109. Why Allergy Season Feels So Hard for Migraine Sufferers

In this episode, I’m talking about seasonal allergies and why so many women with migraines dread springtime. If you deal with nasal congestion, sinus pressure, and allergy flare-ups every year, I want you to understand that this is not random, and it’s not separate from your migraines.

I explain why I see allergies as part of the same underlying pattern, not just a reaction to pollen or bad luck with genetics. In this conversation, I break down what’s happening physiologically when your body is overloaded, why the immune system starts generating more inflammation and mucus, and how that same internal imbalance can also contribute to chronic migraines.

I also share part of my own history and why I no longer see allergies as something you’re doomed to just manage forever. If allergy season always feels like the beginning of migraine season for you, this episode will help you see the connection in a completely different way

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'm a licensed naturopathic doctor
former chronic migraine sufferer
and I've dedicated my life to helping other women
rediscover a migraine free life
so welcome to the podcast
it is
spring time in Chicago and what does that mean
allergy season so
I think this will be a great
time to talk about allergies
on the podcast
for many migraine sufferers allergies
season right
oh you just dread it right
because it's very common for migraine sufferers
to have a lot of nasal congestion
a lot of sinus problems
we've talked about this on a couple of other podcasts
but I want to address allergies specifically
especially like seasonal allergies right
what we're going through right now
it's particularly challenging for
migraine suffers
if they are also prone to seasonal allergies
and like I say a lot of women just dread
dread the springtime right
cause for most of us that's gonna be the time of year
that we're experiencing allergies right
so instead of being happy that winter's over
and it's warming up
and there's more sunlight and there's pretty uh
blooming trees and the grass is greening up right
instead we're dreading it
oh no I'm gonna get more migraines right
so
a lot of
migraine suffers are also prone to seasonal allergies
so let's put this together okay
this is not a coincidence
this is not an accident okay
if you've been listening to the podcast for a while
I hope you're getting that understanding
I know you know
one of the most common things that migraine sufferers
say is my body hates me right
my body hates me
I'm doomed
why is this happening to me
because migraines they're so random right
you know why did this happen
why did I get struck down with this
I woke up I felt great
I thought it was gonna be a great day
by four PM I'm in the bathroom vomiting
and what's going on why is
why is why am I being struck
struck down by this
it seems so random and
and so if there's one thing that you've gotten
out of this podcast
it's not actually random
and that's good news because when there's recurring
repeating patterns
that means that there's a reason behind it
and when there's a reason behind it
we can figure out what steps to take to turn it around
OK so to
to start off the podcast today on Seasonal Allergies
I'm gonna tell you a story of a little
a little girl growing up in suburban Chicago
in the eighties
who by the time she was 14
every spring would experience horrible
horrible allergies by the time she was fifteen
her nasal cavities
would get so inflamed during allergy season
that she would have spontaneous nosebleeds
she'd be sitting in class in high school
and all of a sudden her nose would start gushing blood
in the middle of English class right
you know it's bad enough being 15
but then you're gonna have a horrible
nosebleed for no reason in the middle of English class
right it's no fun at all 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
this little girl you know
her parents cared a lot about her
and they would say well
yeah Leslie
oh did I let it slip
this is a story about me um
oh well
you know your father has allergies
must be genetic
well let's take you into the allergist
so my parents dutifully took me into the allergist
got all the testing done surprise
surprise
I was allergic to everything that starts to grow in may
in Chicago the grass
the flowers the pollen
the tree you know
the little leaves
and all that little dust that they produce
when they're first growing right
I was allergic to all of that
and so what did they do they formulated a special
you know blend of allergy shots for me
and by the time I was 16
I would be at home once a month
jabbing my thigh with a needle full of uh allergy uh
allergy shots right
and so this was considered well
what can you do it's genetic
your father has it what do you expect
everybody has allergies right
again
this is certainly no criticism at all of my parents
right they were like everybody else right
we don't realize that symptoms like this are not random
they're not really genetic right
certainly my father is predisposed to allergies
and I'm predisposed to allergies
there's there is a genetic component to the conditions
or to the symptom patterns
or symptom pictures that we are prone to get
but first we have to fall out of a state of health
but you know
we didn't know that my parents didn't know that
I certainly didn't know that
right and so it was just sort of a given
well hmm
got your father's genetics right
you got the allergy genes
so then you know
continue to suffer with that every spring in particular
and then you know
when I was sort of in my early
mid 20s migraines started
and then how'd that happen
I was perfectly fine until I got migraines right
oh no
what I didn't realize is
I had a whole host of other symptoms
sort of early morning symptoms
that were there
a good 10 years before I started getting migraines
that were actually signaling that I was developing
some blockers or some deficiencies
within what I call the three principles
these are the three things that your body needs
to maintain its state of health
and when we're in a state of health
our body doesn't generate symptoms
like seasonal allergies we just feel
good
I didn't know any of this
when I started getting migraines every other day
and would stagger home from work
and I first went to my medical doctor
who was a very nice woman
but I uh
tremendously irritated her
over the course of several months
because I thought
doctors figured out what was wrong with you
and helped you fix things
and she kept giving me prescriptions
that I didn't want to take
so I kept going back
thinking that she would do something else
and she never did
and I just really irritated her after several
several rounds of this so then I said okay
I don't think I'll go back and do that route
let me try to figure this out on my own
I think
right
there must be something here that I have control over
and if I just knew what it was
and made the right changes
I think I would feel better right
I had that intuitive knowing that I'm sure you have too
that's what brought you to this podcast right
it's like well
I know that
this is something my body is trying to tell me
if I could just figure out what it is
and I could take the right steps
I really think I would feel better
and these would improve or go away right
so I had that intuitive sense too
so I started looking at alternative medicine
natural medicine right
this is like I'm
I'm just like you guys right
I've just follow everybody follows this path right
you get fed up with the prescriptions and
you know bless your medical doctor's heart right
but they're just not giving you what
you know you need
and so you start looking for other options
and you go into the alternative medicine space
so after bumbling around there
and making my migraines worse and
you know doing a bunch of stuff that uh
like I say made me even made me even sicker
and I had some pretty rough weekends
playing around with some cleanses and things like that
so then after getting burned several times I decide
that I needed to search out
somebody that actually knew what they were doing
and I did find a local chiropractor
who really helped me transform my health
and I started working with him
it would have been late April
early may
the year would have been 1998
so it was right in the throes of allergy season
and I'm sure I had horrible allergies
like I did every year every spring
but the following spring
I didn't have any seasonal allergies
I breezed through through the spring through may
the worst time for me was always Memorial Day weekend
because in the Chicago area
like clockwork right around Memorial Day
the Cottonwood releases all of that cottonwood fuzz
right there's tons of cottonwood trees
I love cottonwood trees
they're one of my favorite trees
but right around Memorial Day here
they release those fuzz balls right
and so those fuzz balls would just do me in
right after struggling the whole month
and then those fuzz balls would be released
and I would just be in agony so then next spring
thing I'm like waiting for those stress balls
I mean even like even now like decades later
Every Memorial Day I'm like oh
the fuzz balls are gonna come
not that I am afraid that I'm gonna
have allergies again but I remember like in high school
cause I was in marching band
and we would do the Memorial Day parade for the town
you know we'd march in the parade
and then we go to the town cemetery
and we'd have to stand there at attention and
you know play
you know the
one of the trumpet players would play taps
and we'd be playing the Star Spangled Banner
and we'd have to stand there
and the cemetery had all these cottonwood trees
and so all this fuzz would be in the air
every Memorial Day weekend
when I had to do this parade
and I would just be dying right
because it's like you're supposed to be at
you know parade rest it's a solemn occasion
it's Memorial Day
and like I'm just trying not to just totally lose it
right
I I
I definitely right I have a little post traumatic uh
seasonal allergy response tied to Memorial Day
it it's like I knew when I was gonna get hit the worst
and I didn't get hit
and so it's not genetic okay
um yes
I have a genetic predisposition to allergies
but I wasn't getting allergies because of my genetic
you're not getting allergies
you're not getting migraines because of your genetics
yes you have a predisposition
but you have to be out of a state of health
before you're going to get those symptoms
or conditions
or diseases that you're genetically prone to
this is the critical
thing that we have to start understanding
as a society
cause this is gonna be a game changer for people
when they really understand this
so allergies any type of allergies okay
whether it's
uh allergies like to cats
and you have them all year long
if you're exposed to a cat
or seasonal allergies
all allergies at the root are a toxicity symptom
there is symptom that there's an overload of metabolic
waste materials and other toxins in the body
and if we get those toxins
those waste materials out of the body
the immune system stops overreacting
and the allergy response stops
so when I started working with that local chiropractor
he did not talk about his work in the way that I
talk about it
but when I look back on the work that we did
the recommendations that he made and that I implemented
a big part of that was supporting
my liver's ability to clear these metabolic waste
materials
and toxins that had become overloaded in my body
by the time I was 14 right
I wasn't having migraines and
but I was having these bad allergies
so this was an early warning symptom
a canary in a coal mine symptom
that things were starting to build up
but see nobody understood that
the allergist certainly didn't understand that
and so the
what would have really been
the appropriate action to take was
not taken okay
so just because I was given allergy shots
and my immune system was being desensitized
that didn't do anything to address the underlying waste
material overload right
I was just sort of injecting something
that was kind of manipulating my immune system
to not overreact but the
underlying reason
why the immune system was overreacting
was still there so you kind of let that roll
you let that continue to play out for another
you know 8 10 years and boom
how do I get chronic migraines
where did this happen how did this happen to me
my body hates me right all of this all of this you know
I went through all of that right
how did this happen
so what's really happening with allergies okay
so you know in the springtime
when everything starts to grow and bloom
all of that pollen right all the all of the
all of the things are in the air
and we're inhaling those little molecules okay
now this is normal okay
we've been inhaling these things since the dawn of time
okay and so
our body is designed to
protect itself from these molecules
because these molecules are basically
airborne toxin molecules
we don't think about them that way
but that's basically what they are whenever you know
when we we don't think there's anything in the air
it doesn't seem like there's anything here right
it's it's clear you know
we're not seeing all of these little tiny tiny
you know
atomic particles in the air so to us unless it's
you know extreme
like there's been a wildfire or something like that
suit in the air or
you know
we really don't think that there's anything in the air
so to speak
but every time we breathe
we are inhaling tiny tiny little molecules
these are external molecules
things that are external to us
they're toxins okay
and so when we inhale them
some of them are going to be absorbed
via the capillary bed in our nose right
or you're taking it in through your mouth
you're gonna absorb some things through your mouth
you bring it all the way into your lungs
they're definitely going to go into your bloodstream
through your lungs
okay
like I say this is normal
we're designed to
to sort of protect ourselves against this
toxin onslaught if you will
airborne toxin onslaught so our immune system
there's a part of our immune system that lines
every area of the body that comes in contact
with the external environment right
so it's almost like a standing army that's kind of
standing guard right
in our mucus membranes in our mouth
in our digestive tract any area
that's going to come into contact
with the outside world cause when we're eating food
that's stuff from the outside and our food has
you know
bacteria on it and viruses and mold and the whole bit
right we're inhaling little mold spores
we're inhaling little viruses or bacteria
in addition to like a pollen molecule right
this is all all of this is happening all the time
so our immune system is standing guard
in all of these areas of our body to immediately say OK
whoops
here's something that we don't want to have come in
okay but inevitably
some of these
molecules are going to come into the bloodstream
and then there are toxin molecule
now in our bloodstream
that little molecule is going to travel to our liver
and our liver is going to have to detoxify it
so that it can leave the body
your liver is doing this 24 7
we make waste materials okay
so
it's not just stuff coming in from the outside world
that our liver has to deal with
we're continuously making metabolic waste material
or byproducts that our liver has to detoxify
so that it can leave the body
if there's already you know
the the liver might have 20 slots to do this
so I'm I've got room for 20 molecules
I can run 20 molecules through these pathways
if I've got 20 molecules
and I can accommodate 20 molecules great
I can detoxify these molecules
they can get out of the body
I'm not gonna develop an overload
what if I have 50 molecules
I've only got 20 slots but I've got 50 molecules
now I've got a problem
20 are gonna get processed
and 30 are gonna have to wait
so as they're waiting they're gonna stay in the body
and they're going to sort of toxic molecules
they kind of irritate things so if I can't
you know if I've got 30 that I can't process
well they're gonna have to circulate around
they're gonna have to come back around
and then when they do
I hope I have a space for them because in the meantime
I've already made more metabolic waste material
I've already breathed in a bunch of mold
and grass and pollen and everything else right
if our liver cannot accommodate the load
and things start to build up
our body says okay
what else can I do right
we got a backlog we don't have enough capacity
what else can I do so then the immune system says
oh
wait a minute here we've got our normal standing army
but my goodness
we're overloaded here I've got to work even harder
right we used to let in
we used to let a few come in
you know we used to let a few toxic molecules in
we would get you know
the obvious stuff but now since we're overloaded
we've got to let even less in so I need more troops
I need more mucus right
how can I keep this stuff
from coming into the bloodstream
well if I make a whole bunch of mucus
that's going to make it more difficult right
now instead of just like the capillary bed
and kind of the normal little mucus layer
now I've got a thick layer
that's going to make it harder for those little tiny
you know pollen and grass molecules
etcetera that's gonna make it harder
for them to get into the bloodstream
so I'm gonna make it easier right
I've already got an overload
let's try to prevent more
so then our immune system gets even more activated
it goes from just sort of a normal level of alertness
routine you know
alertness to okay right
it's it's we're in a war zone now right
rally the troops we need the big guns right
and so now we're
making a nasal discharge right
our nose is running
all in order for the immune system to
to generate a nasal discharge
you have to have inflammation okay
everybody says in you know
we talk about inflammation like it's this bad thing
but you have to have inflammation
the body uses inflammation to get stuff done
and so in order to generate more mucus
to prevent these molecules from coming into your body
and and further overloading your liver
your immune system has to generate more inflammation
to make that mucus okay
so then my nasal cavities are even you know
even more inflamed they get more and more inflamed
to the point
where now the capillaries are so irritated
because of all this inflammation
that they're spontaneously bursting
and I'm having nosebleeds in the middle of class
in high school okay
so this is what's driving allergies
it's not so much the pollen and the grass
and the cottonwood fuzz
it's the level of overload of toxins within the body
okay because the next spring
the cottonwoods were the same okay
the time of year was the same right
the climate is the same
everything was the same except me
I didn't have the toxin overload that I had
I was able to significantly
lower the toxin load in my body and
I didn't know any of this
I didn't go into the chiropractor saying
I have horrible allergies right
I went there because of the migraines
but because he
understood what it takes to restore the body to health
again he didn't talk about it in the way that I do
but when I look back I'm like yeah
he helped me improve my digestive function
he helped me put together a nutrient dense diet
a health supporting diet and since my digestion
was better I could actually break that food down
so I got more nutrients into my body
and then these things that he recommended I do
which I implemented that yeah
now I know oh
sure that helped my liver
move through these molecules faster
and we got that toxin bucket drained
we got those toxins out of my body
and then low and behold
same Chicago same trees same environment
same plants right
I I didn't move
how many people move
how many people uproot their life and move
because of allergies
a lot of people move because of migraine
but particularly
people will move and uproot their whole family
their whole life because of severe allergies right
let me change
the part of the country that I'm living in
maybe you know
this climate will be better for me
maybe these you know
I I won't be around so many cottonwood trees
that'll be better for me
that's not the root cause
if you're struggling with allergies
they're connected to your migraines
like I talked about on a podcast a couple weeks ago
migraines and headaches are major toxicity symptoms
allergies are a toxicity symptom
they're very unpleasant
but usually they come before the migraine
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 dry
versus 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
I've now talked to hundreds of women in depth
around their health history
their symptoms how their migraines
developed
and most likely
the allergies are gonna start
before the migraines start
many people
right they had allergies as a kid
you know how many babies have eczema right
how many little kids in elementary school
are getting allergy shots
or on antihistamines right
and then low and behold
by the time they're in their early twenties
here's the migraine
that's the most common picture
if it didn't happen exactly like that for you that
it's okay
but there's a predictable pattern to the
body right
things are not random
I know it feels like this is just totally random
and no one else has this no one else suffers
my body hates me but that's not the case
I'm here to tell you
that the things that our body does are predictable
recurring patterns and
when you understand those patterns
and how to interpret them
you can put together the right game plan
so that you're not suffering so much
so this is one thing when I'm working with my clients
many of many people have seasonal allergies
and so you know
I might start working with them
during the time of the year where their allergies are
you know not that prominent
and I'll tell them okay
next spring this is what we're looking for
next spring
we're looking for those cottonwood fluff to appear
and you're not having the reaction
that you're used to having
and usually you know
when I tell clients this they're like okay right
it just seems crazy right
because we don't no one knows that
allergies are actually a toxicity symptom
everybody's blaming the immune system
well the immune system is just trying to help out
and then what do we do we go in with the Benadryl
with the Allegra with
you know the Sudafed right
we're trying to shut all of that down because
yeah it's very annoying
but
we're shutting down what our body's
doing to try to protect us right
cause it's like you're already overloaded
I'm trying to prevent a further overload
and now you're preventing me from making the mucus
that would protect you
I wanted to talk about this today
not only because we're in the prime allergy season
at least here in Chicago but because
I have a client that I talked to this morning
and she lives in South Carolina
and South Carolina right
it's notorious for that pine pollen
and so it's notorious for causing people problems
and so this particular
every year right
she really suffers with this
and she also has a history of asthma
she actually has an inhaler at home
right because she's prone to asthma
so if you're already prone to asthma
just you know
TL Dr Asthma is also a toxicity symptom
um so if you're already prone to asthma
you live in South Carolina with these pine trees right
you're just dreading this time of year every year
right just like me with those cottonwood puffs
they're just dreading that pine pollen season right
so I just talked with her this morning
I said well how's the
allergies
and I knew that it was pollen season down there
because we had been talking about it
for the past couple weeks
she said yeah
it's so different it really didn't bother me this year
and I said yeah
isn't that great and this is
this is this is again
when you understand what the signals actually mean
and you know how to intervene
recurring response right
this is what I was expecting
she and I started working together in December
this was one of the symptoms that we identified
that she's prone to it is a seasonal symptom
I'm glad I was able to talk with her
during the prime time of the season
and I was able to hear in real time
that she had a minimal response this year
wasn't totally gone um
but it was much improved over what is typical for her
so again why is that
it's because that pine allergy
pine pollen allergy response
is not an immune system problem it's a
toxicity problem and for the past four months
we've been draining that toxin bucket
it's not overflowing anymore
this client has gone from near daily
you know six days out of the week having a migraine
on preventative medication worrying about over you
seeing her abortives and going into rebound right
is it worth it
should I take one for this or should I let it ride
that whole back and forth of
should I take something or not
these little abortive pills are so precious to me
I can't run out at the end of the month
I mean
she's now taking Advil maybe once or twice a month and
and she's off of her preventative medication
so the head pain is significantly better
and her pine pollen allergies are significantly better
in addition to a whole host of other symptoms
that she was experiencing
so when you understand like I said
these things are not random
they're not disconnected
your intuition that all of these things are connected
at a root cause level is totally correct okay
and so this is the type of intervention
analysis and understanding
this is the type of
intervention and analysis and understanding
that I wanted when I went into my medical doctor haha
but she kept giving me prescriptions
that I refused to take and I irritated her so much
but bless her heart right
I'm sure I have no doubt that
this was actually
the type of medicine that she wanted to practice
because I know that anyone who goes into medicine
anyone who goes into any of the healthcare uh
professions and certainly medical doctors
they go into the field with a very
very genuine desire
to help people and ease the suffering
of humanity but unfortunately
unbeknownst to them they're working from a false model
okay and so when you're working from a false model
the things that you do are not going to be in alignment
with what should be really happening here okay
so
let me know in the comments if this resonates for you
if you've been experiencing allergies
in addition to migraines yep
the root of both of those things is the same
both of those symptoms
are actually what we call toxicity symptoms
they're predictable
recurring symptoms that the body generates
when there's an overload of waste material
again that we make ourselves
and things from the environment as well
naturally occurring or man made right
when we hear the word toxin
we're always thinking of like
man made chemicals that we've poisoned the earth with
but the natural environment is full of toxins too
the pollen is a toxin basically
and you know
that's that's a naturally occurring substance
so I hope this gives you some hope okay
and I hope that this confirms what
I'm sure your intuition has been telling you
all of this time too
so thanks so much for joining me today
I'm really glad that you found the podcast
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if my approach resonates with you
and this is just what the thing you've been
and
if this is just the thing that you've been looking for
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so thanks so much and I will talk to you soon