When Sound Becomes Too Much: The Migraine Brain & Noise Overload

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When ordinary noise feels sharp, crowded or overwhelming,

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here's why sound hits harder for migraine's mind.

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Migraine Heroes is a podcast for chronic migraine sufferers

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who've seen countless doctors with no results.

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Learn how to reduce your migraine attacks without endless medications

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or constant sacrifices.

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Hello, I'm Diane Ducarme.

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I've helped over 500 people break free from migraine,

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even 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

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using a unique blend of Eastern medicine and Western science.

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In this episode, you will learn

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why some brains process sound more intensely than others.

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How stress, trauma and migraine change the way

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your auditory system regulates noise.

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And how both Western neuroscience and Eastern medicine

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help you quiet the world without shutting yourself off from it.

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Stay with me till the end,

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because once you understand how your brain interprets sound,

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you'll stop blaming yourself and feel empowered for more understanding

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and more ready to take action.

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Sensitivity to sound when having a migraine

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has always been part of our migraine assessment

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and now more recently part of the things we evaluate

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for people at Migraine Heroes in the daily tracker.

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It is an important symptom that says a lot more

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than what it looks like on the surface.

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And one that we always want to address

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because the reality is that you cannot always control your environment

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or preclude yourself from it.

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Sound doesn't just travel through your ears,

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it travels through your nervous system.

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Inside your brainstem,

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your auditory cortex and limbic system are tightly linked.

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That means every sound you hear is emotionally evaluated

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before you consciously process it.

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In migraine and anxiety-prone brains,

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this filtering system, called auditory gating, is weaker.

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Too much sensory data gets through,

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the emotional alarm lights up,

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suddenly harmless background noise feels invasive.

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A 2022 review in Frontiers in Neurology

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found that migraine patients show abnormal hyperactivity

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in the superior colliculus and insula.

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Areas that connect sensory input with pain perception.

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Essentially, the brain amplifies not just the sound,

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but the feeling of it.

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And stress makes it worse in the West.

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We're going to talk about the East in a minute.

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When cortisol rises,

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your body diverts blood flow towards the vigilant system

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and away from sensory modulation.

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That's why sound feels sharper when you're tired, stressed or overwhelmed.

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Your brain is primed to detect threat.

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But the brain is adaptable.

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You're not doomed to live in noise.

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You can retrain your filters.

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In traditional Chinese medicine,

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auditive function belongs to the kidney system,

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which is in charge of stress as well.

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So, in an interesting way,

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the East and the West are exactly the same,

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just in different ways.

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Usually, people who experience sensitivity to sound

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when having a migraine

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will also experience sensitivity to smell when having a migraine,

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migraine and ovulation,

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migraine when stressed, fatigue, overwhelm.

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It's not just what you hear.

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It's how your body resonates.

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When that system is calm,

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sound flows through and leaves no trace.

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When that system, that kidney system, is agitated,

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sound lingers like an echo that never fades.

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Eastern medicine teaches that external noise disturbs inner stillness

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only when inner stillness is overly fragile.

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So the work begins within.

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Warm teas to soothe the liver,

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quiet evenings,

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soft breath down into the belly

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because the liver is the gate of the kidney.

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Even placing both palms gently over the ears for a few breaths

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helps return awareness inward,

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closing the circuit.

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When your inner landscape softens,

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the outer noise loses its power.

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Sound stops attacking you.

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It moves through.

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So if the world feels too loud,

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it doesn't mean you're weak.

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It means you're aware.

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Your brain was built to notice.

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It just needs to help remembering

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that not every sound is danger.

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Each pause, each quiet meal,

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each moment of mindful silence

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turns down the internal amplifier a little more.

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Because healing from noise sensitivity

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isn't about living in silence.

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It's about creating peace so deep

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that even sound feels safe again.

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Now, this is complex to solve

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and a single podcast cannot do justice for it.

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It takes me a year and a half to train someone.

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That is how long it took me to do that work with integrity.

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And this is so complex to address.

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So we're not going to solve it in a 15 minutes podcast.

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Today is about the awareness of it.

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And that's already a lot.

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It's a small treasure to know it's not just in your head.

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It's not just you.

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That you should not blame yourself.

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That you are not crazy.

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That this is real.

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So take a deep breath.

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Give a bit of love to your kidney system.

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We are on our way to help you too.

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And remember,

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every small step you take

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moves you closer to freedom.

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You are powerful.

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You are resilient.

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And you are no longer alone.

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Keep rising, migraine hero.