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What if your racing thoughts and pounding headaches are more connected than you think?
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Today we explore the hidden links between ADHD and migraines.
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Migraine Heroes is a podcast for chronic migraine sufferers who've seen countless doctors with 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 after suffering for up to 60 years.
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My mission in life? To bring this relief to a million people using a unique blend of Eastern medicine and Western science.
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In this episode, you will learn why people with ADHD are significantly more likely to suffer from migraines,
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and what this tells us about your brain, the key neurotransmitters that drive both conditions,
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and how traditional Chinese medicine explains the domino effect behind ADHD.
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As you know from last week's flying episode, I'm in Washington, D.C., soaking up advice.
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I had a grounding conversation with a friend yesterday, also a customer of ours, who is a senior leader at a major tech company.
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We ended up talking about ADHD.
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She's juggling three children, two demanding jobs, and life in a fast-paced city,
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and so it is no surprise that she's been diagnosed with ADHD and migraines.
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Now, what is that all about?
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ADHD, fundamentally, has always been around.
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So today, diagnoses are on the rise. Why?
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Well, first of all, there's quite a lot of money on the line.
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Let's be honest, when there's a pharmaceutical solution, there's also a market.
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Then there is the modern lifestyles.
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Some researchers suggest that fast-paced, overstimulating environments,
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think constant screens, notifications, multitasking,
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might make ADHD symptoms more noticeable or harder to manage.
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Now, more interestingly, there's a genetics and epigenetics links.
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ADHD has a strong genetic component, but it's not all in the DNA.
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Environmental factors, like prenatal exposure to toxins,
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can influence whether those genes get switched on.
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Several large studies have found that using Tylenol while being pregnant
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may increase the risk of ADHD in children,
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for some showing up 20 to 30% higher risk with prolonged or repeated use.
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And finally, over the years, the criteria for ADHD have broadened,
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and we'll talk about that.
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Now, did you know there's a strong link between ADHD and migraines?
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Recent research is pointing to a real overlap.
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One study found that people with ADHD are almost twice as likely to experience migraines.
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So what's going on here from a Western medicine's perspective?
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It turns out both conditions may share a similar neurochemical story.
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Think dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine,
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three powerhouse neurotransmitters.
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If you're low on dopamine, you might struggle with focus and impulse control and low ADHD.
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But it also plays a role in pain modulation, which brings us to migraines.
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Serotonin, that one's tied to mood, pain, and sensory activity.
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Low levels can ramp up both ADHD symptoms and migraine frequency.
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And norepinephrine helps with attention and alertness.
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But when it's off balance, it can also mess with how your body handles pain and blood flow,
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another migraine trigger.
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Brain scans show that people with both ADHD and migraines
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often have changes in the same areas of the brain,
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like the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system.
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Now, let me explain to you what those are and how they work.
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The prefrontal cortex, that's the part of your brain right behind your forehead.
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It's like your inner CEO.
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It helps you plan, focus, make decisions, resist impulses, and get things done.
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When this area is underactive, as it often is in ADHD,
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it's like trying to run a company without a boss.
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Tasks slip through the cracks, distractions take over, and it's hard to follow through.
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Then there's the limbic system.
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Your brain's emotional engine.
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It includes structures like the amylta and the hippocampus,
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and it's in charge of things like fear, stress, memory, and emotional responses.
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Think of it as your brain's emotional thermostat.
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When it's dysregulated, you might overreact to small stressors,
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feel overwhelmed easily, or get stuck in emotional loops.
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Now, here's the kicker.
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When your prefrontal cortex isn't doing its job well, the limbic system gets louder.
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It's like the emotional brain starts running the show.
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And that's where emotional impulsivity, mood swings, or even migraines can come in.
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So while the American Psychiatric Association defined ADHD as a neurodevelopmental disorder
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with two core symptoms clusters, which are inattention, so difficulty sustaining,
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attention, forgetfulness, disorganization, and hyperactivity and impulsivity,
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restlessness, interrupting, acting without thinking.
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And that's to be diagnosed.
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We have three criteria.
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Symptoms must be present before age 12.
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They must cause impairment in at least two settings, for example, home and school,
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And they must persist for at least six months.
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So even though we have that definition,
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science made more observation on how that now impacts the brain in terms of medical imagery.
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And that goes from the prefrontal cortex to the limbic system in context of migraines.
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So to understand all of that big mess, let's go east, without a doubt,
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you will see it actually makes sense.
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In traditional Chinese medicine, ADHD fundamentally starts with the stomach spin.
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Your stomach spin is responsible for bringing the brain to the point
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Imagine a bit like a police officer at the top of your food pyramid,
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welcoming the food in your body and triaging it.
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Let's imagine the food are like people in colored T-shirts in your body.
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The role of that police officer is to send them to the right location.
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So it will send to the black T-shirts to the kidney system to power it.
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It will send the red T-shirts to the bloodstream to replenish it.
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It will send the blue T-shirts that are toxins to the liver system.
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And the yellow ones are like allergens and parasites.
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It will neutralize them to protect you.
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That's his role, quite the police officer.
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Now, if you remember from the ADHD official criteria,
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this must be present before age 12, so in childhood.
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So if it is present in childhood,
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there will be a very serious domination
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First of all, it will make your mind more scattered.
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The stomach spin does not only digest your foods.
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It helps you digest your thoughts.
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It acts like a CEO, as we've seen before.
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And so when it's out of balance, you will be more like a CEO. You will be more like a CEO. You will be more like a CEO. You will be more like a CEO. You will be more like a CEO. You will be more like a CEO. And so when it's out of balance, you will be more overthinking,
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struggle to fall asleep as a child,
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be potentially more agitated, alongside not digesting your food really well.
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Now, note that it does not say anything about the smarts.
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You could be a super smart and just cope with it, just like my friend.
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In fact, your non-stop thinking would be quite fueling your ideas.
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The challenge is that it means that the black T-shirts
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will not get to their destination to nourish the kidney system.
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And that is going to make you a slightly more anxious kid.
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The kidney system is in charge of many functions, namely stress, anxiety and fear.
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Later in puberty, as you start bleeding in your menstruation,
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you will not replenish the blood as fast as you should.
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So you're going to start to potentially be blood volume deficient
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and start to have sugar cravings that are going to damage your stomach spin even more.
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What's more, is that the lack of stress resilience is going to make you breathe
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not as deeply and as regularly as you should.
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And that is what's going to cause a liver chi stagnation.
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You see, in the same way you have a heartbeat, you have a liver beat.
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And that beat is your diaphragm giving the rhythm to your liver
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and therefore your liver system.
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And now, bam, you just don't have a random frontal headache as a child.
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You start to have massive migraines when you and your friends go for a drink or two.
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They get a hangover and you get three days in bed.
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You start to notice you're different.
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You start to also notice you have PMS migraines,
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so migraines before your menstruation, numbness in the arms and legs,
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feeling bloated more often, having a distension of the belly area,
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having cramps and spasms sometimes and other small symptoms that creep in from your liver system.
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As you start to medicate for your migraines,
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your liver needs to deal with more and more toxicity.
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And that toxicity is going to flare up in your gallbladder,
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which is going to start to emit bile in your stomach spleen and make it even weaker.
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Now, meanwhile, the food still goes down.
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You start to have dampness, a foggy brain and longer migraine hangovers.
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The climate in your body has changed.
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And now you have it. Your prefrontal cortex shows differences in an MRI.
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So does your limbic system.
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Your gut brain axis is disrupted.
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Your emotions and impulsivity are stronger.
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Everything I've talked about enumerates some of the deep root causes that will impact ADHD.
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It can be a weak stomach spleen system.
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It can be a liver tissue stagnation.
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It can be a liver fire.
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It can be a kidney deficiency.
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All of these will lead to ADHD.
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Now, the role of your doctor, had you been born in China in the year 1000,
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would have been to fix it when you were a child.
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Because he would have known all of this would be coming.
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And back then, it would not have been so difficult to fix it.
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So I want to acknowledge this is a lot to take in.
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So do not hesitate to listen to this podcast twice if that helps you.
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If this is you, jump on migraineheroes.com. Take our online test.
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We talk about ADHD in that test.
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You can join me for a Zoom meeting. And we can discuss this at length.
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The conversation is 30 US dollars.
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Our Migraine Heroes app is designed with all of this in mind.
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And therefore, easy to follow.
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And remember, every small step you take moves you closer to freedom.
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You are powerful. You are resilient. And you are never alone.
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Keep rising, Migraine Hero. If you
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found this episode helpful,
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hit subscribe so you never miss an episode with the powerful insights
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and practical tips for real migraine relief.
