107. Why I Disagree With the Medical Medium on Migraine Triggers

In this episode, I’m responding to a Medical Medium reel about migraine triggers and breaking down where I think the conversation goes off track.

I talk about dehydration, electrolytes, B12, stress hormones, caffeine, allergies, and sinus issues, but more importantly, I explain why these things are often stressors, not true root causes.

My main point is that migraines don’t happen just because of one food, one supplement deficiency, or one bad day. They happen when the body has lost resilience and vitality and can no longer adapt well to stress. I also share why I’m skeptical of quick-fix migraine advice and why real healing means looking at physiology, digestion, nutrient delivery, and the deeper blockers keeping your body stuck in the migraine zone.

If you’re tired of trying to avoid every possible trigger and want a more grounded, root-cause way to understand your migraines, this episode is for you.

Related episodes:

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

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've dedicated my life to helping other women
with chronic migraines rediscover a
a migraine free life so welcome to the podcast today um
someone sent me a Facebook reel from the medical medium
and um
asked me to respond and so
I'm kind of known for loving to get on my soapbox
and so
this is gonna be one of those soapbox moments for me
so
so bear with me here
and I do want to say that I am not recording this
I'm not trying to do a gotcha on the medical medium
I'm not trying to own him
I'm not trying to be overly critical
but you know I'm very passionate
about helping chronic migraine suffers
because I used to be one
and if you're listening to the podcast
you're probably right in that same boat
and one thing that I'm particularly passionate about is
because migraines are such a common
disorder worldwide it's actually one of the most common
disabling conditions that people suffer
migraines have been documented
even in the ancient Greek
literature from the ancient Greek physicians
migraines were documented
they've been that you know
they've been plaguing humans since the dawn of time
and so um
because they are so common
and so many people suffer from them um
you know
a lot of people may only have a couple migraines a year
other people are having a daily migraines right
so you know
there's a wide range of suffering with migraines
but they are extremely common
and so unfortunately
this generates a tremendous market okay
and so
migraine sufferers are one of the largest markets
to market to if you have a healthcare product
so you know
I can't go on Facebook
without seeing an advertisement for
you know a migraine hat
migraine supplements
you know
migraine you know
do it yourself recovery program
you know all of these things
and the reason for that is
because
there are so many people that suffer from migraines
that it's a tremendous market
and you know
our mind is always looking for sort of like
the one thing that'll fix it
you know like
what's the one thing I could do to make this go away
our mind operates like that
and so it's this special magnesium
it's this special you know
thing you strap on your forehead right
it it just um
lends itself to that
and so migraine sufferers in particular
because they're marketed to so much with these sort
of little
little quick fix type things
oh this is the magic bullet type
thing that you can buy from me
migraine sufferers have tried all of these things
migraine sufferers are very
very jaded around solutions
because they've tried so many things
and they've been burned so many times by these sort of
you know little magic bullet supplements or appliances
or all of these little gadgets and tricks
and it really unfortunately
you know if you get too jaded
if you're burned too many times
it becomes a barrier to actually healing and recovering
and finding the actual solution
so I'm really passionate about this
I can't read the medical medium's mind
maybe he thinks he can read mine
but I can't read his mind
um I don't know what's truly motivating him
I like to think that most people that are in
sort of the healthcare space
or the alternative medicine space
most of those people are doing it
because they have a genuine desire to help people
so I'll give medical medium
the benefit of the doubt on that
but I wanna kind of walk through what he's saying here
and point out some things
and I think it'll be helpful for you
because you're also trying to evaluate
right like who has a solution
who who's on the right track right
and so I kind of want to take this
and just point out some things
you know when you're getting the same Facebook ads
that I'm getting or this you know
this the same kind of marketing
you can turn sort of a critical eye to the marketing
to the real to the person
and kind of do that evaluation for yourself
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
verses 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
okay so let's dive in here
I'm gonna share the screen of of
real we're gonna take a look at the real together
so just a second
there's a lot of things that trigger migraines
they're not the direct cause
but they trigger the migraine
dehydration is one of them a lot of
okay so the first thing I want to talk about here is
is using this word trigger okay
so um amongst migraine sufferers
this is a word that we use right
um in fact
the our neurologist has told us to track our triggers
right
the way that he's using trigger here I wanna I wanna um
have you take a listen to here OK
I'm gonna start it over again
but they trigger the migraine
dehydration is one of them
a lot of people have electrolyte deficiencies
not enough electrolytes floating around so he's saying
OK
the there are a lot of things that trigger migraines
they're not the direct cause of the migraine
but they're triggering the migraine
so when I listen to him talk about this there
there seems to be some confusion around
the usage of the word trigger okay
so you know amongst migraine suffers
how are we using the word trigger
we're using the word trigger for sort of acute
things that are happening
that are tipping us over into the migraine so
you know when your neurologist says
I want you to track your triggers right
in that usage the neurologist is saying okay
when you get a migraine
think back as to what might have caused this
what might have been unusual
might what might have stood out
that was some sort of unusual or
or stressful incident that occurred
and many times people will be given lists of common
so called triggers
a lot of them are so called food triggers
right so the chocolate
the tomatoes the garlic and onions okay
so it's this concept that there is
like an exposure to something in the environment
there's a stressor coming in
you know sunlight
the weather the wind or something that we call stress
like a conflict or an argument with someone right
something that's sort of coming in
kind of hitting us from the outside
that's quote unquote triggering the migraine okay
many times actually
many neurologists will talk about triggers as if
the trigger is causing the migraine right
like you ate the chocolate
why did you eat the chocolate
you gave yourself a migraine with the chocolate right
so
just the way that he's kind of talking about this here
it signals to me
that he's not really well versed in the language
kind of the usage of the word trigger
amongst migraine sufferers
what triggers actually are are stressors
they're physical stressors
or mental and emotional stressors that
kind of tip us into the migraine state okay
now when you have a stressor
kind of pushing you out of balance
okay out of a state of health
pushing you into a migraine
what no one talks
about is the counter force of our own resilience
and vitality that pushes against the stressor
and keeps us in balance keeps us in homeostasis
keeps us in a state of health
when we're in a state of homeostasis a state of health
we don't get the migraine
okay so when the
the physical stressor
of the barometric pressure change
that's accompanying the
thunderstorm pushes against us
we want to counter that push
with our own resilience and vitality
so that we can stay upright
we can stay in homeostasis
in balance in a state of health
so that we don't get the migraine in the first place
and that is what is not understood by your neurologist
and by
most people in sort of the alternative medicine space
or the natural medicine space
that are trying to help migraine suffers
everybody's talking about triggers
but they're not talking about the flip side of that yes
the trigger is a stressor that's coming in
and knocking us out of balance
and tipping us into a migraine
but the
flip side of that is our own resilience and vitality
that counters that stressing
keeps us out of our migraine zone okay
keeps us upright
I've talked about this a lot on the podcast
we'll link to
some pertinent episodes in the description
but this is really critical and so you know
I he's
he's not talking about that in this Facebook reel right
he's just talking about triggers
this is a critical piece and this is if
if you really start thinking about your experience
of tracking your triggers
you'll start to see oh wait a minute OK
I track my triggers
I ate the chocolate on Monday
didn't get a migraine ate the chocolate on Wednesday
I got a migraine well okay
is it the chocolate or is it not right
then on Friday I had the chocolate
I got a headache right
chocolate okay
there's there's nothing wrong with chocolate
chocolate is a very nutrient dense food item okay
now we may put a lot of sugar in there
and like some other things in there that
maybe aren't as health supporting
but chocolate itself is extraordinarily nutrient dense
and when you eat chocolate
you have to have good digestive function
to break that very nutrient dense food down
so when you're eating chocolate
when you eat any kind of food that's very nutrient
dense you are putting a stress on your digestive track
your digestive track has to be functioning well enough
it's got to be strong enough
it's got to be robust enough
to break down nutrient dense food
so when you look at I'm migraine food trigger list
you'll notice
that most of those foods are very nutrient dense foods
and so
when you eat something that's very nutrient dense
you're going to put some stress
on your digestive tract
if I lift one pound or I lift 10 pounds
I'm going to be putting more
stress on my muscles
with that 10 pound weight than with a one pound weight
if I'm eating more nutrient dense food
I'm going to put more stress on my digestive track
and if my digestive track is not up for that challenge
that's going to put
systemic stress on my body
and I have to have enough resilience and vitality
to weather that stress okay
so when you start to track triggers
you start to notice they're not very consistent right
some people yes every time they eat the chocolate
every single time they get a blinding migraine
but that's not that common OK
for most people they can eat the chocolate one day
they can't eat the chocolate the next day
what do I do is it a trigger or is it not
is it causing my migraines
what's going on here
it's not so simple as this is a migraine trigger
and this is causing your migraines
there's a it's a much more complex
interaction that's going on within our body
let's let's go back to medical medium here okay
and I'm gonna back it up a little bit again
so he's saying dehydration is a migraine trigger okay
so I've talked about um
water consumption on other podcast
we are living in a cultural moment
where we are now being told to drink a gallon of water
per day I mean
I I've
I've gone into target and I've passed by the little uh
encap display of water bottles
and now we have gallon water jugs for sale with like
time stamps on the side 9:00am noon
three PM nine PM right so we're supposed now
I'm supposed to drink this water
by this period of time
so that I can drink a whole gallon of water per day
never in human history have we had this
ability to drink a gallon of water per day okay
now again I'm not saying that every
you know nobody was sick hundreds of years ago
but you know this is
you can start to see the silliness of it
now
I've talked about on the podcast before
a few years back I dug into
where did this standard recommendation
that everyone needs to drink
64 ounces of water every day
you know everybody just takes this for granted
I was taught this
when I went to naturopathic medical school
I didn't question it right
um but I had to start questioning it a few years back
because it's gotten so silly right
and so I dug into it
talked about this in more detail in another podcast
but I dug into it and there's absolutely no evidence
basically this was just a made up recommendation
and now we're
we're way past even 64 ounces of water per day
when our body is functioning properly
we should be able to regulate our fluid balance
within the body
we are designed to be able to survive
through periods of time
where water might be scarce okay
and in fact
our internal biochemistry
when our when our cells are doing their work
different metabolic processes
water is actually produced inside of the cell okay
so you know
certain metabolic processes actually make H2O
inside of our body okay
if you are in the habit
of drinking 64 ounces of water every day
your body is going to acclimate
to that quantity of water
your kidneys
the main organ that's regulating your fluid balance
is monitoring OK
what's the concentration in the bloodstream to water
to nutrients particularly minerals OK
and if that starts to get out of balance
if I start to have more water than minerals oop
I need to get rid of some of this water
because I need to maintain
a certain concentration of minerals
so when that's proportion starts to get unbalanced
the kidneys will
remove water from the bloodstream
and put it into the bladder
we urinate that out okay
your kidneys become acclimated to routine conditions
and so
if you consistently drink 64 ounces of water per day
if you consistently drink a gallon of water per day
your kidneys are gonna say OK
I know she's gonna give me 64 ounces of water
so I'm gonna operate in this way
to keep everything in balance
if you suddenly discontinue that right
suddenly you just drink you know
8 ounces of water in one day
that's going to put a stress on your kidneys
any change from the routine
generates a stressor on the body
cause our body is trying to
to anticipate what it needs to do
the most obvious
example of that is within our digestive tract right
if we eat lunch every day around noon well around 11:30
the digestive track says hey
she's gonna put stuff in here in about 30 minutes
I'm gonna start making hydrochloric acid
I'm gonna start making enzymes
I'm just gonna start to get moving here right
and so
the digestive track starts to prepare for the routine
meal that it's anticipating
so your kidneys are going to start to prepare
or anticipate a particular
intake of water every day
and then it's going to adjust things accordingly
so if I abruptly discontinue this okay
so I'm gonna give you an example when I fly
I would prefer
not to have to use the restroom on the airplane
particularly if I'm flying you know
on a more than three hour flight
I really don't want to have to go to the bathroom
and so what I do on days that I'm flying
is I don't drink any water
we'll just have the typical water
that I have with my breakfast
which is not not a tremendous amount
you will not see me in line at the airport
buying a water bottle and taking it on the plane
because I don't want to have to use the restroom
while I'm while I'm on the plane okay
so
I don't drink any water until I get to my destination
normally on a normal day
I drink anywhere from 32 to 42 ounces
that's that's what's typical for me
so this is a pretty drastic reduction okay
not as drastic of reduction
as if I were drinking a gallon of water every day
but it's a pretty good change in my routine
and so my kidneys are going to have to adapt to that
they're going to have to change how they're operating
on the day of that flight
that change in my routine generates a stressor
on my body
that stress is going to push me out of homeostasis
that stress is gonna tip me into my migraine zone
if I have enough resilience and vitality
I can keep myself in balance in homeostasis
out of my migraine zone
and right now that's exactly what happens to me
I know that right now where I am right now in my life
I have enough resilience and vitality
that I can weather the stress
of not consuming
the regular amount of water that I typically do for
for a day
so that I don't have to use the air airplane bathroom
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
verses 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
there was a time in my life where I did not have
enough resilience and vitality
to weather that type of stressor
that change and what my body was accustomed to
there
was a time where I wouldn't have been able to weather
that and so in in that time in my life
I drank water right during the flight
like you're told to do right
you're always told hydrate hydrate
hydrate while you're flying
and I
there have been times in my life where I definitely
did that because I knew that if I didn't
that abrupt change in my water intake
and the stress that
that would inevitably produce on my body
I didn't have enough resilience
and vitality to counter that okay so
is is it the water intake is it dehydration right
if my kidneys are functioning properly
and I can weather the stress
of not putting
in the exact amount of water that it's accustomed to
my kidneys are not going to
put me in a dehydrated state OK
my kidneys are going to manage what they're doing
and they're going to manage the fluid level
the water level in my blood
and I'm not going to get dehydrated
in a day of airline travel
if my
uh kidneys are struggling to function properly
and I don't mean you know
you you do lab work for your kidneys and it comes back
I mean subtle stuff okay
that's not gonna be picked up on on blood work
but if my kidneys are kind of struggling
to maintain that fluid balance right
well now I could have problems
and there's inherently
a stressor that I'm putting on my body
when I do this because I'm not doing my normal routine
that my body is acclimated to
so I have to have that resilience and vitality
component to this
you know he's talking about dehydration
migraine sufferers right
they're afraid to leave the house without water right
because this has been drilled into everybody you know
you could be getting migraines
because you're dehydrated
you're not drinking enough water and so I mean
I've had clients where
they're lugging around that gallon water bottle now
from target
they're stressed they're worried that they're
you know what if I don't drink all of this
oh my goodness
having to go to the bathroom all the time right
how do I if I gotta drink a gallon of water every day
how do I go to
target without having to use the bathroom
let alone take a 4 hour flight
without having to use the bathroom right
so you know
all of this
it's
it's not necessary okay
we don't need that much water
if your kidneys are functioning properly
you're not getting dehydrated
now that is not to say right
if you're listening to this podcast
and you're struggling with migraines right
your resilience and vitality might be low right
and so any little change to your routine right
whether it be your drinking habits
you know how much water you're routinely drinking
the time of night that you go to bed routinely
the time of day that you get up routinely
the timing of your meals that your body is expecting
right the routine of your meal times right
any of those routines if you disrupt those routines
you're going to generate a stressor on your body
you have to have enough resilience
and vitality to counter that stressor
and so if you're suffering with chronic migraines
you're feeling that every time right
I can't go to bed too late
I can't get up too early I can't miss a meal
I gotta drink all my water
it's not an indicator
that there's something about your brain
that just requires this sort of
strict lifestyle
it's the inherent
a relationship between routines or habits
and how the body becomes acclimated to those and
and adjust its normal functioning to those
routines and habits and the inevitable stress
that disrupting that routine
or habit is going to create on the body
and then our resilience and vitality
that has to come in
and sort of keep us upright in the face of that stress
okay so again
it's not so simple as you know
oh well
sleep that's a trigger
it's more complicated than that okay
um I just want to point this out right
because he's kind of throwing around this word trigger
I think it doesn't it
the way he uses it it just doesn't ring true to me
that he really understands the trigger
you know the meaning of the word trigger within uh
migraine suffers and then
you know again
if I have to watch another TikTok video
or Facebook reel on dehydration and migraines right
it's like
come on people
we've got to think about this a little bit more
critically
we're now to the point of drinking a gallon of water
a day I mean
this is this is not it
this is one of them
a lot of people have electrolyte deficiencies
not enough electrolytes floating around the bloodstream
okay so then he says
you know people don't have enough electrolytes now
I told you this was gonna be a big soapbox one
so what do we mean by electrolytes okay
from a medical perspective
there are only three electrolytes
it's potassium sodium and Chloride
when you get standard blood work
when you get blood work that is
routine blood work that you would get every year
from your doctor
there's a panel called a comprehensive metabolic panel
three of those tests
on a comprehensive metabolic panel
or it's called a CMP are your
they're measuring your electrolytes your sodium
potassium and your Chloride okay
proper electrolyte balance in the bloodstream
is critical okay
if your sodium or your potassium
or your Chloride goes too high or too low
you could die pretty quickly okay
that's why they're measuring it on standard labs
I I won't go into tremendous detail on this
but you know
if you can't maintain your sodium and your potassium
and your Chloride level in your blood
you've got major organ problems okay
so that's what that blood work is screening for
do I have major organ problems
but people throw the word electrolytes around
when they just mean minerals okay
so then
there are a lot of other minerals
that the body needs and uses
but there are pumps called sodium
potassium pumps in the cell wall of our cells
and that's a major transporter
to get things in and out of the cell
there's a tremendous need in the body
at the cellular level for sodium and potassium
also for Chloride but also for other minerals too
so when he says electrolytes right are we talking about
electrolytes from a medical perspective
or are we just talking about minerals
like what are we talking about here
so he says some people are deficient in electrolytes
and they don't have enough
floating around in the bloodstream
well
I talk about the need right
to get the nutrients that our cells need to our cells
in fact I call this the first principle
or the first thing we need
for our body to restore itself to health
or maintain its health
our cells need nutrients to function properly
and so we have to get those nutrients to the cells
now it's not just electrolyte sodium
potassium and Chloride it's not just minerals
it's a whole host
of nutrients that are required for your cells
to function properly
so yeah
a lot of people do have
not only nutritional deficiencies
but a lot of people have
difficulty actually delivering
and getting the nutrients to the cells
this is what I talk about um
extensively on the podcast right
people are just kind of throwing this thing
throwing this out there that
you know you've got these nutrient deficiencies
you got electrolyte deficiencies
how'd that happen right
especially for migraine sufferers
they're told all the time electrolytes
electrolytes electrolytes
they're drinking Gatorade
they're drinking propel they're drinking liquid IV
right they're doing all this stuff for electrolytes
why are we so deficient in electrolytes right
are we not getting
are we not eating food are we not digesting our food
and getting those nutrients
or minerals out of the food
this is where we need to look a little bit deeper
we should have a enough of an appetite
where we feel like eating enough food
that has enough nutrient content and variety
and then when we eat that food
our digestive tract has to be able
to break the food down
our digestive track has to be functioning robustly
enough to digest the food
get the nutrients out of the food
then
we've got to get those nutrients into the bloodstream
and actually transport it to the cells
things are not randomly
just floating around in the blood
and somehow getting to places okay
our blood is actually a very complex organ
and sometimes people's blood as an organ
is sluggish to do that delivery okay
so again he's just sort of saying like
oh well
you know you could be deficient in electrolytes
and they're not getting to your brain okay
well again
migraines we keep focusing on the brain with migraines
we do that because for most people
it's their brain that hurts right
the the pain is in the head
and then there are frequently
other neurological symptoms that accompany migraines
the whole body is affected by migraines right
this is why they used to be called sick headaches
we feel sick this is why they call them sick headaches
cause you're in bed right
you're you're foggy you can't talk
you can't open your eyes you you can hardly move
it just you just wanna go to bed
it's it's like you're sick OK
so it's it's not just a problem
in the brain okay it's a it's a whole body phenomenon
if you've been following the podcast
I hope that you're starting to understand that
this is a lot bigger than just your brain okay
to get to the brain and
she's not enough electrolytes
floating around the bloodstream
to get to the brain
yeah so you know
it's not just your brain that uses electrolytes
or minerals
every cell in your body requires electrolytes
or minerals other nutrients
and then
I don't really understand what he's saying here
he's saying you know
it's not enough of a electrical strength
that you should be getting from the electrolytes
that just doesn't make make sense to me okay
electrolytes right there's the name electro in them
so you know maybe he's thinking that there's like a
like there's electricity and
you know something like that
I'm I'm just not quite following him um
on the way that he's putting that
every cell in your body requires sodium and potassium
Chloride other minerals
other nutrients to function optimally
so the electrolytes aren't strong enough
or enough of them ample amounts
to actually fulfill what your brain needs
which is that neurotransmitter
electrical impulse strength from electrolytes
okay so yeah
you you really want to get me on on a rant okay
do we have to talk about B12 anymore
do we have to talk about B vitamins anymore okay
again
should be getting nutrients from our food
we make certain nutrients
if we are unable to make the nutrients that we need
why aren't we you know
co factors or you might call them you know
precursor nutrients
we need to make certain nutrients right
it's like for some unknown reason
I don't have enough B12 okay
yeah we could be eating something
with a high quantity of naturally occurring
b12 in the food but if
our stomach is not producing
something called intrinsic factor
we're not gonna absorb the B12 right
we gotta go back to okay am I eating food
do I have a robust appetite
where I actually feel like eating food
am I is my digestion functioning properly
so that I can absorb the nutrients out of the food
different types of nutrients within the food
require certain conditions
or cofactors enzymes
certain bacteria
right in order for proper absorption okay so again
we're always sort of treating this like oh
somehow something's deficient well
who knows why let's just you know
take a pill for it let's take a B12 shot
or a capsule or something like that
we it if if you're really going to look at root causes
you have to
follow the physiology and biochemistry of the body
which is pretty well documented I mean
we have discoveries yet to be made
but I over here are my is my are my bookshelves
I have a whole bunch of biochemistry and physiology
textbooks that document all of this OK
so there's stuff we know
for a fact that's pretty well established on how
how the body works okay
so when you know that you know
if you know that you need intrinsic factor
produced by your stomach in order to absorb B12
you know efficiently
and somebody says I have a B12 issue well
you you start to think about okay
is digestion working well right
you're you're not just going to think oh
well we better do a B12 supplement
whether or not there's enough B12 on your blood test
or not
people have a deficiencies in the nervous system
B12 deficiency in the central nervous system
so that alone can be a trigger right
so you know again
you know he he is correct um
nutrient testing you know
there's a difference between the
the amount of nutrients that are in your bloodstream
versus the
the the nutrients that are within the cell
at the cell wall okay
and so
nutrient testing is an area that is not very reliable
unfortunately so
you know particularly
let's go back to sodium and potassium and Chloride
the three electrolytes that are routinely measured
when people go in for their yearly blood work
the body is going to keep
the level of sodium and potassium and Chloride
within the appropriate range in your bloodstream
because if it doesn't
you you die pretty quickly okay
so there's a difference between um
those minerals in your blood
your your body is gonna say
you know what I'm gonna take
I'm gonna take this out of out of the cellular area
I'm gonna take this out of her bones
because I gotta maintain
the blood level of this particular mineral
because otherwise I'm gonna die okay
so like I've talked about before
our body is always trying to do the best it can
in the conditions
that it finds itself in okay
so if our sodium level in our blood is gonna tank
our body is gonna do whatever it takes
to keep that sodium level in the blood
where it needs to be
at the expense of the cellular level
for these reasons it's difficult sometimes
to measure certain
nutrients or certain minerals with a blood test
there are some specialty tests
that claim to measure these things
but I am a little skeptical on the reliability
I don't think that that has been perfected yet
so he's correct that you know
your b12 level in your blood might be
showing up normal but you know
within within the cell
or at a certain moment in time where as
cellular process needs to take place
and it needs B12 to do it
there might be a deficiency at that moment
in the central nervous system
so that but here again
he keeps focusing on the central nervous system
and you know just because your head hurts right
doesn't mean that all of the focus
goes to what's happening in your brain okay
migraines are really a whole body phenomenon and um
he keeps focusing on on your brain
your nervous system things like that
and so I think again it's
it's just signaling to me that
he doesn't have that much familiarity
with
migraines in particular
that alone can be a trigger right
stress is another trigger
which is adrenal so the whole thing with the adrenals
which is really important to know
and I'm grabbing my adrenals right here
is that with the adrenals is
we walk around on adrenaline all day
because many of us do things that actually prompt
a adrenaline release it's not
okay so now we're moving to the adrenals okay
so within the natural medicine space
a lot of natural practitioners
everything's blamed on the adrenals okay
he's he's talking about adrenaline okay
so most people recognize adrenaline
that's a stress hormone
there's
another stress hormone that most people are aware of
called cortisol
in in most situations
you're gonna have both of those hormones
released at the same time
so if there's a reason to um
have adrenaline released usually
we're gonna have some cortisol released
at the same time
he's saying we are doing things all the time
we're walking around on adrenaline
we're doing things all the time
that stimulate an adrenaline release well uh yeah
adrenaline is a necessary hormone okay
so also cortisol
so a lot of a lot of people are sort of
they act like adrenaline and cortisol are like bad
so um yes
we do things all the time that require adrenaline
to be released or cortisol to be released
such as standing up okay
so when you are sitting down and then you stand up
you are moving against gravity
and so gravity is pulling the blood out of your head
towards your feet and so when you stand up
your adrenal glands
give a little puff of cortisol and adrenaline to
to activate your cardiovascular system
get your
your heart pumping with a little bit more force
and to constrict your um
arteries a little bit
to increase the blood pressure a little bit in the
in the circulatory system
so that you maintain the blood flow
you maintain the amount of blood in your head okay
so it's this isn't a bad thing this is normal
this is what should be happening in fact
in fact
many people because their adrenals
are lacking
the nutrients that they need to produce these hormones
there's an overload of metabolic waste material
that is accumulated
because every time the adrenals make these hormones
they're making waste material
and then there's a lack of cellular voltage
or cellular vitality
to run the biochemical reactions within the cell
most people are having difficulty
making the adrenaline and cortisol
and that's why when they stand up
they're feeling dizzy the room's going dark right
they gotta pause for a minute
and so that's that's actually much more common right
he's kind of describing like we're walking
around on adrenaline all day
well to some extent we we need to be haha
you're not gonna be able to stand up and walk around
if you don't have that little puff of adrenaline
to help keep the blood in your brain OK
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
verses 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
not just about hardships
and tough times and stress all day long
it's also things like not eating
enough at the right times
and then we're releasing adrenaline all day
okay so
when he's talking about not eating enough
and not eating at the right time
I assume what he's describing is
someone experiencing a drop in their blood sugar okay
so
if we eat in such a way that we spike
and then drop our blood sugar
that's a great way to have a low blood sugar episode
missing a meal um again
if you know we become acclimated
we get in the routine of eating at a certain time
and then our body anticipates okay yeah
I'm gonna get a gonna get some food here
I'm gonna get some glucose from the food
I'm anticipating all of that
and then that doesn't happen
that generates a stressor on the body
eventually if we don't eat
our blood sugar is going to drop okay
so when the blood sugar drops
this is actually you know
the body treats a blood
a low blood sugar episode as a major emergency
our brain runs on glucose
and so if there isn't enough glucose
for our brain to function
we're going to pass out we're going to go unconscious
so as the blood sugar starts to drop
the body jumps in
because it doesn't want us to pass out okay
it treats it as the
sort of potential emergency situation
that it could develop into
and so it releases
adrenaline and cortisol from the adrenal glands
in addition to some other hormones
but the adrenaline and the cortisol
stimulate the liver to produce glucose
so we can produce our own glucose if we need to
and the adrenaline and the cortisol help
signal the liver to do that
and so that
helps prevent the blood sugar from dropping
but all of that that whole reaction from uh
missing a meal going outside of our routine
to just
the stress of the low blood sugar episode itself
that generates a stress around the body
and we have to have enough resilience and vitality
to counter that stress
and this is one of the reasons why
amongst migraine suffers missing a meal right
notorious for quote unquote
causing a migraine or triggering a migraine
so when he's talking about this
I'm assuming
he's talking about a low blood sugar episode
you know he's saying that we're a
you know kind of just releasing adrenaline all day long
if we don't eat the right things
or eat at the right times
you know you're going to have that burst of adrenaline
when the blood sugar drops
when all of this whole hormonal cascade kicks off
due to a low blood sugar episode
the individual is going to be driven to eat okay
and so this is where
when
people are going through a low blood sugar episode
they're like I gotta eat something
I gotta eat something where are the chips
where the pretzels where's the candy was
you know Snickers bar
you know you're driven to eat you
you can't control it because your body is like okay
we don't want to pass out here
get some glucose in here
glucose glucose
get her to eat get her to eat
so we're driven to eat something
unfortunately we can eat something in response
it's going to again spike and drop
our blood sugar and then we repeat the cycle all over
but for him to say we're like walking around
you know like we're just releasing adrenaline all day
it's a little bit of a a little bit of an overstatement
I don't really know where he's coming from with that
and again it's sort of
it's sort of
painting this very necessary hormone that has
that we need to be able to walk around um
in addition to many other things
it's kind of painting it as a bad guy
and that's what's happened with cortisol and adrenaline
both of these so called stress hormones
it's normal to be in a situation
or require little bursts of cortisol and adrenaline
throughout the day that's normal
okay and in fact
what's actually plaguing people more often than not
is that
they're not able to produce the necessary adrenaline
and cortisol that they need to make it through the day
I I don't like it when we're casting something like
these hormones is like the bad guys
or something like that I don't think that's helpful
helpful for people migraine suffers right it's
nearly universal
that chronic migraine sufferers now have anxiety about
when is the next migraine attack going to come
what is the next thing that's going to trigger
a migraine for me
what do I need to avoid what am I doing wrong right
all of these things and then we're painting
hormones that need to be there
within our body is sort of the problem
now I've got one more thing to worry about
where where's my adrenaline and cortisol right
we we want to get people out of this hypervigilance
you know semi paranoid state in fact
when I work with my clients
this is usually
something that we have to consciously work on
I've been there too
it would be kind of unusual if at any moment you could
you know you could wake up feeling great
and by four PM be laying in bed with a
you know
trash can by your side cause you're so nauseous
you're afraid you're gonna vomit
and you totally can't function
it's pretty normal
when people go through that enough times
that they start to start to develop some anxiety and
you know um
almost paranoia around this and so
you know we're never gonna feel good
if we're continuing to live in this anxious
hyper vigilant paranoid state
so I I don't like to contribute
to that with this type of language like
you know
your naturally occurring hormones are you know
the bad guy and causing you problems
and that eventually causes a problem
cause the brain fills up with that adrenaline
so one of the things that triggers off that adrenaline
is
so your brain doesn't fill up with adrenaline
I don't know where where where he's getting this I I
I I can't explain that statement
things that triggers off that adrenaline is the
caffeine that triggers adrenaline release all day long
so we got the coffee
everybody's drinking cappuccinos
everybody's drinking got the espressos
we eat the chocolate we do the tea
we do the matcha tea and when we're doing those
we're triggering adrenaline off every day
and that adrenaline is toxic
it eventually dehydrates us
okay
so now we're onto caffeine and the evils of caffeine
okay so
many migraine sufferers
have been told by their neurologist
that they have to stop consuming caffeine
whether it's in coffee chocolate
these types of things
many people in the natural medicine space
have written books that
you can't have any caffeine
you can't have any coffee if you have migraines
what I have found in my works when I
when I first started working
exclusively with women with migraines
in 2017
I also followed this advice okay
because definitely
like it's part of my naturopathic medical education
some some warnings about caffeine were definitely there
so um
I had all of my clients wean off of caffeine
I said wean off of okay
if you want to have a
a great migraine cold Turkey
withdraw from caffeine do not do it OK
so I would carefully wean my clients off of caffeine
then when they were feeling better
um if they wanted to consume
you know if they were coffee drinkers
they like to have coffee once they were feeling better
reintroduce caffeine at a moderate amount
okay that's what
that's what I did with every new client
but as I'm oriented to do
I'm always like questioning like
is this actually necessary
how how do we
how do we get the best results with the least
unnecessary
things effort disruptions etcetera
so I started questioning this
because I am a coffee drinker
I love coffee I have coffee every day
and so I wanted to really make sure okay
do we really have to do this
because I know if you're a coffee drinker or you know
you're a tea drinker
you wanna you wanna have your coffee
you don't want to uh
have to unnecessarily wean off of this if you
you know if you don't have to
so I tested it out and I started um
looking at okay
do we really have to get people off of caffeine
if they do consume it and we don't
you can over consume caffeine OK
caffeine is a pretty toxic molecule
we you know
you can kill yourself if you consume too much caffeine
it takes a lot of work
and a lot of resources for your liver
to detoxify the caffeine molecule
and get it out of your body
and you can see that because it takes a while to do it
and if you over consume it
you can kill yourself OK
cause it doesn't get out of your body very quickly
and so you can over consume it and it eventually be
can become toxic and you can kill yourself
and so when I have clients that consume coffee
or caffeinated drinks
I do look at okay
is this is this too much
okay you
you can over consume caffeine
but
if people are drinking a reasonable amount of caffeine
or you know
reasonable amount of coffee
um what I have found is for most people
they can continue to drink that
and they can still feel better
and recover from their migraines
you know he's saying that
you know the caffeine stimulates adrenaline
it it does
it stimulates adrenaline and cortisol
you know caffeine
there's always these caffeine wars right
there's
there's the study that says the caffeine is killing you
and then six months later
a study comes out
that the caffeine is actually preventing alzheimer's
and you know
all of these things right
the coffee bean right
it's a
it's a it's a plant
there's a lot of nutrients in it okay
so when you're drinking coffee
you're actually drinking a very nutrient dense beverage
that also contains caffeine
okay is it stimulating some adrenaline and cortisol if
if you have the nutrients that your adrenals need
to make that adrenaline and cortisol
you can clear out the metabolic waste material
that's generated
when you make the cortisol and adrenaline
and you have enough cellular voltage
to run those biochemical pathways
and then your liver has the capacity
it's got the room it's got the margin
to clear out the caffeine from your system
you will be okay
I know this from my own personal experience
you will be okay okay so again
is it the caffeine that's causing the problem
is it the adrenaline
and the cortisol that's causing the problem
or are there actually some deeper uh
factors at play here
within our body and within our biochemistry
he's kind of hitting like all of the hot button
targets for migraine sufferers
we've got dehydration we've got B vitamins
we've got caffeine okay
we've got cortisol and adrenaline right
he's kind of like checking all of these standard boxes
that we hear all the time
when it comes to migraines
the migraines are still there right
more and more people are suffering from migraines
despite all of this talk about these common topics
it eventually goes in here
and starts to burn out neurotransmitters
and that's a great trigger right there
that's why when someone is under stress for example
and they trigger off an adrenaline rush
because they just had a breakup
a relationship a betrayal
a hardship an argument
somebody a confrontation
all of a sudden they get a migraine later
it triggers off their migraine
another reason for migraine
so yes mental and emotional stressors okay
so mental and emotional stressors
are also pushing the body out of balance
they can push us into our migraine zone
is it is that only because of adrenaline
and cortisol release and response to mental
emotional stressors I don't believe that for one moment
so we are more than just a physical body
there's a mental and emotional component to us
humans too um
we really don't have a good
good understanding of the totality of the human being
right because we are more than just a
a bag of biochemistry walking around
it's funny he's like the medical medium
um he's somebody that kind of made his name known
because he was consulting with a spirit
in the non physical realm
but everything that he's talking about
like he's now couching mental and emotional stressors
like you know
conflicts with people you know heartbreaks
etcetera from a purely physical standpoint
I find that a little ironic OK
you know there's a definite physical component
to mental and emotional stressors right
there's a connection
between what we call our mental and emotional aspect
and our physical body
that we don't have a very good understanding of
when we are prone to migraines
the vast vast
majority of migraine sufferers
will experience a migraine
after these types of stressful events
that he's describing right
and so I do work with my clients quite a bit
this is very individualized and personalized work
but it's not just related to adrenaline and cortisol
coming from your adrenals
it's not just related to our biochemistry
so like I say I find it a little ironic
that the medical medium is just tying everything to uh
adrenaline he's hardly mentioning cortisol
I'm just mentioning it
because those two go hand in hand
but he keeps harping on this adrenaline connection
even though he's supposedly consult
consulting the the spirit realm for his information
migraines is like allergies
but not necessarily allergies
when the pollen count is high or pollution is high
that can trigger somebody into a migraine it's not
okay so now we're again
we're hitting right cause
a lot of migraine sufferers
they will first be diagnosed with
like chronic sinus infections
this is very common amongst migraine sufferers
because many migraines
the symptoms of the migraine are in the sinus area
the pain is in the sinus area
it's also very common for migraine sufferers
to have nasal congestion runny nose uh watery eyes
I've talked about this in other podcast too
so again he's kind of hitting another hot button
pollen air pollution
but he's saying
it's not actually the pollen that's the cause
it's not the pollen that's the cause
it's a trigger
because we got sensitivities in the sinuses
so in the sinus cavities
because the sinus cavities are inflamed
they're inflamed from bugs like Streptococcus
a lot of people have chronic sinusitis
it's always there
okay so he's talking about sinus inflammation
done some episodes on this too
where I really talk about what's really going on here
now he's blaming bacteria okay
so um we are covered with bacteria that's normal um
you
you have naturally occurring bacteria in your sinuses
uh in your nose okay
this is all normal
if our immune system is functioning properly
we keep that normal bacteria in check
so that it doesn't overgrow okay
so again it's like
it's like oh okay
now I've got a back now I got bacteria
I gotta get rid of the bacteria
we gotta think about these things a little bit deeper
we gotta use a little bit more common sense
when we're talking about things like this OK
everything is covered with bacteria and viruses
and mold and I mean
we're designed to withstand all of that OK
so again he's just kind of like
almost running down like
the standard checklist of topics
for migraine sufferers
but we're really not looking at it from any sort of
like complex
complexity or even like common sense um
attitude there
they have underlying streptococcus issues
so when all of a sudden the air is not right outside
or the pollen count is high
they get triggered into a migraine
there's so many more we'll cover them
okay so I talked about this on other podcast will link
link to them as to what's going on here
this kind of threw me a little bit that now he's
he's holding like a little plastic uh haha
uh model of
of uh
bacteria here okay
so like I say
I cannot read the medical medium's mind
I'd love to give him the benefit of the doubt
but to me this is somebody that's really not like to me
it doesn't sound
like somebody that's actually ever had a migraine
or really understands you know
helps people with migraines routinely
this seems like someone that's kind of gone through
sort of like the standard checklist of
this is
this is what we talk about when we talk about migraines
we talk about hydration we talk about B vitamins
we talk about electrolytes
we talk about you know
sinus inflammation you know um
it's it's just sort of like
that standard checklist that he's going through okay
I hope this helps cause I know right
you're getting these types of reels
and TikToks all the time so start to
you know ask yourself okay
is this just another sort of migraine checklist real
that we're going through again
and if I really think about
think about it from a common sense perspective
does it really
does it really make sense
okay so he keeps saying
you know these things aren't the cause
but it's like okay
you are kind of talking about it
like these things are the cause okay
so
I hope this helps give you a little bit of discernment
and I know how frustrating it is for migraine sufferers
because
we're just inundated with these types of things
OK
so
you know I'm doing this
you know I
I do my podcast to get information out to migraine
sufferers of course
if you've been listening to the podcast
you've heard me talk about that I do work one on one
with women all over the country who have migraines
right but I'm not kind of promoting you know
the
the latest greatest B12 the latest greatest magnesium
this electrolyte drink right for your brain
that's not going to cut it
and I think
I think most of you listening have realized that
because you've tried all of this type of stuff before
right
it it seems like he's making these types of videos
to try to do more of this
sort of like
quick fix you know
now I've got the medical medium you know
miracle migraine supplement you know
product line or or something like that you know
I wish it were that simple
because migraines are such a horrible
horrible condition they cause so much suffering
I wish that you could take a particular magnesium blend
and solve the problem that would be wonderful
I would wish for nothing more for that to be the case
our body is generating migraines
because we have pretty serious deficiencies
and blockers within what I call the three principles
the three things our body needs to function optimally
to restore itself to health
to maintain its state of health so that we feel good
migraines are not of symptom
phenomenon
or cluster of symptoms that the body generates
when things are just at the beginning
of falling out of balance okay there are other symptoms
I've talked about in other podcast episodes
there are other symptoms that the body generates
at first okay
you can call them sort of canary in the coal mine
symptoms
these are the symptoms that the body starts generating
the beginning indicators the beginning signs
that we're starting to build up blockages
or deficiencies within these three areas
by the time you get migraines
you're you're not the the Canary is already dead okay
like we're we've already built up pretty significant
blockers and deficiencies
and missing pieces within these three principles
so when that happens
you're not going to solve the problem by these sort of
you know miracle pill one off quick fix
you know this you know you just need B12 okay
it's it's it's it's past that point okay
we have to go deeper and really take a look at
where are the specific blockers and deficiencies
and then how are we going to approach this
because again as you know
by the time you have chronic migraines
you're in a hypersensitive state
and any little variance from your routine
that your body is acclimated to
so any change that's made unfortunately
generates such a stress and our vitality is low
we can't weather any you know even
you know relatively minor change without feeling it
it's it's highly likely that we're gonna get tipped
into a migraine and so
migraine sufferers start to feel
trapped between a rock and a hard place I
you know I I think I need to make some changes
I think if I made some changes I would feel better
but any little change makes me feel worse and makes
you know tips me into a migraine
so you know
this is this is the state of chronic migraines
it's not it's not a quick fix
it requires a you know
detailed assessment careful understanding
and a very gentle uh
approach at the right time in the right order
because we're so sensitive to any little change
and so um
when I'm listening to medical medium
talk about migraines right
I'm not hearing that level of understanding
it's just more of like oh
you know you just need a couple little things here
and you're gonna be good to go
hmm I wish that were true
but it's not so I hope this helps um
as you're kind of evaluating
all of these things that you're getting
uh you know
inundated with because you know
like Facebook Instagram
TikTok
they very quickly figure out what we're suffering from
okay and then they're giving us uh
these types of
these types of like advertisements and stuff like that
that's probably how you found me right so
so I hope this helps you evaluate things um
with a little bit more discernment
so thanks so much for joining me today
um if you um
have enjoyed this information
please give us a like give us a subscribe
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and if you'd like to join my free Facebook group
Healing Migraines Naturally with Leslie Caesar and d
go over and find us on Facebook
we've got over 12,000 women who are interested
in rediscovering a migraine free life
and it's a really really great Facebook group
a lot of migraine Facebook groups are pretty heavy and
you know there's a
migraines cause a lot of suffering
and so migraine Facebook groups in particular
there's a lot of suffering people in those groups
but um
I'm I'm very happy that my Facebook group
actually has a little bit of a lighter feel
than the other migraine Facebook groups out there
so you're welcome to join us and um
I get a lot of um podcast topics
from the questions
that people ask in the Facebook group
so go ahead and join us over there if you like to
and I will see you soon have a great day everybody