<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" > <channel> <title>ancestral health Archives - My Migraine Miracle</title> <atom:link href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/category/ancestral-health/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <link>https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com</link> <description>Your Pill Free Path To Migraine Freedom</description> <lastBuildDate>Sat, 15 Jun 2019 15:52:47 +0000</lastBuildDate> <language>en-US</language> <sy:updatePeriod> hourly </sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency> 1 </sy:updateFrequency> <generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1</generator> <image> <url>https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/cropped-Logo-favicon-32x32.png</url> <title>ancestral health Archives - My Migraine Miracle</title> <link>https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com</link> <width>32</width> <height>32</height> </image> <item> <title>The Kick Sugar Summit</title> <link>https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/kicksugar/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Josh Turknett, MD]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Sat, 15 Jun 2019 15:26:56 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[ancestral health]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://mymigrainemiracle.com/?p=7286</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>  About the Kick Sugar Summit In many ways, the story of sugar is following the story of cigarette smoking beat for beat. First it seemed like a harmless indulgence. Then some disturbing research began to emerge revealing it to be anything but harmless. Then that research was suppressed by the industry, partly by paying off prominent scientists […]</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/kicksugar/">The Kick Sugar Summit</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com">My Migraine Miracle</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="su-button-center"><a href="http://kicksugarsummit.com?afmc=8j" class="su-button su-button-style-default" style="color:#ffffff;background-color:#226267;border-color:#1c4f53;border-radius:15px;-moz-border-radius:15px;-webkit-border-radius:15px" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="color:#ffffff;padding:0px 36px;font-size:26px;line-height:52px;border-color:#659295;border-radius:15px;-moz-border-radius:15px;-webkit-border-radius:15px;text-shadow:none;-moz-text-shadow:none;-webkit-text-shadow:none"> REGISTER for the KICK SUGAR SUMMIT</span></a></div> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://kicksugarsummit.com?afmc=8j"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-7289 aligncenter" src="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Josh-Turknett.png" alt="" width="480" height="480" srcset="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Josh-Turknett.png 480w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Josh-Turknett-150x150.png 150w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Josh-Turknett-300x300.png 300w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Josh-Turknett-50x50.png 50w" sizes="(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px" /></a></p> <h3><strong>About the Kick Sugar Summit</strong></h3> <p>In many ways, the story of sugar is following the story of cigarette smoking beat for beat. <br class="" /><br class="" />First it seemed like a harmless indulgence. <br class="" /><br class="" />Then some disturbing research began to emerge revealing it to be anything but harmless. <br class="" /><br class="" />Then that research was suppressed by the industry, partly by paying off prominent scientists to support the industry’s PR campaign. <br class="" /><br class="" />Ultimately, though, the evidence became too powerful to ignore. Voices once silenced began to speak out, and the cat was out of the bag. <br class="" /><br class="" />While the story of sugar is about 20 to 30 years behind that of smoking, I see no reason why the story of sugar won’t continue to follow in its footsteps, and I fully believe the average person will view sugar like we now do tobacco in 20 to 30 years. <br class="" /><br class="" />But, <span class="">there are many of us who’d like that story to come to its inevitable conclusion much, much faster! </span><br class="" /><br class="" />Recently, I had the pleasure of taking part in the “Kick Sugar Summit,” which launched today, and goes until June 14 (edited: it will air again June 17-21!). <br class="" /><br class="" />The Summit includes interviews from 40 health experts from around the world (my interview will air June 20th). <br class="" /><br class="" />Registration is free, and allows you to watch all the videos as they’re released. To sign up, just click the link below:</p> <div class="su-button-center"><a href="http://kicksugarsummit.com?afmc=8j" class="su-button su-button-style-default" style="color:#ffffff;background-color:#226267;border-color:#1c4f53;border-radius:15px;-moz-border-radius:15px;-webkit-border-radius:15px" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="color:#ffffff;padding:0px 36px;font-size:26px;line-height:52px;border-color:#659295;border-radius:15px;-moz-border-radius:15px;-webkit-border-radius:15px;text-shadow:none;-moz-text-shadow:none;-webkit-text-shadow:none"> REGISTER for the KICK SUGAR SUMMIT</span></a></div> <div> <p> </p> <p>Also, while I know you’re likely well aware of the risks of sugar (the Beast gave us an unfair advantage here), you probably have many friends and family that you care about who aren’t.</p> <p><span class="">This is a great opportunity to help them</span>. Simply direct them to <a href="http://kicksugarsummit.com?afmc=8j">the above page I’ve linked</a> (or share this page) and they too can register to watch all of the videos.</p> </div> <div>Altogether, it should be a great resource for those trying to kick the sugar habit, and it should provide more than enough reasons for doing so!</div> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/kicksugar/">The Kick Sugar Summit</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com">My Migraine Miracle</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>How To Slay The Beast On A Budget</title> <link>https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/budget/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Josh Turknett, MD]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Tue, 20 Nov 2018 20:32:48 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[ancestral health]]></category> <category><![CDATA[migraine relief]]></category> <category><![CDATA[the Migraine Miracle Moment]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://mymigrainemiracle.com/?p=6075</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>In this episode, we discuss how to get the most bang for your buck while eating according to the Migraine Miracle Plan, or how to Slay the Beast on a budget. LINKS MENTIONED: A Tour of the Migraine Miracle’s 9 Primary Resources: https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/how-we-can-help The Migraine Miracle Holiday Challenge: mymigrainemiracle.com/holiday MIGRAI-NEVERLAND, our premier resource for those who […]</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/budget/">How To Slay The Beast On A Budget</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com">My Migraine Miracle</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In this episode, we discuss how to get the most bang for your buck while eating according to the Migraine Miracle Plan, or how to Slay the Beast on a budget.</p> <p><iframe style="border: none;" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/7636025/height/90/theme/custom/autoplay/no/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/398980/" width="100%" height="90" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p><strong>LINKS MENTIONED:</strong></p> <p>A Tour of the Migraine Miracle’s 9 Primary Resources: <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/how-we-can-help">https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/how-we-can-help</a></p> <p>The Migraine Miracle Holiday Challenge: <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/holiday">mymigrainemiracle.com/holiday</a></p> <p>MIGRAI-NEVERLAND, our premier resource for those who want to find their pill free path to migraine freedom (and where our upcoming “Breaking Rebound” challenge will be held): <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/endofmigraine">mymigrainemiracle.com/endofmigraine</a></p> <p>Migraine Miracle Facebook group: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/899131986822364/?fref=mentions">https://www.facebook.com/groups/899131986822364</a></p> <p>The book that started it all – The Migraine Miracle: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Migraine-Miracle-Sugar-Free-Gluten-Free-Inflammation/dp/1608828751"> https://www.amazon.com/Migraine-Miracle-Sugar-Free-Gluten-Free-Inflammation/dp/1608828751</a></p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/budget/">How To Slay The Beast On A Budget</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com">My Migraine Miracle</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>How Migraines Change Your Brain (Miracle Moment)</title> <link>https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/mindset/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Josh Turknett, MD]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 16 Apr 2018 17:10:43 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[ancestral health]]></category> <category><![CDATA[migraine basics]]></category> <category><![CDATA[migraine relief]]></category> <category><![CDATA[mindfulness]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://mymigrainemiracle.com/?p=5297</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>In this episode, Dr. T shares a study about how migraines change the brain, along with 3 important takeaaways from this research.   LINKS and RESOURCES mentioned: The Study – Altered Brain Structure and Function Correlate with Disease Severity and Pain Catastrophizing in Migraine Patients The Pain Catastrophizing Scale MIGRAI-NEVERLAND, our premier resource for those […]</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/mindset/">How Migraines Change Your Brain (Miracle Moment)</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com">My Migraine Miracle</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In this episode, Dr. T shares a study about how migraines change the brain, along with 3 important takeaaways from this research.</p> <p><iframe style="border: none;" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/6486816/height/90/theme/custom/autoplay/no/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/398980/" width="100%" height="90" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>LINKS and RESOURCES mentioned:</strong></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">The Study – <em><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4399775/">Altered Brain Structure and Function Correlate with Disease Severity and Pain Catastrophizing in Migraine Patients</a></em></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>The Pain Catastrophizing Scale</strong></p> <p><img decoding="async" class=" wp-image-5301 aligncenter" src="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/pain-catastrophizing-scale-300x258.png" alt="" width="481" height="413" srcset="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/pain-catastrophizing-scale-300x258.png 300w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/pain-catastrophizing-scale-768x660.png 768w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/pain-catastrophizing-scale-1024x880.png 1024w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/pain-catastrophizing-scale.png 1192w" sizes="(max-width: 481px) 100vw, 481px" /></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>MIGRAI-NEVERLAND</strong>, our premier resource for those who want to find their pill free path to migraine freedom (including the new Beastslayer Training Academy): <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/endofmigraine">mymigrainemiracle.com/endofmigraine</a></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">The <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/jumpstart">30 Day JUMP START Challenge</a></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">The Migraine Miracle Facebook group: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/migrainemiracle/">https://www.facebook.com/groups/migrainemiracle/</a></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">The book that started it all – <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Migraine-Miracle-Sugar-Free-Gluten-Free-Inflammation/dp/1608828751">The Migraine Miracle.</a></p> <p> </p> <h3><b></b>Episode Transcript</h3> <p><em>[00:00:27] </em>So in this episode of the miracle moment I’m going to share with you a really fascinating and really important study. It’s one that shows how the brains of people with longstanding migraines are different and different in some really surprising ways. <em> [00:00:42]</em><em>[15.1]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:00:44] </em>One of the things that I talk about often as some of you may know is mindset or how powerfully our thoughts or the stories that we tell ourselves about the events in our lives how powerfully those things impact our health. And this study is a really powerful example of that and one that’s directly relevant for migraineurs because it’s a study of people with migraines. <em> [00:01:05]</em><em>[21.2]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:01:07] </em>And I also thought this would be a good time to cover it as we just launched another 30 day migraine miracle jumpstart challenge. So as part of that challenge everybody in the challenge goes through the beastslayer training academy together. And the first module in the s academy is all about mindset, and there are several reasons why that is. <em> [00:01:31]</em><em>[23.8]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:01:32] </em>Another reason is that this month inside of Migrai-Neverland for our book club we’re reading the book Cure by Jo Marchant and that book is all about the science behind how the mind influences the body and how it influences health. <em> [00:01:51]</em><em>[19.0]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:01:51] </em>It’s really an area that’s exploding lately as finally research is taking this area seriously. And there’s a whole robust body of evidence and knowledge now about the many ways in which mindset influences health and biology. <em> [00:02:06]</em><em>[15.2]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:02:08] </em>So that’s a great book and we’re discussing that in our Migrai-Neverland Book Club this month. And if you want to learn more about the Beastslayer Training academy you can go to my mymigrainemiracle.com/academy. <em> [00:02:19]</em><em>[11.5]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:02:23] </em>And if you think you’re ready to go all in with the the migraine miracle plan and you want to join us in Migrai-Neverland, which also includes a membership to the Beast Slayer training academy, plus a whole ton of other resources, then head over to my mymigrainemiracle.com/endofmigraine. <em> [00:02:40]</em><em>[16.5]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:02:41] </em>And remember when you register if you enter the coupon code “moment” when you sign up you’ll get 30 dollars off membership as a thank you for being a listener to the miracle moment. All right. So onto the study. <em> [00:02:54]</em><em>[12.5]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:02:54] </em>So this was published in 2014 in the society for Neurosciences in eneuro journal. And in this study they looked at 17 people with migraines and 18 control subjects. So 18 people with without migraines. A. <em> [00:03:08]</em><em>[13.6]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:03:08] </em>Nd specifically they looked at their brains. So they used a fancy MRI sequence where you can look not only at the structure of the brain but also the functional connectivity so the ways in which different regions of the brain are connected with each other. <em> [00:03:22]</em><em>[13.5]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:03:23] </em>And so obviously they were looking for differences between the brains of controls and the brains of people with longstanding migraines and indeed they did find differences. <em> [00:03:32]</em><em>[8.7]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:03:33] </em>So there were several differences in the ways in which the brains of migraineurs were connected. And that alone was pretty interesting finding. And it also looked like most of those changes were probably from the result of having migraines rather than vice versa. So rather than those changes being the reason why they had migraines it was more likely that the migraines were leading to those particular kind of changes. <em> [00:03:58]</em><em>[25.7]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:04:00] </em>But the most interesting and most relevant for our discussion here was that they also looked at correlations between the level of pain catastrophizing in each subject and any specific changes in their brains. So what is pain catastrophizing? So there’s actually what’s known as a pain catastrophizing scale and it’s a series of questions and the intent of those questions and the scale is to measure the degree to which an individual kind of focuses on or dwells on their pain. <em> [00:04:33]</em><em>[33.3]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:04:35] </em>So imagine that you have two people who have migraines of equal intensity and frequency. Everything is the same except kind of how they think about having migraines and their experience of it. So one person kind of focuses on everything but their migraine. <em> [00:04:52]</em><em>[17.8]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:04:53] </em>So you know as soon as the migraines gone they don’t think about it anymore. They don’t talk about their migraines they don’t dwell on how painful they are. They just kind of move it has the experience and then they’re gone. And then the other person kind of even when they’re gone focuses on the migraines you know shares how bad they are with others post on Facebook about it, and in general kind of dwells on how bad migraines are and kind spends a lot of time worrying about when the next one might strike and so on. <em> [00:05:21]</em><em>[28.3]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:05:22] </em>So if you can imagine kind of the two extremes there where one person kind of spends no time no mental time kind of thinking about the negative aspects of migraine and another person spending all of their time dwelling on it the person, the latter person is going to have a very high pain catastrophizing, scale and the other person will have a very low paying catastrophizing scale. <em> [00:05:44]</em><em>[21.6]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:05:45] </em>And so what they found was that there were that there was a significant correlation between the degree of pain catastrophizing and certain functional connectivity changes in their brains. And moreover those changes work were occurring in areas that were likely resulting in an enhanced experience of pain. <em> [00:06:07]</em><em>[22.3]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:06:08] </em>So in other words dwelling on the pain was creating changes in the brain that were then making the experience of pain worse and a process that probably continues to amplify over time. <em> [00:06:19]</em><em>[11.6]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:06:20] </em>Now there are other lines of evidence from other pain studies that shows this kind of phenomenon occurring with pain, that the more we focus on it the worse it tends to get. And this is an illustration of that process occurring specifically in migraine and specifically causing structural alterations in the brain that worsen the experience of migraines and worsening the experience of pain through nothing more than how you think about your migraines. <em> [00:06:44]</em><em>[23.8]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:06:45] </em>So why is this study so important? <em> [00:06:46]</em><em>[1.2]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:06:48] </em>I think there are there are three reasons. So the first of those is that mindset really does matter. In fact it matters hugely and I can’t over emphasize this enough. <em> [00:07:00]</em><em>[11.9]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:07:01] </em>So how we think about our migraines how we think about pain and the stories we tell ourselves about about them impact us in fundamental ways. So fundamental that they alter the very structure and function of the brain, and those changes can occur in ways that either help us or hurt us. <em> [00:07:16]</em><em>[15.2]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:07:18] </em>Higher degrees of pain catastrophizing clearly hurt us they cause changes that literally enhance our experience of pain. And this is a big reason why I start with mindset as the very first module in the Beast Slayer training academy, because I know from a decade of clinical experience, and this shows the science behind it, that if you ignore this aspect then you’re not ready to implement the other changes because they will likely be futile. <em> [00:07:47]</em><em>[28.8]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:07:48] </em>Your mindset will undermine all of those other efforts. So we’ve tried to set up Migrai-Neverland and the Beast Slayer training academy in a way that maximizes your odds of moving on the timeline of migraine freedom, and making sure mindset is in place first is absolutely essential. <em> [00:08:07]</em><em>[19.1]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:08:08] </em>So the last thing we want is for folks to put all the time and energy into establishing new habits and behaviors only for their mindset to undermine the entire process. <em> [00:08:17]</em><em>[9.0]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:08:18] </em>And let me say too this is not easy. Oftentimes changing mindset means changing patterns of thought you’ve been reinforcing for much of your life. <em> [00:08:27]</em><em>[8.4]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:08:27] </em>So it takes time and effort and sustained and dedicated effort and consistent reminders, and it because it’s easy to lapse into old thought patterns. But it’s so incredibly worth it. And it will transform your life if you stick with it. <em> [00:08:40]</em><em>[13.4]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:08:42] </em>The second key thing this study illustrates is that recovery is a process. <em> [00:08:47]</em><em>[5.5]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:08:48] </em>So here we see that the brain of someone with migraines has clear structural and functional changes, and these are changes in multiple domains in multiple parts of the brain. So that means to move on the timeline of migraine freedom we have to change our brain. <em> [00:09:02]</em><em>[13.7]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:09:03] </em>So if mindset has been an enemy for years and you’ve been telling yourself the old story of migraine for years then that has to change and that change will lead to changes in the brain. But that takes time. <em> [00:09:14]</em><em>[10.8]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:09:14] </em>But the really fantastic thing is that our brains are capable of changing throughout our lives and are capable of remarkable change. And essentially the migraine miracle plan is about making fundamental changes to your brain. <em> [00:09:26]</em><em>[11.7]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:09:26] </em>So undoing what’s been done from a lifetime with migraines including the ways in which we’ve thought about them along with the effects of drugs and the effects of diets and lifestyles that are mismatched with our biology and so on. <em> [00:09:41]</em><em>[14.8]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:09:41] </em>So all of those strategies that we know lead to migraine freedom are also designed to sort of undo these structural changes that have occurred in the brain and those can’t happen overnight. <em> [00:09:52]</em><em>[10.8]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:09:53] </em>Those those take time to develop and they take time to reverse. But the fantastic thing is the brain is capable of incredible change and that’s why we keep seeing such incredible results from the folks who stick with it long enough to allow for those kinds of changes to happen.<em> [00:10:09]</em><em>[15.2]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:10:10] </em>It can’t happen overnight. It’s physically and biologically impossible, but it can happen for sure with sustained effort. And we’ve seen it time and time again. <em> [00:10:17]</em><em>[7.2]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:10:18] </em>And then the third thing that to take away from this is that this study is a great illustration of why we try so hard to maintain a spirit of positivity and hope in our community. <em> [00:10:31]</em><em>[12.6]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:10:32] </em>So a few years ago when I kind of went online looking to see what kind of resources and groups were out there for people with migraines I was mortified. <em> [00:10:40]</em><em>[8.3]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:10:42] </em>Almost everything I found was just overwhelmingly negative with a really heavy focus on just how awful migraines were and the experience of being a migraineurm and just you know quotes ruminating on them. <em> [00:10:53]</em><em>[11.0]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:10:53] </em>And so after seeing this on the one hand I realized that there wasn’t a place for people like me. <em> [00:10:58]</em><em>[5.0]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:10:59] </em>So I actually I personally hate dwelling on migraine and hate dwelling on pain and I’m one of those who once it’s gone it’s gone. I don’t want to give it any more attention than it’s already gotten.<em> [00:11:09]</em><em>[9.8]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:11:10] </em>To me one of the big problems big issues with migraines are pain in general is that it diverts attention away from the things you care about. So the last thing I want is to give it any more attention than it’s already gotten and divert me away from the things that I care about most. <em> [00:11:24]</em><em>[14.3]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:11:25] </em>In fact it’s a bit ironic that I ended up writing a book about migraines and maintain an online community since I don’t really enjoy talking about them when I don’t have them. <em> [00:11:33]</em><em>[8.4]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:11:34] </em>But that’s because I know that the message that we’re putting out there can help so many people in need to get to so many people. But it’s also why I don’t spend time dwelling at all on the negative parts of it. <em> [00:11:46]</em><em>[11.5]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:11:46] </em>Now of course there’s a bit of selection bias going on here right because people who don’t like to talk about them or ruminate on them on them are less likely to try to go out and find a group of people where they can go talk about them. <em> [00:11:57]</em><em>[11.0]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:11:57] </em>But what was even more concerning to me was that I knew that these kind of groups, even though they were well-intentioned, were likely making the people in them WORSE. <em> [00:12:05]</em><em>[7.9]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:12:06] </em>And a study like this shows precisely why that is. <em> [00:12:09]</em><em>[3.0]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:12:10] </em>And so one of the reasons we decided to create an online community around the migraine miracle was to provide an alternative for folks both for people like me who didn’t want to dwell on the pain but wanted strategies for getting better, who just wanted to slay the thing and move on with their life, but also to provide a place that wasn’t secretly sabotaging any chance of recovery through this kind of relentless negativity. <em> [00:12:36]</em><em>[26.0]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:12:37] </em>So we wanted to create a place that was instead one of hope and support and encouragement and positivity so that we could actually use a mindset to our advantage. <em> [00:12:45]</em><em>[8.6]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:12:45] </em>And so one of the reasons I wanted to present this study is because it’s such a great illustration of why one of our fundamental missions inside of our community is to create a positive environment. <em> [00:12:56]</em><em>[10.9]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:12:58] </em>We all know how awful migraines are and it was kind of like an unspoken you know thing amongst everybody with them when we don’t need to dwell on it because we’ve all been through it and we’re not focusing on it because we’re trying to deny reality. We’re not focusing on it because we know that doing so will make us worse. <em> [00:13:16]</em><em>[18.0]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:13:17] </em>So if we view it in this way we realize that a negative post or comment is no different than running around and spraying people with migraines with some awful perfume or going to their house in the middle of night and blaring music so they can’t sleep. <em> [00:13:30]</em><em>[13.4]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:13:30] </em>So all these things that we could do that would provoke the beast are the same as as creating a negative environment. <em> [00:13:36]</em><em>[6.0]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:13:37] </em>And our number one goal is to reduce suffering. <em> [00:13:40]</em><em>[2.2]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:13:40] </em>And we know and it’s this kind of study illustrates why that a negative environment is going to worsen suffering, even though it may be well-intentioned, the net result is likely to be one we don’t want. <em> [00:13:54]</em><em>[13.9]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:13:55] </em>It’s also the same exact reason we spend so much time talking about the potential downsides of abortive medication and rebound headaches. It’s not because I want people to suffer more and endure headache without any type of relief. <em> [00:14:08]</em><em>[12.9]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:14:09] </em>It’s precisely because I don’t want them to suffer more because I’ve seen it so many times lead to so much more needless suffering. <em> [00:14:16]</em><em>[6.7]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:14:17] </em>And I should also point out that this is also why I’m such a fan of mindfulness practice. So like I said before we can change our brain. <em> [00:14:24]</em><em>[6.9]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:14:25] </em>And one of the ways we can reshape the way in which thoughts influence our brain is through mindfulness practice. <em> [00:14:32]</em><em>[6.4]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:14:32] </em>So it’s a way of really targeting in on your mind’s ability to work for you rather than against you. <em> [00:14:39]</em><em>[6.7]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:14:40] </em>All right. So hopefully that reinforces just how important mindset is, that we can either be our greatest ally or our greatest enemy, and that we ignore it at our own peril. <em> [00:14:51]</em><em>[10.7]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:14:52] </em>That recovery is a process and requires structural alterations of the brain that take time and that this is why we try so hard to maintain a spirit of positivity and that focusing on the negative aspects of migraine actually make us worse over time. <em> [00:15:09]</em><em>[17.0]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:15:10] </em>That wraps up this episode. Once again if you want us to help you replace your story of migraine from someone with chronic awful horrible headaches to I’m a beast slayer then we’d love to have you in the jumpstart challenge or an Migrai-Neverland. <em> [00:15:25]</em><em>[15.3]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:15:26] </em>As I mentioned we just launched our latest 30 day jumpstart challenge and if you sign up today you can still get in on this latest challenge. <em> [00:15:34]</em><em>[7.5]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:15:35] </em>However Migrai-Neverland membership gets you access to all of our 30 day challenges including the next jumpstart challenge that we’ll have as well as our next Keto blast challenge, plus all the other resources.<em> [00:15:47]</em><em>[12.0]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:15:47] </em>So you can learn more again at mymigrainemiracle.com/endofmigraine. <em> [00:15:52]</em><em>[4.8]</em></p> <p><b></b><em>[00:15:53] </em>Also if you want to see the show notes for this episode go to mymigrainemiracle.com/endofmigraineand I’ll also include there a link to this study as well as a link to the pain catastrophizing scales and see what questions are asked on it. OK that’s all I got for today so go out there and slay the beast. <em> [00:15:53]</em><em>[0.0]</em></p> [860.4] <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/mindset/">How Migraines Change Your Brain (Miracle Moment)</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com">My Migraine Miracle</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Write Your New Migraine Story</title> <link>https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/write-new-migraine-story/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Josh Turknett, MD]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Thu, 13 Apr 2017 12:06:14 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[ancestral health]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://mymigrainemiracle.com/?p=3755</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>  The Power of Story The stories we tell ourselves about the events in our life profoundly shape how we see the world. Some times, many times perhaps, we we’re not even aware that there is a story, much less how it’s affecting us. I recently realized that I have a new story of migraine, and […]</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/write-new-migraine-story/">Write Your New Migraine Story</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com">My Migraine Miracle</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-3756" src="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Write-yourNewMigraineStory.png" alt="" width="544" height="456" srcset="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Write-yourNewMigraineStory.png 940w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Write-yourNewMigraineStory-300x251.png 300w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Write-yourNewMigraineStory-768x644.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 544px) 100vw, 544px" /></p> <p> </p> <h3>The Power of Story</h3> <p>The stories we tell ourselves about the events in our life profoundly shape how we see the world. Some times, many times perhaps, we we’re not even aware that there is a story, much less how it’s affecting us. I recently realized that I have a new story of migraine, and it’s one that I’ve never fully told.</p> <p>I want to share that story with you, because if you’re here and are already on or are about to begin the Migraine Miracle plan, it should be your new migraine story, too. <strong>And embracing this new story is essential to your success.</strong></p> <p>It’s a story that, if you’ve had migraines for any length of time, will completely alter how you see the world (for the better!).</p> <p>You see, every now and again I’ll get a question from someone who’s read the book that goes like: “I see there’s [insert ingredient] in one of your recipes, but I know that’s on the ‘trigger list’ for migraines. How could that be?”</p> <p>I’d always found these comments a little puzzling. I’d addressed this sort of thing in the book, or so I thought. I’ve even written posts since the book came out trying to clarify this issue even further.</p> <p>Recently, though, it occurred to me that the reason why this message wasn’t always getting through was because <strong>the people asking this question were still telling themselves the old story of migraine</strong>, and I’d moved on to a new one.</p> <p>And those questions about triggers? Those come from the old story. Once you understand the difference between the two stories, I think you too will clearly see why those questions don’t make sense in the new one.</p> <p>Because they couldn’t be more different.</p> <p> </p> <h3><strong>The OLD STORY of MIGRAINE</strong> (a.k.a the “classic” story): Food as the Enemy</h3> <p>I’ll start by telling the old story.</p> <p>The old story is the typical story we tell of migraine, and the one that frames the conventional approach to migraine prevention.</p> <p>It’s the story you’ll probably be told if you go see your doctor, including a headache specialist. It’s the story I carried around most of my life as a migraine sufferer, and it was the one I told my own patients for years.</p> <p><strong>The OLD STORY goes something like this:</strong></p> <p>You have migraines, they are your destiny. This means you have an over-reactive, “hyperexcitable” migraine brain, and a potential attack lurks around every corner.</p> <p>Your brain is extra sensitive to the environment, <i>especially</i> when it comes to the foods you eat. And there’s a big long laundry list of foods that might possibly trigger a migraine.</p> <p>If you can find some of those triggers, and then avoid them, then maybe you can keep some of those migraines from coming on.</p> <p>Now, I’ve talked at length previously about how challenging this can be. In theory, this idea of finding and avoiding triggers isn’t a terrible idea.</p> <p>The problem, though, is it’s really, really complicated. There are so many factors to consider, and so many things to figure out. Some things may be big triggers for you, some small. Some things seem to matter big time on some days, and not so much on others. And there are factors that bring on migraines that are outside of your control, and things you probably aren’t even aware of, that can also bring on the beast – how do you account for those?</p> <p>We know the odds of success here are slim. Occasionally someone gets lucky, but that’s the exception that proves the rule. Most people just end up frustrated and discouraged.</p> <p>When that happens, it’s time to move on to a drug. A pill you take every day to reduce the chances of a visit from the beast.</p> <p>The drug might help a little bit, but you must put up with possible side effects. And we’re not really sure how it’ll affect your brain, or your migraines, over the long term.</p> <p>The old story often concludes with you being stuck on a drug that may or may not be helpful, with side effects you don’t like, along with a lingering sense of unease about how it’s affecting you over time. Plus, now that you know you have this extra sensitive migraine brain ready to take you out at the slightest provocation, you now see the world around you as a minefield.</p> <p>Food has become your enemy. And you don’t even know which ones!</p> <p>That, in a nutshell, is the old story of migraines, summarized below:</p> <div class="su-note" style="border-color:#decdb9;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;"><div class="su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim" style="background-color:#F8E7D3;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;"> <h3>The Old Story of Migraines (“food as the enemy”)</h3> <ul> <li><strong>Migraines are your destiny</strong>, thanks to your genes.</li> <li>You have a hyperexcitable, “migraine” brain, and you always will.</li> <li>At any moment, the migraine switch can be flipped by all manner of foods and behaviors, and the only way to prevent them is to <strong>figure out what those are and AVOID them</strong>.</li> <li><strong>Food is dangerous. </strong>Food brings on the beast.</li> <li>You must always walk on eggshells. And if you step too hard and crack one, you’ll waken the beast.</li> <li>When the beast does come, you usually don’t know why (though maybe if you just tried harder you could figure it out).</li> <li>The beast controls your life.</li> <li>Your only hope is if someday “they” find a cure.</li> <li>This is a story of fear, helplessness, isolation, and imprisonment.</li> <li>This story sucks.</li> </ul> </div></div> <p>Now, a small number of people are helped by the old story. Most are not.</p> <p>In fact, many are <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/medications-last-resort/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">made worse by it</a>. This was what I learned in my first decade as a neurologist. When people come to your for help day in and day out, and your tools usually aren’t enough, it’s frustrating.</p> <p>And those “isn’t such and such food a trigger” kind of questions that I hear from folks – those questions are part of this old story.</p> <p>But, like I said, that story sucks. It doesn’t work. And it needs to die.</p> <p>There’s a new story that should take its place. Because it doesn’t suck. And it does work.</p> <p> </p> <h3><strong>The NEW STORY of MIGRAINE</strong> (a.k.a the “Migraine Miracle” story): Food as Medicine</h3> <p>If you’ve started down the Migraine Miracle road to freedom, then you have a new story of migraine.</p> <p>In the new story of migraine, you are no longer trying to avoid things out in the world that bring on the beast. The world is no longer a minefield. And you no longer must walk on eggshells.</p> <p>Instead, through the foods you eat and the life you lead, you are making fundamental changes to your physiology and metabolism. These changes give you tremendous protection against the beast. Protection that you never before thought possible.</p> [<strong>RELATED</strong>: <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/inspire/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Click here to read about others now living their new story of migraine</a>.] <p> </p> <p>As luck would have it, these changes also come with a host of other benefits – boundless energy, establishment and maintenance of ideal body composition, stable mood, and protection against modern diseases of civilization.</p> <p><strong>Food is your medicine</strong>. Food gives you your life back. Food is your friend.</p> <p><strong>In the old story, you’re looking for the foods that HARM you</strong>.</p> <p><strong>In the new story, you’re looking for the foods that HELP you</strong>.</p> <p>(Those last two sentences are <em>really</em> important to understand.)</p> <p>And there are a vast number of foods that help you. You’re lucky enough to live in the time of greatest abundance in human history, with more access to delicious, nutritious, and beast-killing food than your ancestors could’ve ever dreamed.</p> <p>You also have access to a large and growing community of people around the world who are here to help you live this new story.</p> <p>You are now free to live your life. No more walking on eggshells. No more wondering when the beast will strike next.</p> <div class="su-note" style="border-color:#decdb9;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;"><div class="su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim" style="background-color:#F8E7D3;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;"> <h3>The New Story of Migraines (“food as medicine”)</h3> <ul> <li><strong>Migraines are not your destiny</strong>.</li> <li>Genes alone don’t create a hyperexcitable migraine brain – eating and living in ways unfit for a human do.</li> <li>You can fundamentally transform yourself so that you no longer have a “migraine brain,” and the food you eat is your most powerful way to do so.</li> <li><strong>Food is medicine</strong>.</li> <li>The food you eat nourishes, energizes, and protects you.</li> <li>If the beast does visit, you know why. You now control the beast.</li> <li>This a story of empowerment, hope, community, and freedom.</li> <li>This story rules.</li> </ul> </div></div> <p>If you’ve been telling yourself the old story for years, you won’t be able to tell yourself a new one overnight. Adopting a new story takes <em>practice</em>.</p> <p>The old story has worn deep grooves into your brain. For the new story to stick, it needs deep grooves, too. That requires a little time, patience, and persistence.</p> <p><strong>But the road to migraine freedom starts by adopting a new story of migraine</strong>. That story can change your life in ways you never thought possible.</p> <p>You’ll be tempted to revert back to your old story, so keep this post somewhere you can visit it often. Print it out if you need to. However you do it, <strong>just keep reminding yourself of this new story</strong>.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Want to start living this new story?</strong> Here are some ways we can help:</p> <ul> <li>Enroll in the <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/academy"><strong>Beast Slayer Training Academy</strong></a> where you’ll not only get an in-depth overview of tested Beast-Slaying strategies, but also a list of Migraine Superfoods to help you begin to build you new story.</li> <li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/899131986822364/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Join our Facebook Group</a>. A free community of support from people living this new story. Get in there and share your new story of migraine.</li> <li><a href="https://brainjo.leadpages.co/leadbox/14275ef73f72a2%3A16a5d81b0346dc/5722646637445120/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Get the diet guide on how to eat your way to migraine freedom</a>.</li> <li><strong><a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/primalprovisions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Primal Provisions</a></strong>. A weekly set of meal plans, shopping lists, and recipes, with all the foods that protect us from the beast.</li> <li><strong><a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/thechatter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Chatter</a></strong>. A weekly transcript of our group coaching sessions inside of Migrai-Neverland.</li> <li>Get Inspired. <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/inspire/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Click here to read about others now living this new story</a>.</li> <li><a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/migraine-freedom/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Ultimate Guide to Migraine Freedom</a>.</li> </ul> <p> </p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/write-new-migraine-story/">Write Your New Migraine Story</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com">My Migraine Miracle</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>The Gluten & Migraine Connection: Follow-Up</title> <link>https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/gluten-migraine-connection-follow/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Josh Turknett, MD]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Thu, 16 Feb 2017 21:00:03 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[ancestral health]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gluten]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gluten free]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://mymigrainemiracle.com/?p=3654</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>The recent post on the connection between gluten, migraines, and scary white spots on brain MRIs sparked a lot of discussion, and a few questions. So I thought some follow up comments would help clarify a couple of things.   The Take Home Message from the Gluten & Migraine Connection Article Just to be clear, […]</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/gluten-migraine-connection-follow/">The Gluten & Migraine Connection: Follow-Up</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com">My Migraine Miracle</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-3661" src="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/UBOs-in-Migraine-These-guys-are-NOT-normal.but-dont-worry-_-1-1024x512.png" alt="the gluten and migraine connection, part 2" width="820" height="410" srcset="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/UBOs-in-Migraine-These-guys-are-NOT-normal.but-dont-worry-_-1.png 1024w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/UBOs-in-Migraine-These-guys-are-NOT-normal.but-dont-worry-_-1-300x150.png 300w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/UBOs-in-Migraine-These-guys-are-NOT-normal.but-dont-worry-_-1-768x384.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /></p> <p>The <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/gluten-migraine-connection-need-know/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent post on the connection between gluten, migraines, and scary white spots on brain MRIs</a> sparked a lot of discussion, and a few questions. So I thought some follow up comments would help clarify a couple of things.</p> <p> </p> <h3><strong>The Take Home Message from the Gluten & Migraine Connection Article</strong></h3> <p>Just to be clear, the central thrust of the article is that the combination of a leaky gut and migraine headaches appears to be strongly linked to unidentified bright objects, or “white spots,” on brain MRIs, which are associated with an increase in the risk of stroke, dementia, and death.</p> <p>This would suggest that, <strong>for the migraine sufferer, maintaining a healthy gut is especially important for long term brain health</strong>. Furthermore, gluten grains have been <a href="http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/7/3/1565" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shown to cause leaky guts in ALL HUMANS</a> (not just those with Celiac disease), <strong>avoidance of gluten should be considered an important part of maintaining a healthy gut.</strong></p> <p>And speaking of avoiding gluten, the single best thing one can do to maintain a healthy gut is to eat food that’s fit for a human. For more on that, check out the guide to “<a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/the-diet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Eating Your Way To Migraine Freedom</a>.”</p> <p>Based on the evidence presented in the article, <strong>there are compelling reasons for me, as a migraine sufferer, to avoid gluten, regardless of whether or not doing so had any impact on my migraines themselves</strong> (fortunately it does, which makes avoiding it much easier!).</p> <p> </p> <h3><strong>Avoiding Gluten for Migraine Protection</strong></h3> <p><strong><em>“I tried going gluten free but I still got migraines. I guess gluten is not an issue for me.”</em> </strong></p> <p>This, or something along these lines, is something I hear from time to time.</p> <p>Which is like saying, <em><strong>“I poured a foundation for a new house, but I still don’t have a house. I guess houses don’t need foundations.”</strong></em></p> <p>ACK!!!</p> <p>One of the biggest challenges we face in modern medicine is overcoming our tendency to look for, or desire to find, a smoking gun. We want to find that ONE THING that causes what ails us and fix <em>that</em>.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">That one brain chemical we can tweak and feel happy again.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">That one exercise we can do to melt off the belly fat.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">That one pill we can take and stop having migraines.</p> <p>And yes, it’d be GREAT if it were that simple!</p> <p>We all (myself included!) desperately want to believe in the quick fix and the magic bullet – and once in a blue moon, it actually comes true (antimicrobials for specific pathogens, Vitamin D for Rickets, for example).</p> <p>But the overwhelming majority of conditions that now plague modern humans are not the result of any ONE thing. <strong>They are complex, multifactorial problems that ultimately stem from us humans living lives far removed from our natural habitat.</strong> And migraines are no exception.</p> <p>The downside is that these conditions won’t respond to any single intervention. Which is precisely why there’s absolutely no way our current health care system – a system that was designed to treat acute, single cause problems (a broken foot, an infected blister, etc.) – can ever fix them.</p> <p>The upside is that the we already have what we need to impact these conditions profoundly – we don’t need to wait for the prescription “cure” that isn’t coming. But making a profound impact requires us to intervene at the root cause, systemic level.</p> <p><strong><em>Eat food fit for a human</em> is a root cause level intervention</strong>, one that will have massive downstream consequences.</p> <p>And following that one directive will address many of the factors – gluten being one of many – implicated in so many modern diseases.</p> <p><strong>Just as a pouring a foundation is a necessary but insufficient piece in building a house, the avoidance of gluten grains is a <em>necessary</em> but insufficient piece in building a fortress of protection against the Beast.</strong></p> [<b>RELATED</b>: <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/migraine-freedom/">Click here to read about how to build that fortress of protection in The Ultimate Guide to Migraine Freedom</a>.] <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/gluten-migraine-connection-follow/">The Gluten & Migraine Connection: Follow-Up</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com">My Migraine Miracle</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>The Gluten & Migraine Connection: What You Need to Know</title> <link>https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/gluten-migraine-connection-need-know/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Josh Turknett, MD]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 30 Jan 2017 20:52:11 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[ancestral health]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gluten free]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://mymigrainemiracle.com/?p=3490</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>by Josh Turknett, MD   If you have migraines, listen up. Why? Two reasons: Reason #1: What I discuss here could very well have a major impact on your health both now and for the rest of your life, AND… Reason #2: It’s very unlikely you’ll encounter it anywhere else. Meaning, if you miss it […]</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/gluten-migraine-connection-need-know/">The Gluten & Migraine Connection: What You Need to Know</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com">My Migraine Miracle</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-3509" src="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/The-14.png" alt="The Gluten & Migraine Connection, what you need to know" width="672" height="378" srcset="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/The-14.png 560w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/The-14-300x169.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 672px) 100vw, 672px" /></p> <h3 style="text-align: center;">by Josh Turknett, MD</h3> <p> </p> <p>If you have migraines, listen up.</p> <p>Why? Two reasons:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>Reason #1:</strong> What I discuss here could very well have a major impact on your health both now and for the rest of your life, AND…</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>Reason #2:</strong> It’s very unlikely you’ll encounter it anywhere else. Meaning, if you miss it here, you probably won’t run across it anywhere else….at least not for a good while.</p> <p>Some of you may know that eliminating gluten from the diet can pay powerful dividends for migraine prevention. But here I’ll be digging further into the connection between migraines, gluten, and gut health – to help explain why, <strong>for the migraineur, there are compelling reasons for avoiding gluten beyond the realm of migraine prevention</strong>.</p> [<strong>NOTE</strong>: Long post below. As you may know, I share with you EXACTLY what I do as a neurologist and migraineur who happens to care a heck of a lot about both migraine prevention and the long term health of my brain.</p> <p>So, if you care about such things, but <strong>don’t currently have the time or inclination to read it right now but still want the lowdown, skip to the summary box at the end. </strong>Either way, just make sure you don’t brush past it on your way to the next cat video :).] <p> </p> <h3><strong>“UBOs”: To Freak or Not to Freak?</strong></h3> <p>If you have migraines, and you have had an MRI scan of your brain, there’s a reasonable chance that you were told you had them. Or you had them but your doctor, who didn’t know what to make of them and didn’t want to freak you out, didn’t mention them to you.</p> <p>What were they? Unidentified Bright Objects (UBOs).</p> <p>Also sometimes referred to as things like “bright spots,” “white matter abnormalities” (WMAs), “white matter spots,” “lesions,” or sometimes just plain ol’ “spots,” they’re basically <strong>parts of the brain that are brighter than they’re supposed to be on a particular kind of MRI scan</strong>. And they’re most often found in the deeper parts of the brain known as the “white matter.”</p> <p>These spots in the migraine brain look virtually identical to the spots we see in other conditions like stroke and Multiple Sclerosis (which means we have to use other information to make those diagnoses).</p> <p>Here’s what these guys look like:</p> <p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-3492" src="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/UBOs-in-Migraine-These-guys-are-NOT-normal.but-dont-worry-_-1-1024x512.png" alt="Scary spots in migraine brains" width="670" height="335" srcset="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/UBOs-in-Migraine-These-guys-are-NOT-normal.but-dont-worry-_-1.png 1024w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/UBOs-in-Migraine-These-guys-are-NOT-normal.but-dont-worry-_-1-300x150.png 300w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/UBOs-in-Migraine-These-guys-are-NOT-normal.but-dont-worry-_-1-768x384.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 670px) 100vw, 670px" /></p> <p>For reference, here’s what a normal, UBO-free brain looks like:</p> <p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-3494" src="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Normal-spotless-brain.png" alt="Normal -spotless-brain" width="348" height="376" srcset="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Normal-spotless-brain.png 785w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Normal-spotless-brain-278x300.png 278w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Normal-spotless-brain-768x830.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 348px) 100vw, 348px" /></p> <p>Studies have revealed these type of abnormalities in the deep white matter are not only more common in migraineurs, but that the severity correlates with the frequency of attacks – i.e. <strong>the more migraines you have, the more likely you are to have more of them.</strong> <sup><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14747499" target="_blank">1</a></sup></p> <div class="su-note" style="border-color:#c5e5cd;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;"><div class="su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim" style="background-color:#DFFFE7;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;"> <h4 style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>IMPORTANT OBSERVATION #1</strong></span></h4> <h4 style="text-align: center;">It’s common for people with migraines to have spots on their brain MRI that shouldn’t be there.</div></div></h4> <p> </p> <p>Like I said, nobody really knows what these things are, or what they mean. So <strong>the typical reaction is to shrug the shoulders and move on.</strong></p> <p>For example, in an October 2013 meta-analysis in the journal <em>Neurology</em> which revealed a link between migraines, white matter spots, and brain atrophy, the authors state in the conclusion that “patients with White Matter Abnormalities (WMAs) can be reassured.” <sup><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23986301" target="_blank">2</a></sup></p> <p><strong>I’m not sure that’s the way to go.</strong></p> <p>For starters, I’m not crazy about junk in my brain that shouldn’t be there. Plus, there’s other evidence that indicates that WMAs SHOULD BE cause for concern.</p> <p>Such as this: a 2010 study in the British Medical Journal analyzing 43 trials from 1966 to 2009 concluded that having these white matter spots on the brain <strong>“predict an increased risk of stroke, dementia, and death.</strong><b>” </b><sup><a href="http://www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c3666" target="_blank">3</a></sup></p> <p>You find that reassuring? Me neither!</p> <div class="su-note" style="border-color:#c5e5cd;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;"><div class="su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim" style="background-color:#DFFFE7;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;"> <h4 style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">IMPORTANT OBSERVATION #2</span></strong></h4> <h4 style="text-align: center;">Having white spots in your brain that shouldn’t be there increases the risk of other highly undesirable brain conditions.</div></div></h4> <p> </p> <p>I don’t know about you, but stroke, dementia, and death are the sorts of things I’m trying to avoid. And <strong>if there’s something I <em>can</em> do to avoid those things, I’d like to know!</strong></p> <p>In my opinion, UBOs are a sign of something potentially quite significant and, perhaps more importantly, I think they’re potentially <em><strong>preventable</strong></em>.</p> <p>Maybe, just maybe, those bright spots are shining a light on something sinister happening in the body and brain of the migraineur, beckoning us to take notice and change our ways. Lemme explain…</p> <p> </p> <h3><strong>Clue or Coincidence?</strong></h3> <p>As I mentioned, these MRI findings in migraine can be virtually indistinguishable from MRI findings in Multiple Sclerosis, atherosclerosis (a.k.a hardening of the arteries), and stroke.</p> <p>But we know that, in the case of migraine, these findings are not from Multiple Sclerosis or hardening of the arteries.</p> <p>There is, however, another condition where we see these vexing spots. And in that condition as well, we don’t really understand what to make of them. What condition?</p> <p>Celiac disease.</p> <div class="su-note" style="border-color:#c5e5cd;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;"><div class="su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim" style="background-color:#DFFFE7;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;"> <h4 style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>IMPORTANT OBSERVATION #3</strong></span></h4> <h4 style="text-align: center;"> People with migraine and Celiac disease both have the same type of spots on their brain MRI.</div></div></h4> <p> </p> <p>Celiac disease, also known as “gluten intolerance,” happens when the immune system attacks the intestines in response to gluten in the gut (specifically, the gliadin protein in gluten). In simple terms, consumption of gluten leads to inflammation in the intestines, leading to gastrointestinal distress, along with breakdown of the intestinal wall.</p> <p>The scientific term for what happens here is “increased intestinal permeability.” The popular, and equally descriptive, term for it is a “leaky gut.” <sup><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1856434/" target="_blank">6</a></sup>. <strong>When the gut is leaky, stuff that should stay outside the body gets inside the body.</strong></p> <p>When stuff gets in that should stay out, the body recognizes that it doesn’t belong, and the immune system (the body’s system for eradicating invaders) attacks it. This then leads to widespread inflammation in the body, along with an increased risk of all manner of autoimmune illness (in fact, there’s an emerging theory that a leaky gut is the root cause of all forms of autoimmune disease. <sup><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2886850/" target="_blank">5</a></sup>).</p> <p>Here’s a cartoon-ified rendering of a normal, healthy, leak-free gut:</p> <p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-3498" src="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/1-1024x768.png" alt="healthy, leak-free gut" width="654" height="491" srcset="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/1.png 1024w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/1-300x225.png 300w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/1-768x576.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 654px) 100vw, 654px" /></p> <p>And here’s how things look when the gut is leaky:</p> <p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-3500" src="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/2-1024x768.png" alt="leaky gut" width="635" height="477" srcset="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/2.png 1024w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/2-300x225.png 300w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/2-768x576.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 635px) 100vw, 635px" />For our purposes here, <b>the most important thing to remember is that, in those with Celiac disease, eating gluten causes a “leaky gut.”</b> And a leaky gut, in this case caused mainly from gluten consumption, is behind all the other badness that then ensues with Celiac disease. Fortunately, by avoiding gluten, one can escape all that badness.</p> <p>That badness includes a host of potential neurological effects, including a significant increase in the prevalence of white matter spots.</p> <p>Here’s a brain MRI from a patient with Celiac disease:</p> <p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-3545" src="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Screenshot-2017-01-30-15.44.55.png" alt="white matter spots in Celiac" width="355" height="402" srcset="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Screenshot-2017-01-30-15.44.55.png 455w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Screenshot-2017-01-30-15.44.55-265x300.png 265w" sizes="(max-width: 355px) 100vw, 355px" /></p> <p>What’s more alarming is that these abnormalities are primarily found in those who have both Celiac AND migraine.</p> <div class="su-note" style="border-color:#c5e5cd;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;"><div class="su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim" style="background-color:#DFFFE7;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;"> <h4 style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>IMPORTANT OBSERVATION #4</strong></span></h4> <h4 style="text-align: center;">Celiac disease, white spots on the brain that shouldn’t be there, AND migraines are VERY tightly linked.</div></div></h4> <p> </p> <p>Importantly, <strong>treatment of Celiac disease with a gluten-free diet, which heals the gut, greatly improves migraines in those with Celiac</strong>. In one study of 10 Celiac patients with white matter spots AND migraines with aura, a gluten-free diet led to the complete elimination of headaches in 7, and significant improvement in the other 2 (the 10th patient wouldn’t try the diet(!)). <sup><a href="http://www.neurology.org/content/56/3/385.short" target="_blank">7</a></sup></p> <p>Furthermore, <strong>in those who lapsed and went back to the gluten, the MRI findings <em>worsened</em>.</strong></p> <p>In other words, in Celiac disease, <strong>fixing a leaky gut fixes the migraines.</strong> Making the gut leaky again brings back the migraines and the spots in the brain.</p> <div class="su-note" style="border-color:#c5e5cd;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;"><div class="su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim" style="background-color:#DFFFE7;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;"> <h4 style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>IMPORTANT OBSERVATION #5</strong></span></h4> <h4 style="text-align: center;">In those who’ve been studied, fixing a leaky gut in Celiac disease ELIMINATES migraines entirely in most.</div></div></h4> <p> </p> <p>So here we have strong evidence for at least one situation where a leaky gut causes both migraines and white spots on the brain.</p> <p> </p> <h3><strong>Door Number 2</strong></h3> <p>Now, we know that all the systemic effects of Celiac occur by way of the gut. Stuff gets into the body that shouldn’t be there, and all hell breaks loose.</p> <p>But the brain is different. The brain is special. The brain is <i>supposed</i> to be walled off from the rest of the body through something known as the “blood brain barrier.”</p> <p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-3503" src="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/3-1024x768.png" alt="blood brain barrier" width="649" height="487" srcset="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/3.png 1024w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/3-300x225.png 300w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/3-768x576.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 649px) 100vw, 649px" /></p> <p>Like the name implies, in the brain there’s a barrier between the blood and the brain. And stuff can’t get across that wall unless it’s carried across by special blood-brain ferries.</p> <p>So, if we’ve opened a bad guy portal into the body inside the gut, those bad guys still don’t have a portal into brain, thanks to this wall. Even though those white spots look like a reaction to bad guys in the brain, the blood-brain barrier <em>should</em> keep that from happening.</p> <p>Unless…there’s a leak in the wall.</p> <p> </p> <h3><strong>Migraine and the [leaky] Blood-Brain Barrier</strong></h3> <p>Recent evidence shows us that there are certain situations in which that wall becomes leaky. One such situation? Migraine.</p> <p>Migraine is a many-armed beast, as you may know, meaning there’s a cornucopia of physiological changes occurring when the beast comes to town.</p> <p>One of those arms involves what’s known as “neurovascular inflammation.” Nerves at the base of the brain that are activated during a migraine send a signal to the blood vessels they connect with to release inflammatory substances. The resulting inflammation then <strong>triggers breakdown in…the blood brain barrier</strong>. <sup><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25339863" target="_blank">4</a></sup></p> <p>And a leaky blood brain barrier means stuff can get inside the brain that shouldn’t be there.</p> <div class="su-note" style="border-color:#c5e5cd;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;"><div class="su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim" style="background-color:#DFFFE7;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;"> <h4 style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>IMPORTANT OBSERVATION #6</strong></span></h4> <h4 style="text-align: center;">During a migraine, the normally impenetrable blood brain barrier becomes…leaky.</div></div></h4> <p> </p> <p>What happens when stuff that doesn’t belong there gets inside the brain through a leaky blood-brain barrier? The same thing that happens when stuff that doesn’t belong inside the body gets inside through a leaky gut.</p> <p>The immune system attacks it.</p> <p>In this case, it’s the cellular guardians of the brain known as the microglia that do the attacking. The microglia attack as the first line of defense, then call for further reinforcements to finish the job, <strong>which ends up triggering <em>more inflammation</em></strong>.</p> <p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-3512" src="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/4-1024x768.png" alt="migraine and leaky brain" width="670" height="503" srcset="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/4.png 1024w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/4-300x225.png 300w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/4-768x576.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 670px) 100vw, 670px" /></p> <p>More inflammation means more breakdown of the blood brain barrier, allowing more invaders in, activating more microglia, causing more inflammation, and so on. It’s easy to see how the sinister combination of a leaky gut and migraine could <strong>lead to a state of chronic inflammation,</strong> and that our enigmatic spots are the MRI signature of such a process.</p> <p> </p> <h3><strong>Gut Health for the Environmentally Sensitive</strong></h3> <p>It’s widely accepted (and inherently obvious to the typical eggshell-walking migraineur) that the migraine brain is extra sensitive to the environment. And nowhere is this sensitivity more significant than in the food that we eat.</p> <p>As such, <strong>the last thing anyone with migraines needs is a breakdown in his or her defenses against the external environment.</strong> From this point of view, it’s no wonder that behaviors that promote a healthy gut barrier (and the avoidance of foods that disrupt that barrier) protect against migraines.</p> <p>In other words, <strong>a healthy gut means a life with less skull crushing head pain.</strong></p> <p>But the benefits of a healthy gut (of which gluten avoidance is a critical piece), as the above discussion suggests, may extend well beyond its head-pain protection properties. For the migraineur, a healthy gut may spell the difference between maintaining a solid wall of defense between the outside world and your brain, or rolling out the red carpet for all manner of badness to enter.</p> <p>So, if we were to summarize all of the above in the form of an equation, it would be:</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><strong>LEAKY GUT + MIGRAINE = CHRONIC INFLAMMATION/SPOTS ON MRI = INCREASED RISK OF MORE MIGRAINES, STROKE, DEMENTIA & DEATH </strong></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> <h3><strong>“That’s all a bit concerning. Are you sure about this?”</strong></h3> <p>The above discussion is based on the assimilation of evidence from a few different areas. Is it possible that some of these links, compelling as they may be, are coincidental? Yes.</p> <p>Is there enough here for me, as a neurologist and migraineur, to consider gut health as a fundamental component not only of migraine prevention, but of the prevention of other forms of unwanted brain disease? Absolutely.</p> <p>And given that it will likely be many, many years until we have a definitive answer to these questions, I’m not comfortable with sitting around and waiting before I do anything about it.</p> [<strong>RELATED</strong>: If you want to <strong>eat exactly the way I do to prevent migraines, leaky gut, freaky brain lesions, dementia, and death</strong>, <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/primalprovisions" target="_blank">click here to check out Primal Provisions, our weekly meal planning service</a>.] <p> </p> <h3><strong>The Lowdown</strong></h3> <p>Now, to summarize everything, and for those of you who skipped ahead for the lowdown, here it is:</p> <p style="text-align: left;"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-3513" src="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/GLUTEN-MIGRAINE-1024x512.png" alt="GLUTEN & MIGRAINE, the lowdown" width="960" height="480" srcset="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/GLUTEN-MIGRAINE.png 1024w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/GLUTEN-MIGRAINE-300x150.png 300w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/GLUTEN-MIGRAINE-768x384.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" /></p> <p style="text-align: left;"><strong>What are the cornerstones of maintaining a healthy gut?</strong> More on that soon. Subscribe to the Migraine Miracle email list below to ensure you don’t miss it:</p> <div class="_form_39"></div> <p><script src="https://brainjo.activehosted.com/f/embed.php?id=39" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script></p> <p style="text-align: left;"><strong>References:</strong></p> <p style="text-align: left;">1. Kruit MC, van Buchem MA, Hofman PA, Bakkers JT, Terwindt GM, Ferrari MD, Launer LJ. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14747499">Migraine as a risk factor for subclinical brain lesions.</a> JAMA. 2004 Jan 28;291(4):427-34.</p> <p style="text-align: left;">2. Bashir A, Lipton RB, Ashina S, Ashina M. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23986301">Migraine and structural changes in the brain: a systematic review and meta-analysis.</a> Neurology. 2013 Oct 1;81(14):1260-8.</p> <p style="text-align: left;">3. Debette S, Markus HS. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20660506">The clinical importance of white matter hyperintensities on brain magnetic resonance imaging: systematic review and meta-analysis.</a> BMJ. 2010 Jul 26;341:c3666.</p> <p style="text-align: left;">4. DosSantos MF, Holanda-Afonso RC, Lima RL, DaSilva AF, Moura-Neto V. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25339863">The role of the blood-brain barrier in the development and treatment of migraine and other pain disorders.</a> Front Cell Neurosci. 2014 Oct 8;8:302.</p> <p style="text-align: left;">5. Visser J, Rozing J, Sapone A, Lammers K, Fasano A. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2886850/" target="_blank">Tight Junctions, Intestinal Permeability, and Autoimmunity Celiac Disease and Type 1 Diabetes Paradigms</a>. <i>Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences</i>. 2009;1165:195-205.</p> <p style="text-align: left;">6. Arrieta MC, Bistritz L, Meddings JB. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1856434/" target="_blank">Alterations in intestinal permeability</a>. <i>Gut</i>. 2006;55(10):1512-1520.</p> <p style="text-align: left;">7. Hadjivassiliou M, Grünewald RA, Lawden M, Davies-Jones GA, Powell T, Smith CM. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11171906">Headache and CNS white matter abnormalities associated with gluten sensitivity.</a> Neurology. 2001 Feb 13;56(3):385-8.</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/gluten-migraine-connection-need-know/">The Gluten & Migraine Connection: What You Need to Know</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com">My Migraine Miracle</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Should Migraineurs Eat Resistant Starch? An Experiment…</title> <link>https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/migraineur-eat-resistant-starch/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Josh Turknett, MD]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Wed, 06 Jul 2016 22:57:27 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[ancestral health]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://mymigrainemiracle.com/?p=2563</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>  What is resistant starch, you ask? Don’t worry if you don’t know. While it’s become a hot topic in some nutritional circles, most are still unfamiliar with it. As a brief primer, starch is simply a long chain of glucose molecules, a “complex” carbohydrate found in things like wheat, potatoes, and rice. Humans, along with the rest […]</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/migraineur-eat-resistant-starch/">Should Migraineurs Eat Resistant Starch? An Experiment…</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com">My Migraine Miracle</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img decoding="async" class=" wp-image-2567 aligncenter" src="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/12-Days-of-Christmas-in-July-2-300x251.png" alt="12 Days of Christmas in July (2)" width="578" height="484" srcset="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/12-Days-of-Christmas-in-July-2-300x251.png 300w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/12-Days-of-Christmas-in-July-2-768x644.png 768w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/12-Days-of-Christmas-in-July-2.png 940w" sizes="(max-width: 578px) 100vw, 578px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>What is resistant starch, you ask?</p> <p>Don’t worry if you don’t know. While it’s become a hot topic in some nutritional circles, most are still unfamiliar with it.</p> <p>As a brief primer, starch is simply a long chain of glucose molecules, a “complex” carbohydrate found in things like wheat, potatoes, and rice.</p> <p>Humans, along with the rest of the animal kingdom, love the stuff. A little too much. Both the blessing and curse of starch is that it can be rapidly broken down into its component sugars, resulting in a rapid rise in blood sugar and a boost of energy.</p> <p>Energy dense food is great if you’re refueling after a long day of gathering. But sitting on the sofa with a bag of chips?</p> <p>Likewise, for the migraineur trying to <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/spark-fuel/" target="_blank">avoid significant fluctuations in blood sugar</a>, starch can also pose a problem.</p> <p>Resistant starch, as its name would imply, is <strong>starch that is resistant – at least in part – to breakdown into its component sugars.</strong> It’s found in things like green bananas, raw potatoes, and cooled rice.</p> <p>And in <a href="http://amzn.to/29iTJZq" target="_blank">tiger nuts</a>.</p> <h3><strong><a href="http://amzn.to/29iTJZq" target="_blank">Tiger Nuts</a>? :0</strong></h3> <p>Besides its favorable impact on blood sugar, perhaps the most noteworthy and widely touted benefit of resistant starch is that it serves as food for the “good” bacteria in our gut. The starch that’s not broken down in the stomach and small intestine makes its way to the beneficial bugs further down in the digestive tract, helping them grow and thrive.</p> <p>It’s also referred to as “prebiotic fiber”, aka food for your gut bacteria.</p> <p>Recently, one of our <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/migrai-neverland-right/" target="_blank">Migrai-Neverland</a> members asked about <a href="http://amzn.to/29iTJZq" target="_blank">tiger nuts</a>, specifically whether they could serve as a reasonable source of resistant starch for a migraine sufferer.</p> <p>Despite their name, <a href="http://amzn.to/29iTJZq" target="_blank">tiger nuts</a> aren’t nuts at all, but tiny little root vegetables, ones that appear to have been a favorite amongst our hunting and gathering ancestors (and for our members who just took part in our <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/2436-2/" target="_blank">Eating on the Wild Side book club</a>, one that has not had its healthfulness bred out of it through farming).</p> <p>I’ve been interested in experimenting with resistant starch myself, and was intrigued by the <a href="http://amzn.to/29iTJZq" target="_blank">tiger nut</a>.</p> <p>So back to that question: could I, a migraineur, safely add them as a “probiotic” supplement? Only one way to find out…</p> <p> </p> <h3><strong>The Tiger Nut Experiment</strong></h3> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>Step 1:</strong> Check blood sugar.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/migraineur-eat-resistant-starch/img_6357/" rel="attachment wp-att-2570"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2570" src="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/IMG_6357-e1467845315398-225x300.jpg" alt="blood sugar of 82 before tiger nuts" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/IMG_6357-e1467845315398-225x300.jpg 225w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/IMG_6357-e1467845315398-768x1024.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>Step 2:</strong> Eat a serving of <a href="http://amzn.to/29iTJZq" target="_blank">tiger nuts</a> (I chose a tablespoon, roughly 12 nuts, which is about the most I would typically eat in one go).</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>Step 3:</strong> Check blood sugar about 45 minutes afterwards (the typical time when blood sugar peaks after eating).</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/migraineur-eat-resistant-starch/img_6358/" rel="attachment wp-att-2571"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2571" src="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/IMG_6358-e1467845399746-225x300.jpg" alt="blood sugar of 83 after tiger nuts" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/IMG_6358-e1467845399746-225x300.jpg 225w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/IMG_6358-e1467845399746-768x1024.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a></p> <p>As you can see, my blood sugar response after eating my serving of tiger nuts was minuscule, within the margin of error of measurement, in fact.</p> <p><strong><div class="su-note" style="border-color:#e5bd4c;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;"><div class="su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim" style="background-color:#ffd766;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;"><strong>The Verdict:</strong> </strong>Tiger nuts can be “safely” consumed in isolation, without any potentially migrain-o-genic blood sugar response.<strong></div></div></strong></p> <p>What do they taste like? It’s a bit hard to describe, because they don’t quite taste like anything else.</p> <p>The texture is particularly unusual: firm and chewy, but strangely pleasing. And with just a mild touch of sweetness.</p> <p>Because of their chewiness, they’re not well suited for stuffing handfuls into your mouth, and so easy to consume in moderation (also a plus since they’re not exactly cheap).</p> <p> </p> <h3><strong>A Worthwhile Supplement?</strong></h3> <p>Though we know that the composition of our gut microbiome has major effects on our health, and that modern living and eating has altered it in unhealthy ways, we’re still in the infancy of understanding what exactly to do about it.</p> <p>It’s <strong>also likely that microbiome health has special significance for the migraineur</strong>, as maintaining the integrity of the gut lining is critical in a disorder characterized by heightened sensitivity to the environment (since the gut is the wall across which the world outside gets <em>inside</em> of us).</p> <p>In my opinion, resistant starch has one of the most favorable risk-to-potential-impact ratios of the available interventions for promoting a healthy gut flora.</p> <p>Welcome, <a href="http://amzn.to/29iTJZq" target="_blank">tiger nuts</a>, to our pantry.</p> <p> </p> <p><em>(Afflinks used above)</em></p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/migraineur-eat-resistant-starch/">Should Migraineurs Eat Resistant Starch? An Experiment…</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com">My Migraine Miracle</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>10 Mistakes You Might Be Making (including the granddaddy of them all…)</title> <link>https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/10-mistakes-might-making-including-granddaddy/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Josh Turknett, MD]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Tue, 31 May 2016 16:27:51 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[ancestral health]]></category> <category><![CDATA[the migraine miracle]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://mymigrainemiracle.com/?p=2479</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>Overcoming Adversity After thousands of patients, experience with every headache remedy under the sun, and a lifetime battling the migraine beast myself, it’s become abundantly clear that adopting an evolutionarily appropriate diet and lifestyle is the best strategy for migraine prevention. By leaps and bounds. Living and eating as a human should are the keys to […]</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/10-mistakes-might-making-including-granddaddy/">10 Mistakes You Might Be Making (including the granddaddy of them all…)</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com">My Migraine Miracle</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-2498" src="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/STUDIOS-1.png" alt="10 mistakes you might be making implementing the migraine miracle plan" width="567" height="475" srcset="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/STUDIOS-1.png 940w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/STUDIOS-1-300x251.png 300w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/STUDIOS-1-768x644.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 567px) 100vw, 567px" /></p> <h2>Overcoming Adversity</h2> <p>After thousands of patients, experience with every headache remedy under the sun, and a lifetime battling the migraine beast myself, it’s become abundantly clear that adopting an evolutionarily appropriate diet and lifestyle is the best strategy for migraine prevention.</p> <p><strong>By leaps and bounds.</strong></p> <p>Living and eating <em>as a human should</em> are the keys to a migraine-free existence. Go figure!</p> <p>What’s most remarkable is that, having seen what I’ve seen over the past several years, <strong>I’m now confident that migraine freedom is attainable for everyone</strong> – something I’d have never said,<em> or believed</em>, just a few years ago. A life with migraine is no longer something we must accept as our fate.</p> <p>And that’s not something you’ll hear from many others in health care, who view chronic migraines as a problem that can only be “managed.”</p> <p>For some who venture down these waters to the land of migraine freedom, it’s smooth sailing all the way.</p> <p>For others, the ride is rocky at times. But this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. In life, seldom is progress a straight shot to the finish line.</p> <p>Which is why<b> resilience, or the ability to persevere through the rough patches, is the best predictor of success in all endeavors</b>. This one is no exception.</p> <p>And since persevering through the setbacks can mean the difference between a life of chronic headaches and one entirely without, I want those of you <strong>courageous enough</strong> to go down this road to have every resource at your disposal to help you stay the course.</p> <p>Which is a big part of why we’re building a community of support and guidance to help you to get you through those tough times (and we’d love to have you! <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/migrai-neverland-right/" target="_blank">Click here to find out if Migrai-Neverland is right for you</a>.)</p> <p>All too often I hear of folks giving up after encountering a setback. “This isn’t/won’t work for me,” “It’s been two weeks and I’m not better,” and so on.</p> <p>And the last thing I want is for you to give up, because I know what’s at stake. Because experience has taught me that <strong>giving up means throwing away your best —<em>and likely only</em> —chance</strong> of radically transforming your future for the better.</p> <p><strong>I know that the only way you will fail is if you give up.</strong></p> <p> </p> <h2>Mistake #1: Hoping For A Quick Fix</h2> <p>Wanna make a million bucks? Here’s the formula:</p> [lofty health goal] + [time frame no more than 8 weeks] = $$$$$</p> <p>“Lose 50 pounds in 2 weeks!” Detoxes! Boot camps! Crash diets! And on and on….</p> <p>The multi-gajillion dollar diet and fitness industry has conditioned us into believing the fantasy that health problems <em>decades in the making</em> can be undone in a matter of weeks.</p> <p>And it has conditioned us into believing the fantasy that a short-term change in our behavior can produce a long-term improvement in our health.</p> <p>The truth, though, is neither sexy nor profitable. So waistlines continue to expand, and health continues to plummet.</p> <p>In my view, <strong>it’s a happy coincidence that the path to migraine freedom is also the path to optimum long-term health and well being</strong>. So, embarking down it shouldn’t be seen as a short-term endeavor, a temporary undertaking until things improve, but rather as a <em>lifelong commitment to yourself.</em></p> <p>Many with chronic headaches have been battling them for years, often decades. It would be unreasonable to think something that long in the making would reverse itself overnight, so set up expectations appropriately.</p> <p>Commit from the very start to being in this for the long haul. <strong>Commit to the process, not an outcome. </strong>The longer it’s taken you to get to where you are, and the more medications you’ve consumed along the way, the more tenacious you must be while finding your way out of it.</p> <p>So don’t expect overnight success. If that does come, let it be a pleasant surprise.</p> <p>Progress is a huge motivator, no doubt. It’s easy to get discouraged when you perceive there to be none. But, for some, seeing that progress, especially in the beginning, may require taking a bird’s eye view your journey.</p> <p> </p> <h2>Mistake #2: Neglecting Lifestyle Factors</h2> <p>Yes, food is a huge part of giving your body and brain what it expects and needs.</p> <p>But food is not the only thing.</p> <p>Our brains expect us to be physically active. Our brains expect us to sleep 7-9 hours per night, and for our sleep and wake cycle to be regulated by the rise and fall of the sun. Our brains expect our stress hormones to course through our veins only once in a great while, when our life is in real truly in danger, not daily in response to imagined threats.</p> <p>Are you incorporating regular physical activity? Time outside? Are you sleeping consistently and well or, if not, working towards that goal? Are you working towards severing the connection between thoughts, especially incessant worry and anxiety, over your physiology?</p> <p>(<strong>RELATED</strong>: <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/power-thought-masters-mindfulness/" target="_blank">Click here to more about the power of thought, and the tight connection it has to your migraines</a>.)</p> <p> </p> <h2>Mistake #3: Eating Gluten-Free Replacement Foods</h2> <p>The food industry is capitalizing on the gluten free trend, responding to the sharp rise in folks eating gluten free with an explosion of gluten free substitute foods. Stuff to replace the breads, cookies, crackers, and cakes that you’ve given up.</p> <p>But <strong>consuming these is really just replacing one form of junk with another, perhaps slightly less harmful, form of junk.</strong> In the end, you’ll still be eating food engineered to maximize <em>consumption</em>, not nutrition.</p> <p>For the migraineur, while a slice of gluten free bread may not expose you to gut-disrupting plant protein, you’ll still likely be ingesting a big glob of easily digestible carbohydrate, which will send your blood sugar soaring, and will put you back on the hormonal roller coaster you’re trying to get off of.</p> <p><strong>Eat real food.</strong> Real food – food that doesn’t require factory processing to be edible – food that is naturally gluten-free (and your options here are nearly endless). View gluten-free “substitute” foods as treats, an occasional indulgence (if you so desire) for when you’ve made it to <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/migraine-freedom-timeline/" target="_blank">Phase 4</a>.</p> <p> </p> <h2>Mistake #4: Relying On Others for Answers</h2> <p>Part of being able to persevere through the rough waters is being able to figure things out when the going gets tough. To troubleshoot your way through to smoother waters, rather than turn back and head for shore.</p> <p>Ultimately, only you can find your way to migraine freedom. My goal is to take what I’ve learned – hard won knowledge from a lifetime of personal and professional experience with migraine – and transfer it to you. So that you have what you need to figure it out.</p> <p>But, as with virtually all matters of health, only you can find your unique solution. And I know that it’s the people who truly believe this, who ultimately hold themselves responsible for charting their course, that make it to the promised land.</p> <p>Your doctor won’t fix this. No magic pill will, either. Only you can.</p> <p>And chances are, if you’re reading this post, then you understand this!</p> <p> </p> <h2>Mistake #5: Relying on Willpower to Change Behavior</h2> <p>For many, a transition to an ancestral way of eating and living means undoing a lot of old habits.</p> <p>If you try to accomplish that through sheer force of will, you will fail.</p> <p>Rather, figure out the changes you wish to make, <strong>and create an environment for yourself that ensures success</strong>. If you want to stop drinking soda, don’t keep a 6 pack in the refrigerator. Design your world to make changing your behavior as <em>easy</em> as possible, and falling off the wagon <em>really hard</em><i>.</i></p> <p> </p> <h2>Mistake #6: Reaching for Convenience Foods</h2> <p>This past week, I was seeing a patient in follow up who was trying to break about a 30-year history of rebound headache.</p> <p>As we were chatting back and forth, I spotted an energy bar on the table next to her. I almost fell out of my chair.</p> <p>I get it, though. We’re a snacking society, fueled by our dependence on carbohydrates for energy, and accustomed to powering through between meal energy dips with a burst of more carbs.</p> <p>But the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20243692" target="_blank">3-meals-a-day habit isn’t our natural pattern</a>, and even more deviant when you throw snacks in between. For virtually all of human history, our ancestors ate one, maybe two, meals per day.</p> <p><strong>One of the great advantages of moving to the lower carbohydrate diet of our ancestors is the stabilization of energy levels that comes along with it.</strong> No more ravenous hunger if you go more than a few hours between meals, as you can now tap into your own fat stores to meet energy needs (most of us carry a month’s worth or more in there!).</p> <p>But, as you may recall, the transition to the fat-adapted state, and off the blood sugar roller coaster, takes a few weeks to occur fully.</p> <p>So if you find yourself getting hungry between meals during the transition phase, what should you do? <em>Eat more, and add more FAT into your diet!</em></p> <p>The more calories consumed at mealtime, the longer you’ll be able to go without hunger. Then, once fat adaptation kicks into full gear, you’ll find you don’t need as much.</p> <p>I’ve yet to find any packaged convenience food that I would feel I could safely consume in isolation, <em>even in Phase 4.</em></p> <p><strong>And if you’re in Phase 1 especially, nothing should ever make its way from a box, bag, or wrapper and into your mouth.</strong></p> <p>Remember, real food only.</p> <p> </p> <h2>Mistake #7: Short Term Sugar Spikes</h2> <p>As you know, reducing dietary carbohydrates is a powerful weapon against migraine. The blood sugar roller coaster that most modern westerners are riding, and the radical swings in hormones that accompany it, are a direct consequence of the typical high-carb western diet.</p> <p>But it’s important to remember that dietary carbohydrates have both short and long term effects.</p> <p>Reducing daily carb intake is critical to shifting the body into the energy-stabilizing, fat-adapted state. This is the long term effect we want.</p> <p>However, it’s possible to achieve the above daily carb goal and still do things that cause short-term bursts in blood sugar that can provoke the beast. If you’re shooting for under 50 grams per day, for example, it’s technically possible to eat all of that in one sitting from a carb-heavy snack.</p> <p>But you’re much better off spreading it out over the course of the day.</p> <p>Avoiding convenience foods, as discussed above, is one way to ensure this doesn’t happen.</p> <p>Another is to avoid eating sweet fruits (apples, bananas, pineapple, etc.), <em>especially by themselves.</em></p> <p> </p> <h2>Mistake #8: “Cheat Creep”</h2> <p>Here’s a really common story:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">You commit to the <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/the-diet/" target="_blank">migraine miracle plan</a>.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">You feel better than you’ve felt in decades.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">Your chronic headaches go away. Miraculously, you hit Phase 4 of the <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/migraine-freedom-timeline/" target="_blank">Migraine Freedom Timeline</a>. Horns blow, confetti falls.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>Maybe my headaches are gone for good</em>, you think.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">So you try the occasional cheat to test the waters. A slice of bread here, a bag of pretzels there, etc. Slowly you drift further away from your freedom path until.….BAM! The beast is back. With a vengeance!</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">And you forgot just how ferocious he could be.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">You take your <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/choose-right-migraine-medication-part-one/" target="_blank">preferred migraine abortive drug</a> and send him away. Mercifully, the beast goes, but <strong>your lapse leaves you vulnerable to another attack for days, weeks, or maybe even longer.</strong></p> <p>While these falls from the wagon do serve as a powerful reminder of why you boarded the wagon to begin with, falling off can potentially lead to a substantial setback.</p> <p>Once you’re doing well, it’s all too easy for the cheats to add up. You may even lose sight of what your freedom path looked like.</p> <p>So be sure to check back in from time to time with the guidelines to make sure you haven’t strayed too far, and make sure your “cheats” are not only intentional, but few and far between.</p> <p> </p> <h2>Mistake #9: Underestimating the Impact of Medications</h2> <p>This is the granddaddy of them all.<strong> It’s the one that leads more people to throw in the towel than any other. </strong></p> <p>I’ve personally underestimated the negative impact of migraine relief medications for most of my life.</p> <p><strong>One of the inconvenient truths about migraine is that the drugs that are best at relieving an attack are also the best at ensuring that more attacks will come in the future.</strong></p> <p>I’ll be writing more about this topic soon (including ways to relieve an attack without meds), because it’s such an <em>enormous and overlooked</em> problem. Over the past several decades, the conventional approach to headache management, despite the best of intentions, has been <strong>unwittingly fueling an epidemic of chronic headache.</strong> Our advice to always keep medications on hand, and to take something “at the first sign of headache,” has traded a short term gain for long term misery.</p> <p>Fortunately, there’s also a BIG silver lining.</p> <p>Which is that <strong>weaning off migraine relief medications is the most powerful thing you can do</strong> to keep the beast away.</p> <p><em>My personal goal is to never take another triptan, or any other medication for migraine relief,</em> for that matter. Not because doing so will have meant I had a migraine, but because I now fully appreciate its consequences. That it may transform would’ve been a one-time headache into weeks, months, or even years of recurring ones.</p> <p>I’ve noticed that the folks in our Migrai-Neverland community who improve the fastest are also those who are the most medication averse, who want desperately to get off drugs altogether. This is no coincidence.</p> <p>I can’t emphasize this point strongly enough.</p> <p>(<strong>RELATED</strong>: Would you like to join them in Migrai-Neverland? <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/migrai-neverland-right/" target="_blank">Click here to take this short quiz to find out if it’s right for you</a>.)</p> <p> </p> <h2>Mistake #10: Not Getting Enough Water AND Salt</h2> <p>Nowadays, I can easily spot when someone has begun eating low-carb. Gone is the puffiness in the face, replaced by the lovely lines of the facial bones long hidden by water retention. It’s the ultimate tell.</p> <p>Carbohydrates promote retention of water in the kidneys, and that excess water tends to accumulate in the tissues. Likewise, reducing dietary carbohydrates reverses those effects.</p> <p>As a result, you will pee more during the transition to lower carbohydrate eating as the body rids itself of this excess water, along with the minerals within it (true any time the body loses water, which is why sports drinks were first invented).</p> <p>During this transitional period, as the body is trying to return to the state mother nature intended, it’s important to stay well hydrated. <strong>And doing so means replacing both the water AND the minerals (i.e. salts).</strong></p> <p>So make sure you’re drinking plenty of water when you’re starting out, and that you’re getting enough salt. There are various strategies for accomplishing the latter – drinking a cup of salty bouillon or chicken stock (preferably one you’ve made), taking a sip or two of pickle juice, or simply stirring a pinch or two of salt into your glass of water. Adding a Magnesium supplement, typically 400mg daily, can also help.</p> <p> </p> <p>And there you have it! We’ve covered a lot of ground here, including some very important topics, some of which I’ll be writing a good bit more about in the coming months.</p> <p>Did you spot any potential mistakes you may be making? Was there a mistake you were making at one point that’s not on this list? <strong>If so, share it in the comments section here or in the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/899131986822364/" target="_blank">Migraine Miracle Facebook group</a>.</strong> We’re all in this together!</p> <p> </p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/10-mistakes-might-making-including-granddaddy/">10 Mistakes You Might Be Making (including the granddaddy of them all…)</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com">My Migraine Miracle</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Is Tasty Food Really Bad For You?</title> <link>https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/2436-2/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Wed, 04 May 2016 15:39:21 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[ancestral health]]></category> <category><![CDATA[migraine triggers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[ancestral diet]]></category> <category><![CDATA[book club]]></category> <category><![CDATA[fat]]></category> <category><![CDATA[migraine miracle]]></category> <category><![CDATA[salt]]></category> <category><![CDATA[sugar]]></category> <category><![CDATA[wild]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://mymigrainemiracle.com/?p=2436</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>This is how things are supposed to work: You’re a hunting and gathering human being, out in the wild. You come across a brightly colored but unfamiliar object dangling from a tree. It looks potentially edible. Is that good for me, you wonder? You take a tiny bite. It’s delicious. One of the best things […]</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/2436-2/">Is Tasty Food Really Bad For You?</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com">My Migraine Miracle</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img decoding="async" class=" wp-image-2447 alignleft" src="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/BOOK-CLUB-DUO-1.png" alt="BOOK CLUB DUO (1)" width="423" height="238" srcset="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/BOOK-CLUB-DUO-1.png 560w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/BOOK-CLUB-DUO-1-300x169.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 423px) 100vw, 423px" />This is how things are supposed to work:</p> <p>You’re a hunting and gathering human being, out in the wild. You come across a brightly colored but unfamiliar object dangling from a tree. It looks potentially edible.</p> <p><i>Is that good for me</i>, you wonder?</p> <p>You take a tiny bite.</p> <p>It’s delicious. One of the best things you’ve ever tasted. Clearly you’ve struck gold.</p> <p>You pick as many from the tree as you can carry, and take them back to the rest of the tribe so you can share in your discovery.</p> <hr /> <p> </p> <h3> Follow Your Bliss?</h3> <p>Our feelings exist to tell us when something we do is good for us. It’s how our brain guides us to do what’s in our best interest.</p> <p>Despite puritanical influences to the contrary, <b>we’re <em>supposed</em> to do more of the things that feel good, less of the things that feel bad. </b><i>That’s the whole point of our reward circuitry. </i>Our brain’s reward circuits exist to let us know when we’ve done something right.</p> <p>And, of course, this includes the reward system we have in place for food.</p> <p>If you’re a human in the wild, you need a way of knowing whether something you’ve put in your mouth will hurt or harm you.</p> <p>Tastes really, really good? Don’t stop till it’s all gone.</p> <p>Tastes pretty good? Keep eating. You’re ok.</p> <p>Tastes awful? Spit it out.</p> <p>Makes perfect sense.</p> <p>Through a couple million years of human evolution, our brain has evolved a finely tuned system for letting us know when we’ve put something in our mouth that’s good for us, something that increases the odds we’ll live to see another day.</p> <p>But, if that’s the case, <strong>how is it we find ourselves in a world where things that taste really, really good are referred to as “sinful,”only to be consumed as an occasional indulgence, if that?</strong> Isn’t that the stuff we should be eating more of?</p> <p> </p> <h3>The Perils of Lily Gilding</h3> <p>The problem began when we humans decided to start monkeying with our food reward system. When we started trying to engineer our food to MAXIMIZE its tastiness, without concern for its nutritional value.</p> <p>In our efforts to gild the lily, we invented new foods in which the pleasure of their consumption was no longer associated with their biological value. <strong>We concocted foods in which taste was no longer a reliable indicator of healthfulness.</strong></p> <p>Now, you might thing this started somewhere around the mid-20th Century, around the time when factory produced convenience foods exploded onto the scene, filling the grocery store shelves with an ever expanding array of tasty treats designed with the sole purpose of getting us to eat as much of them as possible.</p> <p>And this is certainly a BIG part of the story. Big food has literally turned manipulating our food reward circuits into a science. Looked at objectively, these achievements are impressive, and a testament to human ingenuity. Yet, few would argue that their efforts helped spawn a <a href="http://www.bariatric-surgery-source.com/image-files/child-obesity-statistics-age-gender.gif" target="_blank">public health disaster</a>.</p> <p>The fascinating tale of the food industry’s mastery of food reward is told in the book <a href="http://amzn.to/29y9vU6" target="_blank">“Salt, Sugar, Fat: How The Food Giants Hooked Us.</a>” I’m still making my way through it, and <strong>it’s been selected as one of two of our initial selections for the first <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/endofmigraine" target="_blank">Migrai-Neverland </a>book club</strong>.</p> <p> </p> <h3>Older Than You Think</h3> <p>But, if you think the food chemists are solely to blame, think again. It turns out that we humans started monkeying with our food reward circuits long before the first Twinkie was plucked off a conveyor belt. That’s right, we’ve been mastering the art of designing food to tickle our pleasure centers long before that.</p> <p><b>Ever since we began cultivating plants, in fact.</b> Ever since the dawn of the agricultural revolution some 10,000 years ago, we’ve been selecting for the tastiest varieties of fruits and vegetables, shaping their evolution.</p> <p>Just as we’ve bred dogs and cats to provide maximal people happiness, selecting for things like big eyes, tail wagging, coon-hunting prowess, and loud purrs, so have we selected for the tastiest fruits and vegetables of every generation.</p> <p><strong>Usually this means the sweetest, often at the expense of nutrient content.</strong></p> <p>Generation after generation, as the starch and sugar went up, the phytonutrients and minerals went down.</p> <p>And over time, just as we’ve done with factory made convenience foods, we began eroding the connection between taste and biological value.</p> <p>That’s how we can find ourselves in a world where adding an apple a day from the grocery store <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3093779/" target="_blank">could actually INCREASE our risk of heart disease</a>!</p> <p>But, alas, there’s hope!</p> <p>The reason we’ve stopped trusting our food-induced feelings is because of the abundance of foods specifically engineered to hijack the brain circuits that produce those feelings.</p> <p>The bliss from a bite of double stuffed Oreo certainly should NOT be interpreted as a signal to eat more of it, because the Oreo was designed to specifically manipulate the brain’s reward system.</p> <p>That system was NEVER made to deal with an Oreo.</p> <p>However, the system was designed to deal with all the foods we encountered in the 2.5 million years before we started monkeying with our foods.</p> <p>Translation: the sheer bliss you feel after biting into a juicy, grass fed ribeye, or the addictive tangy sweetness of a ripe, wild blackberry, those things CAN be trusted. That’s smart, not sinful.</p> <p>That’s your reward circuits working as nature intended.</p> <p>So, the upside here – and it’s a big upside, IMO – is that <strong>a return to eating evolutionarily appropriate foods means a return to a reliable food reward system.</strong> Eat something that you like a lot? Well done! That’s how it’s all <i>supposed</i> to work. Guilt does not belong.</p> <p>But bringing our diet closer to the that of our ancestors means not only avoiding the factory made stuff, it also means being mindful of the fruits and vegetables we select.</p> <p>The story of how we’ve cultivated plants to tickle our taste buds is told in Jo Robinson’s exhaustively researched and outstanding book “<a href="http://amzn.to/29SO1yO" target="_blank">Eating on the Wild Side: The Missing Link To Optimum Health,</a>” <strong>the second selection in our inaugural Migrai-Neverland book club.</strong></p> <p>It’s chock full of great information, including how to make good choices in the grocery store, how to find unaltered wild varieties, how to store and prepare your fruits and veggies so that they retain their beneficial properties, and so on.</p> <p>These two books make perfect complements, as together they tell the story of our 10,000 year quest to hack our brain’s food reward circuitry. It’s a story that has major implications for the migraineur, and should provide plenty of food for thought and discussion for our first Migrai-Neverland book club.</p> <p>You can find these books on Amazon: “<a href="http://amzn.to/29y9vU6" target="_blank">Salt, Sugar, Fat..</a>.” and <a href="http://amzn.to/29SO1yO" target="_blank">“Eating on the Wild Side”</a> (afflinks)</p> <h3></h3> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/2436-2/">Is Tasty Food Really Bad For You?</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com">My Migraine Miracle</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>The Spark and the Fuel</title> <link>https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/spark-fuel/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Josh Turknett, MD]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Thu, 31 Dec 2015 18:53:08 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[ancestral health]]></category> <category><![CDATA[migraine triggers]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://mymigrainemiracle.com/?p=1998</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>It’s no secret that migraines are a complicated beast. Were this not the case, they wouldn’t have so effectively thwarted modern medicines’ attempts to conquer them. This complexity includes the relationship between carbohydrates and migraines. As Migrai-Neverland member Cole recently stated: I think one of the bigger concepts of all this that I’ve been having a […]</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/spark-fuel/">The Spark and the Fuel</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com">My Migraine Miracle</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Migraines-1.png"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2015" src="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Migraines-1.png" alt="Migraines- (1)" width="560" height="315" srcset="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Migraines-1.png 560w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Migraines-1-300x169.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px" /></a></p> <p>It’s no secret that migraines are a complicated beast.</p> <p>Were this not the case, they wouldn’t have so effectively thwarted modern medicines’ attempts to conquer them.</p> <p>This complexity includes the relationship between carbohydrates and migraines. As <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/endofmigraine" target="_blank">Migrai-Neverland</a> member Cole recently stated:</p> <blockquote><p>I think one of the bigger concepts of all this that I’ve been having a hard time wrapping my head around is the cause-and-effect relationship with my migraines and sugar/carbs. It feels like more of a complex relationship compared to other migraine triggers.</p></blockquote> <p>I agree.</p> <p>The effects of carbohydrates on migraines, and the effects of carbohydrates on our physiology and metabolism in general, is complicated, impacting both in multiple ways and on different time frames. Yet, if we can understand these effects, then we have another migraine vulnerability we can attack to our advantage.</p> <p>In this post, <strong>I’m going to share with you a simple framework for understanding the complex relationship between carbohydrates and migraine, one that I think you’ll find clarifying and, most importantly, useful.</strong></p> [<strong>RELATED</strong>: See exactly how I manage my daily carbs. <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/primalprovisions" target="_blank">Click here to check out <em>Primal Provisions</em></a>, our weekly meal planning service.] <p>This post will also address what has been one of the sticking points readers have had when reading the book. The most consistent objection I’ve heard (though appearing to stem from a…ahem…”cursory” reading of it) goes something along these lines: “I looked at the recipes and some of them have bacon. Bacon is a known migraine trigger. This book is false!”</p> <p>Glaring logical fallacies aside, I do understand where those who say this are coming from.</p> <p><em>How is it that now, after adopting an ancestral diet laid out in the book, I (and others who’ve followed this path) am able to indulge in some foods that previously I had treated with great trepidation?</em></p> <p>To make sense of this apparent contradiction, we need to talk about making fire.</p> <h3><strong>The Spark and the Fuel</strong></h3> <p>To make a fire, we need two things.</p> <p>Something to start the fire: the spark.</p> <p>Something to keep the fire burning: the fuel.</p> <p>A spark with no fuel does not burn. Fuel with no spark never lights.</p> <p>What’s this have to do with migraine?</p> <p>In order for the migraine flame to burn inside your noodle, you need a spark, something to flip the switch and set things in motion. These are the illustrious <a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/migraine-triggers-part-one/" target="_blank">migraine triggers</a>, the many food and lifestyle triggers that every migraineur desperately seeks to identify and avoid.</p> <p>Some of these triggers produce a little spark, some of these produce a big one (illustrated by the small and big balloons in the model presented in the book).</p> <p>But just as is the case with fire, <em>a spark alone isn’t enough</em>. <strong>Migraines, like fire, need fuel to burn</strong>.</p> <p>Enter the modern diet high in processed foods, industrial seed oils, and refined carbohydrates. In other words, a diet RICH IN MIGRAINE FUEL.</p> <p>More specifically, the typical western, carbohydrate rich, obesity-epidemic-driving diet promotes a “gluco-centric” metabolic state inside the body. A state where sugar, i.e. carbohydrates, are the body’s primary fuel source. And a state in which our fat stores lie tucked away inside the adipose tissue.</p> <p><strong>A body in glucocentric metabolism always has an an ample supply of migraine fuel around</strong>. Throw a spark into this environment, and the flame will burn strong. Translation: a long lasting, intense migraine.</p> <p><a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/INSIDE-THE.png"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-2070" src="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/INSIDE-THE-1024x576.png" alt="INSIDE THE" width="960" height="540" srcset="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/INSIDE-THE-1024x576.png 1024w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/INSIDE-THE-300x169.png 300w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/INSIDE-THE.png 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" /></a></p> <p>Just as campers in a dry, fuel-rich forest must be especially mindful of stray sparks from their campfire, <strong>a migraineur in glucocentric metabolism must be mindful to avoid even the tiniest of sparks</strong>.</p> <p>And this is why, in the traditional approach to migraine prevention, avoidance of triggers is the sole focus. If everyone is eating the same migraine-fuel-rich modern diet, then our only prevention strategy is to minimize the sparks.</p> <p>On the other hand, <strong>a body that has shifted to fat-centered, “adipo-centric” metabolism is, by comparison, a fuel-poor environment for migraine</strong>. In the presence of a spark, less available fuel means the flame burns less strong and less bright. Translation: a shorter, less intense headache.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/INSIDE-THE-1.png"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-2071" src="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/INSIDE-THE-1-1024x576.png" alt="INSIDE THE (1)" width="960" height="540" srcset="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/INSIDE-THE-1-1024x576.png 1024w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/INSIDE-THE-1-300x169.png 300w, https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/INSIDE-THE-1.png 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" /></a></p> <p>And adipocentric metabolism is the physiologic state of a human eating a nutrient dense, evolutionarily appropriate diet. It is the metabolic state of our ancestors, and thus likely a major reason why hunter gatherer humans do not experience migraines. In this “fat-burning” state, fat stores are mobilized easily from the adipose tissue to meet our energy needs.</p> <p>But, as discussed in previous posts, the transition between these two metabolic states takes time. On average, it takes roughly two weeks after adopting a nutrient dense, lower carbohydrate diet for the body to bring online all the necessary biochemical machinery required to be an efficient fat burner.</p> <p>In this case, the food we eat, and specifically the <em>carbohydrate</em> we eat (or relative lack thereof), <strong>is affecting our migraine susceptibility not over the course of a few minutes or hours (as is the case with consumption of a trigger food), but rather over the course of <em>days to weeks</em></strong>.</p> <p>As mentioned above, the conventional approach to migraine prevention is incomplete, with a myopic focus on sparks only. This was the dramatic realization I had after eliminating my migraines with an ancestral diet, and after using it to great success with so many others.</p> <p><strong>With this framework, you now have two potent strategies for frustrating the assault of migraine</strong>. Each one alone is a valuable weapon against it, but the two in combination is especially lethal.</p> <p>This “spark and fuel” concept is one I’ll continue to revisit in future posts, including how I use it to shape my own choices, and the role the nutritional ketosis can play within it.</p> <p>But at least now you understand why you might find the occasional use of bacon and nuts in our recipes, and how consumption of such things can still be compatible with a migraine-free existence.</p> <p> </p> <hr /> <p><strong>Migrai-Neverland Re-Opening Soon</strong></p> <p><a href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/endofmigraine" target="_blank" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/endofmigraine">Migrai-Neverland</a>, our <strong>private, professionally supported community for migraineurs</strong>, is currently closed as we continue getting to know our Founding Members, but we will be re-opening it again for new members in late January.</p> <p><strong><a href="https://brainjo.leadpages.co/leadbox/145d7f073f72a2%3A16a5d81b0346dc/5684961520648192/" target="_blank" data-cke-saved-href="https://brainjo.leadpages.co/leadbox/145d7f073f72a2%3A16a5d81b0346dc/5684961520648192/">Click here to get on the waiting list</a></strong>. You’ll be the first notified, and be able to join at a special “early bird” discount.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com/spark-fuel/">The Spark and the Fuel</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mymigrainemiracle.com">My Migraine Miracle</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> </channel> </rss>