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Could that creamy avocado on your toast actually be adding to your migraine?
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Let's dive into the surprising connection between avocados and migraines.
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Migraine Heroes is a podcast for chronic migraine sufferers who've seen countless doctors with no
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results. Learn how to reduce your migraine attacks without endless medications or constant sacrifices.
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Hello, I'm Diane Ducarme. I've helped over 500 people break free from migraine,
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even after suffering for up to 60 years. My mission in life? To bring this relief
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to a million people using a unique blend of eastern medicine and western science.
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In this episode, you will learn the benefits of avocados from a TCM perspective
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and how it can bring your body out of balance as well.
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Why avocados may trigger migraines and whether it's you or just the reputation.
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And how western studies quantify avocado triggered attacks and what the possible mechanism is.
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When I first began this work, I put together a database,
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57 functional foods and a handful of herbs, and I thought this would be about it.
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Over time, as we were solving more and more complex cases, that number has grown. Today,
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we're working with over 750 functional foods, herbs, and their combinations. And one of those
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is or was avocado. At a first glance, it seems innocent, beautiful, even. And yes,
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it made it quite early into our database. But very quickly, I stopped recommending it.
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Despite its reputation, I saw it wasn't restoring balance. In fact, it was doing the opposite.
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So today, we'll flip the script. I'll begin with the eastern perspective,
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why I initially thought avocado might help. And then we move into the western view to
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uncover the nuanced truth about this creamy green fruit. And yes, fruit is exactly what I said,
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that was not a slip of the tongue. Avocado is a fruit, more specifically, a berry with a single
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large seed. Botanically, it's classified as a fruit because it develops from the ovary of a flower
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and contains a seed. And so despite its savory flavor and creamy texture, which often places it
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in the vegetable category, in the vegetable category in culinary use, it is technically
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a single seeded berry. Now, that's a funny way to look at it. Now, from a traditional Chinese
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medicine perspective, avocado is a nourishing and yin-supporting fruit with a rich oily nature that
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moistens dryness and replenishes fluids. It enters primarily the lung, the liver,
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and the large intestine meridians, helping to lubricate the intestines, soothe the lungs,
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and nourish the liver blood. Its soft, creamy texture reflects its ability to calm internal wind
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and ease tension in the body. Avocado is especially supportive for individuals with
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yin deficiency, dry skin, dry stool, or a tendency toward irritability and restlessness.
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Its cooling, slightly sweet and bland nature gently anchors young and moistens without being
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overly sweet. So from that perspective, I thought it would be a very attractive fruit,
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but people were not responding well to it. So I had to research further and found the following.
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So from that perspective, I thought it would be a very attractive fruit, but people were not
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responding well to it. I know because at Migraine Heroes, we monitor everyone on their daily
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trackers until they reach a stage of no pain. So I had to research further and found the incredible
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following. Avocados are rich and oily, yes, nourishing for some, but that same richness
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can easily overwhelm a system already struggling with dampness or weak digestion. In traditional
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Chinese medicine terms, they're cold and heavy, which means they can slow down the spleen's
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transformative function, leading to bloating, fatigue, and even phlegm accumulation. So for
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those of us with sluggish digestion, brain fog, or a tendency toward mucus and puffiness,
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that creamy green fruit might be doing more harm than good. It's a classic case of something
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healthy not being universally balancing. And that was doing part of the explanation,
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but that was not fully what I was seeing in people. When I give yin restoring foods, I always
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counterbalance them, and it seemed the migraines they were getting were not of that nature. From
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the data I could see, it seemed they were acting on migraines in a different way, such as if there
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was a flare-up in the liver. But TCM, traditional Chinese medicine, does not report the avocados
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being bad on the liver, quite the opposite. So I was really puzzled because what I found in
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traditional Chinese medicine was the accuracy was always there, but somehow for that food,
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something was missing. So let's turn to the West for a minute. Clinical and observational reports
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list avocados to trigger migraines in a subset of patients. Though the overall percentage is
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relatively small, it's about 5% in some cohorts, so that's quite small. In the West, avocados are
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often flagged as a migraine trigger, however, largely to their tyramine contents, a naturally
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occurring amino acid that can influence blood vessels and neurotransmitters linked to migraine
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pathways. Tyramine may provoke migraines by causing vasoconstriction or vasodilation
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in cerebral vessels, triggering neuronal hyperexcitability in migraine-susceptible
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people. And so the tyramine content could explain what I was seeing, but it did not seem to be what
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I was seeing. From my data, it did not require too many doses of avocados to trigger more migraine.
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And while large-scale randomized trials on avocados specifically are lacking,
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elimination diets that remove tyramine-rich foods, including avocados, have shown a reduction in
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migraines. So based on our podcast on tyramine and histamine, I went on researching if avocados
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were high in histamine, because that would have explained a lot more of what I was seeing.
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And from our episode on tyramine and histamine, you now know that a lot of medications such as
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the NSAIDs, so think of your Tylenol, your Ibuprofen, your Paracetamol, but also antidepressants,
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antibiotics and narcotics, prevent you from breaking down histamine. And I found the gem
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I was after for all these years. So here's the twist. Avocados aren't, they're not actually high
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in histamine, but they can still cause a reaction. Why? Because they're what we call histamine
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liberators, meaning they can trigger your mast cells to release the histamine already stored
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in your body. Mast cells are part of your immune system, and when they're easily activated, especially
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in people with histamine intolerance or mast cell issues, food like avocado can quietly cause
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trouble. Add to that the natural aminazine avocados, which slow down histamine breakdown,
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and you've got a perfect storm. So if you're migraine prone or histamine sensitive, that creamy
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green fruit might be less of a friend than you thought. So it's not about the histamine they
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contain, it's about the histamine they stir up. And that in traditional Chinese medicine is exactly
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what it means with dampness. It looks like a liver fire food from a symptoms perspective,
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because that heavy release of histamine inside of the body. I always put a lot of thought and
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integrity in my podcast. There is so much nonsense out there. I'm trying to show you how your brain
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does make sense. And so in many ways today, you taught me something again as I was digging deeper
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to provide you better explanations. So now let me cut to the cheese. Who are avocados for?
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They are for you if you have a tendency to be constipated, if you have a dry skin. They are
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not for you if you have loose stools, if you have phlegm, if you have a foggy brain or long migraine
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hangovers, if you have a tendency to have a lot of allergies, if you take medications like
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antidepressants or antibiotics or over-the-counter medication for a long time. And remember every
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small step you take moves you closer to freedom. You are powerful, you are resilient and you are
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no longer alone. Keep rising Migraine Hero.
