When Over-thinking Hurts: How Mental Noise Triggers Migraine Pain

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Ever notice how your mind never stops analyzing, planning, replaying, and then your head starts

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to ache?

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In this episode, we explore the silent cause of overthinking, the migraine born from mental

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noise.

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Migraine Heroes is a podcast for chronic migraine sufferers who've seen countless doctors with

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no results.

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Learn how to reduce your migraine attacks without endless medications or constant sacrifices.

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Hello, I'm Diane Ducarme, I've helped over 500 people break free from migraine, even

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after suffering for up to 60 years.

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My mission in life?

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To bring this relief to a million people using a unique blend of Eastern medicine and Western

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science.

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In this episode, you'll learn how mental overactivity rewires your stress and pain

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systems, turning thought loop into physical tension and migraine pain, why your brain's

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default mode network may be the real culprit, and how science is catching up to what meditators

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have known for centuries, and how Eastern medicine calms the wind of the mind using

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simple grounding rituals to restore stillness and clarity.

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Stay with me till the end, because you'll start to no longer indulge your brain in its

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constant meanderings after understanding the link it has with your migraines.

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Let's start here.

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Your brain is not built for constant analysis.

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Yet the modern world rewards exactly that, multitasking, decision-making, planning the

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next five steps before finishing the first one.

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And the brain pays the price.

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Scientists call that the default mode network, DMN, a set of brain regions that activate

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when you're not focused on a task, when your mind wanders, replays the past, or imagines

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the future.

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And in moderation, mind you, it's healthy.

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But in chronic overthinkers, it never turns off.

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A 2023 review in Nature Reviews Neuroscience found that hyperactivity in that default mode

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network is linked to stress-related disorders, anxiety, and increased pain perception because

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the same network overlaps with pain-processing regions like the anterior cingulate cortex

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and insula.

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Now, here's the mind-brain connection.

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A 2021 study in the Journal of Headache and Pain found that people with chronic migraine

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show increased connectivity with that default mode network and silence networks, essentially

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the brain's attention-to-threat system.

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The brains don't just process pain, they anticipate it, they magnify it, and they struggle

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to disengage.

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That's what overthinkers often say.

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My brain flees tired, but I can't switch it off.

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That is when that default mode network, that DMN, is caught in overdrive.

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And when your stress hormones are going to layer on top, because they will, let's face

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it, especially cortisol and adrenaline, this network feeds back into the trigeminal vascular

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system, the pathway responsible for migraine pain.

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And so there was a study done in 2022 from Headache, the Journal of Head and Face Pain.

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By the way, I always put all of the links to these beautiful science articles in the

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show notes.

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I found that people with high cognitive rumination scores, those who replay stressful events,

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had 40% higher migraine frequency and shorter pain-free intervals.

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The mechanism?

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Elevated sympathetic activity and persistent muscle tension in the neck and scalp that

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keep that pain loop alive.

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Now here's the paradox.

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Overthinkers often try to solve the migraine when the same mental tools can cause it.

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They're going to analyze triggers, optimize routines, monitor every symptom until the

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very act of control becomes another stressor.

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Now this is where neuroscience actually offers hope.

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Functional MRI, so these scans of the brain, studies from Harvard Medical School showed

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that mindfulness meditation, just 10 minutes a day, reduces activity, that default mode

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network, that DMN, and increases activation in the prefrontal cortex, the region that

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regulates emotional control and pain tolerance.

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In other words, stillness is not passive.

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It's a neurochemical balance that can be trained and can be achieved.

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You can't out-think a migraine born of overthinking.

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You have to out-calibrate it by teaching your nervous system that safety becomes presence,

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not planning.

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Now I make it sound easy.

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That is not fair.

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It's really not fair.

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It's not easy by any stretch of imagination, okay?

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But I'm just laying it out so you can think about it, process it, and maybe implement

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it in your life and see how you feel with it.

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In traditional Chinese medicine, migraines from overthinking are described as spleen

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qi deficiency with liver qi stagnation.

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So let's decode that.

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You have the spleen in traditional Chinese medicine that governs thoughts and focus,

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that is your prefrontal cortex, and when you think too much, you worry too long, or you

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juggle too many decisions, that spleen qi is going to weaken.

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And the result is dampness and stagnation.

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Your mind feels heavy, foggy, slow, yet paradoxically, your thoughts keep spinning.

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And meanwhile, the liver, responsible for the smooth flow of qi, becomes tense.

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And when liver qi can't flow freely, it rises upwards, carrying the heat and tension

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into the head.

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The outcome?

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Migraines, eye strain, restlessness, temple migraines, top-of-the-head migraines, before

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menstruation migraines, insomnia, etc, etc.

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So while the West calls it neural overactivation, the East calls it many things, but let's

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say internal winds rising.

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So once again, both East and West say the same.

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There's even an old saying in Chinese medicine, when the mind is loud, the liver will shout

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through the head.

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From an Ayurvedic lens, this is vata-pitta imbalance, vata governs movement and thought,

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and pitta governs intensity and fire.

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When both rise together, fast, wide, fiery drive, you get mental overactivity that burns

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energy, but never grounds it.

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That's why the Eastern approach isn't to stop thinking, it's to redirect thinking

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into rhythm, rituals that anchor your back to body and breath.

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Okay, so I acknowledge this is hard, it's really hard, but something to think about

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and softly implement in your life, more grounding, more mindfulness, more meditation, more calm.

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Now the gut-brain axis is bi-directional, so you can either decide on these things,

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and it's going to impact positively your gut and your brain axis, or you can work on

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your gut to achieve that and achieve it in your brain and in your migraine.

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Both ways work, it is hard work, but it's feasible.

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I know you can do it.

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I know you can do it.

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And remember, every small step you take moves you closer to freedom.

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You're powerful, you're resilient, and you're no longer alone.

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Keep rising, migraine hero.