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Welcome to the Migraine Heroes podcast, the podcast dedicated to exploring the world of
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I'm Diane Ducarme, your host and a passionate advocate for migraine sufferers and an advocate
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for holistic and personalized care.
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In each episode, we'll dive into inspiring stories, expert insights and practical tips
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to help you live your best life.
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Let's get started.
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Thank you both so much for being with me today.
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We're so excited to be here.
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Yeah, it's lovely to be here.
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It's exciting to be here with Steph as well.
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So here I am with Stephanie and Alex and Steph and Alex are two sisters and they both suffer
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from migraine disease.
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Who is the eldest?
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By three and a half years.
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So do you want to tell us a little bit about your childhood?
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Do you have other siblings?
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Where are you from?
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And let's just start with your lives sort of before migraines.
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Alex, do you want to go or do you want me to start?
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So Alex and I were brought up, I was born in Finsbury Park in London.
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And then when I was two, we moved to the sort of suburbs into a town in Hertfordshire and
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Alex was born and we grew up in a wonderful, really loving home to a Greek father and an
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So there was this beautiful merge of two fantastic cultures and they were both incredibly
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Our mother is a dress designer and my dad was at London College of Fashion and they
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spent our whole childhoods really doing creative things, building our home, you know, mosaicing
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the floor with pebbles and sort of lived a really design led life and family was everything
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We spent all of our time together and so we had a really enriching and loving home to
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So we were very lucky in that respect and it's just the two of us.
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Oh, that's so gorgeous.
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Thank you for helping us picture the tones of the home and how things were.
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And so how was the childhood and when did one of you start to experience a bit of pain
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and start to have a bit of cloud in your life?
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Childhood was really good.
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Me and Steph had a very playful relationship as sisters growing up, did a lot of stuff
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And then I think, to be honest, Steph experienced the migraines first.
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So Steph's probably the best one to talk about when she first started experiencing those
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because for me, my migraines kind of, my childhood was absolutely fine.
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I was very playful, into musical theatre and gymnastics and had a very like just bouncy
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active life growing up.
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And it was only later on for me that the kind of migraines took over.
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So I don't know, Steph, if you want to speak a bit more about when it all started for you.
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I think that's actually a really good reminder.
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We lived a really healthy childhood, like we were super active, as Alex said.
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We were always doing clubs and activities and our parents could never keep us still
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and we would do handstands at home.
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And so we had a really healthy, fabulous childhood.
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And actually, I experienced my first migraine when I was around 16 years old and I went
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to the doctor, when I was 16, 18, and I went to the doctors and wanted to get onto contraception.
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And I was given a combined pill and I came home and took that pill.
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And I experienced a sort of eye shatteringly awful debilitating migraine.
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I didn't, but I didn't know what a migraine was.
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I was in incredible pain.
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I locked myself in a dark room.
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I was really, really worried about my health and immediately went to the doctors the next
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day, explained the symptoms and they said, you've had a migraine.
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So for me, that was just, I lived pre that point in time with no migraines and it was
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And so I obviously instantly came off that medication and had a period of time where
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And then I went to university and at university, I loved it, but I lived a, as lots of people
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do, a sort of frivolous life.
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I was out all the time.
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I was at Leeds University.
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I was drinking alcohol and I would consistently get migraines every time I drank and went
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And so I assumed at the time that it was just related to lifestyle.
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I thought we're not really looking after our bodies.
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We're having lots of fun.
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And so I didn't really take it seriously during that period of time.
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I just muddled through with what I could.
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I was being given conventional medicine, which was Cocodomol at the time, which obviously
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is not the right solution, but I was sort of muddling through thinking this will work
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itself out when I have a more healthy lifestyle when I leave university.
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And what ended up happening is I'm now 33.
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I have migraines all the way from the age of 18 to 33 and they've been consistent in
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And I started to really notice the patterning that, yes, it was when I drank alcohol, but
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also it was when I had my period, when I ovulated and anytime in between when I was stressed
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So it suddenly became as an adult that even when I was living a much healthier lifestyle
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and for example, I now don't drink alcohol, I was still experiencing sort of long periods
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of pain from two to five days at any one given time.
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Can you describe a bit like those two to five days, you know, how would it hit?
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How would it start?
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What triggers would you have?
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How would you notice it coming?
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Did you know or were you sometimes caught off by surprise?
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I think when I first started to get them, I wasn't as in tune with the subtleties of
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So I would just start to feel the throbbing pain in the head and then all of the other
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symptoms would come on from nausea to bowel problems and everything else that you can
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And then as I've grown older and started to be much more in tune with my body, I noticed
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things that I'd become incredibly tired before.
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I sometimes have tiny spots visually in the aura.
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I can sort of sense the lethargy through the body that something is coming and then obviously
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it progresses from there into something which is massively impactful to getting about your
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day how you want to.
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And then do you, when those things happened, who knew, like who would you share it with
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and would you share it at work, at school, with the family?
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How would that part of things happen?
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It's a really good question.
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I think home was the one place that I felt really cared for and understood and looked
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after and family were very tender with me and could see the extent of suffering.
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I think at work, I didn't, because they were so regular, I didn't want to be seen as I'm
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I'm not able to deliver my job.
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So I would say that for the majority of my working life, nobody really knew I was suffering.
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I would show up, I would have piercing, piercing, throbbing pain and be vomiting in the toilets
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at work, but I wouldn't be telling anybody that I was feeling particularly bad because
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I was concerned about the impact it would have on my career progression if people felt
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like I was ill, you know, three or four times a month consistently.
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And so did they notice or they never noticed?
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I think they could probably notice.
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I'm a very energetic, loud, sort of high octane person.
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I think when I experience a migraine, that is dampened to a serious degree.
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So I think they may have assumed that maybe I was a bit tired or not in the best mood
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that day, but they weren't aware of the real, until I said, I have to physically get off
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the screen because I have to go and lie in the dark room unless I have to remove myself.
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And it's the subtleties, isn't it?
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It's things like you're in a fiber optically lit office space, which is contributing to
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It's all of those things, but it's very difficult to explain that to somebody that doesn't experience
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So that is a serious, serious challenge and it's making things worse.
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It's very, very true.
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And you have so many bright lights.
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And so this is how it started for you in your journey, Steph.
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How did it go for you, Alex?
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So for me, it was slightly different to Steph.
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So growing up when I was like mid-teen years, so like 15, 16 years old, I felt my health
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starting to change and kind of decline.
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So I was experiencing a lot of chronic pain, especially in my back.
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I was starting to experience like lots of episodes of extreme fatigue, needing to nap
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I used to take myself out of school because I just couldn't cope with being there.
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And it was like a really difficult time of my life because just I was going to the doctors.
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No one was flagging that anything was wrong in blood tests or anything like that.
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So no one could really see what was going on.
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And then a few years later, when I was in uni, again, the same as Steph, you know, kind
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of still trying to live that kind of fun uni lifestyle, drinking alcohol, not treating
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my body with like the most amounts of care, I then started to get migraines.
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So I think I was probably like 19 when I first started getting migraines.
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And then I've had them consistently ever since, really.
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I'm now 29, so it's been 10 years.
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Can you describe a little bit when you say, I was having fatigue, because I think it's
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really like quite an invasive symptom.
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Can you describe versus another person, what did it mean to be tired for you?
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I literally just couldn't keep my eyes open.
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Like I'd be getting told off at school for just like putting my head on the desk.
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Like I just felt like I couldn't stay awake.
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Everything felt really difficult, even, you know, just getting out of bed in the morning
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is really difficult.
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Or you'll just be going about your day in the afternoon and then all of a sudden you
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just have this overwhelming sense of like, oh my God, everything feels really difficult.
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Even just to walk like across the hallway feels really hard.
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And I just felt this extreme need to just be in bed and close my eyes and there was
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like nothing so I could really do about it.
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And that was really difficult because again, for someone who has never experienced that
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before, it's very easy for people to just be like, oh, you know, like I didn't sleep
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very well last night.
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I'm tired as well.
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It's just this overwhelming feeling that you just, you have no control over.
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So yeah, that was tricky.
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And how did you do at school?
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Like when you would just not miss school, how would your teachers, did anyone see anything?
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So towards my, I think it was like my last year in school, I actually had some of like
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the senior team in the school that would like come and check that I was in my class and
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check how I was doing.
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And there was a period of time where I had to sit outside one of their offices and like
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And I think like no one really understood what was going on.
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I was missing a lot of days.
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My parents weren't always aware because I would just bring myself home from school sometimes
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and my parents would be out at work.
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So yeah, I think there was kind of, they were trying to keep notes on where I was and what
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I don't really think there was a high level of support in my school.
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I didn't feel like I was given much support.
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It was more just checking I was showing up.
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So yeah, it was tough.
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And so for you, Steph, when you were seeing your sister like that, you know, how did that
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make you feel or what was going through your mind?
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It's really hard in those situations because you feel very helpless.
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So one half of you is like, how can we fix this together and trying to solve the root
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cause and the other half of you is wanting to create space and tenderness for the person
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in their suffering.
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But then there's also, you know, the added complexity of we're sisters.
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Our parents also are incredibly loving.
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They had an expectation about their children, you know, showing up to school and staying
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on the sort of straight and narrow.
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So you're sort of, there's a different balance of dynamics that's going on there.
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There's care, there's love, there's support, but there's also encouragement to get up and
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out and to continue, you know, not losing your life and to be showing up to school.
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And so there was a tension there about what the right thing to do was, I think, both for
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me and for my parents.
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It's really interesting when you talk, you mentioned you separate the compassion versus
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solution. It's really rare that people would do that.
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I think most people who do not suffer from migraine disease, they go from problem to
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solution and they skip the step of compassion in their language.
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It's really interesting to see that in action and say, you know, trying to find the balance
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between compassion and trying to also, you know, help your sister move forward and find
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some form of relief.
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And so and so you both grew up and so there are moments where there are moments when you
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both were in bed and you were like, OK, today's just rotten for the both of us.
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We've actually it's really interesting bringing us together at this point in our lives
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because we both got migraines around between 16 and 19.
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We then went to university and then we both left home.
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So we've never lived in a home together when we've been suffering.
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So we're sort of we are that we're sort of support systems that we both live in London,
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but on different sides. And so we'll always be texting each other and very compassionate.
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We'd actually never lived in the same house, which in some ways makes it better because
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when one when I was suffering at the beginning, when Alex was younger, she could come and
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look after me and bring me little snacks or a cold compress for my head.
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Or, you know, it'd be very difficult, I think, for two people to be suffering at the same
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time in the same home because you need people to help look after you.
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And so who would these people be when you left home?
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Who would be the people looking after the two of you?
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I think for me personally at university, I was the main one looking after myself, which
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is really hard because obviously when you're in a lot of pain, even just like get yourself
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to the bathroom, if you're feeling really nauseous, it's really hard.
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Well, you know, if you need some water sometimes, like to make that trip down the stairs to
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the kitchen is just absolutely agonising.
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So it was for me, it was quite a tricky time.
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I definitely helped myself a lot and was able to, you know, call in some of my housemates
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when I needed them. But for most of the part, it was it was quite a hard journey on my own.
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And for you, Steph?
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I think at university, no one was really aware of what being ill with a migraine was.
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People just thought you were a bit hungover.
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And so it didn't have the same weighting.
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I think once I left university and lived with friends and partners, they really understood
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it. But really, there isn't anything that they can do apart from give you the space
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and time and quietness that you need.
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And then ideally, it's things like cooking so that when you have a moment to bring
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yourself out of bed and you need to eat something, there is something nourishing that's
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been cooked for you. Because the thought of popping out to the shop and being able to
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cook is is furthest away from your mind.
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Or if you've been sick, it's like what are those soft foods that you need somebody to
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prepare for you for you to be able to bring yourself back up after and after a sort of
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nauseous, vomiting sequence of time.
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But really, actually, I think the things that friends do, which was the most supportive
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is to understand that I had to cancel things.
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And I'm somebody that is a yes person.
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I love doing everything. I have a fear of missing out.
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I'm a big host, like we're from a Greek family.
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You know, I love being involved in absolutely everything and to have to say no to
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things, whether it's birthdays or celebrations or important things to other people.
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You know, I would push through nine times out of 10.
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But there were those odd occasions where it was physically impossible to really leave the
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house. And I think the most supportive things that friends could do was to understand that
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there was a real reason why you were not showing up for things.
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Did you find some of your friends were more understandable than others?
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Definitely. I think I think those that live with you see the real struggle and the length
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of time and the wear and tear of the wearing down that it has on you and your
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personalities. Well, you lose your personality when you are going through a migraine and
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recovering from a migraine, even when the pain has subsided.
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There is this sort of depressive low energy that can cloud you for a period of time.
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So I think it is I think those that live with you really understand it and anyone that
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doesn't doesn't. But I think we have to make our peace with that and just over explain
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to people if there was anything I could do to be there, I would and I really care about
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you. But I'm physically unable to at this period in time.
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I love I want to echo your sentence like you lose your personality.
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It's so true. There's just so many women like you that I'm meeting for the first time
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later. Like it's it's incredible to see when we do an onboarding call and when we do
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this, like the level of difference of energy, of outlook to life, of positivism for
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the ones who are listening to us, not hearing us.
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When Steph was describing a migraine attack, she had a big smile.
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I didn't want to, you know, like pick on it, but I really thought, oh, wow, that's just
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a very bold way to describe a pre-drome migraine attack and post-drome, you know, just
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And so it does change your personality in a very negative way, but then also in a
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positive way when it goes.
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And so do you want to comment on how you found me?
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What happened? Yes.
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And this is just a stroke of beautiful fate and luck and the universe putting us
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together, I think.
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And a very, very close friend of mine from university called Angelica is a chef and she
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wanted to deepen her understanding and knowledge of food.
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And she comes from a wonderfully holistic family.
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Her mom is a homeopath.
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And so she was signing up to this brilliant course to expand her knowledge and learning.
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And she met you, Diane, on the course.
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And she has she lived with me at university.
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She's been a best friend of mine for years.
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She currently lives with me now in London.
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And she came home from one of the courses and said, oh, I've met my introductory group
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and I've met this amazing woman called Diane and she's working on something for
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migraines. You should you should check it out.
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And at this point, you know, I've been on conventional medicine.
[16:57]
I've reduced drinking.
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I'm starting to look into holistic methods, but I haven't found anything that is going
[17:03]
to support me on that journey.
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It's all self research.
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It's speaking to different people.
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And so she introduced us and I went through the online the online program.
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I thought, what have I got to lose here?
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You know, I am open to absolutely anything that could give a positive progress on this
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journey. And how amazing that something like this exists.
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And so that was the first time we met.
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And I couldn't believe that it had just been so perfectly introduced at a perfect time
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in my life where I was ready to really, really commit to a holistic health journey.
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Now, that's so special.
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That's so special.
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You know, I took that class.
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Indeed, I I've been working for the last five years with Dr.
[17:42]
Zhang and we've known each other since 2011.
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So a long time, 13 years now.
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And and I was, you know, I thought, let me perfect the knowledge.
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For me, it's also a passion.
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I always love learning more.
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I also thought it's always nice to have a bit more diplomas than not.
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And, you know, you meet these wonderful people that, you know, learn that that for
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different motivation of self-care or of curiosity, come and join the class.
[18:09]
And I love that Angelica would.
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I thought, wow, a chef that is so brilliant, you know, in an age of a lot of people
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cooking on social media and sometimes unwillingly or unintentionally doing quite a bit
[18:22]
of harm because some of these recipes are quite can be quite gut wrenching.
[18:26]
How she would look at it from a from a health perspective, too, I thought it was
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brilliant. I was quite grateful that she put us in touch.
[18:34]
Yes. And I vividly remember our conversation and how fastly you grasped on all of these
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concepts. Like you seem to be very, very aware of how food can serve as medicine and
[18:45]
very receptive to it, which is quite brilliant.
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And so we started together.
[18:49]
Do you want to comment on how, you know, how it changed you or how it went along?
[18:53]
100 percent. I am I think of my life actually now in two halves.
[18:58]
When I joined your program and we had our first conversation, I was in a really, really
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dark place where I was really struggling because I had tried so many things.
[19:08]
I was caring for my body in so many ways.
[19:10]
But there was just this relentless pattern of migraines.
[19:13]
And I honestly felt like I was a migraine sufferer that had gaps of bright migraine free
[19:19]
days. And now through the past year and a half that we've been on the program, I feel like
[19:24]
I have a bright, free life and I have specific episodes of migraines that I now learn how
[19:29]
to manage. And there has been there's two things here.
[19:32]
There is the progress, which you can measure in like, you know, my pain has reduced by
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maybe that 60, 70 percent.
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The frequency of the migraines, I now only can have them for one to two days versus four
[19:43]
to five. You know, there's all of this incredible, positive progress and I can live much
[19:48]
more freely. And that's the sort of data and evidence of my body's healing itself through
[19:55]
this amazing program.
[19:56]
But I think the thing that I underestimated when I signed up, which has changed my life,
[20:00]
is the support that I have from you, from Helena, from the community that I'm working
[20:06]
with. And I didn't realize how lonely I felt until I had support.
[20:10]
And I feel through you and through the community of women that share so honestly that
[20:15]
there is somebody every step of the way on this journey, like celebrating the wins there
[20:19]
for the bits that are more difficult.
[20:22]
And having that partner every day with me in my pocket and at the end of the phone is
[20:29]
life changing. Like it feels the most, I feel the most hopeful and most energized because
[20:35]
my health is the best it's ever been on this journey.
[20:37]
But I also feel like incredibly hopeful.
[20:40]
The other thing around this whole, whole experience that I really want to stress is I,
[20:45]
you know, I'm a sort of highly energetic, but I'm also incredibly ambitious.
[20:48]
Like I'm a career woman.
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I work as a managing director at a global brand consultancy.
[20:54]
I get lots of energy and I love my work and I love my team.
[20:58]
And I love the impact that we have with our clients on the world and in culture.
[21:01]
But I genuinely, when I joined you, it was this is either going to work for me or I'm going
[21:07]
to have to seriously consider potentially quitting my job and spending a year just working
[21:12]
on my health because I can't continue to live like this.
[21:15]
It has been a relentless 12 years and I can't function properly like this.
[21:19]
And I'm suffering so much.
[21:21]
I genuinely felt that that period of time.
[21:23]
I think I told Alex, I told my mom, I said, if I can't find some positive signals,
[21:27]
I've changed, I will have to consider just completely stripping back my life
[21:31]
and committing to that as the first priority, a hundred percent.
[21:35]
And so now I'm thriving in my job.
[21:38]
I'm loving this program.
[21:39]
There's still work to do.
[21:40]
And I understand that it's, you know, I've suffered for so many years.
[21:44]
It's probably going to take that, you know, a period of time to get to full,
[21:47]
full clearness and freedom from migraines.
[21:50]
But I, the idea that I can live both parts of myself, I can have this amazing career.
[21:55]
I can have a wonderful relationship.
[21:57]
I can love my friends and family and be out all the time.
[21:59]
And I can still suffer from migraines.
[22:01]
And we're working on that progress together.
[22:03]
It's just I live a full life and I live a life that is true and authentic to me.
[22:07]
And I didn't believe that was possible when I met you a year and a half ago.
[22:10]
Yes, it's very true.
[22:12]
And people don't think it's possible.
[22:14]
Like when they, yeah, when we meet there and these people are like, well,
[22:17]
you see all of the things I want to hear.
[22:19]
But, you know, no way, no one ever managed to pull this off.
[22:24]
Like what you say, I'll share the podcast with Hélène and Julie.
[22:27]
You know, it's so true that every single day we go through every single profile,
[22:32]
every single one of you.
[22:33]
And we're going through, OK, who's made progress, who is, you know,
[22:38]
catching a cold or, you know, COVID or something.
[22:41]
Who's, you know, state of health changed because then we have to act on it.
[22:46]
Or if there's a lot of stress, a bad bus, you know, something like that.
[22:50]
And so it means a lot because I completely relate like to ambition.
[22:54]
I think it's great to be a woman with ambition and it is great to be a
[22:59]
homemade person. I think, you know, you almost wish you had two lives to
[23:03]
experience both. Yeah.
[23:04]
So it's really special to be able to see you thrive.
[23:07]
I think when I started this, I expressed it to my coach.
[23:10]
I had a coach, career coach, because I was like, I really don't like the
[23:14]
impact I'm having in the world at this stage.
[23:15]
And I formulated it as I would like to enable people to do the small and
[23:19]
large things they want to achieve in their life.
[23:21]
And I really feel that it's really special to hear to hear you express
[23:26]
these thoughts. It's always special.
[23:27]
You know, for me, it's always a first time.
[23:30]
I never cease to be happy and, you know, to keep going with that beautiful
[23:34]
energy. So, yeah, thank you for sharing that super special.
[23:38]
And at some point with all of the compassion and empathy, you contacted
[23:42]
Alex, which was really special.
[23:44]
And so, Alex, I spoke to you and you said, I'm the sister of Stephanie.
[23:47]
I'm like, which Stephanie?
[23:49]
I'm like, oh, because, yeah, I was like, wow.
[23:52]
OK, Stephanie UK. Yes, of course.
[23:55]
So do you want to comment a little bit on that, maybe, Alex?
[23:59]
Yeah, sure. So I'd obviously I knew Steph was on a program
[24:03]
that was based out of, you know, Chinese medicine, functional foods.
[24:07]
And that was already something that I was really interested in anyway.
[24:10]
I was having regular acupuncture.
[24:11]
I'm really interested in like Eastern medicine in general.
[24:14]
And I started to see like the progress that Steph was having.
[24:19]
So it just got to a point in time where my migraines were really,
[24:23]
really bad to the point where I actually ended up quitting my job.
[24:26]
So I was working as a software engineer.
[24:28]
It was a lot of screen time.
[24:29]
I mean, a lot of us have a lot of screen time in this day and age anyway.
[24:33]
I was having that thing of, you know, frequently having to drop off line
[24:39]
At one point, I even searched in our SAC channel like the word like migraine.
[24:44]
And just the amount of times I'd had to put like, sorry, guys,
[24:48]
I'm going to have to drop off, have a migraine,
[24:50]
like we'll hopefully be able to jump back online later was just shocking.
[24:54]
And I just yeah, I got to that point where I was like,
[24:56]
I have to put my health first. I can't do this anymore.
[24:58]
So it was a really big decision.
[25:00]
But I ended up leaving my job and got in touch with Steph and just said to Steph,
[25:05]
like, hey, can you just share the details?
[25:07]
Like, I really want to do this and was really inspired by the progress
[25:11]
that I was seeing.
[25:12]
And then, yeah, I arranged the call.
[25:14]
I filled out the online consultation.
[25:15]
I arranged the call with you.
[25:17]
And I was just I felt so insanely hopeful, like from the get go,
[25:20]
like even in that initial consultation that we had, I just it was yeah,
[25:25]
it was amazing to talk to someone who just really got it.
[25:28]
I just felt like my experience was really validated
[25:31]
and I could already start to see how like these patterns that had emerged.
[25:35]
And yeah, I just felt really excited about like going on this journey
[25:38]
with you and your team and having the opportunity to
[25:43]
get to know and understand like my body on a deeper level.
[25:46]
And just really I wanted to be able to feel like I was going to gain some tools
[25:50]
to be able to manage this, to manage this and understand
[25:53]
why certain things were happening.
[25:55]
And yeah, I started to I started to see results quite quickly.
[25:58]
I've only been on the program,
[25:59]
I think maybe like five months or something, four months.
[26:02]
And I'm already seeing like really promising results.
[26:04]
So yeah, it's been it's been amazing.
[26:07]
Yeah, it's so special.
[26:09]
And I I find a lot of people who join us, they have a lot of translation
[26:13]
in their work or the way they collaborate to society.
[26:17]
And so if they've quit their job, they can start again if they desire to.
[26:22]
It's almost like you get a second chance with your time.
[26:25]
And it's like we choose what you chose before
[26:28]
or you do something completely different.
[26:30]
And it's always a question I ask, you know, to women when they,
[26:34]
you know, finish or when they're like, oh, wow, I'm like, I've got this.
[26:38]
This is incredible.
[26:39]
Like, what will you do with your time?
[26:41]
And yeah, it's quite a special question.
[26:43]
Let's go for this.
[26:44]
It's almost like for a normal person, like if I was giving you
[26:47]
another full day every day, what would you do with it?
[26:50]
It's like, oh, I don't know. Let's think about it.
[26:53]
It's quite a crispy feeling.
[26:54]
Like it's so special.
[26:55]
So I look forward to, you know, having you find purpose.
[26:59]
I think, you know, once you have health plus purpose,
[27:02]
you have just, you know, a massive level of happiness.
[27:04]
I didn't know it was a pull.
[27:07]
You asked Steph versus Steph said you should do it.
[27:09]
You should do it. You should do it.
[27:12]
I think it's one of those things, isn't it?
[27:14]
In life, the person has to be ready to go on that journey themselves.
[27:17]
So I've been sharing.
[27:19]
This is incredible.
[27:19]
These are some positive signals.
[27:21]
You should really think about it if you're suffering.
[27:23]
It requires the person to be ready to say, like, I'm ready to commit to this.
[27:27]
I really want to go on that.
[27:28]
So I think I was very careful of giving Alex all of the space
[27:32]
and updates that she needed, but ultimately promoting
[27:35]
that it was the best investment she could ever give herself.
[27:38]
And then when Alex was ready, it was the right time.
[27:41]
Yeah, I think as well.
[27:43]
I think for me, I already had like a bit of a tricky relationship with food.
[27:47]
So as I got when I was kind of I think in my early 20s,
[27:51]
I ended up having some tests done where I finally found out
[27:54]
that I had a histamine intolerance and I had something else called HP
[27:57]
where my body didn't absorb vitamins and minerals properly.
[28:00]
So my relationship with food was quite difficult.
[28:03]
I already felt like overwhelmed by, you know, I shouldn't eat this.
[28:07]
I should eat this.
[28:07]
Maybe I could eat this today, but it might give me a migraine or, you know.
[28:11]
So when I found out that Steph was on your program
[28:14]
and, you know, it was centered around functional food,
[28:17]
I think initially I was like, oh, God, I'm I'm not sure I can,
[28:21]
you know, take on something else that requires me to think about about that.
[28:25]
And then once I quit my job and I and I ended up joining the program with you,
[28:30]
I actually was so surprised at how easy it was to the way that you guys
[28:36]
have set it up, it's so easy to sort those things into however
[28:40]
you're already eating or whatever your preferences already are.
[28:43]
It didn't it didn't feel like this big, overwhelming thing
[28:46]
that I now needed to consider.
[28:48]
I was just able to drop, pick and choose what I wanted from the list,
[28:51]
you know, and bring those into my life on a daily basis.
[28:55]
So, yeah, I was really grateful of the way you guys set up.
[28:58]
So special you say that.
[29:00]
So like the way we now call it the Migraine Heroes app works is we're really adding.
[29:05]
Removing is useful because remove allows to de-trigger.
[29:10]
However, you know, you de-trigger something, then something else pops up,
[29:14]
then something else pops up like you're it doesn't allow your body to regenerate
[29:17]
and fully function and use other foods to do the work.
[29:22]
So, yes, it's a big commitment to make it very simple,
[29:25]
make it as simple as possible so that it can go into your life and mom's life
[29:30]
and people who are very busy in executives or doctors, nurses.
[29:34]
Even we work with nutritionists, you know, to just make it simple.
[29:37]
I appreciate you say that.
[29:38]
The first time I have to confess, the first time I started,
[29:42]
I would bombard people with like eight listed and I would give them a lot of food.
[29:47]
They were like, oh, my God.
[29:49]
And I lost a lot of them like that.
[29:51]
And I thought, wow, I think I'm a bit too intense.
[29:53]
I want to achieve too many things.
[29:55]
And I realized also for the it was not just intense for the person.
[29:58]
It was also intense for the body.
[30:00]
So gradually I learned, OK, you know, here's how you unpeel the onion.
[30:04]
There's many layers to the problem.
[30:05]
You unpeel it step by step.
[30:07]
You can go at a certain speed.
[30:09]
And if you go too fast, you create more chaos and more damage
[30:12]
and more homeostasis like the body grips and says, OK, we're not going to change.
[30:16]
This is scary. I don't want to do this.
[30:19]
I would also say building on that as somebody that's incredibly busy
[30:23]
and feels like shouldn't have any time in the day.
[30:24]
And sometimes you can you be working so hard
[30:26]
that you're not really thinking about lunch.
[30:28]
And I would actually say it's created a really healthy ritual around my life
[30:32]
eating, and it's helped me be really intentional.
[30:35]
So it's a ready made shopping list for you when you go to the shop
[30:38]
to pick the right foods.
[30:40]
And then because you are committed to doing it consistently every day
[30:43]
with your food groups, it forces you to create that moment
[30:46]
and that space and that time in your day to sit, to enjoy the food,
[30:52]
to chew it properly, to be mindful with eating.
[30:56]
And I think that has been like a secondary benefit to me with eating,
[30:59]
that it has allowed me to slow down, to create the time, to prepare
[31:03]
a food that is very good for my body and it's nourishing
[31:06]
and just have a moment away from the busyness of life.
[31:09]
And I think if I wasn't on the program,
[31:11]
I wouldn't have such a positive experience with food in that way.
[31:16]
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
[31:17]
I also find teas quite useful because some days are just really hard.
[31:22]
Well, I don't know if you have travel for business when you might do like
[31:25]
we talked about this, actually.
[31:27]
You need the quick fix, you know, in between meetings
[31:29]
when everyone's having a meal and you have to cope with that meal of that day.
[31:34]
Yeah, there are there are obviously the quick wins, the easy ones.
[31:37]
And then there's a slightly more complicated ones.
[31:38]
But as you say, there's always a mixture in each list.
[31:41]
So it makes it really easy.
[31:42]
Exactly. Always a mixture of something simple, something more adventurous,
[31:47]
you know, so that everyone can have a happy palate, a happy belly and a happy brain.
[31:51]
Yes. And I'm also very happy to switch.
[31:53]
You know, I'm very happy to be switching out.
[31:55]
I've got all my medication in my bag and I've got my saffron fronds
[31:59]
and, you know, an orange that I carry around everywhere.
[32:02]
My little sandwich bag. It's a very different experience.
[32:05]
Yeah, it's a very different experience.
[32:06]
And women do say that they're like, oh, I carry a couple of my tea bags or whatever.
[32:10]
I used to carry medication.
[32:11]
Now I carry just a few simple foods.
[32:13]
It's absolutely special to experience.
[32:16]
So do you have any closing thoughts for the audience,
[32:19]
like for people who suffer like kindness, compassion
[32:23]
and intention that you want to bring out to them?
[32:27]
I would say from my personal experience,
[32:30]
I felt like I'd kind of, you know, tried everything.
[32:33]
I'd been on this already, what felt like a seven year journey of,
[32:36]
you know, different holistic practices.
[32:39]
And I felt like I tried all the different things.
[32:41]
And, you know, I felt really like you'd have some peaks
[32:44]
where you felt like you were doing well and then it would drop again.
[32:46]
And I couldn't really catch a grip on it.
[32:48]
And since finding Migraine Heroes,
[32:51]
it's really helped me to see that like this is a journey.
[32:57]
And when you find something that you can do consistently every day
[33:01]
and you can monitor that and you can have the ability to, you know,
[33:05]
check in with yourself, check in with someone else
[33:07]
and have a bit more understanding of why these things are happening,
[33:11]
as opposed to, you know, just trying these different things on your own,
[33:15]
that you can have some consistency with that journey and see real results.
[33:20]
And yeah, it's just it's it's really amazing.
[33:23]
And I think one thing I would personally recommend is
[33:26]
even if you don't join the program, like having some kind of support system
[33:30]
around you for if you are a migraine sufferer, like Steph said earlier,
[33:34]
is just absolutely life changing in itself.
[33:37]
I think having support, having people to understand,
[33:40]
even just having the ability to share how you're feeling and not
[33:43]
holding all that load on yourself, because I think the weight of holding
[33:46]
in all the feelings around the migraine is a lot.
[33:49]
So, yeah, share and be hopeful.
[33:51]
And there are things that can help.
[33:52]
And I would highly, highly recommend the program because, yeah,
[33:55]
it's it really is life changing.
[33:57]
Oh, thank you so much, Alex. It means a lot. Thank you.
[34:00]
I also just want to really express my gratitude.
[34:03]
As Alex said, both of us had been very intentional
[34:06]
about trying to work through this migraine and unpicking it
[34:09]
through both conventional medicine and holistic medicine.
[34:12]
And we were struggling doing it on our own.
[34:14]
And it is just such there is just so much benefit of doing it together
[34:19]
with you every step of the journey.
[34:21]
It's incredibly hopeful.
[34:22]
You see amazing results and it really allows you to find yourself again.
[34:27]
Like I've I understand my body on a much more intimate level,
[34:31]
but I've also found my energy, my personality, my relationship is flourishing.
[34:35]
We've just got engaged.
[34:36]
And actually, if you'd have asked me a year ago, I would have said to you,
[34:42]
I would be terrified to pick a date in the year because, you know,
[34:46]
half of my year is out because of migraines around my menstruation,
[34:49]
around my ovulation.
[34:50]
And it would have caused me a lot of stress to commit to a day
[34:54]
in case I suffered from something.
[34:56]
And now I feel like there's a few dates that are around my menstruation
[35:00]
that I'd have to avoid.
[35:00]
But actually, I've got a full full run of the year.
[35:03]
I'm really excited to book that day.
[35:05]
And I know I have all the support around me to ensure that I will be able
[35:09]
to get to that day and love every minute of it with a clear mind.
[35:13]
And so, you know, it's the big and the small things, as you say, Diane.
[35:16]
It's the small things that you can enjoy your day.
[35:18]
You can stay in your job.
[35:19]
You can have a wonderful relationship.
[35:21]
You can enjoy going out for a walk and doing your yoga and the things
[35:24]
that you really love.
[35:25]
And it's also the big things that there are these big milestones in life
[35:28]
that you are supported and protected with that you can just enjoy
[35:32]
at the ultimate level.
[35:33]
There's a lot of suffering around migraines, and I think being
[35:37]
with Migraine Heroes allows you to experience just as much joy
[35:41]
and celebration in your life.
[35:42]
And that's such a big shift that it's such a gift to be able
[35:45]
to do that with you.
[35:46]
Yeah, you know, it's so good what you say.
[35:49]
I think you've really touched upon work and relationships,
[35:52]
and both usually suffer so much with migraine, therefore personality,
[35:57]
you know, these aspects of life that are pillars for happiness.
[36:02]
And so, yes, we strive to repair all of those.
[36:05]
And I mean, as you understand, you're a business person.
[36:07]
Like for us, you know, we did not take investors because we were like,
[36:10]
we don't want to sell for money.
[36:12]
We want to solve the problem we want to solve for your life.
[36:15]
And that's how we measure our happiness.
[36:17]
And so for those who listen, I think when we have migraines,
[36:21]
we feel incredibly vulnerable.
[36:23]
So take your time.
[36:24]
You know, it takes time.
[36:25]
Feel your time, your universe, your calling, the things that you need
[36:30]
And when you feel ready, we're always ready for you.
[36:33]
Thank you so much.
[36:33]
Thank you so much.
[36:37]
If you're enjoying this episode, please take a moment to rate and review
[36:41]
the Migraine Heroes podcast on Spotify or Apple podcasts.
[36:45]
Your support helps us reach more people in need of guidance, hope, and help.
[36:51]
Affordability is very important to us.
[36:54]
Many people with migraine face financial struggles.
[36:57]
That is why we offer a free plan on our Migraine Heroes app.
[37:01]
To learn more about the other plans, visit our website.
[37:04]
Check the description below.
[37:07]
Have questions about migraine or need quick advice?
[37:10]
Check out the Migraine Heroes chat, a smart but like chat where you can ask
[37:16]
all your migraine related questions.
[37:17]
It's available 24-7 to support you.
[37:20]
You'll find the link in the episode description.
[37:23]
Found this episode helpful?
[37:25]
Share it with someone who could benefit from it.
[37:28]
Together, we can spread awareness and support our migraine community.
[37:33]
Looking for a personalized, holistic approach to migraine care?
[37:36]
Download the Migraine Heroes app and take the first step towards
[37:40]
understanding and managing your migraine.
[37:43]
Thank you for listening to the Migraine Heroes podcast.
[37:46]
Don't forget to take our migraine tests to uncover your unique profile.
[37:51]
Download the Migraine Heroes app to start your journey to better migraine management.
[37:55]
Join our supportive community of the Migraine Heroes on Facebook.
[37:58]
If you loved this episode, leave us a rating and share it with your friends.
[38:03]
Let's keep spreading hope and healing.
[38:05]
All the links mentioned are available in the episode description.
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