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Is your thyroid secretly fueling your migraines?
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In this episode, we're diving into 5 overlooked ways your thyroid might be the hidden culprit
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behind those relentless migraine attacks.
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Welcome to Migraine Heroes, a podcast for people living with chronic migraines with
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years of pain, misunderstanding and lack of answers.
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I'm Diane Ducarme.
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I've helped more than a thousand people reduce the burden of migraines and feel more in control.
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My mission in life, to help a million people.
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Each episode brings you grounded insight into what your body might be asking for and what
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Just to keep you fully supported, this podcast is educational.
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For diagnosis or medication, always work with your doctor.
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Now take a breath and let's dive in.
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In this episode, you will learn why the thyroid acts as the metabolic pacemaker of your brain
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and how a slow rhythm lowers your threshold for pain.
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The connection between low internal fire and the buildup for dampness and pressure in the
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head and 5 specific overlooked ways that a struggling metabolism signals the nervous
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system to trigger a migraine.
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I have hypothyroid is an answer that get clicked on a lot in the Migraine Heroes app when people
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complete their full profile.
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More rarely, but we also do get people who have hyperthyroid as well.
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And one of the experiences I have had over and over again is a woman telling me, I went
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to the doctor and he did a blood test and said that my T4 levels, so T4 is the main
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hormone that your thyroid makes, were a lot better and that he was reducing my prescription
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of thyroid medication.
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And it brings me, each time, so much joy.
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You see, when you get to the root cause of your migraines, you should feel side benefits,
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You should feel and see and actually be told by doctors and others that you feel better,
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Now this is something not always easy to achieve, trust me, but it's extremely joyful, not
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just for us, but for you, because in many ways, through your hard work and understanding,
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And always remember to follow your doctor's advice when it comes to diagnosis and changing
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medication treatment.
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Changing thyroid medication is something to be taken extremely seriously.
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When we talk about migraines in Western science, we often talk about hypersensitivity, but
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we must ask, why is the brain so reactive?
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Research increasingly suggests that the migraine brain is a brain in an energy crisis.
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And the thyroid gland is your body's master thermostat.
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It produces hormones that tell every cell in your body how fast to burn fuel.
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Now when your thyroid function is suboptimal, it can lead to a state of hypometabolism.
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This is what is called hypothyroidism.
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And there are five overlooked ways this cold metabolic state triggers a storm.
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First there's mitochondrial sluggishness.
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Your brain uses about 20% of your body's total energy.
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And if the thyroid isn't signaling your mitochondria to produce enough ATP, the cellular currency
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of energy, your brain becomes exhausted.
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An exhausted brain is a vulnerable brain.
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It loses its ability to maintain the gates that keep light and sound from feeling like
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So here this relates to, I'm sensitive to sound when I have a migraine.
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I'm sensitive to smell when I have a migraine.
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Second, we see reduced cerebral blood flow.
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Thyroid hormones influence the elasticity of your blood vessels.
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And when levels are low, blood flow to the brain can become less efficient.
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This slow flow is often associated with the dull throbbing prodrome many of you recognize.
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Now Triptans, which is a class of medication for migraines, will constrict the blood vessels
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to tackle this specific issue.
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Now the problem is of course, you're probably aware of it, is that that same medication
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later can cause rebound migraines, which is really well documented in Western science.
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Now rebound migraines, in my experience, is one of the hardest ones to tackle.
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And it's part of my objectives for 2026.
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Everyone has different New Year's resolution.
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I'm a bit unusual, as you figured that out in that way, and that's part of my resolutions
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So the third overlooked ways in which this cold metabolic state triggers the storm is
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A slow metabolism doesn't just burn clean, it leaves behind metabolic debris that can
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irritate the trigeminal nerve, the main highway for migraine pain.
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Fourth, we have fluid retention.
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You might notice puffiness in your face and ankle, and that same subtle edema or fluid
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buildup can occur around the nerves in the head, increasing the physical pressure your
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And finally, you have electrolyte imbalance.
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The third is going to help manage the pumps that move sodium and potassium in and out
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And when these pumps slow down, the electrical signals in your brain becomes unstable, leading
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to that spreading depression that characterizes a migraine attack.
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And as you can see, when you look at the third function, it is really interesting because
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you can clearly see so many different functions played in so many different ways and parts
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And that is what is quite remarkable, that we are starting to look at this in this way
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It's quite new, actually.
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In the East, the third was never a gland, just one single gland operating in isolation
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like we thought in the West for a long time.
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In traditional Chinese medicine, the third sits at a fascinating crossroad.
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It's understood not as a standalone gland, but as a meeting point of three major systems
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that must move in harmony, the lung, the spleen, and the kidneys.
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And in traditional Chinese medicine, the lung system is in charge of respiration and oxygenation,
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regulating wei qi, so the protective energy governing the skin and immune defenses and
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setting the rhythm of fluids and energy throughout the body.
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The spleen governs transformation and nourishment, turning the food into usable energy and fluids.
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And the kidneys provide the deep reserves, the yin, the yang, the essence that power
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long-term vitality and hormonal balance.
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When these three are aligned, the body adapts with ease.
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And in my experience, this is really based on empirical evidence here, of course, based
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on the well over more than a thousand people we've helped to date.
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And when two out of these three falls out of rhythm, the third goes and basically becomes
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the messenger, and it is when you get the third diagnosis from your doctor.
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When the lung system goes out of balance in traditional Chinese medicine, breathing and
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immunity weaken, fluids stop moving properly, the skin becomes reactive or dry, and the
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body loses its natural rhythm, often showing up as fatigue, frequent infection, congestion,
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sort of a grief that doesn't move, or a feeling of being out of sync with the world around
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When the spleen system goes out of balance in traditional Chinese medicine, digestion
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and energy production weaken, fluids accumulate instead of transforming, mental clarity fades,
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and the body feels heavy, tired, bloated, or stuck in cycles of worry and overthinking.
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And when the kidney system goes out of balance, the body's deep reserves run low, leading
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to fatigue, hormonal instability, fear or insecurity, weak resilience to stress, and
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a sense that the system can't sustain or recover the way it used to.
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In TTM, thyroid symptoms are less about a single malfunction and more about coordination,
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a traffic junction where flow, fuel, and reserve must all agree.
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And that's why thyroid issues are rarely isolated, and why restoring balance means working
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upstream, not just at a glance itself.
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And the reason I'm bringing all this Eastern knowledge is because traditional Chinese medicine
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has been remarkably stable for well over a thousand years.
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Its core framework, the qi, the yin, the yang, the organ system, the way the body is read
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as interconnected whole, was already codified around 2000 years ago.
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And since then, it has evolved through clinical observation rather than constant reinvention.
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The language may be ancient, but the operating system has not changed.
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Now contrast that with the evolution of modern science.
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In Western medicine, the thyroid was anatomically described during Renaissance in the 16th century.
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But for centuries, no one really knew what it did.
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Some thought it was purely structural, others believed it acted like a buffer to warm the
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blood near the heart,
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and it wasn't until the late 19th and early 20th centuries, so really recently, after
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observing that removing the thyroid caused profound fatigue and developmental disorders
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in the brain, that its role in metabolism and growth was finally understood.
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So while Western medicine was still discovering what the thyroid does, Eastern medicine had
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long been observing how the system fell out of balance, often without naming the gland at all.
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And so using both is really powerful here.
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Knowledge is power.
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And so my single piece of advice for you today is, I want you to try to stop the cold intake
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This means no ice in your water, no smoothies for breakfast, and no raw salads for dinner.
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Instead, I want you to choose warm, cooked and easy-to-digest foods like soups, stews
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and sautéed greens.
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By giving your body pre-warmed fuel, you're going to allow your thyroid and metabolism
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to stop wasting energy on heating up your food, and instead, to use that beautiful energy
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to stabilize your brain.
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And remember, every small step you take moves you closer to freedom.
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You are powerful, you are resilient, and you are no longer alone.
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Keep rising, migraine hero.
