Although I am very fortunate to have never experienced a migraine headache, I treat a significant number of people who are debilitated by them regularly.\u00a0 In fact, almost 20% of American women suffer from migraines.\u00a0 Clarification:\u00a0 Many use the word ‘migraine’ to describe any incredibly intense headache but a true migraine has very unique characteristics. \u00a0 Migraine headaches tend to cause pain on one side of the head only, many times accompanied by significant nausea, vomiting, blurred vision, light or smell sensitivity, dizziness and\/or fainting.\u00a0 Once a migraine \u2018kicks off\u2019, most migraine sufferers quickly retreat to a dark room for the remainder of the day, cold pack and pain relievers in hand, praying that the pain resolves before morning.<\/p>\n
The American Headache Society, the professional association for physicians who care for headache and migraine patients, are clamoring for additional funding for migraine research.\u00a0 Considering the wide-spread prevalence of migraines and also considering the impact it has on a person\u2019s life,\u00a0 researchers believe they desperately need funds to better understand this condition.\u00a0 While I agree that additional funding and research would be wonderful, it seems that research spending is more likely to be trimmed now more than ever.\u00a0 So, how does this affect you or your loved ones who must still endure these headaches?\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s your call to action.\u00a0 You must take matters into your own hands and work toward your own education and improving your own lifestyles to make a difference in your health.\u00a0 You might have figured out the same caution and call to action is not just happening in the migraine world, but across all medicine.<\/p>\n
So here\u2019s my take\u2026.’cause you know I have one!\u00a0 And it’s the sequel to my previous post.<\/p>\n
In two words\u2026THINK FOOD.\u00a0 In my practice, we routinely work with patients who experience migraine headaches \u2013 the real, hardcore migraines!\u00a0 For many of them, it boils down to a few ‘ingredients’.\u00a0 Let me explain with a story.<\/p>\n
Shannon is a 46 year old fitness instructor that was debilitated by migraine headaches almost her whole life.\u00a0 In a typical month, she experienced an average of 9 textbook migraines and each one lasted up to 2 days.\u00a0 That\u2019s upwards of 18 days per month of intense pain and loss of productive life hours!!\u00a0 Imagine having to keep up a schedule of teaching 10 fitness classes per week in that condition.\u00a0 In the beginning, she would take prescription migraine medication and had a decent response; however, the medication was no longer working as well as it did earlier.\u00a0 Following the standards of routine care, her doctor prescribed the next type of medication for patients suffering like her, which actually is more often used to treat high blood pressure.\u00a0 If given to someone without high blood pressure, it could cause severe low blood pressure.\u00a0 Now consider her job as a fitness instructor performing intense exercise with severe low blood pressure!!\u00a0 In a nutshell, VERY BAD!<\/p>\n
When I met Shannon, she had just learned to deal with her migraines and push through the pain because she wasn’t a fan of taking the blood pressure medication.\u00a0 Like so many people walking around out there, she just assumed that this was how her life would be.\u00a0 As we\u2019ve discussed before, if the liver or colon has difficulty eliminating your \u2018biological garbage\u2019, neurological symptoms like migraines may develop.\u00a0 (Catch the Garbage In, Garbage Out lecture at LWU to get more details on this functional medicine perspective on the underlying causes of migraines.)\u00a0 Back to Shannon’s story.<\/p>\n
We placed Shannon on a detoxification plan that included an elimination of key foods that may be triggering her migraines for one month.\u00a0 If you know me, you know that I\u2019m not one to exaggerate, but within a month, Shannon was migraine-free!!!\u00a0 At the end of of her elimination month, she slowly and methodically reintroduced the inflammatory foods we had her eliminate.\u00a0 Guess what????\u00a0 Gluten, peanuts and soy all triggered her migraines!\u00a0 She actually found the underlying cause of her migraines and was not at the mercy of meds anymore!\u00a0 In functional medicine speak, we optimized Shannon’s ability to detoxify, allowed her immune system to recover from the constant attack of her trigger foods, thereby reducing her neurological inflammation and voila<\/em> she is migraine-free and off any prescription medications.\u00a0 That’s what I call real ‘medicine’.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re interested in learning more about this topic, visit our Education Beyond Medication online medical community, LivingWellnessUniversity.com to watch the following Dr. Saxena Speaks!<\/strong><\/em> educational videos:<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Garbage In\/Garbage Out:\u00a0 The Story of Liver Detoxification Although I am very fortunate to have never experienced a migraine headache, I treat a significant number of people who are debilitated by them regularly.\u00a0 In fact, almost 20% of American women suffer from migraines.\u00a0 Clarification:\u00a0 Many use the word ‘migraine’ to describe any incredibly intense headache but a true migraine has very unique characteristics.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":220,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9,6],"tags":[52,46,51,31,56,58,57,60,16,35,59,48],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-healthy-eating","category-integrative-medicine-patient-stories","category-womens-health","tag-allergies","tag-food-allergies","tag-food-allergy","tag-functional-medicine","tag-gluten","tag-gluten-intolerance","tag-gluten-sensitivity","tag-headache","tag-integrative-medicine","tag-medications","tag-migraine","tag-peanut-allergy"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Food Allergies:\u00a0 How Food Can Make You Sick
\n–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Allergies:\u00a0 It\u2019s Not Just Snot
\n–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Testing Yourself for Food Allergies
\n–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How Gluten Makes 1:7 People Sick
\n–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"