Migraine Heroes
The Physical Benefits of Letting Go – Learnings From Migraine Sufferers With Diane Ducarme
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The Physical Benefits of Letting Go – Learnings From Migraine Sufferers With Diane Ducarme

39 min

00:00
-39:00

Episode Highlights With Diane Ducarme

  • She speaks seven languages
  • English is actually her third language
  • The genetic aspects of migraines and why they're so intense
  • The health benefits of letting go and how this relates to migraines
  • Hope for migraine sufferers and how to actually resolve migraines through a root cause approach
  • How not letting go impacts our brain and also our body in a massive way
  • An incredible story about someone completely recovering from migraines
  • The actual process of letting go and some easy tactics to use to do it
  • Why emotions are actually positive but staying stuck in a single emotion is detrimental
  • How to consciously change emotions
  • Practical suggestions for processing and moving emotions
  • How to use foods to help dissipate negative emotions
Transcript

[00:00]

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[04:14]

Hello, and welcome to the Wellness Mama podcast.

[04:19]

I'm Katie from wellnessmama.com.

[04:21]

In this episode, I love it.

[04:22]

It unites two concepts I've talked about before, and it talks about physical health in relation

[04:27]

to emotions and specifically the physical benefits of letting go with some fascinating

[04:33]

learnings from migraine sufferers that actually relate to all of us.

[04:37]

And I really enjoyed this episode because I've seen firsthand the benefits of some of

[04:41]

the things we talk about in my own life.

[04:44]

And my guest, Diane, is able to explain them in a way I haven't heard united so well before.

[04:49]

Diane Ducarm is the founder and CEO of Nectar Health, which is a company that adds years

[04:53]

to the lives of those suffering with migraine disease.

[04:57]

And her work is absolutely fascinating because it extends to all of us.

[05:00]

And she has an MBA from Harvard.

[05:02]

She's the Fulbright Scholar and an Edmund Hillary Fellow.

[05:05]

She also has a master's in science, engineering, technology, and mathematics, and studied traditional

[05:10]

Chinese medicine in China.

[05:12]

She's now with the Academy of Healing Nutrition, and she speaks seven languages.

[05:17]

So much great information in this podcast.

[05:19]

She really unites the science of how our emotions relate to our physical health through a lens

[05:24]

of migraine sufferers, but also in a way that really truly relates to all of us.

[05:29]

I cannot wait to share this episode with you.

[05:30]

So let's jump in now.

[05:32]

Diane, welcome.

[05:33]

Thank you so much for being here today.

[05:36]

Thank you for having me, Katie.

[05:37]

Well, I'm really excited about the topics we're going to get to talk about.

[05:41]

But before we jump into those, I also have a note from your bio that you speak seven

[05:45]

languages, which is absolutely mind blowing to me.

[05:48]

And I'm so curious what languages they are.

[05:51]

So my mother tongue is French.

[05:53]

And then I learned Dutch, Flemish in Belgium, because you can't get away with it or without

[05:58]

it.

[05:59]

And then I went to London with my family when I was 15 and I learned English.

[06:03]

And then at school, there was no Dutch, so I changed to German, which I picked up decently

[06:08]

fast.

[06:09]

And then I thought, wow, the world's so much bigger than just Belgium.

[06:12]

I'm keen to travel.

[06:13]

So I went to Costa Rica to learn Spanish, and I studied in Mexico as well as an exchange

[06:18]

student.

[06:19]

And then I did a month of painting in Italy to do Italian painting, which was really,

[06:24]

really wonderful.

[06:26]

And then last but not least, I went to China and I went with a few questions.

[06:30]

It was in 2004.

[06:31]

I came back with way more questions and way more interest.

[06:34]

And so I tried to learn Mandarin, which I thought I'd never speak.

[06:36]

And now I speak fluently and my kids speak, you know, as well somewhat.

[06:40]

Wow, that is absolutely incredible.

[06:42]

You might be the only guest I've ever had that can speak so many languages.

[06:45]

And what a testament.

[06:46]

I'm just trying to learn Japanese right now, and it's bending my brain in ways I've never

[06:51]

experienced.

[06:52]

So kudos to you.

[06:53]

That's absolutely incredible.

[06:55]

And on top of speaking seven languages, which I feel is a lifetime achievement in and of

[06:59]

itself.

[07:00]

You also have a tremendous amount of knowledge about a lot of topics.

[07:02]

I wish I could just spend all day learning from you.

[07:05]

But the first thing I really want to dive into, I know that you help many, many people

[07:09]

with migraines and especially women.

[07:12]

And in researching for this, some words came up that I immediately was magnetized to, which

[07:16]

was the idea of letting go and especially how this is actually connected to migraines.

[07:21]

Is the book Letting Go life-changing for me?

[07:24]

And since then, I've sort of been on a journey of the emotional side of understanding things.

[07:29]

And you brought in the tie-in to migraines with this, which I think is incredible.

[07:33]

So to start off a little bit broad, maybe walk us through some of the basics of understanding

[07:37]

migraines, because I know many people who suffer from them that I haven't personally,

[07:42]

but also how letting go ties into this concept.

[07:47]

So migraines, look, if you suffer from migraines, you know exactly what they are.

[07:52]

For the part of the audience who doesn't, migraine is a genetic disease.

[07:56]

It is basically not just the head pain, but it's a full body experience.

[08:01]

And a migraine attack is something that can last on paper anywhere between four hours

[08:06]

up to three days.

[08:08]

So think labor pain, labor level pain, giving birth, the highest form of pain you can experience.

[08:14]

And really just three days can be a lifeline.

[08:16]

So some people start to have a migraine and that migraine, you know, never finishes.

[08:21]

And it's very brutal.

[08:22]

It is highly debilitating, so it prevents women in particular, but also men and children

[08:28]

to be active in their social lives, to work, to take care of their loved ones.

[08:32]

And so these migraine attacks are full body experiences in the sense that they encompass

[08:37]

a lot more symptoms than just the head pain, which sometimes may also be silent in rare

[08:43]

occasions.

[08:44]

These other symptoms can be vomiting, nausea, I've seen dots and prisms in the vision, having

[08:50]

trembling sensations in the hands and arms, numbness, but also bloating, et cetera.

[08:57]

And I know several people personally who seem to experience extremely severe migraines like

[09:02]

you're talking about.

[09:03]

And I know from just interacting with them how helpless they can feel in those moments

[09:07]

and how debilitating, like you said, it is.

[09:10]

And I know from researching you for this interview, it seems like there is actually, there's hope

[09:14]

for migraine sufferers.

[09:15]

Even though it has a genetic component, it seems like people are able to do things that

[09:19]

are helpful for that.

[09:20]

Is that what you experience in your work?

[09:22]

Absolutely.

[09:23]

Absolutely.

[09:24]

So what society tells these people is that they need to be silent and they need to medicate

[09:28]

and they need to accept.

[09:29]

There are ways to actually using the latest of Western science and the latest of traditional

[09:34]

transmedicine and combining those two to find the root cause of their migraines and to act

[09:41]

on these root causes that sit on top of genetics and completely transform their lives.

[09:46]

And so this is what I've been doing for the last five years.

[09:48]

So you started by asking me, you know, what languages do you speak?

[09:52]

I speak seven.

[09:53]

I think the eighth one is a language of migraine.

[09:55]

A migraine, if anything, is a message from your brain to signal a problem in your body.

[10:02]

That makes sense.

[10:03]

And I feel like hopefully not too many people experience severe migraines and I know you

[10:07]

directly help the people who do.

[10:09]

But I feel like when you tie in the concept of letting go, this is actually something

[10:12]

that applies to every single person listening in a very important way.

[10:16]

And so I'm really excited to learn from this on you because like I said, this has been

[10:20]

a part of my personal journey and one I'm really excited to learn more about in our

[10:23]

conversation today.

[10:25]

Before we jump into the how to let go and the benefits of letting go, can you also talk

[10:29]

about the downsides of what happens if we don't let go?

[10:32]

Yeah, if we don't let go, there's a lot of ripple effects.

[10:36]

So basically if you think of letting go of a negative emotion or a toxic relationship

[10:42]

and you hang on to that toxic relationship or you hang on to that negative emotion, of

[10:46]

course it's going to have an impact on your brain.

[10:50]

But it doesn't stop there because you have this beautiful gut-brain axis, it's going

[10:54]

to sooner or later start to impact your gut and all of your main organs.

[10:59]

And so we're going to start to get into a massive domino effect that's going to impact

[11:04]

your overall health.

[11:06]

And I would guess maybe people listening might wonder, like I think a lot of my listeners

[11:11]

are well-versed in that our emotions do of course impact our physiology, but someone

[11:16]

suffering from something like a migraine might wonder like, can the emotional aspect of this,

[11:20]

can letting go of emotions actually have that drastic of an effect that it can actually

[11:23]

help our physiology as well?

[11:25]

Yeah, absolutely.

[11:26]

And maybe I'll start with a really particular story.

[11:29]

When I started to do this, I first had two Alexandras.

[11:33]

And those two Alexandras were, one was my sister, I helped her to get out of her migraines

[11:37]

with Dr. Jiang that I work with now for the last five years, wonderful human.

[11:42]

And I helped the daughter of a neurologist also get rid of her migraines.

[11:45]

And that was a lot more odd for me.

[11:47]

The dad was recommending a lifetime of medication, including having injections in her brain.

[11:52]

And by asking a lot of questions to her via WhatsApp and exchanging with my doctor with

[11:58]

WeChat, I was able to recommend her food, just food and get rid of her migraines in

[12:03]

four months.

[12:04]

Although that was really bizarre because 18% of women have it, it came to my home very

[12:09]

quickly after two friends of friends, one was Jessica and the other one for confidential

[12:14]

matters were going to call her Beatrix.

[12:17]

So Jessica had a lifetime of migraines, they were sporadic, but after a concussion, she

[12:21]

started to have them on a daily basis.

[12:24]

So on a daily, she was suffering from migraines.

[12:26]

She would only be able to concentrate for 10 hours a week.

[12:29]

And Dr. Jiang said, look, medicate, go back to work, take some antidepressants, feel you're

[12:34]

not taking medications enough.

[12:35]

And that's why you're in pain.

[12:36]

And she said, you know, I have so many side effects from the medication, please, there

[12:40]

has to be something wrong with my body.

[12:42]

No, everything's in order.

[12:44]

I get back to work, take antidepressants.

[12:46]

And so I helped her and it took two months.

[12:48]

And so this is an amazing, amazing story.

[12:51]

These women, they start to testify on something called Migraine Heroes Podcast, which is incredible,

[12:57]

the stories of these women.

[12:58]

But then that same day came another woman, and this is where I really want to deep dive

[13:02]

on letting go.

[13:03]

This is another woman and she had migraines for 30 years and she was taking at the time

[13:08]

six triptans a day, five days a week.

[13:10]

Okay.

[13:11]

If you have migraines, you know how impressive that level of medication is.

[13:15]

And so we started working together and identified her imbalances, there were several, of course.

[13:19]

And so we start working and slowly her body was starting to recover.

[13:22]

So the intensity and frequency of her migraines were disappearing or decreasing in time.

[13:28]

And one day out of the blue, they massively spiked up, massively.

[13:34]

And I really thought, okay, what is it?

[13:36]

You know, I looked at her data, her tracker, I'm like, okay, did I give her something to

[13:40]

eat that was wrong?

[13:41]

You know, am I missing something?

[13:42]

What's the weather like?

[13:43]

I was really, you know, really not understanding that discipline because I collated all of

[13:47]

the data together to be able to help others faster.

[13:51]

And so I called her and I said, look, I'm so sorry, Beatrix, on how you feel.

[13:54]

I'm sorry that you're in so much pain.

[13:57]

And then she interrupts me and she says, my daughter tried to commit suicide.

[14:02]

And I just listened.

[14:04]

This was the last thing I was expecting.

[14:06]

And I listened, I supported her, I did my best and I hung up and I thought, wow, what?

[14:12]

What happened?

[14:14]

Her pain that she's experiencing is really linked to that really strong emotion that

[14:20]

she's experiencing.

[14:21]

So the pain of her daughter and her empathy and love for her daughter is translating in

[14:26]

her body and her body is not experiencing pain as well.

[14:31]

And it really, really, really struck me.

[14:33]

I thought, oh my God, I so much did not see that coming.

[14:37]

Wow.

[14:38]

That's incredible.

[14:39]

And it makes sense when you explain it, but it really highlights just how intricately

[14:43]

those things are connected.

[14:44]

And I think often, at least in the US, we often maybe discount how deeply our emotions

[14:50]

can actually really affect our physiology.

[14:52]

And I know I had that experience in a much smaller way, just in resolving some emotional

[14:57]

trauma I had and seeing my body change and it become easier to lose weight and my thyroid

[15:02]

issues resolved.

[15:03]

And it really opened my eyes to, wow, this connection is much stronger than perhaps we've

[15:08]

ever explored.

[15:09]

Absolutely.

[15:10]

And so what happened is that for the last number of decades, we have taken women out

[15:15]

of clinical trials.

[15:17]

It started in the 60s with a medication called Felidemide that creates a lot of children

[15:21]

being 10,000 kids in Germany alone, born without limbs because of a nausea medication for pregnant

[15:28]

women.

[15:29]

And so it traumatized the whole industry and I thought, oh my God, we have to remove women

[15:32]

from clinical trials because they might be pregnant if they don't tell you they're not

[15:35]

pregnant.

[15:36]

They might be Trump pregnant.

[15:37]

And then there's something a lot more interesting is when you look at lab rats studies, those

[15:42]

are also done on male rats and not for the baby story, but because the data of female

[15:47]

rats are not always explainable.

[15:49]

So beyond the cycle, beyond the feminine cycle, there seems to be other stuff that can't be

[15:53]

explained and therefore we were taken out of the equation thinking, you know, women

[15:57]

don't make quite so much sense.

[15:59]

Yeah.

[16:00]

I know that's been talked about a little bit is how women are largely still excluded from

[16:04]

medical research and almost completely so until 1993.

[16:08]

And I understand that we have more hormone variables and things that make us a little

[16:11]

bit more tough subjects.

[16:13]

But like you're saying, this is also a disservice to women because we are excluded from the

[16:17]

research that might help us the most.

[16:19]

But also I love that you take that root cause approach.

[16:22]

And even if women are being excluded from medicine, looking at the ways with each person

[16:26]

individually that can help resolve their specific issue.

[16:29]

Because I find that I say often here, you know, we're each our own primary healthcare

[16:33]

provider.

[16:34]

And while, yes, we might be an end of one study personally, for us, that's the most

[16:38]

important end of one study we could ever do.

[16:40]

Completely.

[16:41]

You know, like, yeah, absolutely.

[16:43]

I'm just so much with you, so much with you.

[16:46]

And so what was fascinating is that I kept on seeing that pattern in rare occasions.

[16:52]

But whenever I would see something not making sense, I'd pick up the phone.

[16:55]

It would be my son had their first epilepsy crisis.

[16:58]

It would be my husband lost his job.

[17:01]

It could be, you know, I have such a bad and toxic boss.

[17:04]

It could be all of these things happening in their life, or like a retoxic partner or,

[17:10]

you know, in-laws living in the same room.

[17:13]

And so in all of these instances, while we were repairing things in their body, they

[17:18]

would keep on breaking down.

[17:19]

And so this is the moment where I started to think, okay, in addition to all of this

[17:23]

tools that we recommend women, we need to start to teach them how to cope with these

[17:28]

massive negative emotions and tough relationships and how to teach them to let go.

[17:34]

Yeah, I remember that quote, something along the lines of holding on to anger is like drinking

[17:38]

poison and hoping the other person dies.

[17:41]

But it seems like these negative emotions really do actually impact us the most.

[17:46]

And the good news there is that we do have the ability to shift our emotions and our

[17:51]

inner experience, but I don't think that's something that's commonly taught.

[17:54]

So can you walk us through, like, it sounds like a great theory, I'm guessing.

[17:58]

Most people are listening going, yeah, I want to let go of these emotions, but how do we

[18:01]

actually do that?

[18:02]

Because I'm guessing the process is not quite so simple as just deciding to do it either.

[18:07]

Absolutely.

[18:08]

Absolutely.

[18:09]

So how to let go.

[18:10]

So emotions are really positive.

[18:13]

It's just things stuck in a single emotion is actually very dangerous.

[18:17]

Okay.

[18:18]

So I'll say that one more time because it's really important.

[18:21]

Emotions by and of themselves are positive.

[18:25]

It's staying stuck in a single emotion that is very detrimental.

[18:29]

Now, how do you not stay stuck is you consciously decide to change emotion.

[18:35]

So let's imagine I have that toxic bus.

[18:37]

Okay.

[18:38]

So I'm feeling very angry about that bus.

[18:40]

What I can decide to do is I'm going to be angry for a certain amount of time.

[18:44]

Then I'm going to decide to change emotion and I'm going to decide to cry.

[18:47]

Crying is a very good opposite emotion to anger.

[18:51]

And so you're going to decide to cry.

[18:53]

The best way is probably Netflix, you know, and you just decide to take a really,

[18:57]

really sad movie on Netflix and you go and you cry.

[19:01]

When you cry, you're going to let go of tears, some of which are going to contain that toxin.

[19:05]

So when you have anger, something needs to come out.

[19:08]

So this is one way to make something come out and completely shift emotion.

[19:13]

You can also decide to go and do cardio and sweat.

[19:17]

If sweating doesn't accentuate dizziness or vertigo for you,

[19:21]

you can also decide to go out and shout.

[19:24]

But crying is a really, really efficient way to let go of the anger.

[19:29]

And then you'll see your anger will dissipate and you might get back into the angry zone,

[19:33]

which is fine.

[19:34]

But then you decide consciously to get out of it again.

[19:38]

Yeah, that's a helpful tip.

[19:39]

And probably for the moms listening, one I think of sometimes to be aware of as a mom,

[19:43]

especially like I can remember instances in my own childhood when I was crying

[19:47]

and was told like, it's okay, don't cry.

[19:50]

And when you explained crying is helping those emotions process,

[19:54]

I've tried with my kids as much as possible and by no means perfectly,

[19:57]

but to not tell them it's okay when they're having a big emotion,

[20:01]

but to try to understand their emotion and give them space to feel it.

[20:05]

Or even things with like two-year-olds and temper tantrums.

[20:07]

I'm like, they're processing rage in their bodies and letting it leave.

[20:11]

And as adults, we learn that skill of packing it all down and keeping it in.

[20:15]

But maybe their response is much healthier.

[20:17]

And I actually even had a therapist one time encourage me to on purpose,

[20:21]

throw a temper tantrum in my bed in a safe place

[20:23]

and just let that process through my body.

[20:26]

And I was shocked how much of a difference I felt

[20:28]

from actually giving that emotion space to exist so that it could leave.

[20:32]

Completely.

[20:33]

It needs to leave your body.

[20:34]

You're describing it super well.

[20:36]

And so let the anger go free, you know, go free.

[20:41]

There's something in Chinese that says,

[20:43]

it means like go to the ends of your anger, express it, expel it.

[20:48]

And you can really encourage a child to do that.

[20:50]

And if the child wants to cry, just let them cry.

[20:52]

Sometimes it's funny.

[20:53]

My husband says, oh, stop crying.

[20:55]

And I'm like, well, just let it go.

[20:56]

Let's just, you know, cry.

[20:57]

Good time.

[20:58]

It's positive.

[20:59]

And then once you're cried finished, then we can continue the conversation.

[21:03]

It's completely positive.

[21:05]

Let's talk about stress.

[21:06]

For example, if you're really stressed, really anxious,

[21:09]

you can get angry at something as well.

[21:11]

You can try to find something that really annoys you and get mad at it.

[21:15]

Just make a fuss about something as a mom.

[21:17]

And that's going to get you out of your anxious zone, out of your stress zone.

[21:23]

And it's very positive.

[21:25]

Another one I find really, really good that I personally do.

[21:28]

Sometimes you go through family things that are really difficult.

[21:30]

And I found my way to stand-up comedies.

[21:33]

And you just, you know, take, again, you go on YouTube this time.

[21:36]

Maybe I love Montreux, which is like this French stand-up comedy gathering.

[21:41]

There's like less in the world.

[21:42]

And you find your best stand-up comedian people.

[21:45]

And it's 10 minutes of your time.

[21:47]

And it makes you laugh.

[21:48]

It makes your diaphragm move.

[21:49]

It changes your breathing pattern.

[21:51]

And it allows you to let go of the other emotions you were hanging on to.

[21:56]

Yeah, I love that.

[21:57]

And yeah, like you said, I think maybe kids are inherently a little better about this

[22:01]

until we train them not to be.

[22:02]

And I've even said to my kids at times, like when they're crying, saying like,

[22:05]

oh yeah, sometimes I cry too.

[22:07]

And what big emotions are you feeling right now?

[22:09]

And just giving them a safe space to feel that.

[22:12]

And often maybe that's what adults need as well, like you're talking about.

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And I think you have such a unique combination of knowledge here of that Eastern and

[26:35]

Western traditions in medicine meeting and how they can both be beneficial,

[26:39]

but is there any research or data on either the Western medical side or in Eastern medicine about

[26:45]

how like emotions connect to the body and how letting go actually can help change our physiology?

[26:50]

Yeah, in traditional Chinese medicine, it's omnipresent.

[26:53]

They say you understand the gut-brain axis.

[26:55]

Oh, my God, it's so much, goes much beyond.

[26:56]

Of course, the brain can really kiss the gut, the gut to the brain,

[26:59]

but the emotions will impact the organs and the organs will impact the emotions.

[27:03]

So why that is important, and here I'll drill on traditional Chinese medicine,

[27:07]

is if you feel angry, the more you feel angry, just the way you were describing, Katie,

[27:12]

was it's just like if you had eaten poison.

[27:16]

So your liver level of toxicity massively increased.

[27:21]

From that moment, because the liver system is going to do a ton of other jobs,

[27:25]

there will be consequences to that.

[27:27]

So your liver system in traditional Chinese medicine is in charge of your liver,

[27:32]

your gallbladder, a lot of the parts of your brain, your tendons, all of your

[27:36]

semen hormones, your mood hormones, and it sort of irrigates your entire body of yin and noble liquids.

[27:45]

So when you stock up the energy for anger in a constant manner,

[27:49]

you do not allow for the liver system to get done and get on with its other jobs.

[27:55]

So this is where women are going to start to feel a domino effect of other symptoms

[27:59]

that are completely irrelated in appearance, but are completely related inside.

[28:05]

So she's going to start to have bloating in the extension of the belly area,

[28:09]

and this is the digesting slowing down.

[28:11]

She might have sore breasts.

[28:13]

The toxin is starting to accumulate in her breast because the body is trying to get rid of them.

[28:17]

She might have more migraines, specifically on the temples,

[28:20]

across the eyebrows, on the top of the head.

[28:23]

She might also feel numbness, numbness in the legs, numbness in the arms.

[28:27]

She might have tingling sensation, cramps and spasms.

[28:30]

Because she starts to have all of these sensations, it's quite scary.

[28:34]

And so they all come from there.

[28:36]

So the moment you're going to let go and change emotion,

[28:39]

the more you're going to leave the liver system to rest and do its normal job

[28:44]

that it's supposed to do otherwise,

[28:46]

and get busy with another system that you give a kick to.

[28:51]

There's something else you can do, by the way.

[28:53]

I really want to teach you, and it's really important.

[28:55]

You can also use foods and infusions in order to dissipate an emotion.

[29:01]

For example, if you feel recurringly angry,

[29:05]

one way to get out of it is to have a chamomile infusion with 8 to 10 goji berries.

[29:10]

Goji berries are adaptogens and they're incredible.

[29:13]

So 8 to 10 is just more than enough to have a good dose.

[29:17]

And chamomile will detox and stimulate the liver.

[29:20]

Both will do that.

[29:21]

And so that's going to really help us nourish our liver,

[29:24]

stimulate it and get it going with its other job while detoxing it on the way.

[29:28]

A really important note, do not have that if you are on a FODMAP diet,

[29:32]

and do not have that when you have your menstruation.

[29:35]

Otherwise, you'll bleed more.

[29:36]

If you feel very, very anxious and stressed,

[29:41]

another one which is really, really cool is a black sesame and walnut powder.

[29:46]

So you basically roast 100 grams of black sesame.

[29:50]

You roast 100 grams of walnuts.

[29:52]

You blend them and you store that powder in your fridge.

[29:55]

You have two tablespoons a day.

[29:57]

This is going to massively help, especially around permeables with a ton of hormones,

[30:01]

but also if you start to have a bit of white hair because of stress,

[30:06]

prematurely, it's going to restore and feed your kidney system

[30:10]

and restore the health of your hair if you do that for a couple of months.

[30:15]

So you can also ease your way out of letting go, if that makes sense.

[30:19]

Let go with foods.

[30:20]

Maybe I'll share that one story.

[30:22]

I had a man in the US who, again, was better, better, better, better, better.

[30:26]

And then suddenly he contacts me and says,

[30:28]

I have this massive migraine.

[30:29]

You know, this thing is not working.

[30:31]

And I was like, okay, okay.

[30:32]

I'm sorry.

[30:33]

I don't know.

[30:33]

I'm looking at your data.

[30:34]

I'm clearly lacking context.

[30:35]

I'm so sorry.

[30:36]

What's happening?

[30:37]

And is there anything I'm not aware of?

[30:39]

And he says, my father just died.

[30:42]

And I look at his data and we have ways to look at the biggest nerve through the data.

[30:47]

And I said to him, look, I don't...

[30:50]

Apologies.

[30:51]

I see more anger and resentment and I don't quite see grief.

[30:54]

And I really want to make sure I calibrate your foods properly.

[30:57]

And he said, look, my relationship with my dad has been horrendous.

[31:00]

I am indeed very angry.

[31:02]

And I've done years of therapy and please don't make me go there.

[31:05]

And I said, it's okay.

[31:06]

Just have these few foods that will detox your liver and help stimulate it.

[31:10]

And that will help the anger dissipate.

[31:12]

And it dissipated in a couple of days.

[31:13]

In a couple of days, his brain was, you know, free to enjoy life again.

[31:17]

So you can't...

[31:18]

I also want to acknowledge you can't always, you know, let go so easily and let respect

[31:23]

foods are helpful.

[31:25]

That's so fascinating.

[31:26]

And the tip about the black sesame and the walnut powder, that's a great tip.

[31:32]

And all these stories really highlight that really intense connection.

[31:35]

And again, I feel like we've lost in the Western world.

[31:38]

And I know there's a flip side to this too.

[31:40]

Like all the positive things that happen when we let go of negative emotions and when we

[31:44]

nurture joy.

[31:45]

So I'd love to talk about those some, if you're willing, of what happens physiologically in

[31:49]

the body when those emotions let go.

[31:51]

Like I know I've heard an extreme examples, stories of people who had terminal cancer,

[31:56]

for instance, who chose to laugh a whole lot.

[31:59]

And without the medical treatment, because there was nothing they could do, they've resolved.

[32:03]

And the medical world was kind of shocked by this.

[32:05]

But it seems there's also a tremendous benefit to really like nurturing those positive emotions

[32:10]

like peace and joy and calm.

[32:11]

So what are the physical benefits of letting go and what happens physiologically when we

[32:16]

do?

[32:17]

Yeah.

[32:17]

So let's take the example of that person you were mentioning.

[32:20]

So they're in a state of cancer and they start to laugh.

[32:23]

They start to take some of their emotions out and change emotion.

[32:28]

When you laugh, you're going to make your breathing slightly uneven and you're going

[32:32]

to start to, by there, like start to stimulate your diaphragm.

[32:36]

So your diaphragm is going to start to move up and down in a bit of an unexpected manner.

[32:42]

Now, the system or the organ, which is just below your diaphragm, is your liver.

[32:48]

So the same way as a person has a heartbeat, they also have a liver beat.

[32:52]

And the liver beat is that breathing, is that diaphragm that sits just on top of it.

[32:57]

So not consciously knowing it, that person is stimulating their liver system.

[33:02]

Now, the liver system is going to get so much more energy to get done so much of what it

[33:07]

needs to get done.

[33:09]

And most of all, and once the liver gets really well, it's like a sister and brother with

[33:14]

the kidney system.

[33:15]

Not in the kidney system.

[33:17]

I have the kidneys, the bladder, the adrenals.

[33:19]

I have behind the head.

[33:21]

I have the ability to alveolate, the ability to resist stress, and then the ability to

[33:25]

have to deploy my immune system for these big diseases.

[33:29]

Okay.

[33:30]

And so from the moment the liver system is going to work much better, the kidney system

[33:35]

is going to have some of its to-do list lifted by the liver system and the kidney system

[33:41]

being much less stressed is going to be able to perform well and do the job that this amazing

[33:49]

body of ours is supposed to do.

[33:51]

The body wants to heal.

[33:53]

That's incredible.

[33:54]

And it makes me wonder, so like if letting go improves some of our organ systems, is

[33:59]

the reverse true as well?

[34:00]

Like if we improve some of our organ systems, does that make it easier to let go?

[34:04]

Like is sometimes it harder to let go if we have physical things that are slowing that

[34:08]

down as well?

[34:10]

Yes, completely.

[34:11]

Yes, absolutely.

[34:12]

And so it's sometimes, especially with really tough and strong emotions, to take it from

[34:17]

different angles.

[34:18]

You can take an angle of meditation, yoga, and calming your thoughts down.

[34:22]

You can take it from an angle of letting go by changing emotion.

[34:26]

You can take it from an angle of food.

[34:28]

All of these combined allow you to get out of that vicious circle.

[34:32]

And if you see someone, if you have a loved one who struggles to let go of an emotion,

[34:38]

you can also fabricate, architect an emotion.

[34:41]

So for example, if you have someone who's completely depressed, you can fabricate a

[34:46]

massive reason for them to be really angry.

[34:48]

So you do something really mad at them, then they become super angry.

[34:52]

They're going to get out of that depression feeling.

[34:55]

They're going to come alive.

[34:57]

They were really silent and they were introverted and they were not talking and they were not

[35:01]

looking.

[35:02]

Now they're staring you with big eyes and they're shouting.

[35:06]

And so that's going to help them get better.

[35:08]

So yeah, so you can also provoke each other, help each other if you see that happening

[35:13]

in a family.

[35:14]

That's why sometimes we tend to tease our kids when they're really mad and make a joke,

[35:20]

you crack a joke, you try to change topic.

[35:23]

I think that's also letting go, change topic.

[35:26]

Yeah, that's fascinating.

[35:27]

Then the idea of actually doing it with anger, I could see most people might think like,

[35:31]

OK, kids upset, fabricate laughter or happiness.

[35:34]

But how you just pointed out, even sometimes anger might help the depression and the sadness

[35:39]

process through.

[35:40]

It's like that change of mental state.

[35:42]

Yeah, and it's easier to ask for it to a person or to self to go from a negative mental

[35:48]

state to another negative mental state.

[35:50]

And it's fine.

[35:51]

It does the job.

[35:52]

At the end of the day, you just want the job done.

[35:55]

Do you have any?

[35:56]

I know you have a lot of resources online and that you work with people directly.

[35:59]

I want to make sure we speak to that for anyone who's actually suffering with migraines as

[36:02]

well.

[36:02]

But where can people find you online to keep learning more about this process of letting

[36:06]

go?

[36:06]

And it seems like there is a very individual component to it as well.

[36:09]

But different things work for different people.

[36:11]

Yes, yes.

[36:13]

My website is MyNectarHealth.com.

[36:16]

Nectar like the flower, like the food.

[36:18]

And you can find us on Instagram at My Nectar Health.

[36:22]

Yeah.

[36:22]

And then what you do is you can take a test.

[36:24]

And that test is quite incredible.

[36:26]

It's like 95, 97 questions that relate to all of the symptoms that you might feel.

[36:32]

And from there, we can really infer the imbalances, the root cause of the imbalances going on

[36:39]

in your body.

[36:40]

And then we meet and we debrief on that.

[36:42]

And women love this conversation because they're like, finally, my body is actually making

[36:47]

sense.

[36:47]

I'm experiencing all of these symptoms and I understand them.

[36:50]

I think understanding is the first process, the first step to recovery.

[36:55]

Well, the stories you share are incredible about people recovering from things.

[36:59]

And I love that that also involves them getting more in tune with their emotions and learning

[37:03]

how to let go of the negative ones.

[37:05]

And I love that you brought the science to this and the Eastern and Western traditions.

[37:09]

And united that in a way that's directly helping people.

[37:12]

So I'll link to your website and also to that questionnaire.

[37:14]

I'll make sure to find a link before this airs, because I think for too long, at least

[37:19]

in the Western world, we've ignored that mind, body and emotional connection.

[37:22]

And I love that you are bringing it back with such hard data and science and really impact

[37:27]

on people.

[37:28]

So thank you so much for that work that you do.

[37:31]

Yeah.

[37:31]

And we run like everything like a trinkle trot, like we take data every day.

[37:34]

And I think a big part of me was like, can we just prove that this is existing?

[37:39]

There's a big part of me that just want to do that.

[37:42]

Yeah.

[37:42]

So thank you so much.

[37:43]

And maybe I'll mention the one last one is the Migrant Heroes podcast is amazing.

[37:47]

It's really women who went through the mud and they went through hell and they're coming

[37:52]

not sponsored.

[37:53]

They're just coming to you to say, hey, this is the journey I've had.

[37:57]

And this is, you know, the nonsense of my life.

[37:59]

And this is the life I have now.

[38:01]

So they're coming to help other women.

[38:05]

Wonderful.

[38:06]

I'll link to that as well.

[38:07]

And also send it to the people I know who are experiencing migraines, and hopefully

[38:11]

it brings them some resolution as well.

[38:13]

Thank you so much for all the work that you do and for being here today.

[38:16]

Thank you, Katie.

[38:18]

And thank you for listening.

[38:19]

And I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of the Wellness Mala podcast.

[38:25]

If you're enjoying these interviews, would you please take two minutes to leave a rating

[38:29]

or review on iTunes for me?

[38:31]

Doing this helps more people to find the podcast, which means even more moms and families can

[38:35]

benefit from the information.

[38:36]

I really appreciate your time.

[38:38]

And thanks, as always, for listening.

Originally published April 2024

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The Physical Benefits of Letting Go – | Migraine Heroes