121 | The Migraine-Hormone Connection

Welcome back to another episode of the Real Health Podcast. So I got a question for you. Do your migraines show up like clockwork every month? You know, it's a question where we're talking about hormones, but today we're talking about the correlation of hormones and migraines. And I just wanna communicate something, you're not crazy.

If you feel like there's a cycle to your migraines, the issue could be these critical hormones we're gonna talk about today. We're also gonna talk about three natural solutions that are going to address hormone imbalances. And I promise you even if you don't have migraines, this episode is super valuable because I will talk about in length each part of the cycle. There's four parts to the cycle. I'll talk about the four parts of the cycle and how to balance your hormones in each part of the cycle, whether you deal with hormones or not. Now, or sorry, whether you deal with migraines or not.

Whether you, if you do have migraines associated with hormone imbalances, this this episode is just is gonna be so good for you. It's gonna be life changing. Without further ado, let's get into it. Let's talk about the hormone migraine connection.

Let's talk about estrogen. Estrogen is the first hormone associated with migraines. It is the primary culprit. Usually when there is a hormone associated migraine, we have to look at estrogen because the drop in estrogen from a premenstruation standpoint is usually the driver of migraines. So what's the issue with estrogen?

It's when the estrogen drops premenstruation. Okay? This is what triggers your blood vessels to dilate or what we call vasodilate or enlarge. Okay? And this creates this massive rush of typically blood flow and fluid to the brain that can cause an increase in intracranial pressure.

This is what can drive migraines. So this triggers what we call vasodilation. It's also this drop in estrogen triggers an increase in inflammation and a neurotransmitter shift. These neurotransmitter shifts like serotonin, which is a natural migraine suppressor, can also be associated. So when estrogen drops, increase inflammation neurotransmitter shifts from being from serotonin being made and then it triggers vasodilation.

So this is why migraines are more common in women of reproductive age because they're having more hormone fluctuations. We have to look at estrogen. The second hormone we have to look at is progesterone because progesterone is really the calming anti inflammatory hormone. When we look at progesterone, it's a balancer to your estrogen levels and low progesterone leads to estrogen really being unopposed. There's something we call when we test, we call it the PGE2 ratio which is the progesterone estrogen ratio.

And this ratio should be 101, one hundred and 50 to one, two hundred to one. In migraine patients, we typically see a 10 to one or a 20 to one or even I've seen sometimes a one to one ratio of progesterone estrogen, which means it's not making progesterone. And when are we not making it? We're not making it in the luteal phase when it should be made. So we get an estrogen drop without a proper progesterone surge.

This is going to lead to a critical luteal phase premenstruation migraine. Okay? And this is why sometimes we'll see it a week, maybe before your cycle comes around. Migraines are something that are often caused and depleted by a depletion of progesterone and drop of estrogen. The third hormone is cortisol.

Cortisol is your stress hormone and too much or even too little can disrupt this estrogen and progesterone balance. It is a chronic like stress on your HPA axis which is your hypothalamus pituitary adrenal axis that actually drains progesterone and can throw off the balance of estrogen to progesterone. Chronic stress depletes progesterone, which doesn't then oppose or balance estrogen levels. Again, cortisol or a stress hormone is crucial to look at when we look at the connection between hormones and migraines. And the last one, which we've talked in length about is insulin.

Insulin is your blood sugar hormone. When blood sugar swing, they contribute to migraine risks. There is research to validate that blood sugar balance directly correlates with decrease in migraines. And the worst part of it all is that if we are dysregulated in our blood sugar to the point where we're insulin resistant, it worsens estrogen dominance all the more. So when we look at these four hormones of estrogen, progesterone, cortisol, and insulin, it really all leads back to estrogen dominance relative to progesterone with a two sudden drop in estrogen levels that aren't balanced properly.

When we look at a functional medicine approach in balancing these hormones, we're gonna mainly focus on the estrogen progesterone system. Now I'll talk a little bit about adaptogens and how they're important, but if you notice any migraines associated with premenstruation or even in your follicular phase or ovulatory phase, this next section is gonna be crucial for you. Let's just say you don't have migraines. Let's say you have just severe bloating or heavy cycles or depression or anxiety, gut related symptoms, tachycardia. This next section is so crucial of information.

It can literally change your life. The information we share with our patients that's revolutionary to their reproductive health. Okay? Side note, don't forget to sign up for our fertility workshop that we're doing as a master class on Zoom at the end of the month. Last Tuesday of the month, May 27th.

I think it is 6:30pm Eastern Standard Time. Go to Instagram. Go to our Linktree, Real Health Co. and sign up for that master class.

Let's look at this from a functional medicine standpoint. These are the these are the cutting edge solutions to balancing your hormones and we're gonna talk about it relative to your cycle specific phase. Let's talk about days one through five, Okay? So this is the first part. This is what we call the menstrual phase or the bleeding phase.

It can last anywhere between one to five days, typically three to five days is normal. And the hormonal focus is that when these this is when estrogen and progesterone are the lowest. This is the important to hear. Okay? So here's the strategies for this part of your cycle.

So get out a pen, paper, days one through five, or if you don't want to take notes because you're driving, go to realhealthco.com, resources tab, and I literally have this chart created for you, all designed for you in terms of the days, the phase, the hormonal focus, and the natural strategies associated with each phase. So let's dive into it. What do we do days one through five? The most important thing to consider is to rest. These first five days, it's important to just relax, rest, allow the body to heal.

You're gonna it's very important to replenish nutrients, specifically iron. Obviously, you're bleeding. You need to replenish the loss of blood. Iron is so important. Make sure you're eating dense red meat.

Good quality grass fed beef to replenish your iron and B12 levels. Magnesium is great for this phase. So magnesium glycinate is a great supplement to be taking during this phase of your cycle. You can also focus on B vitamins, methylated B vitamins, the whole spectrum, but specifically B6, nine, and twelve is a fantastic support to phases one through five. So if you were to support your cycle during the bleeding phase day one through five, we're gonna be taking iron, magnesium, and methylated b vitamins.

What are we doing for movement purposes? Movement, we don't wanna be doing heavy strength loads, high endurance training. We actually wanna be very relaxing. This is the time to walk, to do yoga, or just in terms of your training cycle, just decrease the load in intensity. This is a great like week to deload.

If you have a proper training cycle of four weeks, this week would be your deload week. This would be very helpful to allow your body to ramp up properly weeks two, three, and four. Hydration is very important and mineral rich foods are crucial. So making sure that we're drinking like bone broth and dark green leafy vegetables is great for this particular phase. Let's talk about phase two.

This is what we call the follicular phase or the pre ovulation phase. This is really day six through 14, okay? So this is the second week. This is when estrogen levels start to rise. This is when your body is preparing for ovulation, the release of the egg.

What do we want to do here? We want to support your liver. Why the liver? Because the liver is what detoxifies estrogen or converts estrogen properly. What do we focus on?

There's a great supplement to take during this phase. It's called DIM, D I M or dianyl methane. This is from a extract of cruciferous vegetables that helps estrogen metabolism. DIMM, taking about two hundred milligrams a day for this week, can really help set you up for success for a healthy cycle. You could also just consume a ton of cruciferous vegetables as that provides you with two different nutrients, i3c, which then converts into dim.

Milk thistle is a great addition to this part of the cycle as well as it supports overall liver health. This is the time as well to focus on something called seed cycling. Specifically, flaxseed and pumpkin seed really helps with estrogen levels. Flax and pumpkin can be taken, eaten as a granola that you can make on your own or you can make flaxseed pudding and eat this every day, but flax and pumpkin is a great support in this phase pre ovulation. This is when we can start doing some light cardio, strength training, and kind of ramping up our training.

And then make sure, make sure you're eating a ton of protein and fiber to balance your blood sugar levels. The first phase, we're trying to get our iron levels. The second phase, we're trying to support our insulin levels. Post ovulation, sorry, post pre-ovulation, obviously we are now in ovulation phase. This is approximately day fourteen for most.

Day fourteen when ovulation peaks, estrogen levels peak. And when we see estrogen levels peak, this is when we need to support hydration, electrolytes, whether it's element packs, keeping your inflammation levels low, we're really trying to support this egg release, okay? So this is where we're really trying to protect the egg by reducing oxidative stress, inflammation levels, you know, eliminate alcohol if you drink it. Eliminate or reduce caffeine intake if you consume a ton of it. Eliminate inflammatory foods.

This like day thirteen, fourteen, 15 is really important to protect that egg quality, okay? And so we wanna make sure that we're giving your body tons of electrolytes, tons of antioxidants from berries and dark green leafy vegetables and making sure that we're keeping your inflammation levels low. This is, obviously going to last a few days and then we want to support that egg quality into this last phase. We call it the luteal phase or the post ovulation phase. This is pretty much from day fifteen, the last two weeks of your cycle all the way up until the first day of menses again, okay?

This is when after estrogen peaks, this is when progesterone levels start to rise. And when we see progesterone levels start to rise, estrogen levels start to slowly calm down. For a lot of women, the progesterone levels don't rise. And when they don't rise, we really see a massive issue with our luteal phase. This is called the luteal phase defect.

And this is where we want to support progesterone levels. This is a great time, days fifteen through twenty eight, is a great time to take an herb called Vitex or Agnus castus. It's also known as chaseberry. It's a great herb to take to support progesterone levels. It's a great time to take B6 or those methylated B vitamins we talked about.

Magnesium is great for this phase. And then continue seed cycling. So where we did flax and pumpkin the first couple weeks of our cycle, this is a great time to do sunflower and sesame as it supports progesterone levels. We wanna manage stress through adaptogens and we want to obviously continue to support gut and liver health. And one of the biggest issues I see in patients not able to conceive is the luteal phase defect that the body wants to try to release an egg, but we don't get enough estrogen surge with a progesterone surge.

And without that, the egg never really matures and releases. When we look at the reasons why, issues start to come up where we have the poor, estrogen conversion to liver. We have high inflammation levels, so the egg never is high enough quality to release. We don't get a progesterone surge because we don't have proper stress support. And so if we're looking at helping support ovulation and to create a healthy cycle, whether it's for migraines or brain fog or anxiety and depression, one of my favorite things to do, and I mentioned it, is seed cycling.

Seed cycling is one of favorite things to do, and you can start doing that immediately and help your body balance. If you're talking about nutrients, some of my favorite things to consume is magnesium, B6, and then obviously, the most important thing is stabilizing blood sugar and creating a healthy liver. Again, a ton of information here packed in, but go to our website resources tab and download this chart for for, hormone balance, and it'll talk about some cutting edge solutions for you and summarize everything we talked about today. When looking at migraines, it's important to understand the research showing the connection between hormones and migraines. And that when we look at the complexity of a cycle, some need to focus on the first phase, some on the second, some on the third where it's ovulation or some on the fourth phase.

It's important to know where your imbalances are. So one of the first things I recommend, if this seems like overwhelming to you and this is new information for you. One, attend our class whether you're having fertility issues or not. We're gonna talk in detail about fertility and just cycle overall. Two, start tracking your cycle.

How do you track your cycle? You track it through temperature. Look at your basal body temperature and track it every single day so you can see how healthy your cycle is. If you get the proper temperature spike that stays elevated for the remainder of your cycle, then we've got a great cycle. But knowing that information is so valuable.

And then the third point is test. Test your hormones and see where they're at, and see where they're at particularly in the phase of post ovulation, early luteal phase. It's the best time to check when estrogen should be there and progesterone should be there. Best time to check your hormones. So when looking at the connection between headaches, migraines, and hormones, one, know that there is a correlation.

Two, that you can take natural cutting edge solutions without the risks of obviously birth control. Work with your practitioner, start with your diet, and start making some changes. I hope, I hope, I pray that this information was super valuable for you. And as always, thanks for listening to another episode of the Real Health Podcast.

Our passion is to add value to your healthcare journey. Anything that we do, we want to do it within a community to help as many people as possible. Thanks for listening to episodes of Real Health Podcast. If you could like, if you could subscribe and you can share, it would help our mission to reach as many people with real health that produces real results for real people.