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Could your migraines actually be your body quietly asking for water?
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And are modern habits making dehydration far more common than you think?
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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, 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 even mild dehydration can trigger migraines by disrupting
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brain chemistry and blood flow, the five biggest causes of modern dehydration that most people
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overlook every day, and how to recognize subtle dehydration signals in your body before they
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escalate into a migraine attack.
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Stay with me till the end because at the end of this episode, you will discover a simple
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hydration practice you can start today that will be very deep and may in some people very
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well reduce migraine frequency.
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If you live with migraines, you probably know the frustrating feeling.
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You wake up, your head feels slightly heavy, your concentration drops and within hours
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And many migraine sufferers are going to blame stress, hormones or sleep, which all can be
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Yet dehydration is one of the most underestimated triggers.
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And what makes it even more challenging is that dehydration does not always feel like
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Your body may already be under physiological stress long before you feel the urge to drink,
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or you may feel thirsty constantly in spite of drinking plenty of water.
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From a scientific perspective, dehydration occurs when the body loses more fluid than
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Disturbing the delicate balance of electrolytes and blood volume required for proper cellular
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The human brain is approximately 75% water and even a 1-2% reduction in body water can
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influence cognitive performance, pain perception and blood vessel function.
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A study published in the Journal of Nutrition found that mild dehydration can impair mood,
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increase fatigue and reduce concentration, which are all common pre-migraine symptoms.
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And just as a reminder, I'm always putting the link to those scientific articles in the
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So why dehydration can trigger migraines?
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First of all, researchers propose several mechanisms linking dehydration to migraines.
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The first one, funny enough, is reduced blood volume.
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When dehydration occurs, blood plasma volume decreases, which can lead to reduced cerebral
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The brain becomes more sensitive to metabolic stress.
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It's because in your brain you have 400 miles or 565 km of blood vessels and we need those
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A study in Headache, the Journal of Head and Face Pain, showed that increasing water intake
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significantly reduced migraine intensity and duration in chronic migraine sufferers.
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The second one is the activation of pain pathways.
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The fact that dehydration may stimulate the trigeminovascular system, the network of nerves
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responsible for migraine pain.
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When fluid balance is disturbed, inflammatory mediators and stress hormones increase, sensitizing
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Research published in the Lancet Neurology by Codsby et al. describes how activation
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of the trigeminal nerves leads to the release of neuropeptides, which are major drivers
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And the third mechanism linking dehydration to migraine is that of electrolyte imbalances.
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Hydration is not just about water.
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You have potassium, sodium, magnesium, which are considered electrolytes, regulating nerve
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signaling and vascular tone.
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Imbalances can make neurons hyper-excitable, which is a hallmark of migraine brains.
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Studies published in the Journal of Headache and Pain suggest that magnesium depletion
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plays a role in migraine susceptibility, and dehydration often worsens this imbalance.
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So you might very well know all of that.
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And what I want to put emphasis on today is on the fact that most dehydration today is
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not caused by simply forgetting to drink water, or it can be caused by modern lifestyle factors.
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I'm going to give you 5 of these modern lifestyle factors that can contribute to modern dehydration.
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The first one is air conditioning and indoor environments.
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Most modern indoor environments are often very dry, especially when they have heating
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or air conditioning.
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This increases insensible water loss through skin and breathing.
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The second main cause of modern dehydration is high screen time and cognitive load.
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There's a fascinating physiological reason why hydration matters so much for the brain.
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Your brain represents only about 2% of your body weight, yet it consumes around 20% of
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your body's total energy.
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And interestingly, roughly 75%, 74% to be exact, of your brain is made of water.
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So every time you think, concentrate, or you deal with stress, your brain is not just using
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energy, it's operating within a very delicate fluid environment.
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And those fluids allow neurons to communicate, nutrients to circulate, and heat and waste
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In a way, every thought happens in water.
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Which means that even when we are mentally overloaded, tired, or under stress, maintaining
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healthy hydration becomes essential for keeping the nervous system balanced.
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In addition, and that's a bit of a sneaky one, when we're deeply focused on screens,
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we often ignore thirst signals.
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Research shows that mental workload reduces the perception of thirst, leading to gradual
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dehydration over many hours.
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The third is chronic stress.
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Stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline alter fluid balance and kidney function.
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And so chronic stress may increase fluid loss and reduce awareness of thirst signals.
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Just think when you go to an exam and you have that urge to pee.
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I remember my daughter used to do ballet, and before putting their final tutu on, they
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were all forced to go to the bathroom.
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And once the tutu was on, they couldn't go anymore because anything left over was just
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complete stress related.
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And so when we feel stressed, we feel the urge to pee.
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The fourth cause of modern dehydration is ultra-processed foods.
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Modern diets contain large amounts of sodium and low water-rich foods.
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So processed foods require additional water for digestion and metabolic processing, pulling
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water from your cells.
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Now this one I'm personally really highly sensitive to because probably I know too much.
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But you know, I can tell you this is in the science.
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It's also in your body, something that you can highly feel if you become very much in
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And then the fifth one is a bit of a tricky one.
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It's excessive caffeine consumption.
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Now, some of you might go, I never have caffeine for this increases my migraines.
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But some of you will go the exact opposite and will initially put themselves on the migraines
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through caffeine intake.
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So those second types are the one this message is for.
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Coffee, energy drinks and caffeine in sodas are mild diuretics, meaning they increase
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your urine production.
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And so over time, literally over months, if not years, you may start to suspect that caffeine
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starts to contribute to your migraine as well.
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Now you know the reason why.
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Now together, these factors create a silent and cumulative dehydration pattern that can
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prime the brain for migraine attacks.
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Restoring those fluids is not as simple as drinking water.
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That may feel confusing, but it is something learned and tested from traditional Chinese
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So let's go east for a minute.
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Traditional Chinese medicine has long understood something we're only beginning to discover
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in the West or rediscover in the West, the importance of fluid balance for health of
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the head and of the brain.
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In Chinese medicine, body fluids are known as jinye, the nourishing liquids that moisten
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the organs, tissues and channels in the body.
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And these fluids are not simply water, they're living moisture that keeps the body subtle,
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calm and well regulated.
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Now for the funny anecdote, jin is translated as thin fluids, often associated with the
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lighter, more mobile fluids that moisten the skin and muscles,
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and ye are thicker fluids nourishing the deeper organs and joints.
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So jinye is in itself bringing that idea of those diverse fluids.
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So to support these fluids, traditional practices are going to recommend warm teas, soups, mineral rich
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broth and water sipped slowly throughout the day.
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As Chinese medicine gently reminds us, water taken calmly nourishes the body, water taken
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in haste passes through.
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In the West, hydration often looks very different.
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We carry these large plastic bottles and try to rush down 2 litres of water as quickly
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But from an Eastern perspective, that is not true hydration,
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it is simply liquid passing through the body without necessarily nourishing it.
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In fact, it can actually deplete and form dampness, but that's going to be the object
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for another podcast.
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When these deeper fluids become depleted, a condition called yin deficiency can arise.
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So imagine your body a bit like a factory and yin is going to be the cooling system,
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the water system that surrounds it to cool the factory down.
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It helps regulate the heat, the inflammation generated by all of the work your body performs
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It keeps the system balanced so that you're not overheating at night, waking with night
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sweats or experiencing hot flushes.
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Most importantly, it allows the brain to remain deeply nourished and stable.
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When yin is depleted, your body is going to lose that cooling capacity and the normal
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vital processes of the body begin to turn hot and the brain can become more vulnerable
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As you listen to this, you might really resonate with the Pyramidopause stage.
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If you think of your vagus nerve as a big tree, the yin is really the sap that allows
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for that tree to be nourished and to flourish.
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And that's when you have migraines at that stage of life.
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That is what your brain is mainly one of the things it's actually asking for.
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Ayurveda, another ancient healing tradition, offers a remarkable similar insight.
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From an Ayurvedic perspective, dehydration aggravates the vata dosha, the energy associated
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with movement, communication, and the nervous system.
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When vata becomes excessive, people may, will experience symptoms such as headaches, nervous system
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sensitivity, light sensitivity, fatigue, irritability. Different traditions, different languages, yet the wisdom converges.
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In both traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda, hydration is not simply about drinking
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more water. It's about restoring harmony in the body's fluid system, nourishing the
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body slowly, steadily in a way that truly supports the brain and the nervous system.
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Sometimes the most powerful medicine is not more, but more mindful.
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And as I'm recording this podcast, I'm sipping a Pu'er tea, a traditional Chinese fermented
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tea, known for its deep, earthy flavor and often enjoyed slowly for its warming and digestive
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Now, one action you can do today. Here's
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a simple hydration ritual you can start today at home. So
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when you wake up, immediately after you wake up, like before you dress, before you brush
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your teeth, before you stand up from your bed, when you're still bedridden and your
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thorax is just up and your head is just up, I would like you to try to drink one large
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glass of warm temperature water.
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If you sit still, you will see that the water is absorbed very differently.
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It's going to run deep, really deep and through another corridor.
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You will be able to feel it. And I really encourage you to explore that sensation.
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It is a very unique sensation that is not replicable for the rest of the day.
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This is water immediately accessible to your brain and transformed into Yin.
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Now, to achieve this immediacy after you wake up, you can guess how could a warm water
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cup just be magically above my bed?
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There's nothing magic about this.
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You're going to need to put a thermos above your bed and fill it with boiling water at
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night, the night before, so it's warm in the morning. Make
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It's subtle, yet it is very, very significant, provided you can do so every day in a very
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sort of as a ritual habit.
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Then remember, every small step you take moves you closer to freedom. You're
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powerful, you're resilient and you're not alone.
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Keep rising, American Hero.
