83. Emily’s Breakthrough: From Daily Head Pain to Food Freedom

My client “Emily” ate brownies on her birthday.

If you’ve had chronic migraines, you know why that’s a big deal.

When we started working together three months ago, Emily had daily head pain, migraines flaring on top of it, and she was following the GAPS diet (one of the most restrictive elimination diets out there).

She had been on it for two years.

And despite all that effort, she still had major digestive symptoms… and she still had daily head pain.

In this episode, I explain why eliminating foods doesn’t heal your digestion.

It often does the opposite. When you eliminate real foods like eggs, dairy, and grains, you also eliminate nutrient intake.

Over time, that can leave your body more depleted and more reactive.

What actually works is restoring function first: gently stimulating the digestive organs so you can break down food, absorb nutrients, and tolerate normal life again.

With Emily, we used gentle support to rebuild digestion, then reintroduced foods strategically (including wheat… and yes, eventually, brownies).

Three months later her digestion is about 90% improved, she has head-pain-free days, and her overall severity is dramatically better.

This is the goal: not a lifetime of fear, restriction, and “badge of honor” dieting.

It’s getting healthy enough to enjoy your life again.

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Episode Transcript

hi there welcome to the Healing Migraines
Naturally podcast I'm your host Doctor Leslie Caesar
and I am a licensed naturopathic doctor former
chronic migraine sufferer
and I work with women all over the country
who have chronic migraines
and wanna stop getting chronic migraines restore
their health so that their body
doesn't generate the migraines
in the first place all without having to
take medication or fistfuls of supplements
so welcome to the podcast I'm really
excited to talk to you today because today we're doing
a client Celebration
we're celebrating my client I'm gonna call her Emily
and it was her birthday yesterday
and when I talked to her she said oh
I just made some brownies for my birthday
and I'm gonna enjoy those on my birthday
and if you know you know right if you're a chronic
migraine sufferer
you know that this is a major
Celebration to eat a brownie on your birthday
right everybody
else is like what's the big deal I eat brownies
all the time right but
those of us that know what it's like to have migraines
many of you might be really avoiding chocolate
right now as we speak right so this is
this is a big deal this is a big thing to celebrate
even more poignant here is that when Emily
and I started working together
so we've been working together for about three months
when we started she was having daily head pain
migraines flaring on top of that and she was following
the gaps diet okay so the gaps diet
is an elimination diet that is
widely considered to be the most restrictive
elimination
diet out there it's an extremely difficult diet
to follow most people who try the gaps diet
they're not going to be able to keep up with it for very long because it's so restrictive and it's so difficult to implement
but Emily when we started
she had been following the gaps diet for two
years years right so she
started to she's she started the gaps diet because
number one of course she wanted to improve
her head pain
but No. 2 she was experiencing a lot of very troubling
digestive tract
symptoms and so the gaps diet it's really not
kind of build as a migraine diet it's build
as a diet to help
restore your digestive function so Emily
had you know done her research right she had
investigated
this and so on and so she thought you know I'm gonna
try this gaps diet to improve my digestion
and then in the hopes that
that would improve her migraines
right so she had been doing this for two years okay so
I've never had a client that has followed the gaps diet
for two years and so when I heard this I
I had to take a deep breath I had to right
kind of center myself
right because I was like you have got to be kidding me
so I told Emily at the time I said okay
so the just the fact that you have followed
this extremely difficult elimination diet for 2 years
what that tells me
is that you are highly highly motivated
and highly committed to turning your health
around and and getting rid of these migraines
and these digestive
symptoms right the fact that somebody
could do that for two years tells me how motivated
they are and how desperate they are to feel better
unfortunately despite the fact that she had been
following this very restrictive diet for two years
she still had significant
digestive issues and she was having daily
head pain so you know it wasn't the right thing
okay so this was like kind of our first task was
restoring her digestive function right because again
I've talked about this on other podcasts
just eliminating foods
are is not going to heal your digestive
function it's not gonna heal the digestive tract
I know you've been told this
you've probably been told this by other
neuropathic doctors like I am right but
it's it's not gonna heal your digestive tract
eliminating food so when we eliminate food food
okay and
and like I'm not talking about eliminating Doritos
right I'm not talking about eliminating
junk food on the gaps
diet and these other restrictive diets
you're eliminating real food
okay you're eliminating things like eggs
things like dairy products like butter
you're eliminating grains okay these are foods
that we've been eating we humans have been eating
since the dawn of time
okay this isn't like a Franken food
fake food factory food process food we're talking
eliminating real food
that's what people are doing when they're following
these elimination diets
and when you do that what you're doing
is you're eliminating the intake of nutrients because
different foods have different nutrient profiles
right so we wanna be able to eat a wide variety of food
so that we can put in a wide variety of nutrients
into our body
so if you're eliminating something like eggs
then you're going to be eliminating
the specific nutrients that are pretty high in eggs
so just eliminating eggs
you might be eliminating a critical nutrient like say
choline how are you gonna make that up right
so you're either
going to have to take a fistful of supplements or
you're going to have to be even more diligent
with how you're putting together
the diet with the remaining foods that you're eating
or if you're most people right you're not going to realize
this and you're just going to start to become deficient
in the nutrients
that are in the foods that you're eliminating
and once the digestive function declines
and you start having
issues with your digestive function
just eliminating foods is not going
to to do the trick okay we have to restore we have to
stimulate
the digestive function and we have to get those organs
we have to get your stomach your pancreas
your intestines we gotta get those organs
up and running again and just eliminating
foods is not going to really do too much okay
so she like I say she had
done this with good intentions and she had really white
knuckled
her way through the past two years but unfortunately
she had a long list of digestive
symptoms that she was still struggling from
and she was still having the the head pain of course
so this was our first task so our first task
was restoring her digestive function and we used
some very very gentle herbs
to do this because she had daily head pain
so again for those of you that are listening
and you've been in that daily head pain
state it's like any little thing
right can make that head pain worse
so you have to be very very gentle
with what you're doing
when you're when you have chronic migraines right
so we did some very gentle herbs to start to stimulate
her the organs
of her digestive tract so that they would actually
function properly and then when I could tell
based on her digestive symptoms
because then when we did that her digestive
symptoms started to improve so then I guided her on
as to what foods to start to introduce back in
and one of the first foods
that we introduced back in was
wheat like she had not eaten a piece of bread
in two years right and
she told me that her mother in law is
makes the best sourdough bread so she was just dying
to to uh be able to eat a piece of sourdough bread
again so we introduced
wheat back in so that she could get
some a a grain back into her diet okay
and we've been reintroducing
foods as her digestive function continues to improve
so three months later right her digestive
symptoms are about 90% cleared we're still
doing a little tidying up there's still a little bit
of digestive symptoms but we're about 90% better
significant noticeable improvement she's adding
in more and more foods so we're coming
off of this extreme elimination diet and she's
enjoying eating a lot of foods that she hasn't eaten
in a long time
and you know her top priority this head pain
so she's no longer having daily head pain
she's having days where she's having no head pain
when she does have head pain
overall the severity is markedly markedly improved
so it's a pretty
spectacular improvement in a three month time after
you've spent two years on a very restrictive diet
without the improvement that you were looking for
so I'm confident that she's going to continue to heal
and recover
and that she's going to have more and more head pain
free days but when I talked to her yesterday
it was her birthday
and we were just kind of doing a little small talk
before we got into the
meat of what we were going to cover in her appointment
and she said that you know for her birthday
she made these brownies
and she's gonna enjoy those brownies so this is
you know this is really how we should be approaching
our birthday
so right we we wanna be able to have the piece of cake
the brownie the ice cream right
we humans in a fundamental aspect
of being a human is enjoying food with our kin
okay we have been breaking bread with our kin
since the dawn of time
and it's a very very important element of being a human
and when we are not able to eat the foods
that our family is eating that we're you know
that we want to have a little Celebration
right we're at a holiday meal
we're over at a friend's house it's our birthday
there are particular foods
that we want to be able to share
with our kin with our friends and family
and if we're not able to do that it really
separates us from this fundamental human experience
and a little thing like having a treat food like this a
brownie you know birthday cake a little ice
cream those types of things on your birthday
with your friends and family
that's a really really important aspect of being human
and so the other thing that
really comes to mind for me when I think about this is
particularly within sort of the natural medicine space
or
sort of the health conscious space a lot of people are
not having a brownie on their birthday
they're not having a piece of birthday
cake on their birthday and you know
if it's not something you wanna eat great
I mean I'm not telling you to eat a piece of cake if you don't like cake
but within like I say sort of the natural wellness
community or culture industry
there's a lot of people who sort of wear it as a badge of honor
that they haven't
had a piece of cake in five years that they haven't
had a brownie in a decade and
it's not a badge of honor
you're not a better person if you haven't had a brownie in 10 years
right your our worth as a human is not tied
to what we eat
let alone whether it's a brownie or a piece of cake
and so I think
sometimes I mean if you're listening to this podcast
you're probably interested
in natural medicine health and wellness etcetera and
you know I think that an
important aspect of our health
is being part of our community
of friends and family and a critical
aspect of that is breaking bread with them and eating
with them and being able to participate in
you know traditional foods right like at Thanksgiving
right having the pumpkin pie the Turkey
the green bean casserole
the sweet potatoes with the marshmallow on top right
those types of holiday foods
or Celebration foods it's a critical
aspect and we wanna share that
with the people that we love and so
when we're either not able to do that because
our digestion can't handle it or we've been
sort of misled into these elimination diets
where these really common foods that we
should be able to eat and we humans have been eating
a long time like eggs
or dairy or wheat or you know kind of name
name the food that's being targeted at the moment right
if we can't eat those foods
then we can't eat the the pumpkin pie
we can't have the sweet potatoes with the marshmallows
on top we can't have the piece of cake
at our friend's birthday party
or our daughter's wedding or or or those occasions and
that is not going to contribute to our health
in a more holistic sense right because a
big aspect of our health is being a part of our family
having our connections
with our friends etcetera and being
and eating and sharing food is a big part of that
so when we're following elimination diets
either because like I say we've been sort of
misled or told that this is
this is what we need to do to feel better or
we're kind of wearing it like a badge of honor right
in both cases we're getting disconnected
from this fundamental human experience
and that is actually going to impact our health
also right so I would much rather have Emily
have those brownies on her birthday
then have the mental and emotional toll on her
of one more birthday passing
where she can't have that birthday treat
she can't sit there with her husband and her
you know her family and you know hear the
hear the Happy Birthday
song and have a nice treat food
with everybody else at the table as they celebrate her
and you know look forward to another
year you know what
what does this year have in store for me right
what have what did the past year
bring for me what does the next year have in
store for me right when when it's our birthday
it's a lot to celebrate and
part of that Celebration the connection
our mental and emotional satisfaction
around around the day
it's it's tied to having some of these foods that were
these treat foods that we're gonna eat with it
and and if we
can't do that either because you know our health
won't allow us to because you know when we're not in a
state of health
if our digestion is not functioning well and you know
any little thing is gonna tip us into a migraine
we can't eat a brownie right
how many of you have gotten a migraine
after eating a brownie right it's
it's not that uncommon a lot of people
when they are in the throes of chronic migraines
can't eat chocolate so you know
I'm not saying that you know nothing
is gonna happen to you if you eat a brownie
if you're in a very poor state of health
and you eat a brownie yeah you may not feel well
the point is let's improve our health
so that we can eat the brownie okay and you know again
if we eat a brownie every day we're gonna have
we're gonna have some problems I mean again
I'm not saying that the food that you eat has no impact
on you obviously
the majority of the time that we're eating
should be in a health supporting way
but what I'm saying here is we have to we have to
enjoy our life as well
right and so we want to have our digestion
functioning well enough we wanna be clearing metabolic
waste material because when we eat when we eat a food
that you know
let's let's if you eat homemade brownies
you're not in ingesting
a fake food but if you eat a bag of Doritos
okay I'm gonna go back to the Doritos example
if you eat a bag of Doritos
you are going to be eating a lot of
chemicals in the Doritos that we call
food coloring artificial flavors those are chemicals
okay let's call them chemicals
let's call them what they are that hits
home a little bit more
and so you are going to have to detoxify the chemicals
in the Doritos
okay and so you have to have the capacity to do that
and so we have to have good digestive function
so that we can break down our food properly
we have to be able to clear any
toxins or chemicals in the food that we're eating
and we have to have enough resilience and vitality
to tolerate the stress of that
so even eating a homemade brownie okay
you're going to be consuming
a very nutrient dense food which is chocolate
so you have to have good digestive function
to break that chocolate
down cause it's very nutrient dense you're gonna have
sugar in the brownies
otherwise they're not gonna taste very good
and so when we consume a lot of sugar
we can spike and drop our blood sugar so we have to um
have the
resilience and vitality to weather the stress of that
there are ways of eating that can sort of buffer
that additional sugar that is in the brownie so that we
don't spike and drop our blood sugar
so much and I've taught Emily how to eat like that
so we want to have these other
the sort of foundational elements
of our health in place
I call these things the three principles
that are required that our body needs
to restore itself back to health and maintain
its state of health
I've talked about these numerous times on the podcast
but so if we have these foundational pieces in place
we can eat a brownie on our birthday okay trust me
whenever I go over to my mom's house she bakes
the most excellent chocolate cake and so she
pretty much
bakes it every time we come over because everybody
loves it and I usually have a piece
every time I go over there
okay now I'm not going over there every day right
so again we have to keep our wits
about us I'm not saying that you just eat anything
that you want and you're not gonna have any consequences
but it's nice to be able to go over to my mother's house and have a piece of her wonderful
chocolate
cake and share that with her and share that with
my daughter and the rest of my family
right that's part of the human experience
and so when I am in a good state of health
I'm able to eat that chocolate
cake and enjoy all of those other benefits of
the human existence
and that's also very critical to my health so
again to just kind of reiterate here
when we are on these restrictive diets
either because we think
that this is what it's going to take
to improve our health or we have sort of gotten
like sucked into this wellness culture where
people I mean I are you seeing this online
I'm seeing this online where
it's almost like that badge of honor
that they don't eat
brownies they haven't had a piece of cake
they're on these you know really restrictive
diets it's like an identity
for people it's a badge of honor
it's a virtue signal right it's it's it's taking
on sort of this identity meaning for people and
that's not going to contribute to our overall
health either okay because our
worth as a human is not tied
to what we're denying ourselves
as far as what we're eating
the other thing that I see a lot around elimination
diets and you know unfortunately
this was kind of the case for my client Emily
I mean you have people that have been following
elimination diets for decades
you know you have somebody that hasn't
been eating eggs for 20 years and they're still
you know
suffering they're still suffering with abdominal pain
and bloating and right it's like you know again
just eliminating
the food is not going to heal the digestive tract
and so people have been sort of trapped
in this elimination diet
where they're eliminating foods for you know they can't
they they can't eat in a restaurant
they can't go over to a friend's house and just have the food that everybody
else is eating it's it's it's not fun
it's it's it's not a pleasant way to live and
it's not necessary
this is this is the thing that gets me
it's not necessary so we want to like I say if we're
if we eat a food
and we have digestive symptoms after the fact
right this is an indication not that
not that the food is causing the problem
that our digestion is poor okay
so you know if you eat a tomato you get a migraine
you know you're going to have to
continue to avoid tomatoes
until we get your digestion functioning better
and then we reintroduce
the tomatoes at the right time I've
done this many times with so many different foods
and then the person doesn't get the migraine
right so it wasn't the tomatoes right and again
you know maybe you don't like tomatoes that much
that's fine you don't have to eat tomatoes
but it's nice to be able to
eat a piece of pizza maybe
right go over to somebody's house and not have to worry
oh did they put tomato in this right
so this is really what we should be focusing on
yes if you are having dramatic
aggravating responses to particular foods
you're going to have to avoid those foods
until we address
the root cause problems within the digestive tract
and we get that turned around and then we introduce
the foods back in at the right time the right pace
in the right order you know
sometimes people have to avoid 10 different foods
right and we've got to figure out what's the right order to put these things back in
so yeah if you're having symptoms
after you eat a particular food
right now you're gonna have to
continue to avoid the food
but what we wanna put our focus
on and what we wanna put our sights on
is actually recovering our digestive health
so that we can reintroduce the food and we can
experience all of these other benefits not only just
the increased nutrient intake
that we're going to have because we're not excluding
a food and
therefore excluding the nutrients that are in the food
but we're going to be able to you know
feel comfortable eating in a restaurant
right feel comfortable going over to somebody's house and eating
their food
right we have less anxiety which is really nice and
you know we can also share these these moments
with our friends and family that do revolve around
eating food with them right so
so thanks for joining me today and please wish
Emily well as she starts a New Year and
enjoy those brownies yesterday on her birthday
I will talk to you soon