[00:00]
Coming up next on Functional Mom's Podcast.
[00:02]
Can relationships trigger migraines?
[00:05]
Yes, a toxic partner, a toxic boss will create anger, frustration,
[00:10]
which is going to load your liver and give you migraines.
[00:13]
Grief, sadness can give sinus migraines, just so much crying
[00:16]
and therefore phlegm inside or around the face.
[00:20]
Anxiety is a huge emotion that will trigger migraines.
[00:23]
If your partner makes you feel anxious because you don't know if you can trust them,
[00:27]
because they meddle with your family money,
[00:29]
or if they sometimes go outside of home and you're not too sure why,
[00:33]
all of that stress and anxiety can trigger migraines.
[00:38]
Welcome to Functional Mom's Podcast.
[00:41]
Lifestyle medicine for women over 40.
[00:45]
Let's age on our own terms.
[00:50]
This episode is for you if you've ever struggled with migraines.
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Our guest today sees migraines as a meaningful body signal
[00:57]
and helps people unpack root causes.
[01:00]
Migraines affect women more often than men.
[01:02]
Diane Ducam is the host of the Migraine Heroes Podcast,
[01:06]
founder and CEO of the Migraine Heroes app.
[01:10]
A Harvard Business School alum with neuroscience training from HarvardX,
[01:15]
she blends Eastern medicine, engineering,
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and modern science to uncover the true roots of migraine.
[01:22]
Her Migraine Heroes Podcast shares breakthrough insights,
[01:26]
practical tools, and real stories to help you manage your migraine.
[01:31]
Diane, welcome to Functional Mom's Podcast.
[01:33]
We would like to start by learning,
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what is the difference between a headache and a migraine?
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So the difference is massive.
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A migraine is a full body attack that can last between three hours up to three days.
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It can also start one day and never, ever stop.
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And in addition to head pain, which is felt for most people, but not all,
[01:56]
people will experience other bodily symptoms such as dizziness, vertigo, numbness,
[02:01]
half paralysis of the body of one side or the other,
[02:04]
but also nausea, vomiting, cognitive impairment, speech difficulties,
[02:08]
and they will be taken in what is really called an attack
[02:11]
where they feel their body isn't collaborating or functioning as well as it should.
[02:16]
On the opposite, a headache is something non-genetic
[02:19]
that is just a bit of head pain that anyone can feed any day.
[02:22]
Now, is it true that you can have migraines just sporadically?
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Because I'm just going to throw myself out there to kick us off.
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I actually, this summer, had my first experience with a migraine with aura,
[02:34]
I believe, where I all of a sudden couldn't see.
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And it actually preceded the headache.
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And then the headache came.
[02:42]
But I wouldn't call myself like a chronic migraine sufferer.
[02:45]
So is it possible to just have them sporadically?
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You can also have them sporadically.
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The frequency and the intensity is going to vary person by person.
[02:55]
And I would say overall, the more you're going to be healthy,
[02:58]
the less you're going to have them.
[02:59]
So it's a bit like a fire alarm, if you will.
[03:02]
The more the environment, or you have pushed your boundaries within that environment,
[03:06]
the more something happens.
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And what is really confusing is sometimes it can be some things
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that you have a threshold at which your brain is going to express a problem.
[03:14]
And the more the layers above this threshold are going to add up,
[03:17]
the more likely you have to have a migraine.
[03:19]
So that makes a lot of sense.
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And it actually leads right to our next question,
[03:23]
because I believe mine was perhaps perimenopause-related, hormone-related.
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And our next question is,
[03:28]
how do hormonal changes like perimenopause trigger migraines?
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They are so interrelated.
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And we know that because when we look at the data,
[03:35]
because things are genetic, migraine is technically genetic.
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It's 5% of boys and girls, which makes sense, right?
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If it's going to be genetic.
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However, when we enter fertility as women,
[03:44]
the incidence is going to triple to quadruple.
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Leaving 18% to now we talk about 21% in the US of women with migraines.
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And then when we hit perimenopause,
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the incidence, if you take into account dizziness, vertigo, doubles again.
[03:59]
And so that leaves a huge number, a huge proportion of women with migraines.
[04:04]
And the West is a little bit confused because it says,
[04:06]
while we can see that hormones have a high impact on migraine,
[04:10]
we also cannot explain that massive delta between men and women just with hormones.
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And so when a woman enters perimenopause,
[04:17]
everything changes and sort of we roll the dice and new symptoms, new things happen.
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Does lack of sleep trigger migraines?
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So I was referring or replying to Kristen when she had her experience.
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Lack of sleep can be absolutely a migraine trigger.
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And so do we know what mechanism in the perimenopause causes the increase?
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So when you go into perimenopause in the West,
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we see that your liver as an organ can shrink and lose up to 44% of its volume.
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If you go East for a minute, when you say liver,
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it doesn't really mean the piece of flesh just below your right rib cage.
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It has another meaning.
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When you say GAN in Mandarin, it means your liver, your gallbladder.
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It means a lot of your brain, namely your temples, across your eyebrows, the top of your head.
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It refers to your eyes and your vision.
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So exactly what you were mentioning in your example, when you have aura,
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that's what we're referring to.
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It means irrigation of your tendons.
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It means your breast, your uterus, your ability to detox,
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your hormonal production, female hormone, mood hormone.
[05:16]
So you can hear from my mother tongue.
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My mother tongue is French and I grew up in Belgium.
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In Belgium, you have to learn at least three languages to get a job, at least two to three.
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And I went a bit overboard and I learned seven.
[05:27]
And it's quite striking how in the West, liver just means liver.
[05:31]
It has no other meaning.
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In the East, in Mandarin, it just means all of these other things.
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Well, because they say your liver as an organ, if you cut it and you put it to the side,
[05:39]
it doesn't do much, but it's with the liver team that it provides a miracle,
[05:44]
a small miracle every single day.
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And so when that function decreases, of course, you'll have a lot more symptoms
[05:50]
that relates to all of that system.
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And so as a woman enter perimenopause and their liver organ decreases,
[05:57]
their functional ability of the liver decreases,
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and they are more prone to having migraines
[06:02]
because that system is so hyper-related to the brain.
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And namely, Raquel, when you were asking about sleep,
[06:07]
we're going to have a detox phase of the gallbladder from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.
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And then a detox phase of the liver from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m.
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And so when my sleep is disturbed,
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I'm going to have my brain detox much less efficiently.
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And therefore, I'm going to be more prone to migraine.
[06:24]
However, the reverse is also true.
[06:26]
If I have a lot of migraine and I suffer so much,
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and I really want to insist on that because it's awful.
[06:31]
It takes all of your life.
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It steals your days.
[06:33]
It's a really, really difficult condition because it's also completely invisible.
[06:37]
Other people think you're fine and you're not.
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And so the more you have migraine and the more you medicate,
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the more your liver is intoxicated,
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and the less or the more you're going to struggle to sleep.
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And so these things are two facets of the same coin.
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Yeah, that makes me think when you're talking about all that stuff,
[06:54]
what about in terms of diet?
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Is there a specific diet that you would be focusing on
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for people suffering from migraines?
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Because if you take the liver playing such a central role in perimenopause
[07:06]
and also for people throughout their life,
[07:08]
there will be diets that will be terrible for migraines.
[07:11]
So anything that will massively impact your liver,
[07:13]
so too much fatty foods, too many toxins that can come,
[07:17]
by the way, from food, also from the environment,
[07:19]
like heavy metals and things like that, microplastics,
[07:22]
all of these will impact negatively the liver,
[07:24]
which is going to impact negatively the migraine.
[07:26]
But a much cleaner diet and a diet in season
[07:30]
will help support a really good liver function,
[07:32]
which will help support a really good brain.
[07:35]
sometimes you will have listeners that live like saints.
[07:38]
They do all of the right things.
[07:40]
They follow your podcast.
[07:42]
They do everything right.
[07:44]
And still that part of their life is incredibly difficult
[07:47]
because it can come from a lot of different root causes.
[07:49]
And this is one of them.
[07:50]
It's a fundamental one,
[07:52]
but usually there's a bit of a domino effect.
[07:54]
You know, was the liver the problem in the first place
[07:56]
or did that come later and why?
[07:58]
And so how to fix it, if that makes sense.
[08:00]
Because sometimes you might feel,
[08:01]
but I do all of the right things.
[08:04]
I don't go out too much.
[08:05]
I'm always too bad on time.
[08:06]
I exercise and yet I feel very unhealthy.
[08:10]
And so you help people get to the root cause.
[08:12]
Can you tell us a little bit more
[08:14]
about how you help people do that?
[08:15]
Yes. So when the body has so many symptoms,
[08:18]
you start to read all of the symptoms.
[08:19]
You can connect these symptoms to root causes.
[08:21]
And when you do that,
[08:23]
you can know where the problem came from
[08:25]
and then how to fix it.
[08:27]
Just like you would see a fire in the house.
[08:29]
Where is the foyer of the fire?
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Did it start in the kitchen?
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Did it start with a few candles in the living room?
[08:34]
And you go and extinguish that.
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When you extinguish that,
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not only the migraine goes
[08:38]
and the dizziness or the vertigo.
[08:40]
And so the person is able to little by little
[08:42]
think sharp and freely again over time.
[08:44]
Their other symptoms go.
[08:47]
Was it a leaky gut?
[08:48]
Is it a thyroid issue?
[08:50]
Do you have trembling sensations?
[08:52]
Do you have cramps?
[08:53]
Do you have a blurred vision?
[08:54]
Blurred vision at night?
[08:55]
And so all of these symptoms,
[08:56]
they need to go as well.
[08:58]
Now, if you have a lot of pain,
[09:00]
then you will take painkillers.
[09:02]
And when you take over the counter painkillers
[09:05]
or triptans, for example,
[09:06]
there's a class of medication
[09:08]
that is administered for migraine.
[09:10]
The science will tell you
[09:11]
if you look for it, not too much.
[09:13]
It will tell you that the more you have those,
[09:15]
the more you will have migraine.
[09:17]
You can silence your pain,
[09:18]
but it's a bit like silencing your child
[09:20]
when they jam their figure on the door
[09:23]
and then you start to wear a headset
[09:24]
to be home and function.
[09:26]
You just ignore how loud they're crying,
[09:28]
what they're going to do next and cry louder.
[09:30]
And so it's really important to be able
[09:32]
to listen to your signals and attend to them.
[09:36]
If you're enjoying the show,
[09:37]
subscribe here on YouTube
[09:39]
so you never miss an episode.
[09:41]
And if you like to listen on the go,
[09:42]
you can also follow Functional Mom's podcast
[09:45]
on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
[09:47]
That way it's ready whenever
[09:49]
and wherever you are.
[09:50]
Now, let's get back to our conversation.
[09:52]
So it's interesting because,
[09:54]
you know, when you're talking about
[09:55]
also your environment,
[09:57]
what you're eating,
[09:58]
but also your environment.
[09:59]
When we talk about environment,
[10:01]
would you include relationships?
[10:03]
Like, can relationships trigger migraines?
[10:07]
Thank you so much, Raquel, for that question.
[10:09]
Yes, a toxic partner, a toxic boss
[10:12]
will create anger, frustration,
[10:14]
which is going to load your liver
[10:16]
and give you migraines again.
[10:18]
Grief, sadness can give sinus migraines,
[10:20]
just so much crying and therefore phlegm
[10:23]
inside or around the face.
[10:25]
And you can have anxiety.
[10:26]
Anxiety is a huge emotion
[10:28]
that will trigger migraines.
[10:29]
So if your partner makes you feel anxious
[10:32]
because you don't know if you can trust them,
[10:34]
because they meddle with your family money,
[10:36]
or if they sometimes go outside of home
[10:39]
and you're not too sure why,
[10:40]
all of that stress and anxiety
[10:41]
can trigger your kidney system.
[10:43]
Now we go into kidney, bladder, adrenals,
[10:46]
sense of hearing, sense of smell.
[10:48]
So you can be triggered by just
[10:49]
the perfume of a friend when you meet up
[10:51]
and you become really annoyed
[10:53]
of being that woman who asked her friend,
[10:55]
can you just not wear perfume when we meet?
[10:57]
It really triggers my migraine.
[10:58]
But at the same time,
[10:58]
they're completely invisible.
[11:00]
You really feel like a complete,
[11:02]
unreliable, picky friend who,
[11:04]
whenever she shows,
[11:05]
asks for something special.
[11:07]
When for you, it's just,
[11:08]
it's that or five days bedridden.
[11:10]
And so, yeah, so anxiety
[11:12]
will also provoke these migraines.
[11:14]
So it's interesting
[11:15]
because you use the word picky,
[11:17]
you know, being a picky friend.
[11:18]
So speaking of picky,
[11:20]
does perfectionism trigger migraines?
[11:24]
Because when you control
[11:25]
your environment so much
[11:26]
and when you want everything to be perfect,
[11:29]
you tend to be a bit more impatient,
[11:32]
If you're very type A
[11:33]
and things don't work according to plan,
[11:34]
that frustration can lead to imbalances.
[11:37]
Those imbalances will lead to migraine.
[11:40]
It can also be that, you know, in childhood,
[11:42]
usually if you have a genetic position,
[11:44]
they may declare themselves
[11:45]
before perimenopause.
[11:46]
But sometimes they really arrive
[11:48]
in perimenopause and are more,
[11:50]
not so sharp migraine attacks,
[11:52]
but more low grade dizziness and vertigo,
[11:55]
things that come with you every single day.
[11:57]
And you start to no longer be able to work,
[12:00]
no longer be able to be in a Zoom meeting,
[12:02]
no longer be able to just participate
[12:04]
in life like everyone else.
[12:06]
And that's just incredibly disheartening
[12:08]
because you start to lose your self-confidence
[12:10]
and you're not sure what to do.
[12:11]
And the more you medicate,
[12:13]
the more the medication will
[12:14]
intoxicate your liver
[12:16]
and therefore lead to more pain.
[12:18]
And you get into a very vicious cycle
[12:19]
because your liver is at the same time
[12:21]
able to take much less.
[12:23]
I have heard a lot about middle-aged women
[12:26]
having issues with vertigo and things like that.
[12:28]
Is that, could that be your only sign of migraine?
[12:31]
Could it just be the Virgo and dizziness?
[12:33]
There's actually a disease
[12:34]
called Meniere's disease,
[12:36]
which is a disease of dizziness.
[12:38]
It's been categorized that way,
[12:39]
but will be linked to your brain
[12:41]
is 74% liquids, your body's 60%.
[12:45]
Your brain needs incredible hydration
[12:48]
And if it doesn't have enough,
[12:50]
you will feel your gut brain axis
[12:53]
So the roots of your gut brain axis,
[12:55]
so your bowel movements
[12:56]
are going to be more dry.
[12:57]
You have more constipation.
[12:59]
And at the same time,
[12:59]
you have more dizziness.
[13:00]
So if you pay attention,
[13:01]
you might notice a slight correlation.
[13:04]
The days I struggle
[13:05]
and I have constipation
[13:08]
when I have more dizziness.
[13:09]
Then you start to understand
[13:11]
how your gut brain axis
[13:12]
can be influencing your migraine negatively,
[13:14]
but therefore also positively.
[13:16]
So it's really tracking those symptoms
[13:18]
and what you're feeling every day
[13:20]
and connecting it all together.
[13:22]
Is that kind of what you're saying?
[13:24]
And that's what we do,
[13:25]
Migraine Heroes, all day long.
[13:26]
And if you're listening to us
[13:28]
and you're in pain every single day,
[13:31]
how is that even possible?
[13:32]
Yeah, I think we're the only ones
[13:33]
to do that worldwide so patiently.
[13:36]
And we do that for 100 people
[13:37]
at the same time in parallel,
[13:40]
And it's just incredible.
[13:41]
I think I have one of the most happy
[13:43]
and joyful job in the world
[13:44]
to give people back to their life
[13:46]
and their families.
[13:47]
And it's extremely daunting
[13:48]
because people who suffer
[13:49]
from migraine disease,
[13:50]
they will have tried everything.
[13:52]
Literally, medication, acupressure,
[13:54]
even traditional Chinese medicine.
[13:56]
They will have tried homeopathy.
[13:57]
They will have tried an osteopath,
[14:01]
They still continue to live
[14:02]
with that invisible disability.
[14:04]
I really insist on that.
[14:05]
They appear normal.
[14:06]
If it's one in five,
[14:08]
definitely more than one in five
[14:09]
of each of your friends.
[14:10]
And they don't like to share it
[14:12]
because it makes them feel vulnerable.
[14:14]
And then people jump to them
[14:16]
And I think the best way to reply
[14:18]
is with tremendous empathy.
[14:20]
And I think they will be surprised
[14:22]
Not trying to solutionize,
[14:23]
but trying to say,
[14:24]
hey, you know, I hear
[14:25]
this is extremely tough
[14:28]
you're having to deal with this
[14:29]
because it's literally
[14:30]
ruining their life.
[14:31]
Well, you know, I just have to say
[14:33]
that I feel like I could sense
[14:36]
how like your passion
[14:38]
Like, I just feel like you really
[14:40]
care for your patients
[14:42]
and just everything
[14:44]
that you're doing.
[14:44]
And we usually ask this question,
[14:46]
but we did not ask you
[14:47]
why led you into this,
[14:49]
the work that you're currently doing?
[14:51]
So I had a skiing accident
[14:54]
and I lost half of my blood.
[14:56]
and I broke my femur.
[14:58]
And for 12 years after that,
[15:01]
My cycles were a complete mess.
[15:04]
But when I say complete,
[15:05]
like 63 days, 53, 49,
[15:07]
and then another 70.
[15:09]
No menstruation after stopping
[15:10]
the pill for seven months.
[15:12]
Like really, really messy.
[15:13]
And then I had fatigue.
[15:14]
When I say fatigue,
[15:15]
I would be able to sleep
[15:16]
from 2 p.m. for a nap.
[15:19]
and I'd wake up the next day at 8 a.m.
[15:20]
because the alarm clock rang.
[15:22]
I had put on a lot of weight.
[15:24]
to eat whatever I wanted.
[15:27]
had completely shifted.
[15:28]
And the major reason why
[15:29]
is one of the root cause of migraine
[15:31]
is that I was never transfused for blood.
[15:33]
There was blood contamination issues
[15:35]
in France at the time.
[15:36]
And they had said,
[15:38]
we don't have blood in the back.
[15:39]
Anyway, she's just going to survive.
[15:40]
Except I was very anemic.
[15:42]
And so when you don't have enough blood
[15:43]
and you have a genetic resistance
[15:45]
you have massive migraines
[15:46]
because your blood is 400 miles
[15:49]
And for me, it didn't manifest that way.
[15:51]
It manifested with extreme fatigue
[15:53]
and all sorts of symptoms
[15:54]
that I carried with me for 12 years.
[15:55]
So when I was at Harvard Business School,
[15:57]
I had these symptoms.
[15:58]
It was quite hard to navigate
[15:59]
a social life and everything,
[16:00]
you know, and studying
[16:02]
if your body just doesn't cooperate.
[16:03]
And for work, I went to live in China.
[16:07]
that I went to see randomly,
[16:09]
not even for that.
[16:10]
You go and see a doctor
[16:10]
when you don't have a problem.
[16:11]
I didn't think I had a problem anymore.
[16:14]
and I was accepting
[16:15]
that this was my new me.
[16:16]
And within three weeks,
[16:19]
she reversed everything.
[16:21]
And I went back to who I was
[16:23]
And when she did that for me,
[16:26]
what did you just do?
[16:28]
And I think Migraine Heroes
[16:30]
to give that back to people.
[16:33]
I was hoping I would be able
[16:34]
to make a difference.
[16:37]
I didn't have a problem,
[16:39]
you know, I should have
[16:40]
never complained about
[16:41]
because I see how much
[16:42]
suffering people have.
[16:43]
And then I had my sister
[16:44]
who had migraines.
[16:46]
And then the day everything changed,
[16:47]
I had the daughter of a neurologist
[16:49]
and her father was advocating
[16:50]
for a lifetime of injections
[16:53]
And I said to her,
[16:54]
That doesn't seem very reasonable.
[16:56]
Who would ever do that?
[16:57]
It turns out a lot of people do that.
[16:59]
Hey, I think I know a better way.
[17:00]
If you give me six months,
[17:01]
maybe we can change this for you.
[17:04]
It took four months.
[17:05]
And she was like, wow,
[17:06]
I thought this is great.
[17:07]
And then I said that
[17:08]
to my friends and family.
[17:09]
And they brought me people
[17:10]
with 40 years of migraines
[17:13]
taking six trip times a day.
[17:14]
And I thought to myself,
[17:16]
sitting in front of that woman.
[17:17]
I thought, oh my God,
[17:19]
I did not say I could do that.
[17:22]
You know, I met people in pain
[17:24]
every single day after concussions.
[17:26]
I really thought to myself,
[17:27]
I never said to my friends,
[17:30]
And then with Dr. Zhang,
[17:31]
she supported me all the way.
[17:32]
We developed an entire system
[17:34]
to be able to do just that
[17:36]
for all of these women.
[17:37]
And it's been just an incredible ride.
[17:40]
People meet migraine heroes
[17:42]
and then their life
[17:43]
completely changes for the better.
[17:44]
And that makes me profoundly happy.
[17:47]
We're also very good with fertility
[17:48]
not that it matters.
[17:49]
Well, sometimes after 40,
[17:51]
but it's just the joy,
[17:53]
And perimenopause is really a moment
[17:56]
when things get just extra, extra tough.
[17:59]
That's why so many women
[18:01]
because things get so complicated.
[18:04]
The whole body took you so long
[18:06]
It's changing again.
[18:09]
And you're chasing a new balance.
[18:11]
And it affects every system in your body,
[18:13]
which is what we've really learned over.
[18:15]
Honestly, Raquel and I have just been
[18:16]
learning for the past
[18:19]
I had never even heard of perimenopause.
[18:21]
I didn't even know it was a thing.
[18:23]
My doctor had never mentioned it.
[18:25]
So it really is crazy
[18:27]
how many systems in the body it affects.
[18:29]
You mentioned that you switched your diet.
[18:31]
What were the things that you found
[18:32]
were the triggers?
[18:33]
So for me, it was a blood volume issue.
[18:37]
we're going to reach
[18:38]
that you have an iron deficiency
[18:39]
and give you an iron pill
[18:41]
or an iron infusion.
[18:42]
If you take an iron pan
[18:44]
and a liter of blood,
[18:45]
they have something in common,
[18:46]
but not quite a lot.
[18:47]
In traditional Chinese medicine,
[18:48]
you look at it as blood volume.
[18:50]
In her fertility years,
[18:52]
by the time women meet you,
[18:54]
they have lost 23 to 28 liters
[18:58]
If you take into account
[18:59]
the children they produce,
[19:00]
they produce more than half
[19:01]
of their weight of physical matter,
[19:03]
of biological matter.
[19:05]
Men do not go through that.
[19:07]
Men maybe produced a liter
[19:09]
of their own themselves.
[19:12]
We produce more than half
[19:13]
of our physical bodies.
[19:16]
very sophisticated systems.
[19:17]
And if you don't reproduce blood
[19:22]
because of a copper IUD,
[19:24]
because of a difficult pregnancy,
[19:26]
because of an accident,
[19:27]
because you donate blood,
[19:28]
that will give you migraines
[19:29]
if you have a genetic predisposition for it.
[19:31]
And that will give you
[19:32]
all sorts of massive symptoms,
[19:34]
regardless that you have
[19:37]
genetic fire alarm or not.
[19:38]
And so I just needed
[19:39]
to increase my blood volume
[19:42]
Now, as I've done this work
[19:43]
for a really long time,
[19:44]
I know things are really nuanced.
[19:46]
If you've had surgery before,
[19:47]
you also have dirt in your blood.
[19:49]
If you have had a lot of medication,
[19:51]
you also have dirt.
[19:52]
So you have to first remove the dirt
[19:53]
before you add the blood
[19:55]
in order to make the brain truly happy.
[19:57]
Sorry, I'm not following.
[19:58]
What do you mean by dirt?
[19:59]
So if you've had surgeries,
[20:00]
sometimes people have up to,
[20:02]
I don't know, seven surgeries
[20:03]
is the most I've heard.
[20:04]
The doctor will cut your tissues
[20:06]
and you will have a few dead cells
[20:08]
that circulate inside the blood vessels.
[20:12]
And those dead cells are impurities
[20:15]
that do not belong.
[20:18]
which is a very old system,
[20:19]
doesn't have a special wire for
[20:21]
dead cells, please circulate.
[20:23]
So these things don't really exit
[20:25]
and they stay lingering
[20:26]
inside of the blood vessels.
[20:28]
Now, where are they going to go?
[20:29]
They're slightly heavier
[20:31]
than your blood itself.
[20:32]
So it might go in your feet.
[20:33]
And then when you pump your feet
[20:35]
you may get varicose veins.
[20:38]
If you sit, they fall as well,
[20:39]
but then they fall in your butt.
[20:41]
Then it gives a bit of hemorrhoids
[20:42]
and you don't have a pumping mechanism
[20:44]
to get out of there.
[20:45]
And then when they circulate,
[20:46]
they can circulate.
[20:47]
When they go back up,
[20:48]
they go back up through
[20:49]
the left side of the brain
[20:51]
and they can give tremendous
[20:52]
left side migraines,
[20:53]
in which case you just need to clean that,
[20:55]
take all of these impurities,
[20:56]
send them to flush them
[20:58]
through urination,
[20:59]
or they can also form blood clots
[21:00]
that are in the uterus.
[21:01]
And then the migraines will be
[21:03]
super strong during menstruation.
[21:05]
And so regardless where they are,
[21:06]
you need to clean that.
[21:07]
That's what I would call
[21:08]
a little bit of impurities,
[21:11]
Typically what we've noticed
[21:12]
or what we suspect is that
[21:14]
sometimes other molecules
[21:15]
attach themselves to that.
[21:16]
So they form slightly larger,
[21:18]
not life-threatening,
[21:20]
yet very annoying blood clots
[21:22]
because they block these
[21:23]
very, very tiny veins
[21:24]
and they need to be purified.
[21:26]
That's how, for example,
[21:27]
someone with hemiplegic migraine
[21:28]
on the left listening to us,
[21:30]
that's most likely
[21:31]
one of the major root causes
[21:32]
of what would be happening
[21:34]
inside of their body,
[21:34]
which for them can be
[21:36]
a lifetime of pain.
[21:37]
How are you cleaning this blood?
[21:39]
How are you getting
[21:40]
the dirty blood out?
[21:41]
So the wonderful thing
[21:43]
is that nature has
[21:44]
everything in stock.
[21:46]
we work with 790 foods
[21:48]
and some of these beautiful foods
[21:50]
will just take these impurities
[21:51]
and bring them to urination
[21:53]
or take blood clots
[21:56]
with a little bit more power.
[21:57]
And so that's wonderful.
[21:58]
That's how we do that.
[22:00]
Does that make sense?
[22:01]
Hey, did you know that
[22:02]
you can get top supplements
[22:05]
through Functional Mom's
[22:08]
from pure encapsulations
[22:09]
to thorn and Nordic Naturals.
[22:11]
These practitioner recommended brands
[22:13]
help you age strong.
[22:15]
Link in the show notes.
[22:17]
Now back to the show.
[22:18]
So just to be clear,
[22:20]
so what you're saying is,
[22:21]
is that you would eat
[22:22]
certain foods that clean.
[22:25]
Would it be like a juice cleanse?
[22:27]
Can you give us an example
[22:28]
of like an actual food?
[22:31]
what we do is we just add food.
[22:33]
You can't live on a restricted diet
[22:35]
Plus usually people
[22:37]
who suffer from migraine disease
[22:38]
anyways are people
[22:39]
who have a very clean diet.
[22:40]
So what you want to do
[22:41]
is you want to analyze
[22:43]
what are the different root causes
[22:45]
of this person's migraine.
[22:46]
If they have a liver intoxicated,
[22:48]
like we were talking before,
[22:49]
chances are the gallbladder
[22:51]
and the bile is starting
[22:53]
to go into the stomach spleen.
[22:55]
And so their gastric juices,
[22:56]
which should be having a pH of one,
[22:58]
is now also weakened.
[23:00]
OK, so that's going to cause
[23:01]
other types of migraines
[23:02]
like forehead migraines
[23:03]
and digestive issues
[23:04]
and digestive problems.
[23:05]
So there's a domino effect happening.
[23:07]
So what you need to do
[23:08]
is if you think of someone
[23:10]
with multiple layers of problems,
[23:12]
you unpeel them two by two.
[23:13]
If the person, for example,
[23:15]
has had a lot of surgeries,
[23:17]
one of the very basic food
[23:19]
is a saffron infusion.
[23:20]
If you take a few threads of saffron,
[23:22]
like four or five threads of saffron,
[23:23]
and you put them in hot water,
[23:25]
the water will become very yellow
[23:27]
and you just drink
[23:28]
that beautiful water.
[23:29]
That's going to make your pee
[23:31]
and it's going to take
[23:31]
all of the impurities
[23:32]
resulting from surgery
[23:34]
also with it very gently.
[23:35]
Now, please do not do that
[23:36]
if you're pregnant
[23:37]
because we don't want to clean the blood
[23:39]
while we're pregnant.
[23:40]
Okay, I'm just mentioning in passing.
[23:42]
If you have a lot of dizziness,
[23:44]
it can accelerate it.
[23:45]
That's why it's not,
[23:46]
it's never with a food,
[23:47]
it's never one size fits completely all.
[23:49]
So if you're pregnant
[23:50]
or if you have dizziness,
[23:52]
If you had some of the vaccination
[23:54]
that give a lot of clotting
[23:56]
and a lot of complexities in your blood,
[23:57]
probably not right for you either.
[23:59]
You know, what is beautiful and natural
[24:01]
and can be so healing
[24:02]
is also can be harmful
[24:04]
if done in the wrong way.
[24:06]
And so it sounds like
[24:07]
you really want to be working
[24:09]
under guidance of a physician
[24:13]
Would that be how it works?
[24:14]
Yes, you want to do that.
[24:16]
So the way we work
[24:17]
is we basically ask about 75 questions.
[24:19]
You take a migraine assessment
[24:21]
and we look at all of your migraines,
[24:22]
but also all of the symptoms.
[24:24]
What is your body trying to say?
[24:25]
What is it complaining about?
[24:27]
And then from there,
[24:28]
we have a conversation with me
[24:30]
from the first onset of migraine
[24:32]
all the way to today.
[24:33]
What was your body trying to say all the way?
[24:35]
What is it trying to express?
[24:36]
And then as we do that,
[24:37]
then we start to uncover the root causes.
[24:39]
So inside your app,
[24:40]
your Migraine Heroes app,
[24:41]
we remove all of these layers one by one.
[24:44]
And just it feels...
[24:45]
I mean, we have happiness quotes
[24:48]
inside of the chat of the app
[24:50]
because people are just, you know,
[24:51]
getting through a transformation
[24:53]
and they have a moment of gratitude
[24:55]
and they are so profoundly happy,
[24:57]
but they're also a little bit bitter
[24:59]
because they feel,
[24:59]
well, why did I lose so much time?
[25:01]
So there's this ambivalence of emotions.
[25:04]
We just had a man, for example,
[25:05]
write us a message and he said,
[25:06]
been 25 years, I have this problem
[25:08]
and you fixed it in four weeks.
[25:10]
And I feel extremely grateful
[25:12]
because I've seen 10 experts
[25:13]
and none of them were able to fix it.
[25:15]
But at the same time,
[25:16]
I feel a little resentful.
[25:17]
I lost 25 years of my life,
[25:19]
you know, when it was actually feasible
[25:21]
when I was about to live another 40 like that.
[25:23]
And so that's a good point.
[25:23]
You have men clients as well.
[25:25]
It's not all women.
[25:26]
It's not, but it's a majority of women
[25:28]
because the female body
[25:29]
is incredibly more complex.
[25:31]
And there's a Chinese saying that says,
[25:32]
once you have solved 10 men's health,
[25:35]
you haven't solved a single woman's.
[25:37]
Just to see if that sounds about right.
[25:39]
You know who does a YouTube channel
[25:40]
for men in andropause, you know,
[25:43]
like their system is just more simple
[25:45]
and they're a more simple creature.
[25:47]
If you think of the production of a man,
[25:50]
Sperm is of a moderate sophistication
[25:52]
compared to a child.
[25:53]
We are able to produce children
[25:56]
like full brain, full heart, full eyes,
[25:58]
bones, you know, collagen, skin, hair, nails.
[26:03]
So therefore, if you were comparing
[26:04]
the female factory and the male factory,
[26:07]
of course, the female factory can have
[26:09]
more things that go slightly off.
[26:12]
And I think sometimes, you know,
[26:13]
underestimated how big of a difference it is.
[26:16]
Why do people feel guilty
[26:18]
for resting during a migraine?
[26:20]
Because they have to cancel plans.
[26:22]
They can't work and they can't take care
[26:25]
And I just want to add the word again.
[26:27]
So they're not even having that selfless,
[26:29]
selfish moment where you think,
[26:31]
oh, I'm just going to read my book on my own.
[26:33]
I'm just going to go for a sauna.
[26:34]
I'm going to go for a swim,
[26:36]
which would be your personal time.
[26:37]
This is not personal time.
[26:39]
And so not only they're ruining their time,
[26:41]
they also feel they're ruining
[26:43]
that of their family.
[26:44]
And so guilt is a huge component
[26:46]
of the difficulty of migraine disease.
[26:49]
It's not just the pain itself.
[26:51]
It's the fear of the pain, you know,
[26:53]
of how much pain am I going to go into?
[26:55]
How much more pain
[26:57]
is that migraine attack going to be?
[26:59]
When you know, for example,
[27:00]
if the pain hits every day at 8 p.m.
[27:02]
or if the pain hits every day when you wake up,
[27:05]
you fear that moment tremendously.
[27:07]
And then on top of it,
[27:09]
when you know you have a migraine attack,
[27:10]
you're going to be out for three days.
[27:12]
It means the father of your children
[27:13]
needs to take care of the kids
[27:15]
and of the kitchen, etc.
[27:16]
Again, so the guilt is just another aspect
[27:19]
that needs to be dealt with
[27:20]
that is incredibly difficult
[27:22]
and then becomes easier to be more depressed
[27:26]
because you don't want to say yes to things.
[27:28]
You say, OK, again,
[27:28]
I'm going to bail on my friends
[27:30]
and you start to close yourself
[27:32]
from the rest of society.
[27:34]
Yeah, I mean, I have to say even myself,
[27:36]
like I've pushed through a migraine for sure.
[27:38]
Like just thinking,
[27:39]
maybe, you know, you just think,
[27:41]
well, people get headaches all the time,
[27:42]
you know, like, so I have a migraine.
[27:44]
I have all this stuff to do.
[27:45]
I got to push through.
[27:46]
You know, it's not good.
[27:48]
Yeah, I have a personal story
[27:51]
about migraines as well,
[27:52]
where I was getting consecutive migraines.
[27:56]
I had just recently become a single mom.
[27:59]
I have four kids and I was working
[28:01]
and I was so stressed out
[28:03]
on how was I going to do everything.
[28:07]
And I started getting these migraines
[28:09]
that would last for hours
[28:11]
and it would be so intense
[28:13]
that I would end up in the bathroom,
[28:15]
throwing up, have to make my room dark.
[28:17]
There was a woman from my church
[28:19]
that was a nurse and I called
[28:21]
and it was just this thing.
[28:23]
And then, you know,
[28:24]
I would just take Tylenol,
[28:26]
you know, extra strength migraine
[28:27]
and all these things.
[28:30]
Then, like, in another couple of days,
[28:33]
it'll hit me again.
[28:34]
And kind of like what you said before,
[28:36]
I started, like, I was scared about
[28:38]
when is this going to hit me?
[28:40]
I didn't have dad to drop the kid,
[28:42]
you know, to take over.
[28:44]
I would have to call a friend
[28:45]
to take care of my kids
[28:47]
while I tried to get better
[28:49]
from this migraine.
[28:50]
And then it turned out that for me,
[28:52]
I ended up in the hospital
[28:54]
because it was happening so much.
[28:55]
And I thought that maybe
[28:57]
I had a brain tumor or something.
[28:59]
And turned out that
[29:00]
I was having anxiety attacks.
[29:03]
And thank you for sharing that.
[29:05]
That was the root cause of migraine.
[29:07]
And once they told me that it was
[29:10]
that he thought I was having,
[29:12]
you know, he's like,
[29:12]
listen, you don't you're not having seizures.
[29:14]
You don't have a tumor.
[29:15]
I was in the hospital for like three days
[29:18]
I think you're actually having
[29:19]
this is like anxiety induced
[29:21]
migraine headaches that you're having.
[29:23]
And they gave me some medication
[29:27]
I did try the medication
[29:28]
for a period of time.
[29:29]
He said it was something
[29:30]
I would have to get used to,
[29:31]
but it would make me very groggy
[29:32]
or just made me feel weird or different.
[29:35]
And I just realized that
[29:38]
I'm not going to be able
[29:38]
to take care of my kids
[29:40]
if I feel kind of like groggy
[29:41]
and just not myself.
[29:43]
So I just started journaling more,
[29:45]
meditating and doing other things.
[29:46]
And I did look at my diet more.
[29:49]
I just was trying to clean house.
[29:52]
I realized that a lot of the migraine
[29:54]
was a lot of toxicity.
[29:55]
And I think it was the toxicity
[29:57]
of my own thoughts
[30:00]
I was feeling at that time
[30:02]
that was making me sick.
[30:05]
I mean, of course, I'm not surprised,
[30:07]
but at the same time, well done.
[30:09]
That's exactly the right way to do it.
[30:11]
You know, to just take them.
[30:13]
I mean, you see coming,
[30:15]
and initially you have to go west.
[30:17]
You have to do the screening.
[30:18]
You have to make sure there's nothing
[30:20]
and you have to go to your doctor,
[30:22]
you know, do the CT scan,
[30:24]
But from the moment
[30:24]
they see there's nothing,
[30:25]
then just, you know,
[30:26]
hammering things, you know,
[30:28]
mindlessly with medication
[30:29]
without taking a pause and saying,
[30:31]
hold on, what changed in my life?
[30:32]
How can I support myself better?
[30:34]
What is triggering it?
[30:35]
Let's write that down.
[30:36]
Let's think for myself.
[30:38]
If you do that coupled
[30:39]
with your previous question
[30:40]
on being a type A,
[30:42]
sometimes a type A can
[30:43]
then suddenly go in panic.
[30:46]
And especially if they're a bit burnt out
[30:48]
and go in boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,
[30:49]
like a to do list mode
[30:51]
where they continue
[30:52]
and they start to tinker
[30:54]
with a lot of solutions,
[30:55]
medical solutions in parallel
[30:58]
which creates complete chaos
[31:02]
a lot of complexity.
[31:03]
It's like the audience layers itself up
[31:08]
It's possible that it becomes
[31:09]
then daily chronic
[31:11]
and the person feels stuck.
[31:12]
And in spite of, you know,
[31:14]
going then back to,
[31:16]
maybe I need to remove the toxins,
[31:19]
She still is in pain
[31:20]
because there's so much damage
[31:22]
that has been done meanwhile.
[31:23]
So yes, go the Christian way,
[31:25]
Yeah, so you were able to
[31:27]
get that root cause
[31:28]
like way back then, Raquel.
[31:30]
I know that was before I even knew
[31:31]
about functional medicine.
[31:33]
You were doing it already.
[31:36]
So we have some rapid fire questions
[31:38]
today for you, Diane,
[31:40]
because we had so many questions for you.
[31:42]
We thought you could give us
[31:43]
just like a yes or no on these.
[31:45]
Does chocolate trigger migraines?
[31:48]
Can lemons soothe a migraine?
[31:51]
Can scrolling on your phone
[31:53]
trigger a migraine?
[31:55]
Is binge eating a migraine trigger?
[31:57]
Yes, a migraine trigger
[31:59]
and a migraine announcer,
[32:01]
like a prodrome symptom.
[32:02]
So something that would come
[32:04]
before the migraine,
[32:05]
is that what you're saying?
[32:06]
So it's announcing the migraine.
[32:07]
So it's a two-way street.
[32:10]
Is loneliness connected to migraines?
[32:13]
Are people with ADHD
[32:15]
more likely to suffer from migraines?
[32:19]
I didn't know that was a new fact
[32:21]
I didn't know that.
[32:25]
it links to the forehead mainly
[32:27]
and the forehead is linked
[32:28]
to the stomach spleen
[32:29]
in traditional transmission.
[32:31]
It's your digestive process
[32:33]
of how you break down foods.
[32:34]
It's how you digest your food.
[32:36]
It's also how you digest your thoughts.
[32:38]
If you think of a child
[32:39]
eating an ice cream super fast,
[32:40]
they start to freeze their stomach
[32:42]
and then they slap their forehead
[32:45]
They can feel alongside
[32:47]
my gut brain axis,
[32:48]
alongside my vagus nerve,
[32:49]
my prefrontal cortex,
[32:51]
released to my stomach,
[32:52]
which is a huge find
[32:54]
that the child makes
[32:55]
and that we're making increasingly
[32:57]
in Western science.
[32:58]
And so when my thoughts are scattered
[33:00]
or I'm overthinking
[33:01]
or I'm not falling asleep
[33:03]
or I'm not able to meditate properly,
[33:05]
it's usually a sign
[33:06]
that I'm also not dissecting my food
[33:08]
and digesting my food really well.
[33:10]
I'm going to have a tendency
[33:11]
to have forehead migraines.
[33:13]
Which then will lead
[33:14]
to weaker kidney system
[33:17]
So there's a domino effect
[33:18]
that can very quickly
[33:18]
trigger from that.
[33:19]
Unless it's properly addressed.
[33:22]
So much to learn, Daph.
[33:24]
We might have to have you back on again.
[33:25]
But being mindful of our time today,
[33:28]
what are two things
[33:29]
a woman can do to manage migraines
[33:32]
or even possibly prevent migraines?
[33:36]
I think the number one
[33:37]
is something I love is,
[33:39]
because it's so wide spectrum,
[33:40]
just to have a chamomile
[33:42]
and goji berries infusion.
[33:43]
So chamomile has two powers.
[33:45]
It's going to detox your liver
[33:47]
and boost your liver.
[33:49]
And it's incredible
[33:50]
because it does these two things.
[33:51]
Now, the flip side of a chamomile
[33:53]
is that it cools down your liver,
[33:56]
but therefore it cools down
[33:57]
your digestive tract.
[33:58]
And you don't want to do that too much
[33:59]
because it could lead to diarrhea
[34:01]
and just a weaker,
[34:03]
less strong metabolic function.
[34:05]
Therefore, you pair it up
[34:06]
with goji berries,
[34:07]
8 to 10, not more.
[34:09]
And those goji berries
[34:10]
will boost your liver.
[34:11]
So they will detox and stimulate.
[34:13]
It will also nourish
[34:14]
your kidney system.
[34:15]
It's an adaptogen.
[34:16]
So for your kidney system,
[34:18]
It will reduce inflammation.
[34:20]
It will increase your blood
[34:21]
and increase what is
[34:22]
in traditional medicine,
[34:23]
traditional Chinese medicine
[34:25]
So the noble liquids
[34:27]
that irrigate your brain.
[34:28]
And so the two together
[34:29]
are a perfect mix.
[34:30]
You can have that in the evening
[34:31]
before falling asleep.
[34:32]
However, do not have that.
[34:35]
if you are on a FODMAP diet
[34:38]
if you are having your menstruation,
[34:40]
stimulating your liver
[34:41]
will make you bleed more.
[34:42]
We don't need you to bleed more.
[34:43]
And if you're having
[34:45]
certain classes of medication,
[34:46]
like, you know, sedatives
[34:48]
it acts on similar pathways
[34:50]
and then don't have that too often.
[34:52]
That would be annoying
[34:53]
for the medication.
[34:54]
I think that's number one.
[34:55]
I think the second one
[34:58]
I give free advices
[35:00]
like that on the Migrant Heroes podcast.
[35:02]
And that can be a good avenue
[35:04]
just like Raquel did.
[35:07]
to remove those root causes,
[35:08]
to find your balance,
[35:10]
to find your way if you can.
[35:11]
And then if you need a lot more help,
[35:13]
you can track on the Migrant Heroes app
[35:16]
I want everyone to know
[35:17]
they can connect with Diane on Instagram.
[35:19]
Her handle is at MigraineHeroes
[35:21]
or visit her website MigraineHeroes.com
[35:24]
where she has a migraine assessment.
[35:26]
Can you share a little bit about that?
[35:28]
So the migraine assessment
[35:29]
is really asking you 75 questions
[35:31]
about your migraine,
[35:33]
and piecing the whole picture together.
[35:35]
What is really cool
[35:36]
is once you start to understand,
[35:38]
where does my pain come from?
[35:40]
And those sessions last
[35:41]
90 minutes after your migraine assessment.
[35:43]
And this is really a moment
[35:45]
where a woman finally understands
[35:47]
they piece together.
[35:48]
It's what Raquel was explaining
[35:49]
about her example and her situation
[35:51]
and really going back from childhood
[35:52]
or whenever the migraine started
[35:54]
and understanding the full picture.
[35:56]
And where can people listen
[35:57]
to the Migraine Heroes podcast?
[36:00]
on Apple Podcasts,
[36:04]
People come back a lot
[36:05]
because it's just very practical.
[36:06]
It's also 15 minutes.
[36:07]
And so that sort of inserts itself
[36:10]
nicely in the day to day
[36:12]
so much pain and struggle
[36:14]
with the huge to-do list
[36:16]
they already have.
[36:17]
So digestible information.
[36:18]
Well, thank you so much
[36:19]
for coming on the show today, Diane.
[36:21]
Thank you so much for having me
[36:22]
and thank you so much
[36:23]
for advocating for migraine.
[36:24]
We need your support.
[36:26]
If you're enjoying the show,
[36:27]
follow, like, and subscribe.
[36:29]
Thank you for Aging Strong
[36:31]
with Functional Moms Podcast.
[36:34]
We would love to hear from you.
[36:36]
Please leave a comment or review.
[36:39]
Email us at info at functionalmoms.com.
[36:42]
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[36:44]
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