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Welcome to the Migraine Heroes Podcast, a podcast where we share real stories from real
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people suffering and battling with migraine disease.
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In this podcast, we seek to provide support, hope, holistic health, advocacy and inspiration
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for those who suffer from migraine disease.
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In this podcast, you're going to hear about the story of Will and Jennifer, and how Jennifer's
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migraines for the last five years completely impact their family life.
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Will and Jennifer are in charge of four children, and her migraines start to completely take
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over their day to day, increasing the amount of stress and chores and work for Will at
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One day, Will runs on his treadmill and listens to one of my podcasts, and stops at a certain
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minute he stops his treadmill, writes down a note on the timing at which I'm about to
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describe his wife and her situation, sends a text to his wife, she listens to it, meets
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with me, and you'll hear how their life is changing.
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Thank you so much for being with me today.
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Nice, glad to be here.
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Thank you so much for coming together.
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It's really special to have a couple.
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This is the same way I met you the first time, which was not so long ago.
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I think Will, you were just hanging around in the kitchen.
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I said, Oh, if you want to come over, just join in, which you did.
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And I really, really appreciate it.
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You had a love for like really sharp questions.
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And so I'm happy that you're with us today too.
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Let's dive right in.
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Do you want to talk to us a little bit, maybe Jennifer and Will as well, like about your
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Where do you live?
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What's your family set up and your normal life like?
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Well, we are 10 years married this year.
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We are a blended family.
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So he came with three beautiful children that were much younger than they are now.
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And then we have one together.
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So we are a very busy family.
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Sports were a very active family.
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All the kids are in sports.
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They are active outside, things like that.
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And so what sports do the kids do?
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The ages are 18, 18, 14 and 6.
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So the 18 year olds, they just turned 18.
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It's the boy girl.
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The boy is in the baseball and the girl or young lady, young man, young lady, she does
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She just finished up her final competitive cheer as a high school kid.
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So she's moving into that next phase.
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They have got one more year for their senior year of high school.
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And then the 14 year old is in the football and has recently started wrestling.
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And then Aislinn, the six year old, is starting gymnastics, kind of following her sister's
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footsteps a little bit.
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She's also done dance.
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She loves to dance, especially at football games in front of a big crowd.
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Well, a big shout out to parents with children.
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I mean, I don't have four, I have two.
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Just in between the hockey and the football or futsal and swimming, it gets madness very,
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very fast, especially as things get more serious and they get older.
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Initially, you're quite excited as a parent.
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And then you're like, oh, yeah.
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We spend a lot of time in cars together and traveling to different events.
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And yeah, it's been a big part of our life for a long time.
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Jennifer, do you want to share with us how migraine came into your life?
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I know I was actually thinking about this and I can't actually, I cannot really pinpoint
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when they started.
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I think vaguely I remember having my first really bad headache after a sledding accident.
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I came down a hill and went over this road and in the middle of the road, there was like
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this ice ridge and I hit it full on.
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And I went up in the air, flipped around to where I landed on my stomach, but facing
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uphill and come to find out I had like severely bruised my tailbone area.
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And a few months after that, I was just having a lot of back pain and stuff.
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My mom took me to a chiropractor and that seemed to help.
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But I remember sitting there in my room at times going, man, my head just hurts, but
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not understanding what a migraine was or even really what headaches were.
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I was in my teen years, somewhere around 16 or 17, I would say.
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And then after that, I honestly can't really pinpoint anything other than over the last
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five years during pregnancy was the best I've ever felt in my life.
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So I feel like I had them before that, but again, it's one of these things where you,
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I didn't really know maybe what was going on.
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I wasn't understanding my body at the time or that was even a thing because I just know
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that when I was pregnant, it was the best I've ever felt in my entire life and I never
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And then after that, I feel like it's been kind of a regression.
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And then especially in the last three to four years, I would say my body just kind of nosedived
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to the point where I was pretty much just in chronic pain.
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I maybe got a week out of the month maybe where I was mostly pain-free, but other than
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that, I just lived in chronic fatigue, pain, didn't want to get off the couch.
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Once I got home from work, I was like, I was pretty much just done.
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And up until, well, really about three, four months ago.
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And so in that moment, so how did you live things?
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Because you knew Jennifer sort of before those really strong episodes, then you knew her
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in that beautiful pregnancy where your wife is at her best, and then after, how did you
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perceive all of that?
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Yeah, well, even before when we first got married, she was full of life, lots of energy,
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very active, very involved.
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And then the pregnancy, she raved about how good she felt during the pregnancy, I remember.
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And she was growing, she was beautiful.
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She was amazing, pregnant, very engaged, very active, very social.
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And yeah, there was, I guess, four or five years ago, she started looking for, got involved
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in some health-related, looking for some supplements to help her feel better.
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And she got some of those supplements, but she was down, not as involved, not as active.
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And she got, I want to say, I feel like depression may be the word, felt depressed.
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And so there were just anxious and laying around a lot, or just an irritable, not vibrant,
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not like what the lady that I originally met and married.
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And so, and it was a challenge for me, I'm like, this isn't, I know there's something
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I can recognize that.
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So we got to, we need to figure this out.
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Like, what is this?
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And something else about our family is that for us, we generally believe that we want
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to do things naturally, holistically, and try to avoid certain things.
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And so it was hard when he was like, you just need to exercise more.
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And it's like, I am exercising and it's not, no, well, let's try this.
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And yeah, that helped a little bit, but you know, it just, it was like all these things
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that we knew were good and positive and natural for our bodies somehow just wasn't unlocking
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something and it was really frustrating.
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And then, you know, as you get into that mindset and you're in your head and you're like, but
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I'm trying this and I'm trying that and your partner is disappointed and frustrated because
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you're disappointed and frustrated.
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And you get to this point where like, I just don't even care anymore.
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Like I was like, I'm doing all I can and I don't know what else to tell you.
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That's kind of where I was at with it.
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For the record, not frustrated yet, not disappointed, I would say determined.
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But it's really good we talk about this because a lot of couples go through that, you know,
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sometimes in the app we have a chat and I was chatting with a woman yesterday and she
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was telling me that she had missed two massive social events, two weddings, and that she
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was receiving a lot of pressure from her partner to get on track, get on board, like do something
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about the situation.
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And it's hard because it's hard as a couple, hard as a unit.
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And it's really disheartening because it's also so invisible.
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And I remember you, Jennifer, when we spoke the first time, you were sitting in a bowl
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I don't know, you had darker clothes and everything was foggy in your life.
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I vividly remember that you were like in a big, big fog, in a big cloud and everything
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was hard and painful and not making sense.
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And when we spoke, there was a glimmer of hope, but you know, that's all there is really,
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you know, when you don't know, you're like, okay, maybe I'll try that person, I'll trust
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But it's not like I haven't tried to be healthy.
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We are a healthy family.
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I also vividly remember how knowledgeable you are, Will, on all things health related.
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No, and that's, I think for me where I feel like I'm just really blessed is that I actually
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got to try this because of his passion for health and wellness and, you know, listening
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to you be a guest on another podcast.
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He was like, I didn't really have a choice.
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He was like, we're going to just try this because this sounds like you.
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So let's just give it a shot and see what happens.
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And so I'm really sitting here, really finding being myself again, because he was like, you're
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That's just what you're doing.
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I think as a partner, you also see the movie, you're like, the more time goes on, the more
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you are no longer yourself, you're in pain, et cetera, I don't recognize you.
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And when you live it, I think that's all you see.
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But it's also hard to see the movie as much.
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You see your presence, your presence, your sensations presently.
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And so the perspective is quite different.
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How did you find that podcast, Will, and from your point of view, how did you put that on
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I get up at 5 a.m. every morning, I have a little routine, I guess, very little morning
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devotional that I get at the gym.
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I don't listen to music, I listen to podcasts for most of its health, some of its faith,
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some of it's just news, but it's just a sequence of podcasts.
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And there was a podcast about women's health that I was listening to, just trying to educate
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myself on things that my wife may be going through.
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So as soon as you were speaking, you were in the middle, and I even stopped what I was
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And I wrote down the time in the podcast, I'm like, if you don't listen to anything
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else, just start at this time, and this time of the podcast, and just listen to the way
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she described her, what she was going through, I was like, this is you.
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And you need to at least go look at the website, at least reach out and ask some questions.
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And let's just see what this is about.
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And I listened to as well, but I'd kind of gotten behind on some of the episodes.
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So it was one that I had missed.
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So I was really glad he had listened to it.
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It means the world because it's like from my end, if I can share it candidly, and I'm
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someone who's naturally very private.
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So like the whole social media thing, I think now I really love because of the people I've
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met and the real relationships I've formed, like completely bonded, like I feel very connected
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to the two of you, even though we've never met.
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But it was quite, you know, getting out of my comfort zone and, you know, communicating
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And I like a podcast format, because it resembles more my personality, it's more like one on
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one or one with two, or the way we meet is it feels quite natural.
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But yeah, it's a huge, it's a huge issue in our society.
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So then you're at your gym, you listen to the podcast, you write down the minute.
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And then what did you do?
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Did you say it in person?
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Or did you text her?
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I sent it to her, I sent her the text, just a link in text with the comment of the time.
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And I'm pretty sure she listened to it that day, or it was very late.
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I just went to the podcast and I thought, well, I'll just listen to the whole thing.
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So I'm like, oh, I haven't listened to this particular series for a while.
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So I'll just go listen to the whole thing.
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And I was almost crying by the end of it.
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I was like, oh, this really, this is a thing.
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Like I did again, you know, just kind of going back when I was trying to think about when
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did this even start?
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I'm like, this is actually a thing.
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And I started thinking about all the women in my family.
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And there's many women in my family that suffer with migraines and, you know, infertility
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and all these things.
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And I'm like, oh, like we, we have this running in our family and we just had no idea.
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And it was so eyeopening and I still am a little bit lost for words about it.
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It's just like crazy that I just, we had no idea.
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And look, if I may talk about your family and your ancestors here for a minute, this
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is a genetic predispositions, 5% of boys and girls, 18% of women.
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And it's a super gene.
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I think we omit that.
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Woman in olden days could predict the weather.
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They could see if a food was rotten or poisoned or something was good or not.
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Like they had that radar, extra radar to take care of themselves and of society.
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So in a more of a tribe way, they had, they were the most intuitive of them all.
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And so they were like almost in charge of survival.
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Today, women who exhibit that genetic profile are muted from society, muted from themselves,
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which is the worst.
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I think muted from society, okay, we have weather forecast, fine.
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Muted from themselves is a really big deal to put a lot of muting messages when your
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brain is trying to have a very logical conversation with you.
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And then, so you listened to the podcast and did you do the test right after or?
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I think that night or the very next day, like basically as soon as I could, I said, okay,
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I'm going to sit down and take the assessment and see where it leads.
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It was within 48 hours, no more than that.
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I can tell you that.
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And then we met together and I think you were, I don't know, passing by or helping with technology
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Actually, I was getting ready to go for a run, walking out to go for a run.
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And I deprived you from your run.
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Oh, you know, I stay, I ask sometimes partners to come because there's so much part of the
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Also, when we have this conversation, Jennifer, and you explain all of your symptoms, there's
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a lot of things I explain you back on, you know, why are you in pain and how do the pain
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interrelate with all of your other symptoms and how those symptoms interrelate and form
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root causes that explain your current migraines, but also all the way from before you were
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And I find when women have been in that conversation and not their partner, the partner is like,
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So you're going to do what?
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And that's going to solve it?
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Let's roll with it.
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Whereas when they're in the conversation, like, yeah, I get it.
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Yeah, let's go for it.
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And it's really nice.
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to have the support, not be challenged, but have the support is really important.
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So maybe a shout out to other women who found themselves the podcast first, maybe share
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the podcast with your partner.
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I've just done one on, it's called Podcast for Spouses.
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You know, that's a 15 minute version for the very busy people, just to give a hint on,
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okay, this is what migraine is.
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This is the occurrence.
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These are all of the treatments.
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This is why you see your spouse go worse and worse by the day.
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And this is the type of food causes and what can be done.
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Anyway, it's a quick version, 15 minutes version.
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And so you did the test and then we start to work.
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And I have to say, you know, I have to say, Jennifer, you were quite out there.
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So I work with people from all around the globe and they have all sorts of levels of
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pain and all sorts of frequency of pain.
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And you're in the upper basket of pain.
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You were like, you know, you were in constant pain.
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And it was when we started, there was no day of rest for a while.
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I would say your first tracker is 17th of April, 2024, all the way to 25th of May.
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You don't have a single day without pain.
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And I really want to acknowledge that because that's a lot to go through.
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And of course, you know, that's going to give you feelings of why am I in pain?
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Why is my life like this?
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Why do I even bother waking up and getting out of bed?
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This is just going to be so hard.
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Yeah, it's that and it's the amount of energy to just, one, get out of bed.
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And then you're fighting this just constant pain.
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But while having to have a smile on your face, speak gently to your husband so he feels loved.
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Speak gently to your children so they feel loved.
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Speak kindly to all your coworkers so you don't lose your job.
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So then by the time about three o'clock in the afternoon comes, it's just like, I don't
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want to talk to anyone.
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I don't want anyone touching me.
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Just let me roll in a hole and I'll see you tomorrow to start it all over again.
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And in one of your podcasts, you made the comment of like, I would take my nap from
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two o'clock in the afternoon till 8 a.m. in the morning and I got tears in my eyes.
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I'm like, that was me.
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I never got to go to sleep at that time.
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But that's how my brain felt.
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It shut down at about 3.30 in the afternoon and did not even try to wake up until about
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nine o'clock the next morning.
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Even though I was moving, my body was going.
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My brain was like, I'm out.
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I'm like, I'm done.
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And it's one of those things where you get kind of almost so like you just don't know
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anything different.
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So then having that tracker and as much as I know that I'm in tune with my body, it's
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amazing kind of how we mute ourselves.
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I guess that's a great way to put it.
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It's like you kind of had to mute that part of it because if I thought about it too much,
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then it just was overwhelming.
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And so then to have to fill out that tracker and allow myself to acknowledge that I feel
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this way when I'm trying to be strong and tough and like, I just got to take care of
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I'm not going to be weak.
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But then to have those moments of vulnerability right before bed and go, no, I was in a lot
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Like, this was not fun.
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And to force myself into those moments of vulnerability was really, really hard.
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It's still really hard even now.
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I'm almost like, I just want to say that there's no pain, but I have to be honest on the days
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where maybe I'm still feeling a little something.
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It's like, no, it's okay to be honest.
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I think that's the thing is I had to be okay with being honest with myself of just how
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bad I really felt because I was so used to just shutting it off.
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I would add to that is I would get frustrated at her.
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She would express she wasn't feeling well and I would be like, well, go to bed.
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And she's like, well, I got to do X, Y, Z.
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I've got to take care of Asa and get her to bed, get her fed and all the other responsibilities
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that she takes care of and just pressing on.
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And she would do it noticeably, struggling through the tasks that she was taking care
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She thought, well, this is basically my responsibility, so I'm going to do it.
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It doesn't really matter how I feel.
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She continued to press through.
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That's been a long time.
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Probably five years.
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It is a long time.
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It is a really long time.
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And, you know, when I was napping from 2 p.m. to 8 a.m. the next day or 3 p.m. to 8 a.m.
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the next day, there were two things.
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One was my husband would usually come and poke me around 7 to 8 p.m.
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He loves a good dinner.
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Like, dinner time.
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Do you want to eat with me?
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Shall we just do something really nice?
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And I'm like, ah, I'll see you tomorrow.
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And he's like, oh, really?
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And so what do you want to do?
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Like, you're just beyond yourself with fatigue.
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And I didn't have four children to feed.
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You know, this is just it's a huge load of also, they come back from school and they
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have their emotions.
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You know, they want to share their day, what was difficult about it, what was easy about
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And you have to show all of, especially with teenagers, all of your emotions.
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And I think that's what I was trying to do.
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And I think that's what I was trying to do.
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And I think that's what I was trying to do.
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And I think that's what I was trying to do.
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And I think that's what I was trying to do.
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and the things you don't see and you have if your brain is not switched on, it can go
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into pieces very fast.
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I mean, I only have a 12 year old and a nine year old.
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And I see the emotions from school is like, whoa, a lot more than before.
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And you have to really tune in like even some days, I'm ashamed to say like on Wednesdays,
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they finish hockey really late, both of them.
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And so I take a platter and I put them in bed with a bed platter because I'm like, otherwise,
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I can't get them to sleep on time, then the next day I have to wake them up and they don't
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And then you have to just be just navigated with like, you know, hands and feet of fur.
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But if you're in pain yourself, you're like, oh, just don't, you know, chaos to my brain,
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This is really hard to manage.
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Yeah, that was it.
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And I think, you know, just kind of some of our, you know, just kind of thinking through,
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we had some really big changes that happened in our family right after Aislinn was born.
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We relocated our entire family when she was two weeks old.
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You know, we just had some tough kind of living situations going on, things like that.
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And so there was right after Aislinn was born, that's our youngest, there was a lot
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of stress that happened.
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And I feel like that's probably the catalyst for how my body started.
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It's like I just never recovered from the postpartum.
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And then again, being a blended family just comes with additional challenges and our particular
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family comes with some extra particular challenges that causes a lot of stress in our family
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And so, you know, when you're the caregiver of that family and there's extra emotions,
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but your brain is only operating at about 20%, man, it's just, you feel self-guilty,
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you feel guilty a lot.
[21:52]
Like I want to be able to handle what's going on, but I just really want to crawl in a hole
[21:56]
right now and not talk to anyone.
[21:58]
Yeah, guilt is a huge emotion for mothers because, you know, the afterschool is such
[22:03]
a huge part, but it also can be a moment where the migraines go a lot worse and it
[22:09]
becomes pretty difficult.
[22:10]
The brain is no longer clear, the battery are completely off and it's peak time, peak
[22:16]
So a huge sense of guilt.
[22:18]
What emotions would you say you were feeling in those moments?
[22:22]
Well, so I have a pretty demanding job as well, you know, and then just the cost of
[22:28]
raising a family of six.
[22:31]
There's almost a necessity for us to kind of really function well in our unique roles
[22:38]
within our family and with the outside influences as a blended family and how that kind of impacts
[22:45]
us was very significant.
[22:47]
And so I was, you know, it's frustrating, you know, honestly, there's a, and then to
[22:52]
know that she's not feeling well, but she's enduring and suffering through it anyways.
[22:58]
And I want to fix it.
[23:00]
I help people succeed.
[23:01]
And, you know, that's a strength of me and I don't know how to help her find success
[23:07]
and comfort other than, hey, try this, hey, try this and say, let's try this, see if this
[23:14]
So I think the emotion of we've got to figure this out.
[23:19]
I mean, we just, we've got to be inquisitive.
[23:21]
We've got to ask questions.
[23:23]
We've got to never stop trying.
[23:25]
We cannot just sit on the couch and give up.
[23:28]
We have got to keep moving and, uh, and trying to lead my family, lead her through that,
[23:32]
uh, I think was really my primary intent and function.
[23:37]
Which is huge, right?
[23:38]
Because if I put myself in your shoes, like you're working hard and then when you come
[23:42]
home, it comes the second shift.
[23:45]
If your spouse isn't well, it comes a second shift with demanding children and then you
[23:49]
have the logistics layered with the emotions of then everyone and a lot instead of, you
[23:54]
know, finding ease and comfort, you find additional work.
[23:57]
And so in families, it's, it's a, it's a huge level of pressure and I, we, I'm very grateful
[24:01]
for the two of you to share that candidly because I think a lot of families will recognize
[24:06]
themselves and their dynamics and trying to do the best.
[24:09]
And I think as spouses, we get married, we're in love and then we're also a team in the
[24:13]
day to day and each team member needs to do how much they can carry.
[24:19]
But when you suffer and your brain is just completely overtaken, it just feels awful.
[24:23]
You can't do anything.
[24:25]
So we start and so I see your pain, I usually ask, you know, is this your level just to
[24:29]
make sure, you know, it's not worse or it's not less, you know, just I calibrate a bit,
[24:33]
you know, what we're dealing with and then something terrible happens from my end.
[24:37]
There were about, I don't know, 80 or a hundred women on the app at the moment you were on,
[24:43]
I lose you from a tech perspective.
[24:45]
And so there's a couple of days where the app doesn't work and I'm like, oh my God,
[24:48]
I've lost Jennifer.
[24:49]
Like, and I was so in panic because I'm like, oh my God, she's in a lot of pain.
[24:56]
And I really, this is the moment when she needs to lean in and if I lose her, she's
[25:00]
going to think that there is no bright side outside the tunnel, that the tunnel is a never
[25:06]
ending tunnel, that this is who she is and that there's nothing they can do.
[25:10]
And that's the worst thing I can do.
[25:11]
So I really, for me, like every one of you is 100% of you.
[25:16]
And so I felt like terrible.
[25:17]
I was like, oh my God, I was discussing with Elena, I've lost Jennifer.
[25:23]
No, I just kept plugging away.
[25:25]
I was like, it'll, it'll sort itself out.
[25:27]
I would just like log on and do all the things that wouldn't work.
[25:31]
So I would just message Irene and be like, oh, I can't get in again.
[25:36]
And I just stayed to the protocol.
[25:38]
I just thought, okay, I don't, there's probably something she would recommend, but until I
[25:42]
know I'm just going to stick with what she's told me and I know we'll figure it out.
[25:46]
And then once you were back studying, I was like, I am so sorry.
[25:50]
And you're like, I'm doing amazing.
[25:52]
And I was like, oh, it really freaked me out because we find that there, we have two
[25:57]
roles, Elena and I, one is to tell you what to do and the other is to help you keep going.
[26:03]
We know how difficult it is, demanding it is to be in pain.
[26:06]
And then in addition, we're asking of you to change a few habits and to track.
[26:11]
And if we, if you don't track, we don't know where you are in terms of pain and we can't
[26:15]
orientate you properly.
[26:16]
And so that's why we go over all of the people every single day, or at least all of the emergencies
[26:21]
on weekends, we do just typically just emergencies and questions, but just keep on seeing that
[26:27]
your body's moving and respecting the pace.
[26:30]
Everybody moves at a different pace, but respecting the pace.
[26:33]
And then I remember I look at all of your trackers and I'm like, oh, good.
[26:36]
And then as of 30th of 31st of May, you come through like, I don't know, a full week or
[26:42]
like just, I don't know, a really long streak of days where you feel completely sharp and
[26:50]
And then having to sit there and think like, is this real?
[26:55]
And again, going back to that vulnerability within myself of like, am I allowed to say
[26:59]
that I felt good today?
[27:01]
Am I allowed to say that I am allowed to say that I did feel good today.
[27:04]
I actually had no pain today.
[27:06]
What is happening in the world?
[27:07]
And then it was like the next day, I didn't have any pain again, my word.
[27:11]
And then like the next day, I didn't have any pain.
[27:13]
And it, and all of a sudden it's like these bricks of this shell that you've kind of put
[27:18]
yourself in start to crumble and you're like, I can, I mean, even now it just makes me want
[27:23]
to take like this really deep breath of relief of like, oh, I'm not in pain and it's okay.
[27:31]
And it's, and it's good.
[27:33]
And so, and so for the listeners, Jennifer is still in program.
[27:37]
And I, I think it's really cool to have people who are not done because you can talk about
[27:43]
And I want to talk about what comes after when you have such a long unexpected streak,
[27:48]
what comes when you have a migraine again, because I think this is really something I
[27:51]
want to teach to others.
[27:54]
We expect that, you expect it to, you're anxious about it, but when it comes, you're like,
[27:59]
damn it, the charm is ruptured.
[28:02]
The magic wand, is it going to stay or was it just lucky?
[28:07]
And I want to talk about that, but, but first of all, I also want to talk about how glamorous
[28:12]
Like you look absolutely glamorous.
[28:13]
I think maybe you will connect this to that one.
[28:17]
But you really have a glow and that's really nice to see.
[28:20]
So we go into, I have the date in front of me, we go for a long, so from 31st of May
[28:26]
all the way to 21st of June, completely charm and free, all you have.
[28:30]
And you tell, you say, best as I can remember, best as I can remember, like,
[28:35]
That was when the app wasn't working.
[28:38]
So I was like, oh, what was that again?
[28:41]
So those were kind of like when the app wasn't working.
[28:44]
So I was trying really hard to think back a little bit.
[28:47]
And so this is where the part I was freaked out.
[28:50]
It's like you have a lot of little sheep or children you take care of.
[28:53]
You have one missing.
[28:54]
You're like, oh my God, am I missing one?
[28:57]
With migraine disease, we only have each other to make a difference.
[29:02]
If you know of someone suffering from migraine attacks, share this podcast with them.
[29:08]
And then hits June 23rd and then hits a migraine.
[29:11]
Can you describe, because it also helps me work quite frankly, like when you go through
[29:14]
such a long streak, how do you feel when you suddenly again have a migraine that resembles
[29:19]
one of the old ones?
[29:21]
How did I respond to that one?
[29:22]
That's a good question.
[29:24]
I live in such like the moment that I'm even trying to remember that one.
[29:27]
I honestly, I think I truly just like when it happened, I think I had had like a margarita
[29:36]
And so for me, I realized how much of maybe for me that is a trigger.
[29:43]
So I think for me, I was like, oh, okay, well, that's a bummer and really I was like, wow,
[29:55]
So now what do I do?
[29:57]
I follow my protocol.
[29:58]
And because I had gone so long without having one, for me, it was also a good test of like,
[30:04]
all right, now I've kind of got excited.
[30:06]
I said, okay, well, I've been doing the protocol, which got me to feeling more pain-free.
[30:14]
I was really kind of excited to see how leaning into the things that you were recommending
[30:20]
were going to attack the migraine and help.
[30:25]
And it was incredible.
[30:26]
I did what I was supposed to do and within an hour, I felt fine.
[30:30]
When you write that, and indeed the migraine is very short, but I love in the comment,
[30:37]
you're absolutely right.
[30:38]
You say, I did have a Margarita for the first time in over a month, which I'm glad.
[30:43]
It means like you're more relaxed and you live your life, right?
[30:45]
At the end of the day, this is the whole goal is like you live your life.
[30:49]
And so that migraine goes and then we have again a streak of sunshine and then we again
[30:53]
have a bit of noise in the system and then it comes back.
[30:56]
And so what I try to mean is, I think people can relate a lot to pain.
[31:01]
It's much harder to relate to recovery and recovery, I always explain, it decreases in
[31:05]
intensity and in frequency until it disappears.
[31:08]
By disappearing, I don't mean that the genes change, the genes don't change, but the body
[31:13]
gets to a level of balance that is impeccable coupled with all of your beautiful family
[31:17]
habits is steady and therefore the brain no longer feels the need to complain.
[31:23]
The vagus nerve no longer feels inflammation in the liver and has to report an inflammation
[31:28]
or a problem, which is not a disease, which is an imbalance and is happy.
[31:33]
And so the level of complaining, decrease in intensity and frequency, there are a lot
[31:37]
of days where things are good and then some days it's like, hey, the Margarita, not quite,
[31:42]
I'm not there yet, try me later.
[31:46]
That's kind of where I'm at.
[31:47]
I'm like, let's, we'll just hold off a little bit, which is really bummer because he makes
[31:51]
a really, really good drink.
[31:53]
We enjoy the Margarita, get out of the pool, enjoy the Margarita.
[32:04]
I'm not drinking it.
[32:05]
We don't have any Margarita, we don't have anything to make Margaritas with right now,
[32:10]
We're sharing, finding new ways, finding new ways.
[32:15]
I will, I will put in your protocol, Jennifer, how to handle a Margarita, we'll discuss that
[32:24]
So you can have those days and feel good.
[32:28]
And so it's really that ability for your body to reconnect, et cetera.
[32:34]
And so how are you, I don't know, how are you therefore feeling now as a family as you
[32:38]
continue to do this and how have things changed for you?
[32:43]
I think that what has spoken the most to me was I'm close with my, so we're currently
[32:51]
traveling right now.
[32:52]
We're actually up in Eastern Oregon at my parents' property.
[32:56]
And of course, I'm close to my family, so I told them like, I'm really excited.
[33:01]
I found this migraine specialist, I didn't want to say it, that's been really helping
[33:07]
me address these things and I'm excited to share this with you.
[33:11]
And then that's just kind of all I really said and they asked me some questions.
[33:15]
I'm like, well, I'm drinking some infusions and things like that.
[33:18]
My mom just commented that I just look more alive.
[33:22]
I'm not saying that I'm tired where I used to, she's like, even before you, even as a
[33:27]
young girl, like even before you moved out of the house.
[33:29]
So this was a good for me.
[33:30]
She's like, you always complained that you were tired, you were always tired.
[33:33]
She's like, you've been here for a week and you haven't said that.
[33:37]
And she's like, you're just more alive, like you don't seem depressed anymore.
[33:40]
I'm like, well, because I don't think I am.
[33:44]
I don't think I am.
[33:45]
I don't think I am.
[33:47]
I really want to insist on that.
[33:49]
A lot of women are confronted and told they're depressed, but then they say, but given my
[33:54]
level of pain every day and my condition and the fact that I'm tired, I feel sad about
[34:00]
the situation, but my personality isn't sad.
[34:04]
And some women will tell me, oh, my personality is a tired personality.
[34:09]
I'm just, that's the way I am.
[34:10]
I'm a five out of 10 energy.
[34:12]
I'm like, no, there is no such thing that doesn't exist.
[34:15]
You can be a 10 out of 10 energy.
[34:17]
And I really appreciate that you say that because I get that a lot.
[34:21]
And then for me as well, I tell you when we first meet, I'm like, when we first meet,
[34:25]
and then women are like, and when do we meet again?
[34:27]
I'm like, well, hopefully we don't meet because it means your migraines are decreasing density
[34:30]
and frequency and there's nothing abnormal or unusual with your profile.
[34:34]
If you want to meet, we can meet.
[34:36]
I was very generous with my time.
[34:38]
If you want to meet, we meet.
[34:40]
Hopefully we don't have to, and you can live your life and be more focused on your family.
[34:44]
But then at the end, we meet again and this is when I meet you for the first time.
[34:48]
And I mean those words, like I meet you for the first time, like, you know, I think there's
[34:53]
a lot of margarita and sunshine in the both of you.
[34:57]
You know, there's just a lot of joy and laughter.
[35:00]
You're very beautiful couple, like, I don't know, for the ones who can see us, you know,
[35:05]
you're both gorgeous, you know, just to like live life.
[35:11]
You did really well, the two of you.
[35:15]
And so it's just beautiful to see you together and just be, and I do see that like you have
[35:19]
a complete glow, even I would say your skin, you know, looks different.
[35:23]
Like this is your complexion, the whole of you is just really, really nice.
[35:29]
I've noticed that even when I look at myself, it's like I can tell that my body is happier
[35:36]
and I'm getting to a point where I'm willing to look at myself in a mirror again.
[35:41]
You know, when you just see, when you look in the mirror and you don't recognize who's
[35:47]
in front of you, you get to a point where you just, you don't really want to look anymore.
[35:53]
And so now that I am feeling more like I know who I am back to who I remember being, I've
[36:00]
been able to allow myself that freedom to really look at myself and I'm like, no, I
[36:05]
do look different.
[36:06]
I look like myself and like I recognize who's in the mirror again.
[36:10]
She cut out a pair of pants and they fit and they used to not fit.
[36:14]
I know this isn't the main point, but they fit and then she really did.
[36:18]
She was like a little, she got really giddy, really excited that, oh, and then, and she
[36:24]
has been dressing more confidently and she's made some new friends and like wanting to
[36:32]
And I think one of the sweetest things that's happened is that she's been more involved
[36:35]
in my oldest daughter's, uh, cheer with the cheer moms, uh, getting together to do the
[36:42]
things with the cheer girls where that would have been completely exhausted.
[36:47]
So the other night she was helping with something, you know, got so late.
[36:51]
I'm like, are you okay?
[36:52]
Are you going to come home?
[36:55]
It's like 10 o'clock at night.
[36:56]
We're waking up in four hours to leave for the airport, but she was having a good time
[37:04]
and doing her thing with her girls and, which is such a gift for her to have the energy
[37:12]
And for me to see it and observe it and the connection that she's building with my oldest
[37:17]
daughter through that, the way she's supporting her is a beautiful, I mean, that in itself
[37:21]
is a huge, huge gift.
[37:23]
So thank you for, uh, supporting her to help with that.
[37:27]
Uh, look, I mean, it means the world.
[37:29]
It means the world.
[37:30]
I work a lot, you know, a lot to make this possible.
[37:34]
I, you know, more than I can express.
[37:35]
I have a lot of energy because I know how to get a lot of energy, but, but, you know,
[37:40]
I think what nourishes me is this, is knowing that your family can be a family and that,
[37:47]
you know, you as a couple can also just enjoy life.
[37:49]
I love that you mentioned that story about the plants.
[37:51]
I think, um, you know, when I, you know, I always add foods and for some people who have
[37:57]
a bit of weight, they're like, Oh, you're going to add.
[38:00]
What does that mean about?
[38:01]
I'm like, Oh no, don't worry.
[38:02]
We're completely accelerating your metabolism.
[38:04]
So you know, you're not going to have to, you know, try hard.
[38:07]
You're also going to feel attracted to very healthy foods.
[38:10]
And if you have shared cravings, that's my job to get rid of them.
[38:15]
They're a source of imbalance.
[38:16]
Like they also are a symptom.
[38:19]
You don't, you don't crave sugar because you think it's good for you.
[38:22]
You crave sugar because you physically need it to push through.
[38:27]
You physically needs the cheap energy to just, you know, I'm just going to try to, ugh,
[38:32]
But when you don't have that, you're not busy thinking about what you need to eat.
[38:37]
You're busy thinking about, okay, where do I drive you?
[38:40]
What am I going to wear?
[38:42]
That conversation.
[38:44]
That phone number.
[38:46]
That dinner that we can organize.
[38:47]
Like you're just busy living.
[38:48]
It's a very different field and therefore your body just lets go of all of the bad stuff
[38:53]
and therefore your vagus nerve is just happier again and every nerve cells functions appropriately.
[39:00]
And so then you can show the empathy, you can be angry.
[39:03]
If you need to be angry, you can be sad.
[39:05]
If you need to be sad, you can be joyful when you want to be joyful and you can be awake
[39:09]
and asleep when you decide it's time to be awake or asleep or when you feel like it.
[39:14]
That's exactly it.
[39:15]
Like I haven't, sugar has not really been a thing.
[39:19]
And even when it's like available, I might have a bite and then I'm like, I'm good.
[39:24]
And like you said, because I'm just busy, busy living my life.
[39:29]
I mean, that was exactly it.
[39:30]
Until you said it that way, I hadn't really put that together, but I was constantly like,
[39:34]
I need that little, what's going to get me through the next thing I need to get through
[39:41]
I'm just like, I live in life and I don't have time to think about eating any of that
[39:47]
And I remember when we met the first time you were on the sofa and you were also dressed
[39:50]
me with something really loose and really comfy, but also from a place of, I want to
[39:54]
crawl in a ball and I want to be done with the day.
[39:58]
And I was like, I'm up and ready and have a glow.
[40:02]
Where's the next thing?
[40:03]
And it's like two hours.
[40:05]
She spends like two hours multiple times a week in this sauna gym thing place she goes
[40:12]
She's been going to for a while, but she goes like...
[40:15]
The results are showing, like that's the thing.
[40:20]
It's really interesting from just from the outside, like just from aesthetics, transition
[40:26]
that her body's went through, I think it was inflammation is no longer, her body's
[40:31]
not inflamed all over and it's a noticeable change.
[40:36]
It's like, wow, it's the foods or our gut issues or whatever it is, but the science
[40:41]
behind it, it is significant.
[40:44]
And I want to explain a little bit about that because you're quite into all of that.
[40:48]
So basically one of the sources of, and I should look at her specific profile in details,
[40:54]
but one of the source of migraines can be when gastric juices are subpar and then the
[40:59]
food isn't absorbed, the nutrients aren't extracted as much as they should, but the
[41:04]
food goes down anyway, unless you vomit, but that's going to be a minority at the time.
[41:08]
And the food goes down and becomes sort of a slime phlegm.
[41:13]
And from a Western perspective, we're going to call that visceral fat.
[41:16]
From a Eastern perspective, you'd call that dampness and it's humidity, disgusting.
[41:23]
And that's the first case we worked on, the sort of disgusting biome that this doesn't
[41:27]
belong and that phlegm is going to permeate through the lining of the small and large
[41:33]
intestine into the tissues around the belly and stagnate there.
[41:39]
And your Hervigus nerve, which is tramping its roots, if you think of it as a big tree,
[41:44]
Hervigus nerve, which is tramping its roots around your small and large intestine, it's
[41:48]
going to tramp it not into something that has good hydration, but into something that
[41:52]
is very phlegmy and very mucousy and very disgusting.
[41:56]
And therefore, the brain gets very foggy and the energy doesn't move.
[42:01]
So it's making her slow down and depressed and her mood will be down.
[42:05]
Once you clean that, so you say, oh, thank you very much for your services, you no longer
[42:12]
You make that exit supernaturally through the bowel movement, through vaginal discharge,
[42:17]
it just goes, all of that glue, which is not a large quantity, but it's a sticky, nasty,
[42:24]
annoying from a point of view.
[42:26]
If you think of the electricity that runs in our brain, it just makes the current not
[42:32]
Once you remove that and you say, hey, dear gastric juices, time to get back into motion
[42:36]
here, holiday's over, we're working, we're multiplying you, you are going to extract
[42:41]
the nutrients of the food.
[42:42]
And so therefore, your level of satiation from a nutrition perspective reaches top maximum
[42:50]
And so from there, you can actually muscle really easily.
[42:54]
So for 10 units of sport, you get 10 units of muscles, whereas before, for 10 units of
[43:00]
sport, you would have been, first of all, exhausted and you would have maybe gotten
[43:04]
one to two units of muscles.
[43:06]
And so it's all of that metabolism that changes and the brain is like, ah, now she got it.
[43:12]
Thank you, Jennifer.
[43:14]
Message received, we're good, we'll give you a break, we're happy, everything is rolling.
[43:21]
And when you have that one, get margarita, it's like says, ah, yeah, liver is still working
[43:27]
through all of this stuff we're doing.
[43:30]
You're just below your quota, but that margarita sets us up, not ready yet, liver inflamed
[43:35]
and then through the vagus nerve and the brain responds, which is completely logical.
[43:40]
So I really want to think of you as a superior human being that has genes for longevity.
[43:45]
These are longevity genes, they're nothing else.
[43:49]
How come mother nature would let 18% of women have a neurological disorder?
[43:54]
That's the one thing that Western science makes a lot of sense.
[43:58]
That's maybe one thing that over the years, we'll have to revise a little bit that language
[44:02]
and say, hey, you know what, maybe these migraines are logical after all, they follow an order.
[44:08]
So in that instance, if this is you, then it's going to make your brain foggy, sometimes
[44:15]
dizzy, feeling sluggish, feeling meh.
[44:19]
Sometimes people don't have a migraine, but they feel like, ugh, completely disconnected,
[44:24]
I used that a lot back in the day, I was like, I don't know how to describe it, I just feel
[44:30]
I don't know if that was how I would describe it, I just feel ugh.
[44:35]
Sunny, in the app right now, Jennifer, we're adding that option where you can add that
[44:39]
you don't have, you're not in pain, but you're feeling like that for those who've had accidents,
[44:44]
for example, and the vagus nerve is not responsive yet completely.
[44:48]
And so once you reactivate all of that, the vagus nerve works, et cetera, and then the
[44:51]
brain is like happy, and then just the music goes, and when the music goes, also the sleep
[44:56]
is going to be a lot deeper.
[44:57]
I don't know if you've noticed changes yet.
[45:00]
I think that, I don't know how to answer that without...
[45:04]
Maybe I'm the problem monster sleep.
[45:07]
She's an active sleeper and so I...
[45:11]
Probably need to experiment with that when I'm on a work trip or something.
[45:16]
You know, I'll tell you one thing I tell to people who have either children or spouses
[45:21]
who don't sleep well is I'll take care of that too.
[45:24]
Because my goal is Jennifer sleeps.
[45:26]
So whatever I can do to help her sleep, you know, I can do.
[45:30]
But I would say that he...
[45:32]
Since I've started all this, he did have a work trip.
[45:36]
And that week or a couple of days where he was out of town,
[45:41]
I went to bed and I slept.
[45:46]
I felt rested and things like that.
[45:49]
And maybe this will be part of the podcast and maybe we'll cut it out.
[45:52]
But we'll definitely have a conversation after.
[45:55]
There's nothing that...
[45:56]
By the way, for the longevity of your brain, you don't have her genes.
[46:00]
But for the longevity of your brain, your brain wants to have a really,
[46:03]
you know, really, really good rest.
[46:05]
There's one thing that women will say constantly is my watch tells me I doubled my deep sleep
[46:11]
or I fall asleep easier or, you know, I feel really, really rested.
[46:15]
We'll discuss that offline.
[46:19]
And we're going to go into closing words.
[46:21]
I'm going to start and then you can think, Jennifer,
[46:23]
meanwhile, what you want to tell the audience of fellow women, men,
[46:27]
children who suffer from migraines.
[46:29]
For me, I will just say you are a gorgeous and very glamorous couple.
[46:33]
And I wish you just a ton of happiness.
[46:36]
You have five years to make up.
[46:38]
And I'm sure you will make this up.
[46:41]
Well, I just really have come to trust and believe in this process
[46:47]
and the way you're guiding her through it.
[46:49]
And it has been remarkable to see her glow and smile,
[46:53]
to engage in a very productive and healthy way with our family as a family unit.
[46:59]
But not just our family, but our community that we live in.
[47:02]
I think it's very notable by the people that are around her that she's really the way you described it,
[47:08]
a kind of a new person.
[47:10]
So we're meeting a lot of people are meeting Jennifer for the first time on these great days that she's been having.
[47:18]
So look forward to what's to come and where it leads us and enjoying each other as we go through it.
[47:26]
And I would just say that for anyone out there who is, you know, just not,
[47:33]
you just know there's something going on.
[47:35]
Maybe you don't have the words yet to figure it out.
[47:38]
And you are listening to this and you think, oh, my gosh, that actually might be me.
[47:42]
Just take the assessment.
[47:44]
Just take that little glimmer of hope.
[47:46]
Do the assessment and give Diane a chance to walk you through this process.
[47:52]
And I really don't think you will regret it.
[47:55]
It has been the best decision we have made.
[47:58]
And I am so grateful for my husband for telling me I had to do it.
[48:04]
And I know I'm trying really hard not to cry, but it's just incredible.
[48:09]
And I just really encourage anyone out there suffering in any way,
[48:12]
just give it a try and I think you'll be very satisfied to find yourself again.
[48:16]
Thank you for those words.
[48:18]
And if you feel somewhat similar to Jennifer and yet you feel different, it's okay.
[48:23]
I think why we are where we are today is because for every single woman,
[48:27]
we tried so hard until they're completely fine that we've found out so many crazy things that people have.
[48:37]
And we solve these crazy things until their brain says, yes, you nailed it.
[48:42]
Thank you both for your beautiful energy and for sharing that.
[48:45]
And maybe also one last comment.
[48:47]
Just do like Will.
[48:51]
This is also your life.
[48:52]
We aspire to change that one too along the way.
[48:57]
The content in this podcast should not be considered a substitute for medical professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
[49:05]
Always consult with your health care provider for any health related concerns.
[49:09]
And remember, everyone and every situation is unique.
[49:16]
Remember, sharing is caring.
[49:19]
Share your story with me.
[49:21]
Take my free test and let's connect to help you gain a deeper understanding of your migraine profile.
[49:27]
Learn about the underlying imbalances that could be contributing to your genetic predisposition for migraines.
[49:32]
Join our community of migraine heroes.
[49:35]
All the links in the description below.
