuations will play a huge role in inducing more,
[15:38]
a lot more migraines, more migraine attacks,
[15:41]
but it can also manifest in a lot more dizziness,
[15:44]
a lot more vertigo, a lot more fogginess.
[15:47]
So much, much less mental clarity.
[15:50]
And here again, it's a message from the brain saying,
[15:52]
will you please age gracefully?
[15:54]
Will you please help me and nourish me and love me unconditionally
[15:58]
for the rest of our lives so that we're not having Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, etc.
[16:04]
We're just a healthy, happy, nourished brain, if that makes sense.
[16:08]
Yeah, that makes so much sense.
[16:10]
An indicator, please look after me,
[16:12]
which we're going to get into, you know,
[16:14]
how we can help with our lifestyles and with our nutrition.
[16:16]
One last question on perimenopause.
[16:18]
Can you develop migraines for the first time at this stage?
[16:24]
I have a podcast called Migraine Heroes,
[16:26]
and in there you have a hero called Samantha.
[16:29]
And Samantha explains that for her whole life,
[16:31]
she had headaches and she'd never called the migraines for them.
[16:35]
They were not debilitating.
[16:36]
So she thought she wasn't, you know,
[16:39]
going to use that terminology for her.
[16:41]
She'd have these headaches and they would be unexplained.
[16:44]
And she'd seen a lot of neurologists over the years,
[16:46]
but they were what they were.
[16:48]
And when she hit perimenopause, she was a journalist.
[16:52]
She just could no longer focus.
[16:55]
She'd be in front of her screen.
[16:57]
The screen would be a massive trigger for her,
[16:58]
and she'd be dizzy and just unable to perform,
[17:02]
which flips your life completely upside down.
[17:05]
It's not only your physical identity is changing,
[17:07]
but your professional identity is being massively impacted.
[17:11]
And then the friends, you know, said,
[17:13]
three friends said, oh my God, you have to do this.
[17:15]
You have to do this.
[17:15]
And then that's how we got to know each other
[17:18]
and how she got her brain back.
[17:20]
But indeed for her, just migraines.
[17:22]
And then during perimenopause, massive, massive migraines.
[17:26]
Otherwise, no, unless there's a burnout.
[17:30]
The burnout can also happen quite, you know,
[17:32]
when you're at that age, perimenopause,
[17:34]
you're quite senior in your position.
[17:36]
It's quite possible that the level of stress,
[17:38]
pressure, kids, grandparents,
[17:41]
like you're tortured in all directions
[17:43]
from the bottom with your children,
[17:45]
from above your parents,
[17:46]
and then from the work and with your spouse.
[17:48]
And when all of that's too much,
[17:50]
I have seen sometimes people go into a burnout mode
[17:53]
and then start to have migraine
[17:55]
at a very late stage in your life.
[17:56]
I know there'll be a lot of people listening
[17:58]
that will feel really, really seen right now.
[18:00]
Really, they'll be like, this is me.
[18:02]
Whether it's the burnout, menopause,
[18:04]
whether it is the migraines that they're medicating
[18:07]
and they're not getting through.
[18:09]
And there'll be a lot of people listening
[18:10]
that'll be like, I'm feeling quite hopeless about this.
[18:12]
And now what is this that I'm hearing?
[18:15]
Is there an answer?
[18:16]
So let's talk a little bit about
[18:18]
how we can start within ourselves,
[18:22]
within our lifestyles.
[18:23]
What can we do to improve these symptoms?
[18:26]
And I know you've said you're not anti-doctor.
[18:29]
So we will talk a little bit about advocating
[18:31]
for yourself when you go to the doctor.
[18:32]
But let's talk about lifestyle first.
[18:34]
I suppose like, we're not saying don't go to the doctor,
[18:36]
but let's look at what we can do.
[18:38]
Because I think it's important alongside
[18:40]
to be making these changes.
[18:42]
There's a lot of things that you can do, a lot.
[18:44]
First of all, I'm completely behind you.
[18:47]
Like you can get there.
[18:48]
You can get there.
[18:50]
So the first thing I want to call you on
[18:53]
is you have the answer.
[18:55]
It's going to sound a really weird thing for me to say,
[18:57]
but you in yourself, in your mind, in your heart,
[19:00]
it's very possible you have the answer.
[19:02]
If you doubt, is this that migraine IUD
[19:04]
that I just placed two years ago?
[19:06]
It probably is that that started the problem.
[19:09]
Is it that my work, I don't like it.
[19:11]
It's too stressful.
[19:12]
It probably has an element of that.
[19:14]
Is it that medication I'm taking
[19:16]
that just makes me feel that way?
[19:18]
It is probably pleasurable.
[19:19]
Is that toxic relationship influencing?
[19:21]
There's probably an element of that.
[19:22]
So the first thing is try to trust your intuition
[19:26]
So that's number one.
[19:27]
Try to use your intuition a maximum.
[19:30]
Because if you remove the things that trigger you fast,
[19:34]
you don't snowball as far.
[19:37]
If you hide these with medications,
[19:40]
you will snowball very, very fast
[19:42]
and you will become episodic to chronic very, very fast.
[19:45]
What you want to try to do is to avoid that situation.
[19:48]
That's number one.
[19:50]
I just want to make a point on that.
[19:52]
So if we're looking at those kind of lifestyle triggers,
[19:55]
whether it is a job or a relationship or a medication
[19:57]
or a contraception or whatever,
[19:59]
this could be a big life decision that needs to be made.
[20:02]
That although it may seem difficult,
[20:05]
it could be quite necessary.
[20:07]
Yes, it could be quite necessary.
[20:08]
And the worst part is it will not solve it instantly.
[20:13]
It's at least not going to make it worse.
[20:15]
Let's take an example.
[20:17]
Let's imagine that you are on a contraceptive.
[20:20]
Let's imagine you're fairly young
[20:21]
and you just changed contraceptive
[20:23]
and you're told to take that contraceptive
[20:25]
and you go back to your doctor and you're like,
[20:26]
I think that contraceptive is giving me migraines.
[20:29]
And the doctor challenges your word,
[20:32]
but you're very convinced the timing syncs.
[20:36]
If you are convinced, listen to yourself,
[20:39]
advocate for yourself, get that IUD out,
[20:42]
get the pill changed.
[20:44]
If the hormones do not suit you
[20:46]
and you started to get into a snowball
[20:48]
and these migraines are new for you,
[20:50]
go backwards as fast as you can.
[20:53]
It doesn't mean that the migraines are going to stop
[20:54]
because there's a domino effect that started,
[20:57]
but at least you're not going to make things worse.
[21:00]
Yeah, you're not messing with your hormones
[21:02]
more so than this.
[21:03]
And it's an interesting point you make
[21:05]
about advocating for yourself with the doctor
[21:06]
because I don't know what it's like
[21:08]
where you are in New Zealand,
[21:09]
but in Ireland, I know that doctors
[21:12]
are really pushing the copper coil hugely.
[21:15]
Like, as in, I've had three children.
[21:18]
After my third child,
[21:19]
my doctor was like pushing contraception on me
[21:21]
and I really didn't want to take the pill
[21:23]
and I was considering getting the coil.
[21:26]
And in the end, I was like,
[21:27]
no, my husband can get a vasectomy, that's fine.
[21:29]
I kind of just, I felt like my body
[21:31]
had done enough, I didn't want to.
[21:32]
And that was my own personal decision.
[21:34]
I know a lot of friends of mine do have the coil.
[21:35]
But even when I was speaking to the doctor
[21:38]
I really don't really want to get the coil.
[21:40]
Maybe I'll go on the pill.
[21:41]
And she really was anti-pill
[21:43]
and very pro-coil, which was interesting.
[21:45]
Do you know the reasoning behind this?
[21:48]
You know what, Kate?
[21:49]
I don't know the reasoning,
[21:50]
but I have gone through the same experience myself.
[21:53]
I was on the Myrana UD
[21:55]
and I told my doctor I'm bleeding every day
[21:57]
at the time I was living in Shanghai.
[21:58]
And I said, I'd like to have this Myrana out.
[22:01]
I am bleeding every single day.
[22:03]
And she says, no, no, you're sputting.
[22:05]
I'm like, I'm bleeding.
[22:06]
Like you're sputting.
[22:08]
I'm telling you, I'm bleeding.
[22:10]
Well, she challenged me.
[22:11]
I had to keep it for four months
[22:13]
after which she accepted to remove it.
[22:15]
And she said, oh my God,
[22:16]
this really didn't suit you.
[22:18]
Not like, I've been telling you this the whole time.
[22:21]
Why do you tell me?
[22:23]
I feel something I don't.
[22:26]
You're not in my body.
[22:28]
Like, trust me on this.
[22:29]
And I honestly, Kate, I don't know.
[22:31]
I don't know if there's an incentive.
[22:33]
She did not want to remove it.
[22:34]
And it's an amazing doctor.
[22:36]
I just couldn't believe it.
[22:37]
I was really upset, really upset.
[22:40]
So yes, so advocate for yourself.
[22:42]
Make a case for it.
[22:43]
If that doctor doesn't want to change it,
[22:45]
go to see someone else.
[22:46]
This is a matter that it really, really matters
[22:50]
because from here you can snowball incredibly fast.
[22:52]
I'll give you an example.
[22:53]
If you're on a copper at UD
[22:55]
and you're listening to us
[22:56]
and you're bleeding a lot,
[22:58]
let me explain to you one thing.
[23:00]
Your brain is only two to 6% of your weight.
[23:02]
It's 20% of your energy consumption.
[23:05]
It's full of blood.
[23:07]
In your fertility years,
[23:08]
you're going to lose 23 to 28 liters of menstruation.
[23:12]
So if you're bleeding a lot,
[23:13]
you're probably bleeding twice as fast as that rate.
[23:16]
You only have four to five liters of blood in your body.
[23:20]
So if you bleed too much
[23:21]
and you're not reproducing fast enough,
[23:23]
then your brain doesn't have enough blood.
[23:26]
Then of course you're going to need a tryptan
[23:27]
to pass that migraine.
[23:29]
The tryptan is going to contract your blood vessel
[23:31]
and your blood is going to go back to your brain.
[23:33]
But undigested or undetoxed is going to add toxification
[23:36]
and you're going to add to the problem.
[23:38]
Now we went from a copper at UD.
[23:40]
I don't have enough blood,
[23:42]
which is by the way giving me sugar cravings
[23:44]
all the way to now I have an intoxicated liver
[23:48]
because I'm starting to take medication for it.
[23:51]
So that's what I mean by if you're listening to us
[23:54]
and this is you go fast
[23:56]
and the migraine IUD will act differently.
[23:58]
It might make you not bleed.
[24:00]
When you bleed, your body gets rid of toxins.
[24:02]
It's like the garbage truck.
[24:04]
Not having a menstruation
[24:06]
is like keeping all of your garbage in your house,
[24:09]
which is going to be fine for a month or two.
[24:11]
But let's face it for a year,
[24:12]
we create a small chaos.
[24:14]
And so when you start to have the garbage truck
[24:17]
it's going to only be able to remove some garbage at a time.
[24:20]
And so when you remove your migraine IUD,
[24:23]
ah, Diane was right.
[24:24]
I still have migraines,
[24:25]
but I think it was that.
[24:27]
This is where the doctor might say,
[24:28]
see, I told you it wasn't that.
[24:30]
Well, no, you just have to give it time
[24:32]
for your body to be able to do its thing.
[24:35]
So first your intuition,
[24:37]
you know, something changed and you know,
[24:39]
and if you don't know,
[24:42]
try to keep a diary on the Migraine Heroes app.
[24:45]
We have a freemium.
[24:46]
Just track and observe what is,
[24:49]
where is this coming from?
[24:51]
That's going to be my first one,
[24:52]
because everyone's situation is very, very real.
[24:55]
If you went through trauma,
[24:58]
Find someone who can help with the polyvagal theory.
[25:00]
Again, in the Migraine Heroes app,
[25:01]
we have someone dedicated to that,
[25:03]
but you can find someone.
[25:04]
I've done a great podcast with a guy called Justin Caffrey
[25:07]
or with Dulce Cardinal.
[25:08]
And these are people who can help with that.
[25:11]
If you feel it's trauma,
[25:12]
then tackle the trauma.
[25:14]
Yeah, so number one, listen to your intuition.
[25:17]
I want to talk about sports.
[25:21]
sport is going to be a migraine trigger
[25:23]
and movement is going to be a migraine trigger.
[25:25]
And for others, it's going to be a relief.
[25:28]
And so here as well,
[25:29]
you're going to need to find your balance.
[25:31]
And what used to be true for a long time
[25:34]
before Pyramid Pose
[25:35]
can become the opposite
[25:37]
as you go through Pyramid Pose.
[25:38]
You have to truly listen to yourself.
[25:42]
maybe when you were in your 30s,
[25:44]
you could push yourself with a lot of cardio
[25:47]
and that worked really well for you.
[25:49]
now I am in my 40s
[25:51]
and if I push myself too hard,
[25:55]
I start to become very dizzy.
[25:57]
Then listen to yourself.
[25:59]
Maybe that triathlon,
[26:01]
you might achieve a goal,
[26:03]
but you lose something else.
[26:04]
And why not be reasonable
[26:06]
and listen to your body
[26:07]
and to its signals?
[26:08]
That would be a second area
[26:11]
is really when it comes to fitness and sports.
[26:13]
This is an interesting one as well
[26:15]
that I work with a lot of women
[26:16]
going through perimenopause and menopause.
[26:19]
And we talk a lot about cortisol
[26:22]
and quite often what happens,
[26:24]
a lot of women love their HIIT classes
[26:27]
or their high intensity type of workouts.
[26:30]
And sometimes that can be
[26:32]
a little bit counterproductive.
[26:34]
you're raising cortisol levels in the body
[26:35]
if you're doing a lot of high intensity
[26:38]
and it can be especially,
[26:39]
a lot of women come to me
[26:40]
because they want to lose body fat.
[26:41]
They want to get to a healthy weight
[26:43]
that is achieved really
[26:44]
by walking and lifting weights.
[26:46]
And it's interesting that,
[26:48]
if we have personal goals
[26:49]
and there's lots of women that I work with
[26:50]
that want to run the Dublin City Marathon
[26:52]
and they want to do,
[26:53]
they've got different goals
[26:54]
and that's really great
[26:57]
as long as it's not making things worse.
[26:59]
I am 200% with you, Kate,
[27:04]
And yes, that's exactly right.
[27:06]
You said it all just there.
[27:08]
And so listen to Kate.
[27:10]
I think we think we need to do more
[27:13]
in order to be super fit and healthy.
[27:16]
it's actually about stripping it back
[27:18]
Yes, lift weights three times a week,
[27:21]
would be great in my world.
[27:23]
You know, we're talking standard strength training.
[27:25]
it's not complicated.
[27:27]
once you get into a good routine with it,
[27:28]
it's really empowering.
[27:29]
You really enjoy it.
[27:30]
And just get like,
[27:31]
be someone who walks every day.
[27:33]
It doesn't even need to be an added stress.
[27:34]
Oh, I have to walk five kilometers
[27:36]
or I have to walk for 10,000 steps.
[27:39]
just be someone that walks every day.
[27:42]
It's very, very true.
[27:43]
I'm completely with you.
[27:44]
I see a lot of people who will go
[27:46]
for these very extreme sports
[27:48]
and oftentimes also to get their belly flat
[27:50]
and that called constipation,
[27:52]
which is, you know,
[27:53]
impairment pose a really big deal.
[27:57]
if you have suffer from migraine,
[27:59]
you might notice that you have more migraines
[28:01]
the day you're constipated.
[28:02]
I really invite you to observe that.
[28:04]
And so their way out is excess sports,
[28:08]
but they do that at the expense
[28:10]
of other parts of their body.
[28:12]
We're not anti-sport.
[28:13]
We're not anti-goals.
[28:15]
if there's things going on in your body,
[28:16]
it might be time to just maybe slow down
[28:19]
and focus on those first.
[28:21]
So what's number three?
[28:22]
What do we need to be doing?
[28:25]
well, we need to watch our diet.
[28:27]
Again, intuitively,
[28:29]
a lot of women will say,
[28:30]
oh, like that wine,
[28:32]
The alcohol is harder.
[28:33]
I think men get to that level as well
[28:35]
when they hit 40s, 45.
[28:38]
oof, this is harder to get over with alcohol.
[28:42]
Follow your intuition there.
[28:43]
It's really important.
[28:46]
when you go through peri-menopause,
[28:47]
is going to decrease in size by up to 44%.
[28:50]
So it's going to really lose a lot of its volume.
[28:53]
And therefore your ability to detox.
[28:57]
So if you feel I have less capacity,
[29:00]
it's the same as the sport.
[29:02]
Well, then put a little bit less in the tank.
[29:04]
Be a bit more gentle on yourself.
[29:06]
Maybe that extra glass of wine,
[29:08]
maybe that extra food,
[29:10]
just eating light at night.
[29:12]
Now, still on the topic of the diet,
[29:14]
it's really important.
[29:15]
There's a lot of movement around
[29:17]
intermittent fasting.
[29:19]
don't skip breakfast, please.
[29:22]
Your ability to digest,
[29:23]
and you still need to feed yourself
[29:26]
and feed your brain.
[29:28]
What you can absorb is really in the morning time.
[29:30]
So I did not tell her to say this,
[29:32]
but that's what I'm always saying.
[29:35]
people want to intermittent fast quite often
[29:38]
because they think they'll lose weight
[29:39]
or they want to skip breakfast
[29:40]
because they want to save
[29:42]
their eating for the evening time.
[29:43]
I'm like, if you want to fast,
[29:45]
fast from 6pm to 6am.
[29:47]
Don't skip breakfast.
[29:49]
I am like so much with you, Kate, on that.
[29:51]
And I think that's a huge shortcut
[29:54]
and the really wrong one.
[29:55]
And I'll actually link it.
[29:57]
If you think of people
[29:58]
who suffer from migraine disease,
[29:59]
not as an inferior brain,
[30:01]
but actually a superior brain
[30:02]
because they have an alarm system, right?
[30:04]
They have additional safety measures
[30:08]
But if you do intermittent fasting,
[30:09]
you probably will notice
[30:10]
that you get more dizzy often.
[30:13]
If you have migraines with aura,
[30:14]
they will come a lot more.
[30:16]
And then if you go for full fast,
[30:18]
you might be dizzy very, very fast
[30:20]
and you might need to interrupt your fasting.
[30:25]
go with the harmony of your body.
[30:27]
Now, by no stretch of imagination,
[30:31]
am I saying that it's easy?
[30:33]
If you've had migraines for
[30:36]
10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years,
[30:40]
of course, it's gotten complicated along the way.
[30:43]
And so by no stretch of imagination,
[30:45]
am I saying it's easy?
[30:47]
What I'm trying to do is
[30:48]
try to minimize what you experience.
[30:51]
And then of course, with diet,
[30:53]
because basically through the gut-brain axis,
[30:54]
you can access the brain via the gut.
[30:57]
I work with 740 foods
[30:59]
and that's how we repair that axis.
[31:04]
don't fall for the morning
[31:07]
skip your breakfast trap.
[31:09]
And if you feel you're fasting
[31:10]
and starting to impair your vision
[31:12]
and your brain function,
[31:14]
listen to your body and stop.
[31:16]
When you're talking about not skipping breakfast,
[31:18]
it's very much to fuel your brain
[31:20]
to start the day right.
[31:22]
To fuel, yes, to fuel your brain.
[31:24]
So inside of your brain,
[31:25]
you have a lot of liquids.
[31:27]
Your brain is technically 74% water,
[31:30]
according to Western science.
[31:33]
just it's very noble liquids
[31:35]
that are part of your gastric juices, etc.
[31:37]
It's called yin in the east.
[31:39]
And if you skip breakfast,
[31:41]
you stop that muscle factor.
[31:43]
And so you stop having these liquids.
[31:45]
So that's going to, in itself,
[31:47]
start to create chaos
[31:49]
that can be transformed into,
[31:51]
in particular, more forehead migraines
[31:54]
or struggling to fall asleep
[31:57]
because the stomach is linked
[31:58]
to the prefrontal cortex
[31:59]
along the side of the biggest nerve.
[32:01]
So yeah, so that gives the first blend
[32:03]
of how to think about it.
[32:05]
Yeah, that's interesting.
[32:06]
And since we're talking about
[32:07]
kind of, I suppose, liquids in the brain,
[32:09]
let's talk about coffee.
[32:12]
As a coffee lover, I love coffee!
[32:14]
Are you going to tell me
[32:15]
that we shouldn't have coffee?
[32:17]
No, I'm not going to tell you that.
[32:18]
I'm not going to tell you that.
[32:20]
So let's talk about it
[32:21]
from a Western point of view
[32:23]
and Eastern point of view.
[32:24]
From a Western point of view,
[32:25]
coffee increases energy,
[32:26]
which is phenomenal.
[32:28]
Along the way, it does a couple more things.
[32:30]
It's going to stimulate my liver,
[32:32]
If I take it in large quantities,
[32:33]
it's going to start to demineralize me,
[32:35]
in particular, of magnesium,
[32:37]
potassium and vitamin B.
[32:40]
If I consume it in large quantities,
[32:41]
it's going to disturb
[32:42]
my estrogen production.
[32:44]
It's going to disturb my cortisol
[32:46]
and elevate it a little bit.
[32:48]
It's going to contradict my blood vessels.
[32:53]
this really interesting phenomenon
[32:54]
because it's on the one hand,
[32:56]
it's a migraine trigger
[32:59]
it's a migraine reliever as well.
[33:02]
which is quite mind-bugging
[33:06]
because you think,
[33:06]
how can it be both?
[33:07]
So you really have some medications
[33:09]
that will contain caffeine.
[33:11]
And the reason is,
[33:12]
among all of these properties,
[33:13]
it's going to constrict your blood vessel
[33:15]
just like a tryptophan would
[33:17]
and make the blood flow go faster.
[33:18]
So again, if you were lacking blood volume,
[33:20]
for example, as an imbalance,
[33:22]
it's going to help with that problem.
[33:24]
And so caffeine is great to try
[33:27]
if you have, for example,
[33:28]
morning migraines.
[33:29]
But if it gives you migraines,
[33:31]
because then it means
[33:32]
there's other things going on, yeah?
[33:34]
So on the one hand,
[33:35]
it gives you energy
[33:36]
and it stimulates your brain
[33:38]
On the other, over time,
[33:41]
and it removes some of your minerals
[33:43]
and it increases your cortisol
[33:45]
and it messes a little bit
[33:46]
with your estrogen.
[33:47]
So everything in moderation
[33:49]
from an Eastern point of view,
[33:51]
because the coffee increases the yang
[33:53]
and therefore the chi,
[33:54]
it takes away the yin.
[33:55]
So it's the exact same logic.
[33:57]
It might also perturbate
[34:00]
And the liver system
[34:01]
massively connects to the brain.
[34:02]
Again, we go into the migraine territory.
[34:04]
So it's about finding what's right,
[34:07]
finding your balance.
[34:09]
It's such an interesting conversation
[34:11]
around coffee, isn't it?
[34:12]
Because even, you know,
[34:13]
with the different kind of ways
[34:16]
that it can affect the body,
[34:17]
but that some people will argue
[34:18]
the point of coffee is good for you,
[34:20]
you know, it's just, you know,
[34:21]
and then other people are like,
[34:22]
coffee's so bad for you.
[34:23]
And, you know, growing up,
[34:24]
like when I was a teenager,
[34:27]
very much the narrative was
[34:28]
coffee is really bad for you.
[34:30]
Yeah, it is much more nuanced, isn't it?
[34:31]
It's a really interesting topic.
[34:33]
But one thing that I do notice,
[34:35]
like I think quantity really matters
[34:37]
and probably like starting your day
[34:39]
and relying on coffee first thing
[34:42]
is probably not the best.
[34:44]
And I know a lot of people listening
[34:45]
will be relying on coffee first thing.
[34:48]
I suppose you're probably better
[34:50]
to have 500 milliliters of water
[34:52]
before you have a coffee
[34:53]
and a little bit of breakfast.
[34:54]
Be fueled before we add coffee to it.
[34:58]
if you have PCOS and migraines
[35:00]
and therefore you have insulin resistance,
[35:03]
the coffee will alternate
[35:04]
also your blood sugar level.
[35:06]
So it's better to have a meal
[35:07]
and then to have the coffee,
[35:08]
if that makes sense.
[35:09]
It's going to impact it less.
[35:11]
But I find even it like,
[35:12]
and I would only have
[35:14]
maybe two cups of coffee a day.
[35:16]
But I think you're like only,
[35:18]
that's quite a lot.
[35:19]
But different days,
[35:20]
depending on how I am,
[35:21]
it will affect me differently.
[35:22]
And some days, you know,
[35:24]
if I meet a friend,
[35:24]
I could have a third cup of coffee
[35:26]
And then other days
[35:27]
it would literally trigger anxiety in me.
[35:29]
I'd be jittery afterwards.
[35:30]
I'm like, that's too much.
[35:32]
But it depends on my emotional state,
[35:35]
my stress, my other things,
[35:38]
probably my hormones.
[35:40]
It's extremely true.
[35:41]
And the time of your cycle,
[35:43]
I'd argue you need to experience it.
[35:46]
But if you take it
[35:48]
closer to your menstruation,
[35:49]
the days before your menstruation,
[35:50]
it's possible that it has
[35:51]
a negative reaction a bit faster
[35:54]
because at that moment,
[35:55]
your liver is loaded
[35:56]
with all of these toxins
[35:58]
ready to be expelled
[36:00]
through menstruation.
[36:01]
But something to experience
[36:03]
is indeed extremely,
[36:04]
if I have a drop of coffee
[36:08]
I can't sleep at night.
[36:10]
I'm extremely sensitive to coffee.
[36:13]
So like if people bake the cake
[36:15]
or tiramisu and there's like,
[36:16]
I'm like, is there coffee in there?
[36:17]
I'm like, I'm not,
[36:18]
or just a little bit.
[36:19]
I'm like, I'm not touching it.
[36:21]
I'm awake all night.
[36:24]
I'm going to digest
[36:25]
and think of you all night long.
[36:29]
In relation then to nutrition
[36:32]
you know, I've talked a lot around
[36:34]
and I've spoken to people around
[36:35]
gut health and the importance of having
[36:40]
and high fiber foods in your diet
[36:42]
to increase your gut microbiome,
[36:45]
which in turn then
[36:47]
increases your mental health as well
[36:49]
and your hormone health.
[36:50]
What is the advice you give to this
[36:52]
in relation to migraines?
[36:54]
Absolutely, like a full yes,
[36:55]
because all of that is going to
[36:56]
cool down inflammation.
[36:57]
And if you have migraines,
[36:59]
it's not guaranteed
[37:00]
that you have inflammation,
[37:02]
but it's quite probable.
[37:04]
The prebiotics in particular
[37:06]
are going to help with forehead migraines
[37:07]
and the fiber is going to help
[37:09]
with hydrating your digestive tract,
[37:14]
which is going to in turn
[37:15]
hydrate your vagus nerve,
[37:16]
which is going to in turn
[37:17]
hydrate your brain.
[37:19]
And so avoid that dizziness
[37:21]
linked to constipation
[37:23]
that a lot of people can feel.
[37:24]
In prebiotic foods,
[37:25]
some people will talk about
[37:27]
Meniere's disease,
[37:28]
so it's going to help
[37:30]
Yes, so a big yes to that.
[37:32]
Is there anything else
[37:33]
that I'm missing there
[37:34]
in relation to gut health,
[37:36]
what we should be including
[37:38]
in our diet or what
[37:39]
we shouldn't be eating?
[37:42]
You know what, one thing
[37:44]
I find is in the West,
[37:46]
some starches have
[37:47]
a really bad reputation.
[37:49]
And we love fibers
[37:51]
and we love fibers
[37:52]
because fiber can help
[37:53]
relieve constipation.
[37:54]
However, a fiber is technically
[37:56]
not digested by your gastric juices.
[37:59]
A starch will require
[38:01]
your gastric juices
[38:02]
to digest them, OK?
[38:04]
So like the fiber will go through,
[38:07]
the starch will require,
[38:09]
will to be digested,
[38:11]
creates more digestive enzymes
[38:14]
And so whereas they're treated
[38:16]
like a villain in the West,
[38:18]
they have their place
[38:20]
among the food kingdom.
[38:21]
Now, don't have a strictly
[38:24]
That would be completely
[38:25]
counterproductive and would
[38:27]
completely open your hunger
[38:28]
and make you more hungry
[38:29]
and give you more appetite.
[38:31]
However, having a balance
[38:33]
of fiber and strictly fiber diet
[38:36]
very conducive of health,
[38:38]
if that makes sense.
[38:39]
Yeah, so carbohydrates
[38:41]
are good, everyone.
[38:42]
that it's OK to have
[38:44]
a little bit of starchy.
[38:45]
A little bit, yes.
[38:47]
And look, amongst starchy things,
[38:49]
we find taro, we find sparsnips.
[38:52]
I'm not necessarily going to...
[38:56]
Yeah, a little bit,
[38:57]
like everything in moderation.
[38:59]
Everything in moderation
[39:00]
helps to have the right population.
[39:02]
It's a bit like you say
[39:04]
like let's get rid of this ethnicity
[39:06]
or let's get rid of this job.
[39:07]
All of the people who do this job,
[39:09]
we're just going to kill all of them.
[39:10]
Now, that doesn't make sense,
[39:11]
you know, or if you think
[39:12]
of the animal kingdom
[39:13]
or equilibrium of the ocean.
[39:15]
Oh, let's get rid of all of the sharks.
[39:17]
That doesn't make sense.
[39:18]
They have a role to play.
[39:19]
So it's the same with food
[39:21]
and it's the same with your biome.
[39:22]
They all have a role to play.
[39:24]
They all exist for a reason.
[39:25]
They all shapes us as humans
[39:28]
the way we are today.
[39:30]
And so they are an integral part.
[39:34]
Yes, we've abused them
[39:36]
and we have processed them.
[39:38]
Therefore, they've been vilified.
[39:40]
But we should still celebrate
[39:42]
the whole aspect of them.
[39:44]
So, for example, a white rice
[39:46]
is still worth complete celebration.
[39:48]
It serves a purpose.
[39:50]
You know, this is really helpful.
[39:52]
And I think as well,
[39:53]
listening to your body,
[39:54]
you know, everyone's digestive system
[39:56]
Some people are more sensitive than others.
[39:59]
If you're someone who,
[40:00]
you know, gets a lot of cramping
[40:02]
and goes to the toilet quite regularly,
[40:04]
maybe you need a little bit less fiber.
[40:06]
Perhaps then, you know,
[40:08]
if you're someone who is
[40:09]
like quite often constipated,
[40:11]
maybe you need a little bit more fiber.
[40:13]
what people forget when they start,
[40:15]
get loads of fruit and vegetables in there
[40:17]
and loads of whole grains in there.
[40:18]
They forget that we need water as well.
[40:20]
And if you're not drinking enough water,
[40:22]
you could quite possibly just be,
[40:25]
you know, stuffing more
[40:26]
into your digestive system
[40:28]
and it not really being able to push through.
[40:30]
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
[40:33]
You've mentioned a couple of times
[40:36]
Sorry, I don't know why I said that so strangely.
[40:39]
And it's funny, I had a conversation
[40:41]
with a doctor last week on the podcast
[40:42]
about inflammation in the body and aging.
[40:45]
It was really, really interesting.
[40:46]
So I'd love to hear your take
[40:49]
on inflammation in relation to,
[40:51]
are we just talking about
[40:52]
inflammation of the liver
[40:53]
or are we talking other parts of the body
[40:55]
as well in relation to migraine?
[40:56]
No, it can come from other parts
[40:58]
of the body as well.
[40:59]
Yeah, it can be in your stomach.
[41:01]
It can be, let's give a concrete example.
[41:03]
Let's imagine that you have
[41:05]
chronic urinary tract infections, right?
[41:08]
You have some form of inflammation
[41:10]
around your genitals.
[41:13]
And so that is making you have more antibodies.
[41:16]
The same way your body has immunity,
[41:18]
the vagina has its own immunity.
[41:21]
And in order for the vagina
[41:22]
to have its own immunity,
[41:23]
it needs a very acidic discharge.
[41:25]
And the acidic discharge
[41:26]
is what helps to kill the bacteria.
[41:27]
But if you have a lot of mucus in your bowels,
[41:31]
then you start to have an alkaline discharge
[41:33]
and that makes the bacteria very welcome
[41:35]
and it's just create chaos.
[41:37]
And so it's much easier
[41:38]
once you have a bacteria
[41:39]
that enters your vagina to have a UTI,
[41:42]
then you receive antibiotics
[41:43]
and you have more mucus and more dampness.
[41:47]
Sorry, it's a very complex process
[41:49]
I'm talking about now.
[41:50]
But that would be one type
[41:52]
of inflammation as well.
[41:53]
And the chronic UTI
[41:55]
will relate to migraines as well.
[41:58]
So to solve those migraines,
[41:59]
you're going to have to solve chronically
[42:01]
the UTI without recourse
[42:03]
to antibiotics anymore.
[42:05]
The antibiotics, again,
[42:06]
they have their place.
[42:07]
They contribute to the problem.
[42:09]
And so they're going to start
[42:10]
to contribute to the migraines themselves.
[42:12]
So we want to really, as well,
[42:14]
preventatively, like, you know,
[42:16]
if we are prone to these things,
[42:17]
we need to make changes
[42:18]
so that they don't keep happening.
[42:21]
Because once they happen,
[42:23]
if you have a urinary tract infection,
[42:26]
you're going to have to take the antibiotics
[42:27]
because if it goes to your kidney system,
[42:29]
it's really, really problematic.
[42:30]
If it goes to your kidney organ,
[42:32]
it's very problematic.
[42:33]
But if you take the antibiotics themselves,
[42:36]
like sort of having a lifetime of antibiotics
[42:39]
can lead to chronic migraines as well
[42:41]
because it damages the biome.
[42:43]
I think Western science has proven
[42:45]
that the biome is being damaged
[42:47]
by antibiotics and therefore
[42:49]
it damages the brain too.
[42:50]
You can't damage the biome
[42:52]
without doing something to the brain.
[42:54]
So I'm talking about those
[42:56]
sorts of inflammations.
[42:57]
So how you go from being, again,
[42:59]
a migraine sufferer to migraine hero
[43:01]
is by solving that.
[43:03]
You have to solve it.
[43:03]
Solving the inflammation.
[43:05]
Which of these, the sex
[43:06]
that we're talking about
[43:07]
in relation to food,
[43:08]
in relation to the different things
[43:10]
that we've mentioned,
[43:11]
is there anything else
[43:12]
that you recommend
[43:14]
that people implement?
[43:15]
Well, we've talked about many things.
[43:17]
We haven't talked so much about stress.
[43:20]
It can be really a big migraine trigger.
[43:22]
You talked about cortisol before.
[43:24]
There's stress that can be structural.
[43:25]
There's stress that can come
[43:26]
from the migraines themselves.
[43:28]
But then there's stress really
[43:29]
that can come from work
[43:31]
or from a financial situation, etc.
[43:33]
And so trying to either
[43:36]
strategically getting
[43:37]
that source of stress out
[43:39]
or more holistically
[43:42]
tackle that with more meditation
[43:43]
and self-control, etc.
[43:45]
Both approaches are important.
[43:47]
What is for sure is that
[43:48]
when people, of course,
[43:49]
go through massive pain,
[43:52]
the anticipation of pain
[43:53]
can create full anxiety,
[43:55]
which then creates migraines.
[43:57]
So it can be a chicken and egg.
[43:59]
But I think putting explicit effort
[44:02]
and emphasis on managing that
[44:03]
really serves a purpose.
[44:05]
I know we're talking
[44:06]
in relation to migraines here,
[44:07]
but I just find even
[44:08]
in relation to weight gain
[44:12]
quite often with diets,
[44:13]
we're always treating the symptoms.
[44:15]
We're treating the symptoms.
[44:16]
We're not actually getting
[44:17]
to the root cause of
[44:18]
the issue with weight.
[44:22]
I find, lifestyle.
[44:23]
Obviously, there's a lot of
[44:24]
emotional issues with it as well.
[44:26]
But there's always lifestyle factors
[44:28]
that need addressing
[44:30]
and stress factors that need addressing
[44:32]
because it's quite often
[44:33]
like how we deal with food
[44:35]
is a coping mechanism
[44:36]
for what's not right
[44:39]
in our lives or...
[44:41]
It can be, exactly,
[44:42]
it can be very emotional.
[44:44]
For example, I don't know,
[44:45]
you're very angry at something
[44:46]
and so you can binge eat
[44:48]
because you're angry.
[44:49]
But you can also just,
[44:50]
just like blood volume,
[44:51]
have these migraines
[44:52]
and just always want,
[44:54]
you crave sweet things.
[44:56]
The reason why you do that
[44:57]
is because the sweet flavor,
[45:00]
the blood through your limbs and it's going to give you instant energy and you need that
[45:04]
energy to do your lunchboxes and to do your grocery shopping and all of your cooking.
[45:10]
And you know that charm is going to be ruptured after two hours because that magic energy
[45:14]
is going to dissipate after two hours.
[45:16]
But that binging and that bad habit is going to come from an internal imbalance.
[45:21]
It doesn't necessarily come just from will.
[45:23]
No, absolutely not.
[45:24]
I used to think that.
[45:25]
I lost half of my blood in a skiing accident and I used to think afterwards I gained a
[45:30]
I used to think it was just a matter of me deciding that to eat sugar.
[45:34]
Some things are physiological and just deciding in your mind is you know a battle uphill that
[45:40]
is really hard, really, really hard because you constrain yourself but still your body
[45:44]
is after something.
[45:45]
Your body is needing something.
[45:47]
Your body is trying to fix what is wrong, what that imbalance is and it's such a complicated
[45:56]
I always say this, our bodies are literally like this orchestra of all different things
[46:01]
playing together and if one person is off tune, it's like the whole thing.
[46:07]
That's exactly right.
[46:10]
So you've spoken a lot about Eastern, Western practices and I suppose they are kind of coming
[46:16]
together a little bit more in recent times, which is amazing and I'm a big believer in
[46:21]
Eastern practices for a lot of things.
[46:25]
As we're talking stress reduction, I'm a big fan of yoga and of meditation and also of active
[46:32]
meditation for people with really, really busy minds.
[46:35]
It's sitting or lying and meditating can be very, very difficult if you're very stressed.
[46:40]
I'm a big believer in a meditative walk as well.
[46:42]
If you have somewhere nice to go, don't stick your earphones in, get out and actually just
[46:47]
be present with the sea or with the woods or wherever you are and just practice that
[46:51]
bringing yourself back to the present moment while moving because the energy is flowing
[46:55]
in your body a little bit.
[46:56]
I find that really helpful.
[46:57]
So in relation to the East and West then, and you've talked a little bit about the dangers
[47:02]
of taking medications to solve this.
[47:05]
What is your advice in relation to natural versus pharmaceutical solutions to this?
[47:12]
There was a scientific paper published very recently showing that over the last couple
[47:16]
of years, the very positive thing that happened in the migraine world is that there was a
[47:21]
massive raise of advocacy.
[47:22]
A lot of people had started to speak up, namely thanks to social media, and therefore there
[47:27]
were a lot more people aware and a lot more people diagnosed.
[47:30]
And because there were also at the same time a lot more treatments, you'd think that more
[47:34]
people aware, being diagnosed and receiving treatment would lead to a lot better results.
[47:41]
And the study shows the exact opposite, that the more people unfortunately have been made
[47:46]
aware, the more they have been diagnosed and the more they have been medicated, the more
[47:50]
people have been in pain.
[47:52]
So we have skyrocketed the level of pains that we've ever had in terms of migraine disease.
[47:58]
And from that perspective, it is a very, very strong view that go completely East.
[48:04]
And again, why would you do that?
[48:06]
You would do both, and I'll explain to you in which way, but why you do that is because
[48:10]
again, in the East, you pay your doctor as long as you're healthy, and here we're not
[48:14]
in the state of sickness per se.
[48:16]
Even though the body manifests a fire alarm, the house is not burnt down yet.
[48:23]
Yeah, it's still working.
[48:25]
And so that's why you would not try to mute the pain.
[48:29]
However, I find that a Western diagnosis is extremely helpful.
[48:36]
Like when we really have people become these heroes after up to 60 years of pain and just
[48:42]
completely revamping their lives, we use a lot of the Western diagnostic.
[48:47]
Like we ask, and I ask about a hundred questions in the Migraine Heroes app, and I ask for
[48:52]
a hundred questions.
[48:53]
And so a lot of these questions relate to Western diagnosis.
[48:57]
Have you been diagnosed with IBS?
[48:59]
Do you have a leaky gut?
[49:00]
Do you have tinnitus?
[49:02]
Do you have a hypothyroid?
[49:05]
Do you have fibromyalgia?
[49:08]
And all of these will help map what's going on inside the body.
[49:13]
So yes, a great Western diagnostic.
[49:14]
We're really good with diagnostics and that really helps.
[49:17]
And look, a CT scan or an MRI has its place.
[49:21]
It's going to help us to confirm that there is no tumor, right?
[49:26]
So you know it's not something else.
[49:29]
And that's why I'm like, you know what, we're unlucky that the world has spent so little
[49:36]
However, we are lucky that we can both benefit from both.
[49:39]
And I think we should use both and both are incredibly complementary.
[49:43]
Are there supplements that you recommend that we should be taking or could be taking to
[49:47]
help with migraines?
[49:50]
And they've been proven to help.
[49:52]
There's quite a couple.
[49:54]
Now the only thing I will say is I've never met someone who said, I've taken a supplement
[49:58]
and it's gone, right?
[49:59]
I think it's always more complex.
[50:02]
However, it can be very helpful.
[50:04]
So one of them is magnesium, really important.
[50:07]
A second one is riboflavin, which is vitamin B2.
[50:11]
Another one is, for example, Feverfew, which is a form of chamomile.
[50:15]
I mean, those three are probably the most common ones.
[50:20]
CoQ10 is a fourth one.
[50:21]
And those are quite well documented.
[50:23]
On our website, there's a lot of scientific articles and one of them just really details
[50:28]
all of these beautiful supplements that have been proven scientifically to help.
[50:32]
My experience is they can help, but then somehow the effects will disappear after some time
[50:38]
because usually there's a domino effect.
[50:40]
So here again, use your intuition.
[50:42]
If it helps, continue.
[50:44]
If it stopped helping, stop.
[50:47]
You go with your common sense.
[50:50]
Don't pay too much.
[50:52]
If it worked, it's great.
[50:55]
And if it stopped working, then stop it.
[50:57]
There's no point to overflow a glass that is full.
[51:01]
That's a really good analogy, actually, for supplementation because it's a question I
[51:04]
get a lot from people about what supplements to take and quite often I think with multivitamins
[51:09]
and different things, people are literally overflowing an already full glass.
[51:14]
And then you also mentioned a lot about your clients having an alternation between constipation
[51:20]
and runny stools, right?
[51:22]
And so that means that the biome is a bit off.
[51:24]
And when it's off, the absorption is also slightly off.
[51:29]
So sometimes I even say, you know what, keep.
[51:31]
They were very expensive.
[51:32]
They're probably great.
[51:34]
And then once your biome is impeccable, then, you know, add them in and you'll extract the
[51:41]
Because sometimes you also talked about stress.
[51:44]
If you overload your system with minerals and vitamins, you also stress your kidney
[51:53]
You know, if it's a lot to filter, it's sometimes too much.
[51:56]
So you add the problem on top of what's going on.
[51:59]
So the same, we talked about food variety in case of doubt, variety, pause a bit, stop
[52:07]
You know, if you have doubts, but you're unsure, then you know what, just go maybe every second
[52:12]
day or do it for two months and then stop and see how you feel.
[52:15]
Add one at a time.
[52:16]
That can also help.
[52:18]
The one thing I will say is if the supplement is making your biome go up, meaning being
[52:25]
very liquid or very constipated, stop.
[52:28]
This is not helping you.
[52:30]
That's the one thing where you can feel the sign, but your bowel movements are not as
[52:34]
frequent or not as good, then stop.
[52:39]
Give it to your friend.
[52:42]
This has been such an amazing conversation, really, really insightful.
[52:45]
And I think everyone listening, you know, will take a lot from that.
[52:48]
And I think the main message that I'm really taking from this is listen to your body.
[52:53]
Your body is always telling you what you need.
[52:56]
And even if you're not really sure what that is yet, just stop and really just give it
[53:01]
some thought before medicating the symptoms.
[53:05]
It's a conversation.
[53:07]
Do your part in listening and then act and do micro movements.
[53:13]
And trial and error.
[53:16]
If it doesn't work, try something else.
[53:17]
And I suppose give things time as well to work is another thing that I'm kind of getting
[53:21]
You've mentioned a few times about your app.
[53:23]
So I suppose the last question would be if people would like to know more, where is the
[53:26]
best place to find you and what you do in relation to working with clients?
[53:32]
So you can download the app.
[53:33]
It's free of charge and you can start to track your migraines.
[53:36]
I think understanding how they relate to your menstruation cycle, your bowel movements, etc.
[53:41]
is super important.
[53:42]
And then if you want to meet, you can go on my website, MigraineHeroes.com and book a
[53:47]
time and we can talk for 90 minutes.
[53:50]
It's only 30 US dollars, which I can explain.
[53:52]
I think the first thing is to understand because sometimes we've talked a lot about intuition.
[53:57]
If you've had migraines for two decades or three decades, you know, the intuition is
[54:02]
just really hard to have.
[54:04]
You still have a lot, but not fully.
[54:07]
And so just having that conversation, I find super helpful.
[54:10]
So yes, Migraine Heroes.
[54:13]
Thank you so much.
[54:14]
Thank you so much.
[54:15]
I've really enjoyed this conversation and I know that our listeners will just get so
[54:21]
And to have a service available that's so affordable as well is absolutely amazing.
[54:25]
Affordability is super important for us.
[54:28]
I just want to say thank you so much for listening to the podcast.
[54:33]
It really means so much to me that there are people out there actually listening to what
[54:37]
I have to say and to the conversations that I'm having with others.
[54:41]
So thank you so much.
[54:42]
If you are enjoying the podcast, could you please make sure that you are subscribed?
[54:46]
And if not, if you could hit that subscribe button, it really does make that much of a
[54:51]
Also, if you would like to leave a review on any of the episodes that you listen to
[54:55]
that you particularly enjoy, I would love to hear what you have to say.
[54:59]
And also, if there's an episode that you've enjoyed, please do share it on your social
[55:03]
media, in your WhatsApp groups, with your friends.
[55:05]
If you're sharing it on your stories, please tag myself in it and whoever I'm interviewing.
[55:10]
This would be greatly appreciated.
[55:13]
Also, if you're interested in working with me and my wonderful team, please do contact
[55:19]
me about applying for coaching.
[55:20]
So you can contact me at katehamiltonhealth at gmail.com or on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok,
[55:27]
all katehamiltonhealth.
[55:28]
And you will be able to apply for coaching.
[55:30]
We can organize to have a chat and see if it's a good fit for you and get you moving
[55:35]
towards your goal.
