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What if fewer migraines did not come from one miracle solution, but from small daily
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habits quietly protecting your brain every single day?
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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
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My mission in life?
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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'll learn why migraines are rarely caused by just one trigger and
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how tiny daily stresses can stack together until the brain crosses its migraine threshold.
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How the philosophy of atomic habits, small actions repeated consistently, can strengthen
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your nervous system and make your brain more resilient.
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And several simple daily habits you can start today to protect your brain and reduce the
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likelihood of migraine attacks.
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Stay with me till the end because at the end of this episode, you will walk away with a
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series of small, simple habits you can start today that help stabilize your brain and support
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migraine prevention.
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I oftentimes find myself walking through the streets of Auckland in New Zealand, listening
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to audiobooks and podcasts.
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And lately, it has been atomic habits and it sparked a lot of ideas about how we might
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apply those principles to migraines, sharing what we know while helping you gradually build
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real mastery over managing them.
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And so today, I want to try to share with you some of those principles and apply them
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in migraine context and see how that resonates.
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Now, if you live with migraines, you probably know the feeling of confusion that comes with
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You may wake up asking yourself, what caused this attack?
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Was it the weather,
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For many people living with migraines, the attacks feel random and unpredictable.
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And that unpredictability can be incredibly frustrating and emotionally and socially exhausting.
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But neuroscience increasingly shows that migraines are often not random at all.
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And I can attest, we see that every day in our work.
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Instead, they tend to emerge when multiple small physiological stresses accumulate and
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push the brain beyond its tolerance threshold.
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And this idea is known as the migraine threshold theory.
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According to neurologists, the brain of someone with migraines has a lower threshold for sensory
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and metabolic stress.
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And when enough triggers accumulate, dehydration, sleep disruption, stress, blood sugar fluctuations,
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the nervous system becomes hyper excitable and a migraine attack can begin.
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And this is where the philosophy of atomic habits, popularized by James Clear, becomes
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surprisingly relevant to migraine prevention.
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So atomic habits are these sort of tiny actions, repeated consistently, that produce powerful
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long-term outcomes.
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And the key insight is that small behaviors compound over time.
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Improving just 1% each day may feel invisible in the short term, but over months and years,
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those tiny improvements accumulate into meaningful change.
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So when we apply this concept to migraine physiology, we begin to see something important.
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Migraines are often not the result of one large trigger, they are often the result of
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many small imbalances stacking together.
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And this is something described as trigger stacking.
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For example, imagine a day where several small things happen.
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You sleep an hour less than usual, you skip breakfast, you drink less water, you experience
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an unusually stressful meeting, and you spend several hours under bright artificial light.
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And individually, none of those might trigger a migraine, but together, they push your nervous
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system closer to its neurological threshold.
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And once that threshold is crossed, a migraine attack occurs.
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Research published in Cephalalgia analyzed migraine triggers in over 1,700 migraine patients
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and found that attacks often occurred after multiple triggers accumulated rather than
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from a single trigger alone.
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Of course, there are ways and foods to make your brain more resilient to those, even for
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migraine-sensitive brain, but that will be the object of another podcast.
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One of the central ideas of this book is that systems matter more than goals.
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Goals will focus on a destination.
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Systems will focus on the daily process.
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For example, a goal might be, I want fewer migraines, but the system might be, I wake
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up at the same time every day, I eat regular meals, I eat warm meals, I stay hydrated,
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I create consistent sleep rhythms, and I manage stress through daily rituals.
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And those systems are not dramatic, they're small, but they shape the environment in which
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your brain operates.
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And the brain, especially a migraine-sensitive brain, often thrives on predictability and
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Another idea from Atomic Habits is that environment beats willpower.
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Instead of relying on discipline every day, James Clear suggests designing environments
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that make good habits easier.
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This principle can also be applied to people living with migraines.
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Rather than constantly fighting triggers, it can help to design a life that supports
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the brain more naturally, to the extent possible.
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Sometimes you have a toxic boss or a toxic partner.
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Sometimes life is difficult beyond what you would like, and you can't just undo it overnight.
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But for example, keeping nourishing foods easily available, creating consistent sleep
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routines, structuring work rhythms to allow recovery, managing light exposure during the
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day or evening, building small recovery rituals into daily life.
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When the environment supports healthy patterns, habits become much easier.
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And when habits become easier, they become more consistent.
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Consistency is often what makes the biggest difference, not perfection,
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just steady rhythm over time.
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Finally, one of the most powerful ideas in Atomic Habits is the concept of identity change.
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James Clear explains that real, lasting change doesn't just come from changing what you do.
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It comes from changing how you see yourself.
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And this is particularly interesting when we talk about migraines,
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because for many people who live with migraine disease, the identity slowly or abruptly becomes,
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I'm a migraine sufferer.
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I suffer from chronic migraine disease.
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Migraine control my life.
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It becomes part of who you describe your body, your life, and even your future, how
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you think and you fear your future.
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But what if we gently shifted the narrative instead of thinking I'm someone who gets migraines,
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you could begin to think I'm someone who protects my brain.
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I'm someone who truly understands and listens to my body.
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It's a subtle shift, but it's a powerful one.
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When my son in particular complains about the fact I'm imposing good habits at home,
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he says to me, but the other ones are doing all the wrong things and they have no consequences.
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And I tell him, not yet, not yet,
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just wait and see how these compound.
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Negative habits stacking can have a hefty, hefty price on life.
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So charge your course,
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don't look in other people's plates.
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If they want to burn things and not respect their brain, it's their choice for the long
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When you see yourself as someone who protects your brain, your daily choices start to follow
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the way you sleep, the way you eat, the way you manage stress, the rhythms you build into
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And over time, those small choices begin to add up.
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Not because you're forcing discipline, but because they are simply part of who you are
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Now, I'm conscious this is hard and that some of you already do all of the right things.
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we take care of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, nutritionists, functional doctors, sports instructors,
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Migraine can be incredibly complex
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and if you're already doing all of these right things, you're probably missing a small piece
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of the puzzle, which is preventing you from being well.
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If that is your case, download the Migraine Heroes app and meet with me or one of our
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health practitioners.
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We're equipped to address that.
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No need to be ashamed.
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How could you know?
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Now, if you want to experiment with atomic habits for migraine prevention, you can start
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with one simple protective habit in the morning.
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Within the first 30 minutes after waking, try this sequence.
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Drink one warm, large glass of water to rehydrate your brain after sleep.
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You expose your eyes to natural daylight for 5 to 10 minutes, even if it's cloudy.
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Then you eat a balanced, if possible, warm breakfast containing protein and healthy fats
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to stabilize your blood sugar.
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And this simple morning habit helps regulate hydration, circadian rhythm, and metabolic
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key systems involved in migraine prevention.
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And remember, the power is not doing this once.
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The power is in doing it consistently.
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If you miss one, don't beat yourself.
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Consistency beats perfection.
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It's not about rigidity, it's about creating a more natural environment and flow.
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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 not alone. Keep rising,
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migraine hero. Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. No part of this recording may be reproduced without Mooji Media Ltd.'s express consent.
