67. Here's Why Drinking Too Much Water Is Making Your Migraines Worse

Are you paranoid about drinking enough water? Constantly carrying that gallon jug with timestamps telling you how much to drink by 9 AM, by noon, by 3 PM?

Dr. Leslie breaks down the myth that migraine sufferers need to drink excessive amounts of water to avoid dehydration triggers.

The truth?

That "drink 64 ounces a day" recommendation from the 90s came from nowhere. There's zero research behind it. And now people are being told to drink even more.

Here's what's actually happening:

When you flood your body with water, you create a relative mineral deficiency. Your kidneys struggle to filter all that excess fluid while trying to hold onto essential minerals like sodium and potassium. If you're already mineral deficient (especially if you take acid blockers like Prilosec or Tums), you're literally flushing minerals out through your urine.

Dr. Leslie reveals what she's found working with hundreds of clients: When your body is in a state of health, you only need about 40 ounces of water per day, around four cups. Your natural thirst will guide you to drink what you need.

Excessive thirst is actually a symptom. It usually means your body is trying to dilute an overload of metabolic waste and toxins.

As her clients restore their health, their thirst normalizes, and they stop waking up to urinate multiple times per night.

If you'd like to understand what your symptoms are actually telling you and address the root cause instead of force-feeding yourself water out of fear, Dr. Leslie offers free consultations.

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https://www.drlesliecisar.com/apply

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Episode Transcript

migraine sufferers are told to drink a lot of water
and what I'm seeing recently is people
not even migraine sufferers
but everybody is being told to drink
an extraordinary amount of water
so it used to be like back in the 90s 2
everybody was told to drink 64 ounces of water per day
that's 8 ounce glasses
this was sort of the standard recommendation
and now people are being told to drink
like a gallon of water a day
you can even like
buy those huge water bottles that are like a gallon
and they even have like a little time stamp
so it's like by 9:00am you should have drank this much
by noon you should have consumed this much water right
so it's like you're staying on pace
and for migraine sufferers
many times an anxiety
almost like a paranoia starts to develop
did I drink enough water today
do I have my water bottle with me
and they start over consuming water
in a fear of becoming dehydrated
and then getting a migraine right
so certainly if someone becomes dehydrated
like medically dehydrated
head pain is a symptom of that right
so certainly we have to have enough water in our body
for our metabolic processes to occur
but we really don't need that much water
so a few years ago
I decided to kind of go down the water rabbit hole
because when I went to naturopathic medical school
we were told to recommend to our patients
that they drink eight 8 ounce glasses of water per day
or 64 ounces of water per day
I was in naturopathic medical school
almost 20 years ago so
you know
that's kind of like the standard recommendation was
and a few years back I was like
where did this come from right
like why are we being told to drink this much water
and I started researching it
and this recommendation
to drink 64 ounces of water per day
just kind of came from nowhere
there's absolutely no research to substantiate that
and now people are told to drink even more than that
so our body is a very complex system
and so there are so many different things that have to
maintain their balance
relative to other things going on in the body
so we're not just like consuming water
and our body is just taking that water
and if it needs it great
if it doesn't it urinates it out
it's not that simple like
the amount of water in our body
has to be balanced with the amount of minerals
that are in our body as well
particularly are electrolytes
so the electrolytes are sodium
potassium and Chloride
not magnesium like people are told a lot
this is one of my pet peeves
magnesium is not an electrolyte
it's sodium
potassium and Chloride are the three electrolytes
so those have to be in balance
with the amount of fluid in our body
but then
the other minerals in our body
also have to be in balance with the amount of water
that is in the body and then also
they have to be in balance with other minerals too
so like
some of the most famous
minerals that have to be in balance with each other
are minerals like sodium and potassium
magnesium and Calcium zinc and copper
I call these sister minerals
because these are minerals where they
have to be in balance with other minerals
there's actually charts
of the various minerals of the body
and how they have to be in balance with other minerals
so
I'm not gonna go into the complexity around that here
but I'm just saying that it's not a matter of
we're just putting water in our system and
you know if we don't need it that's fine
we'll just urinate it out it's no problem here
you could be diluting your mineral balance
if you're drinking too much water
and then your body
thinks that it actually has a mineral deficiency right
so you can have a relative mineral deficiency so
you know it's not so simple of like okay
I've got you know enough enough sodium potassium
magnesium Calcium
zinc I've got enough of that
and there's not going to be any impact
if I drink more water
you can be sort of creating a relative
mineral deficiency if you over consume water
also your kidneys right are you most people are aware
that the kidneys are sort of like filtering the blood
and the kidneys are if we have excess water
the kidneys are removing that excess water
putting it you know
that gets turned into urine and stored in the bladder
and then we urinate that out right
but and
and your kidneys are trying to conserve minerals
and your kidneys are also maintaining
that relative mineral balance and
and you know
actual mineral balance so
your kidneys are trying to hang on to
important minerals like
you know sodium and potassium
but if you're flooding your body with water
it's gonna make it
difficult for your kidneys to hang on to that
so you can be generating a relative mineral deficiency
with excess water consumption
and then you can literally
be flushing minerals out into your urine
if you're over consuming water
and if you're already struggling with migraines
and other symptoms you probably have some
some nutrient deficiencies
mineral deficiencies
if you're having to take acid blocking medication
things like Pepcid or Prilosec
if you have to use acid neutralizing
over the counter medications
like Tums or Alka Seltzer
you're highly likely to be mineral deficient
because we have to have adequate stomach acid
to absorb the minerals and get them into our body
from our food and so
you may be already mineral deficient
and not realize it
and then you're over consuming water
you're generating a relative mineral deficiency
and then your kidneys are struggling to get
rid of that excess water
while hanging on to necessary minerals
so what I have found in my research
and this is something that I've experimented with
on myself and then also implemented with my clients
after I felt comfortable with it
when we are in a state of health
our thirst our naturally occurring thirst
is going to guide us
to how much water we need to consume
and what I have found is that
when we are in a state of health
we don't feel abnormally thirsty or thirstless
so excessive thirst is actually a symptom
and lack of thirst is actually a symptom
we kind of want to be kind of like right in the middle
where we are appropriately thirsty
and I have a way of assessing that if you're
you know can be a little difficult okay
is this excessive thirst or is this appropriate thirst
or am I not thirsty enough
it's hard
it's gonna be hard for you to assess that on your own
hi there it's Doctor Leslie
if you're a woman
having eight or more migraine days a month
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but we want to be appropriately thirsty
so that when the body needs additional water
we feel thirsty and we kind of just naturally
gravitate to drinking more water
a lot of migraine sufferers
they will either be excessively thirsty so
so they feel thirsty all the time
and they're constantly drinking water
they're
constantly walking around with that water bottle
because they do feel inappropriately
or excessively thirsty
less commonly is the symptom of like thirst
that's not such a common symptom that I see
where people don't have the thirst
the natural thirst
it's more likely for migraine sufferers
to have that excessive thirst symptom
and that excessive thirst symptom is primarily driven
by the fact that there's a
overload of metabolic waste materials
and toxins in the body and we
and the body
is trying to dilute the concentration of those
toxin molecules by taking in more water
and that's usually what's driving
that excessive thirst symptom
but the downstream effect of that is
we are going to be putting some strain on the kidneys
and we're going to be losing more minerals
through our urine
because we have to get rid of that excess water
and then we're creating a relative mineral deficiency
relative to the amount of water
that we have in the body so on
you know if it's not a symptom
then migraine sufferers
have just
been told to drink an excessive amount of water
to avoid dehydration and so
they're kind of almost like force feeding themselves
forcing themselves to drink water becoming
you know paranoid or having anxiety
you know did I drink enough water today
what's too much what's too little right
it generates a lot of like
water anxiety
or fluid anxiety amongst migraine sufferers
but what I have found is that
when we are in a state of health
closer to like four cups of water per day
maybe 40 ounces that's usually going to be enough
for someone who's in a state of health as
as far as a water consumption
if you know
if we are losing more fluid
we're sweating more
we're out in the sun or something like that
we might need a little bit more
but again when we're in a state of health
our thirst is going to appropriately
guide us
to drink the amount of water that we need to drink
but I have found with my research
with my testing seeing this over and over again
with hundreds of clients
when the body is in a state of health
we're more like around a like a 4 cup a day requirement
our body
actually can make water through its normal metabolism
and so you know
again when you think back to
I mean here in America right
we just turn on the faucet and the water turns on
I mean this is
like an unprecedented condition for humans to live in
and around the world you know
billions of people even today
don't have access to
like a gallon of drinking water a day right
like it's it's kind of silly when you think
about it 100 years ago or
you know several hundred years ago
no one on the planet had access
you know to that level of drinking water
very easily during the day
so you know
we certainly weren't designed to require so much water
because that doesn't really make sense
when we're looking at the current conditions
and definitely the past conditions that we
humans have lived in
so if you are consuming more water than that right now
I don't want you to make any abrupt changes
because when we are in a chronic migraine state
we are super sensitive to any little change right
so you know
don't dramatically cut back on your water
just because I said this in the podcast
anything that you do in general
whether it's water or anything else
you wanna make slow changes
you definitely wanna have good advice as well
and then two you know
the bigger picture here too
is
you have to have adequate mineral status in the body
our our fluid status the amount of water in our body
it's not just like this cut and dry thing right
like we are always thinking of everything is like
what's the cut and dry
what's the one thing that we need to do
what's you know
what's the one right amount of this or that
that we should be doing
but our body is an incredibly complex system and
you know our fluid level and our mineral status are
very complexly tied together
that's just two very complex connections
when it comes to our fluid level in our body
so when I work with my clients
like I say most of my clients are over consuming water
and as they get into a better state of health
I see over and over again
their thirst actually decreases
and starts to move into a more
kind of like middle way
appropriate thirst level
and for the relatively small number of my clients
that have a thirst as a symptom
as their health improves
their thirst increases and moves again
into that middle way
the other consequence of consuming all of this water
excessive water
particularly if we have low mineral status
is we're going to be urinating all the time right
so it's like
we shouldn't have to urinate every hour or two
we really should only have to urinate
about four times a day and we shouldn't
need to urinate in the middle of the night
this is another myth that as we age
we have to urinate in the middle of the night
as a normal aging process
that's incorrect so
having to urinate in the middle of the night
is actually a symptom and a great way to have
to urinate too frequently during the day
or in the middle of the night
is to over consume water and have
not have enough mineral status within the body
there are other factors
that contribute to nighttime urination
but
I won't go into all of those here on this short clip
but a great way to have
to wake up in the middle of the night and urinate
is to drink a gallon of water a day
that's gonna be a great way to make that happen
and disturb your sleep so I hope this helps
let me know in the comments
if this is something that you struggle with
and if so and you like to get to the root cause of it
please reach out and book a consult
call with me
look in the description for a link to do that
and we'll talk through what your symptoms are
and see what type of game plan
would be the best game plan for you
to get those resolved I'll talk to you soon