106. Intermittent Fasting and Migraines: What Women Need to Know

In I break down one of the most common questions I hear from women with migraines: should you try intermittent fasting? I explain why fasting can seem helpful at first, how it may support digestive rest in some cases, and why it can also be a problem for migraine sufferers who are sensitive to missed meals and blood sugar dips.

We also unpack the difference between simply reducing food intake and actually restoring health. We talk through through inflammation, digestion, nutrient depletion, and why many women with chronic migraines are already in a state where more restriction can make things worse, not better. The core message is that true healing comes from rebuilding resilience, improving digestive function, and getting your body what it needs, now swinging from one extreme to the other.

Below you'll find relevant podcast episodes where I dive deeper into topics like inflamation, foods, and apetite:

Migraines and Inflammation

From Daily Head Pain To Food Freedom

Low Appetite: The Migraine Connection No One Is Talking About

If you’re ready to address the root drivers of your migraines, you can book a free consultation at the link below:

https://www.drlesliecisar.com/apply

Free Training: 5 Proven Steps to Being Migraine Free (Even if you think you've already tried everything.)

https://www.drlesliecisar.com/5SHMN

Connect with us:

Website: https://www.drlesliecisar.com/

Free Facebook Group: Healing Migraines Naturally, with Leslie Cisar, ND

Ready to try something radically different that actually works? Read more about my approach here: https://www.drlesliecisar.com/map

In health,
Dr. Leslie Cisar

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 have dedicated my life to helping other women
with migraines rediscover a migraine free life
so welcome to the podcast
um today
I am going to cover a topic that was a request
from a client of mine she said
you know
can you talk about intermittent fasting on the podcast
and I said yeah
you know we haven't talked about that
that's a great topic
you know the question that um
women with migraines have is
you know should I do this intermittent fasting
is it gonna help my migraines
most migraine sufferers
are very sensitive to missing a meal
having a meal delayed having their blood sugar drop
and so
intermittent fasting has been something that's been
talked about a lot it's been kind of prominent
almost like a little fad
that's been going on for the past few years
and um
a lot of people are promoting
you know the
health benefits of it and so on
and so a lot of women with migraines are asking
you know should I do intermittent fasting
there's a lot of things that sound appealing about it
but oh gosh you know
I don't know I'm a little worried
that my migraines are gonna get worse
if I do that
because I'm so sensitive to getting a migraine
if I miss a meal
or if I get hungry and I don't eat fast enough
or my blood sugar drops so this
I think is a really great topic to talk through
for migraine suffers okay
so let's dive into this I mean
I've been hearing about intermittent fasting for hmm
maybe 15 years
it's been around for a while that
concept
and you know a lot of a lot of things within nutrition
they kind of take old concepts and put a new name on it
right so like with the keto diet that's used
that used to be called the Atkins diet
it's really the same way of eating
it just has a new name kind of a rebranding
so intermittent fasting
basically
the concept is that
you are
limiting your sort of window
when you are going to eat throughout the day
so the most common
sort of set up or scenario with intermittent fasting
is that people will only eat
during an eight hour window during the day
so they may only eat between 10:00am and six PM
or noon and eight PM
so that eight hour window is a pretty common window
and so you're just like drinking water
or maybe you're having herbal tea
or something like that
outside of that window that you're going to eat in
a little bit more restrictive set up would be
maybe you're only eating within a six hour window
so you're eating between maybe noon and six PM
that's sort of the window in which you can consume food
and outside of that again
you're drinking water or herbal tea or coffee
black coffee something like that
so that's probably the most common
setup for intermittent fasting
a more
maybe you could say
a more challenging version of this would be that
maybe your eating during your regular cadence
you know breakfast
lunch and dinner Monday through Friday
but then on Saturday and Sunday
maybe you're only eating one meal on the weekends
that type of thing so basically
the overall concept is you are creating a
narrower window in which you're going to consume food
so what what do people that again tout
intermittent fasting
what are some of the more you know tangible benefits
right so definitely people will report
oh yeah I lost I lost weight on intermittent fasting
hi there
I wanna jump in real quick and tell you about my client
Beth she was
getting 15 to 20 migraines and headaches per month
and as you can imagine
this was impacting her work performance
and her confidence she also has two small children
and she was
starting to feel like she was a horrible mom
because she had nothing left for them
at the end of the day but she reached out
and she booked a free consult call with me
and after I asked her about her migraines
and her health history
I felt confident that I could help her
I help women uncover
the root drivers of their migraines
and follow a step by step plan to dramatically reduce
the frequency by up to 90%
without adding more medication
or taking a bunch of supplements
so we built her personal migraine map
followed the plan
and now she will get one to two migraines per year
which she uses ibuprofen to treat if she needs to
versus up to 15 to 20 per month
when we first started working together
that weren't responding well to any medication
she just reached out to tell me that
she got a promotion at work
she's on top of her career again
and has been able to come off all of her migraine
medication but most importantly
she's a confident mom again
and she's attending birthday parties at Jump Zone
with her kids and saying yes
instead of saying maybe later
I've worked with women like Beth
from all over the United States
who were told this is the best we can do
but they were still willing to dig deeper
so if you're serious about changing your migraine story
go to Doctor Leslie Caesar dot com
slash apply or tap the link in the show notes
and on our free consult
we'll map out why your migraines keep coming back
and the first three steps you can take
over the next 30 days I do cap new client spots each
month so if the calendar is full
the doors are closed for now
but if you're done feeling helpless
and ready to do the work to heal
pause this episode for 30 seconds
and book that console call
now
you know
sometimes people when they do intermittent fasting
they might even only eat one meal per day okay
so generally if you're eating within an 8
or especially a six hour window
you're only going to get two meals in per day
and then you can only eat so much at a meal right
you might lose a couple pounds
right but
you know if you want to get to that 20 pounds
it's probably not going to be very effective
for some people they will lose some weight on this
um what I have seen too
is people who are in a very good state of health
and have a high
high level of physical fitness
so they already have a good amount of lean body mass
of muscle mass they have a good physical fitness level
and they are in a good state of health
some of the other benefits
then that are touted
outside of sort of weight loss and body composition
is lowering inflammation okay
so I've talked about inflammation on the podcast before
this is this is a little bit of a soapbox topic for me
inflammation it's like this big buzzword right
inflammation inflammation
you gotta lower inflammation
so just to kind of summarize
what I've talked about in more depth before
inflammation is a necessary biochemical process
that the body uses to get a ton of things done okay
so inflammation is not the bad guy
it's a necessary process within the body and in fact
in order for anything to heal
you have to have inflammation for the healing process
so inflammation is not the problem the problem
is when inflammation can't finish the job
can't be resolved
so if our body doesn't have what it needs to heal
let's say we cut our skin
you know chopping vegetables and oops
I kind of cut my cut my finger here doing that
when you know
when you get that clots and the skin starts to heal
you'll notice there's a red ring
there's a red margin around the cut on our finger right
that's the inflammation
you have to have that inflammation
in order for the skin to heal
and repair itself so you'll notice
like it's common with like elderly people
if they have a cut on their skin
it can take a long time to heal
and you'll notice it's not red
you're not seeing that red
margin or ring around the cut
because they don't have enough
to generate the necessary inflammation
to heal that cut on their skin
so even chronic conditions within the body right
cutting your skin cutting your finger is an acute uh
injury chronic issues within the body
come about because the body's trying to heal something
but it doesn't have what it needs to finish the job
so it keeps generating the inflammation
that's where chronic inflammation comes from okay
because our body doesn't have what it needs
to finish the job of healing
and so it keeps trying keeps trying
keeps trying
so when people say they want to lower inflammation
it it's almost like we're trying to you know lower oh
we I've got this bad stuff in my body
and I'm trying to get it out
or I'm trying to lower
this bad stuff that my body is producing
that's not really how we wanna think about this OK
one of my big missions is
to help people realize
that their body is not defective
and broken and their body doesn't hate them
their body is trying to do its best in the conditions
in which it finds itself OK
so if we don't have enough to finish the healing
we shouldn't be trying to shut down inflammation
and stop inflammation
that stops the healing process we should be looking at
okay what is it that my body's missing
so that it can finish
this very important job of healing
so all of that said
people will use the term that intermittent fasting
lowers inflammation
why what's going on here okay
so
I wouldn't say that we have a definitive answer as to
why intermittent fasting
quote unquote lowers inflammation
but let me talk about like
why would somebody say oh
I feel like
I don't have as much inflammation in my body
someone would say that they might say that
you know when when they wake up in the morning
you know you wake up in the morning
oh my I'm stiff right
oh you know
I was like laying in bed
and everything tightened up and stiffened up
and my muscles are a little sore
and my joints are stiff
I gotta walk around a little bit squeeze you know
get my hands moving my hands are tight right
you know I gotta get moving around
and then eventually everything kind of loosens up
and now I'm not so tight and right
it's like oh
I'm inflamed in the morning
there's inflammation here right
so someone doing intermittent fasting might wake up
oh wow
I'm not so stiff I'm not so tight
right that the inflammation is lower right
so a lot of times
this is what people are really talking about
when they're talking about lowering inflammation okay
or they might have a rash
they might have a chronic rash eczema
itchy rash hives something like that
and they might do intermittent fasting
and their skin improves oh
inflammation was lowered right
that's oh it must mean that inflammation is lowering
people might report more energy less brain fog
they're thinking more clearly again
when people experience that type of improvement
a lot of times that will be described as
you know inflammation is lower that type of thing
so
these are some of the things that people will report
that they experience when they do intermittent fasting
okay some of some of these benefits
I would say those are some of the common benefits
other people
people that you know
maybe type 2 diabetics
you know my fasting glucose is starting to go down
I did this for a while my A1C is a little bit better
right they might notice better blood sugar control
so why would this way of eating
limiting your food intake and only eating within say
a six or eight hour window
why would that quote unquote
lower inflammation
okay so when we eat
our digestive tract gets to work
starts breaking the food down
our digestive process is the major process
that the body expends its energy on
every day
when you ask people
what do you think your body spends its energy on
most people would say
oh my muscles
you know moving my muscles
that must be what my body spends most of its energy
doing moving me
moving me around or you might think
oh my brain you know I'm thinking all the time
probably my body is spending a lot of energy
making my brain work right
so maybe it's my muscles my brain
that's what most people assume
is what the body spends most of its energy on
it's actually our digestive system okay
is what our body spends most of its energy doing
it takes a tremendous amount of energy
to break our food down
when we eat
we should be able to eat enough
so that we can make it to the next meal okay
so we should have enough of an appetite
and good enough digestive function
that we can break down a full meal
and then
we're gonna go several hours until the next meal
and then
we're gonna be able to have enough of an appetite
and good enough digestive function
so that we can break that next meal down
and then we're gonna be able to make it
we've eaten enough food
that we can make it to the next meal
say our dinner and again
we're gonna be able to eat a full meal
we're gonna have enough of an appetite to do that
we're gonna be able to break that food down
and then I have an overnight fast right
because
everybody is gonna fast for about eight hours a day
anyway
by default because you can't eat when you're sleeping
right so after I eat that
dinner that last meal of the day
at some point I'm not gonna eat anymore
I'm gonna go to sleep and I'm gonna have
at least an 8 hour period of time where I'm not eating
so that is a de facto fast that's going to occur
a a long fast that occurs every day
but in between say my breakfast and my lunch
my lunch and my dinner
I'm gonna have a little mini fast
so those fasting periods
are critical for our digestive tract
and most people are not aware of this and in fact
most people have been given very poor advice
particularly migraine sufferers
have been given very poor advice
to disrupt this natural fasting cycle
okay
so the digestive tract because it's working so hard
it needs periods of rest
and so the little mini fasts between our meals
give a rest period for our
digestive tract to recuperate and get ready
okay now I can tackle the next meal right
and then that longer overnight fast
that gives an even longer time
for the digestive track to really rest
and repair and reset
and get ready for a whole new day
those little those fasting periods are critical
now most people in this day and age
especially migraine sufferers
have been told to eat 5 to six mini meals okay
it's
it's like not a coincidence that all over the planet
all in many different cultures
it's very typical where people are eating three meals
okay and they're spread out
different cultures have a little bit different
you know time frame
and some meals are a little bit bigger than others
but this is common across cultures
that people eat like this
that's that's not a coincidence
but unfortunately
there's quite a bit of bad advice that goes around
and so people have been told for a long time now
for decades and decades that like
if you wanna lose weight
eat five to six small meals a day
most migraine sufferers are so sensitive
to missing a meal a meal gets delayed
our blood sugar drops
you know uh oh
I'm hungry I better eat right away
I don't want to get a headache right
we're very sensitive to that
so many neurologists have told their migraine patients
hey I want you to eat five to six small meals per day
so that you avoid any possibility
of your blood sugar dropping or
you know you can't miss a meal if you're eating
every three hours every two to three hours right
so a lot of people are eating this way
and so
this actually really burns out the digestive track okay
because again we need these rest periods
for the digestive track to function well
and if you're kind of
forcing the food in there 5 6 times a day
you eliminate those little mini fast okay
so a lot of people have
eat this way kind of burned out their digestion
the digestive tract itself
like in order to make I'll just give you one example
in order to make hydrochloric acid in your stomach
you have to have inflammation to do that
like this is what I'm saying
like inflammation is required to accomplish that
like
a whole host of things throughout the body requires
inflammation to be
to be generated
when you have a burned out digestive tract
and you're not digesting your food very well
the
the undigested food particles
sort of leak into your bloodstream
I've talked about this on other podcast
like this podcast is
referencing a ton of other podcast
so we will link them
and so when that happens now you've got
little protein molecules that your immune system says
what is this foreign protein
this isn't me I better get rid of this right
we got immune system activation
that generates inflammation
your liver has to detoxify
those little undigested food molecules
so now we're adding
to the overall toxin load within the body okay
all of this is not gonna make you feel good okay
long story short you're not gonna feel well okay
your over time
you're gonna start to feel stiff muscles and joints
which is a textbook toxicity symptom
a symptom that the body generates
when there's an overload of toxins
and metabolic waste material
your appetite your overall digestive function
is going to start to diminish
so people start having difficulty with bowel movements
or you know
I now I have heartburn or gas or bloating or
flux or you know whole host of problems okay
and if you then
sort of swing the pendulum in the opposite direction
right well
now I'm just gonna eat in a six hour window
and now I'm gonna have an 18 hour fast
for my digestive tract to rest
oh my goodness this
this can have a tremendous impact
on helping people's digestive track
start to re regulate itself
if
their state of health hasn't fallen too far
out of balance if they kind of catch it in time
it can be very helpful
full for people okay
to sort of help their digestive track repair itself
so when your
digestive tract is functioning well
and is breaking the food down correctly
and is preventing undigested
food particles from leaking into your bloodstream
and causing these downstream issues
are you gonna feel better
of course you're gonna feel better okay
so
I think
that a lot of the benefits that people report
from intermittent fasting
are due to these types of things
when I think about
the typical American has been told to eat
and eats and the typical Americans digestive function
and what they struggle with
and all of these things
to me this makes logical sense
knowing the physiology of the body etcetera
I think in in that case
it can be beneficial for people
and people will feel better
brain fog I mean
that's another toxicity symptom
a lot of these symptoms that people will talk about
you know getting better on intermittent fasting
a lot of them are like textbook
metabolic waste material overload symptoms
they're kind of textbook toxicity symptoms
a lot of excess toxins and you know
what I call waste materials come in
to the body through the digestive track
if the digestive track is not working well
all of that to say right
there's there are some
reasonable benefits
that someone could get from doing intermittent fasting
now I say all of this
and remember I said
if someone's health has not declined too much okay
because the downside to intermittent fasting
is that you're reducing your food intake
and therefore your nutrient intake
and this is what nobody talks about
when they talk about intermittent fasting okay
they're talking about like calorie intake
but they're not talking about nutrient intake
so if you've been listening to the podcast
I talk about the three things that our body needs
in order to restore itself back to health
and maintain it state of health
and the first thing our body needs is
we have to get the nutrients that our cells need
to ourselves
okay so
we should be getting those nutrients
from the food that we're eating
so if we're eliminating food
if we're cutting back on food
we're cutting back on our nutrient intake
now for some Americans
maybe they're not eating that much
nutrient dense food to begin with
and then they do kind of they put these guard rails on
they put a little bit of discipline
around what they're eating
they start eating you know
more nutrient dense foods
okay I'm
maybe I'm eating less meals
but I'm actually getting more nutrients in
it's possible
but you really have to
if you're going to just eat twice a day
hey cause you can only eat so much during a meal
there is a limit there's a quantity limit that your
you know
digestive tract can handle
you really have to be very careful that
if you're gonna do that
you're structuring what you're eating
in a way that you're going to get
you know enough nutrients in so this
I think is
going to be
one of the biggest problems with intermittent fasting
for someone who is not in a very good state of health
and here's the reality
if you're struggling with headaches and migraines
you are not in a very good state of health
I know your doctor has told you oh
you're healthy your lab work looks great right
by the time we get headaches and migraines
our health has declined 2
I hate to tell you a fairly considerable degree okay
there are other symptoms that start to pop up
that are more like early warning symptoms
that just start to pop up
sort of right at the beginning
when we start to fall out of a state of health
migraines come on later
this is the No. 1 thing that migraine sufferers
don't understand
because we get concerned about the migraines
when I first started getting migraines
I was like make these go away right
what happened how did this happen
when like how to me it seemed out of the blue
but then once I understood okay
actually
my health started to to decline
by the time I was like 14 years old right
I was already experiencing
some of these early warning symptoms
by the time I was in high school
but nobody recognized that
nobody understood that because we just don't
unfortunately in our culture and so
well then when I started getting migraines in my
like early to mid 20s it's like
how did this happen where did this come from
it's out of the blue
but when I really understood things
it was like no
this was like brewing for like 10 years
hi there
I wanna jump in real quick and tell you about my client
Beth she was getting 15 to 20 migraines and headaches
per month and as you can imagine
this was impacting her work performance
and her confidence she also has two small children
and she was
starting to feel like she was a horrible mom
because she had nothing left for them
at the end of the day
but she reached out and she booked a free
console call with me
and after I asked her about her migraines
and her health history
I felt confident that I could help her I help
women uncover the root drivers of their migraines
and follow a step by step plan
to dramatically reduce the frequency
by up to 90% without adding more medication
or taking a bunch of supplements
so we built her personal migraine map
followed the plan
and now she will get one to two migraines per year
which she
uses ibuprofen to treat if she needs to
versus up to 15 to 20 per month
when we first started working together
that weren't responding well to any medication
she just reached out to tell me that
she got a promotion at work
she's on top of her career again
and has been able to come off all of her migraine
medication but most importantly
she's a confident mom again
and she's attending birthday parties at Jump Zone
with her kids and saying yes
instead of saying maybe later
I've worked with women like Beth
from all over the United States
who were told this is the best we can do
but they were still willing to dig deeper
so
if you are serious about changing your migraine story
go to Doctor Leslie Caesar dot com slash apply
or tap the link in the show notes
and on our free consult
we'll map out why your migraines keep coming back
and the first three steps you can take
over the next 30 days
I do cap new client spots each month
so if the calendar is full
the doors are closed for now
but if you're done feeling helpless
and ready to do the work to heal
pause this episode for 30 seconds
and book that console call
now
migraines are are something that bruise for a while
while we're experiencing
more of these early warning symptoms
specifically now
if you're struggling with migraines right
and now
I'm going to cut back on the nutrients that I'm eating
this is not going to be good in the long term
because the fact that we're getting migraines in
indicates that there's something that's blocking
the delivery of the nutrients that our cells need
to our cells okay
and usually
there are a whole host of factors and blockers
but the number
like the first blocker is gonna be if I'm not eating
enough nutrients that's really gonna block
the ability
for my cells to get the nutrients they need
if I'm just not eating the nutrients right
so when we have migraines
we wanna work on
being able to eat
enough food to meet our basic energy needs and our
nutrient needs okay
and so most women with migraines
not all but most are having digestive symptoms
it's clear when we do their assessment
that their digestive tract is not functioning properly
and is struggling to break the food
that they are eating down
and get the nutrients out of the food
and I've talked about how this impacts our appetite
so most women with migraines
not all but most
actually have low appetite
because their body is trying to
protect their digestive tract
it's like well
if I can't break this food down
cause I'm struggling
I don't want you to put a whole bunch in here
and so their appetite decreases
and they're not able to eat a full meal anyway
they think they are
but they aren't able to
so in that whole scenario right
the most common situation that a woman with chronic
migraines and headaches
finds herself in
and then reads an article about intermittent fasting
or listens to a podcast about it
and it's talking about
you know lowering inflammation and everything
well you know
migraines that must be related to inflammation right
and I certainly do wake up feeling stiff and
you know brain fog
the whole bit let me give this a try
now I'm further diminishing my nutrient intake
because I'm eating even less food
okay
so this is not going to be good in the long term
there might be a temporary
sort of improvement in some symptoms
because instead of
you know doing what her neurologist told her
which is eat five to six times
you know per day
you know small mini meals per day
or women with low appetite and poor digestive function
because they can't eat a full meal
they kind of go into that pattern on their own anyway
because they can't like they get full too quickly
so they can't eat a full meal
they can just eat a mini meal before they get so full
and they say okay
that's enough I guess
but it's not enough food
so that they can make it to the next meal
so they're getting hungry
you know two
two and a half hours later
they gotta eat again right
so they're already eating multiple times a day
unfortunately that further
disturbs and burns out their digestive tract
so in that type of environment
suddenly you make this big change
where you're giving this big rest
period to your digestive tract
you might feel a little bit better in the short term
but in the long term it's not gonna serve you
because you're
further diminishing your nutrient intake
and just if the digestive function gets that poor
just doing just increasing that rest period
it's not gonna it's it's not gonna be the answer okay
you're you need more support and
and more interventions
in order for the digestive tract to turn around quickly
so it's not the best solution OK
you might get like I say
a temporary lift but in the long term I
I
it's going to further deplete your body from nutrients
it's not gonna
have that big of an impact on your digestive tract
so that's a real negative
for women with chronic migraines okay
you're putting another blocker in front of
what I call that first principle
which is getting
ultimately getting the nutrients to your cells
we wanna eliminate blockers
we don't wanna add blockers
so the other
you know big kind of glaring thing for women with uh
headaches and migraines is
like I said in the beginning
most of us are very sensitive to getting a headache
or a full blown migraine if our blood sugar drops
if we miss a meal if a meal is delayed
if we skip a meal right
this is really
really common
it's kind of notorious amongst migraine suffers
in fact many of us right
we don't leave the house without food
I mean by the time I was fourteen
I couldn't make it through the
I couldn't make it to lunch in school
without having a snack I had to uh
sneak uh
crackers and so on in my purse at school because
you know I'm a Gen Xer
when I was in high school
nobody could eat during the school day
now right
they allow the kids to eat all the time
throughout the school day
but when I was in high school
you couldn't
I mean that was against the rules
you couldn't eat anything
so I had to like
sneak these crackers and so on in my purse
I used as you know
as a young adult I wouldn't leave my house without some
some sort of food in my purse
I I was very very sensitive to missing a meal oh
pretty much guaranteed migraine right
so um
a lot of migraine suffers are in that boat right
we don't leave the house without snacks
so then you say well
you you're telling me
I'm gonna feel better if I miss a meal
ha ha if I don't eat when I feel hungry right
if I what if what
if I feel hungry
before my window opens up in the morning
and then I don't eat like a lot of migraine sufferers
they're definitely gonna get a headache
if not a full blown migraine
if they don't eat when they feel hungry right
so from that perspective
intermittent fasting is probably
not going to be a good fit for you
if you're struggling with headaches and migraines and
you know
you're particularly sensitive to missing a meal
or having your blood sugar drop
in fact
most articles that you'll read on intermittent fasting
like before I jumped on here
you know
I just did a little review of some of the articles
you know on the Johns Hopkins website
they talk about intermittent fasting
that's sort of how mainstream this has gotten um
and they talk about you know
during the adaptation period right
so when you first start doing it
like are you gonna feel bad
yeah you definitely could
and one of the things that you may get are headaches
right so
even people who are not prone to headaches
when they start something
like intermittent fasting
you can you can get headaches
so for a migraine suffer
this is probably not something that you're
too interested in trying out right
and so a lot of times when people reach out to me
they're concerned you know like
okay are you gonna have me do intermittent fasting
because I've read so much about it
and everybody's talking about how great it is
and you know Doctor Leslie
I know I can't miss a meal
I know you know
I've got to eat something in the morning or I'm
you know gonna die by 10:30
so you know
I'm not recommending these types of things at all
to my clients right
we're working on one because for so many of my clients
their digestive function is poor
and their appetite is low
like that's the first thing that we have to work on
because again nothing in
nothing in the body is gonna work right
we're never gonna feel well
if we don't have the nutrients
that we need to function properly
and that has to come
it should come from the food that we're eating
and proper digestion right
efficient and proper digestion
extraction of those nutrients out of the food
you know our digestive tract
is not designed to get nutrients out of capsules
and things like that
it's designed to get nutrients out of food
and so that's really what we should be relying on right
it's
it's great that we have the technology now
that we can put some nutrients in capsules
and then
if somebody really has a significant deficiency
we can improve the digestive function
make sure their digestive track can handle high dose
you know isolated nutrient supplements
this is
another thing that a lot of natural practitioners
don't realize you know
if you have poor digestive function
and then you're taking like
high dose isolated nutrients
you can really throw off your digestive tract
so you know
even to take a nutrient
capsule of some nutrient that someone is you know
particularly deficient in a lot of times
we've got to get the digestive tract up and running
to handle that and got to make sure
like first you got to be able to eat food
then we can talk about like
if we need to do some specific
nutrient supplementation to correct
like big deficiencies so intermittent fasting right
number one
even John Hopkins says
you could highly likely get headaches
if you do this in the first week or two
even if you're not prone to headaches
OK so that's a pretty big turn off for migraine suffers
like I say it's
it's going to be counterproductive to you
restoring your health which is really what we want
right we want to restore our health
so that our body stops generating the headaches
and the migraines in the first place
and so limiting your nutrient intake is
to be counterproductive to that
and so um
I have had clients
where they have done intermittent fasting and
you know they did feel better for a period of time
but then
right oh no right
it's I'm now I'm not feeling so good anymore
the other really big downside to intermittent fasting
is it's not sustainable okay
maybe we wanna meet a friend for breakfast and
you know sit in a little cafe
and have an omelet and a cup of coffee
and to talk about the latest Netflix uh
special with a friend right and so
now that
is going to be outside of your intermittent fasting
window so you can't do that right
it's I mean
that's not too fun right
I mean maybe we want to go on a trip
we want to visit relatives
we're going to stay in our
stay with our relative and they're like hey
you know I'd love to make you breakfast in the morning
what would you like oh
I can't eat breakfast right
we don't want to be that person
you know somebody's trying to be hospitable and host
and have the satisfaction of all of that
you know the satisfaction of kind of taking care of us
and then we have to decline
nobody wants that
it's not sustain
right like I say again
I think the the best outcome for people is
are people that are already in a good state of health
you know they have a high physical fitness level
they want to just kind of
improve their body composition
they want to lose a little bit of fat right
get their lean body mass percentage up
I think those are the
best use case for
and fasting
and you just do it for a short period of time right
I mean if you ate like this for two weeks
you may be limiting your nutrient intake a little bit
but your body will it's already running well
it can survive for two weeks
right it
but you know so it's like a short
term
little intervention for a specific person
for a specific reason
for people that are already doing very well
it's it's really not appropriate
for people that are in a diminished state of health
and experiencing significant symptoms
and then No. 2 and then um and then number three
nobody wants to live like this
ha ha ha it's not sustainable long term OK
what we want to be able to accomplish right
you know I I'm so grateful right
because I'm always thinking about you guys
because I know what it's like
to have a horrible migraine
I know what it's like to have anxiety that
oh my goodness I'm gonna go do this thing
and it might give me a migraine
and then what am I gonna do
and oh my God I I totally get it
I I have gone through all of that and
and so this this whole trip
the whole time I was thinking about you guys like wow
right all of these things
all of these things that were stressors and my body
you know I needed
a lot of resilience
and vitality to weather all of those stressors right
and you know um
it was a lot of physical stressors like the travel
the time change the change in routine
the temperature changes changes to the sun
all of changes to the sun exposure
all of those things are physical
extra physical stressors
but then there were a lot of emotional stressors too
you know you're going to a wedding
you don't know everybody right
you know it's
you get a little nervous
unfortunately my uncle passed away a few years ago
and so I knew that it was gonna be really emotional um
for my cousins for my aunt
even for me
you know but certainly for my
you know my uncle's children and
and his wife right
so you know
all of those things
there were some mental and emotional stressors
that we were exposed to and then
you know even a joyous occasion like a wedding right
it's it's a heightened emotional state
that also is in an emotional stressor too
even like good good emotions or
you know pleasant emotions are still stressful
so all of these things right
this is how we want to be able to live right
we wanna be able to get on a plane
and go to a wedding and see our family and
you know cry a little bit with the cousins for
for grief and for joy
all of these things are the human experience that
that we want to have
and we don't want to have to micromanage everything
right OK
well you know
do I have my sunglasses do I have my snacks
is it my eating window or not right
we just wanna be able to let go
and experience these things
and kind of go on the go on the fly
when we went up to Sedona
we were thinking about doing a Jeep tour
those were booked we ended up doing a helicopter tour
right it's like boom
boom boom
what are we gonna do yeah I can do it
right
I know that I can go with the flow and we can makes
you know
minute by minute decisions as to what we're gonna do
and I know now that I'm gonna be OK and it's wonderful
and I want that for all of you too
that's the No. 1 thing that I wish
for all of the women listening to this podcast
because it's possible
and it doesn't require all of this micromanagement
all of this sort of restrictive eating etcetera
now I'm on a day to day basis right
I'm eating in a health supporting way most of the time
nobody's perfect right
but of course I'm putting a priority on healthy eating
getting enough nutrients in with my meals etcetera
but that allows me to have a week like I had where haha
it was a little bit you know
we went to in N out Burger
you know like a little bit off the uh
out of the norm and you know
little little fast food here and there
a little fast casual you know definitely
you know different schedule
um etcetera and you know even some treat foods
um at the reception
they have one of those big donut walls right
where they have the big walls with the pegs
and then it was all donuts
so definitely my cousin and I
we got some donuts at the reception and um etcetera
so you want to be able to enjoy those things right
so if you're trying to get rid of your migraines
by cutting everything out
never eating a donut you know
never eating at a restaurant
you know what's uh
you know what's in the sauce
can you hold all of this right
it
it's not the answer and it's
it's not how any of us want to live
and it's not necessary this is the thing
what we want to focus on is restoring our health
restoring our resilience and vitality
so we can weather all of these things
and we can have a week where we have some uh
some treat foods and um
some things that are out of the norm
and still feel good
that's what we really want so you're
you're gonna have a tough time
like I say
you're gonna have a tough time living like that
if you have a you know
narrow window of time that you can eat in
and like I say it's it's not necessary
it's not necessary so
I hope this was helpful
to do this deep dive into intermittent fasting
so again if you're afraid that
you know cause a lot of migraine suffers
they feel stuck between a rock and a hard place right
I know I need to make some changes to feel better
but can I you know
I can't make extreme changes
I you know
what is gonna be required here
is it gonna be something crazy
is it gonna be extreme
that's not how we get back to health right
health is bringing things back into balance
and kind of bringing things back to the middle
not going from extreme to extreme
and that's unfortunately
what a lot of these kind of dietary fads do
they kind of pull people from one extreme to another
you know we
we were in the vegan phase
and now we're in the carnivore phase right
everything is like this pendulum
making these massive swings right
so we're going from
telling people to eat five to six times a day
and now we're telling them to eat
you know
one meal a day or just in a six our window right
you know it's like these big swings
and that's not really what health is
health is bringing things back into balance
bringing that pendulum more in in the middle
and then if we choose to make a big swing by you know
making a big jump from 32 degrees to 100 degrees
to enjoy a nice week with family
we can do that okay
so that's that's really what we should be shooting for
so thanks so much for joining me today
I hope this gave you a lot of good information
and also gave you a little bit of inspiration that
you know to restore your health
you don't have to do a lot of extreme things
and especially when you suffer from migraines
you know right if you do something too extreme
you could get a migraine
but really the ultimate
the ultimate goal here is to restore our resilience
and vitality
so that we don't have to bubble wrap ourselves
and we can enjoy spontaneous things
or things that we know are going to uh
be inherently stressful but we can we can sail through
so thanks so much for joining me
if you're enjoying the content on the channel
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so thanks for joining me today
and don't hesitate to reach out
be happy to talk with you on a free consult call
um you can uh book that in
there's a link in the comments
where you can get on my calendar
and we can talk through
what's going on with your migraines
and if I think I can help you
I will tell you if I think that I can't help you
I will tell you that too
and try to point you into something that's going to be
the best fit for you so thanks again for joining me
and I will talk to you soon