124. Triggered with Dr. Leslie: Why Migraine Rules Are Driving Women Crazy

In this first official episode of Triggered with Dr. Leslie, I’m talking about the migraine advice that sounds helpful on the surface but can quietly keep women stuck for years.

From “treat early, but don’t treat too often” to “avoid your triggers,” “reduce stress,” and “don’t overdo it,” so much of the advice women get is vague, contradictory, and impossible to actually live by.

I break down why these migraine rules are so frustrating, what I believe is actually going on underneath chronic migraines, and why real healing has to go deeper than just managing triggers and symptoms.

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 it's Doctor Leslie
I kind of I said it kind of as a joke
the last reaction video that I did
that I need to do a new
series called triggered with Doctor Leslie
because I I keep getting triggered by all these
migraine rules and bad advice on my social media feeds
so after I went home after I recorded I was like
you know what I like that idea
I think we're gonna run with this
so here here's the first official episode
of triggered with Doctor Leslie where I go through
some of the you know the
the advice runs the gamut from
some of the advice is very well meaning but
just a little off base
two things that actually really trigger me
because they if you follow this advice
or you buy into the mindset behind the advice
you're really going to shipwreck your health
and you're never going to stop the migraines okay
so we're going to run the gamut here in this series
and so I'm kicking this off in June uh 2026
which is Migraine Awareness Month
so this month in particular
we've got the purple ribbons we got the uh hashtags
we got the migraine merch
and I'm trying to counter all of it with a little
actual
good advice for women who are prone to migraines
just like me so let's dive into this
I have something I want to talk about with you
okay so here this was this was kind of a cute post
you know who doesn't like some of these
like little memes and stuff like that
so this is a cute little series
of things that migraine suffers
will definitely resonate from the account
life with migraines so
you know I don't know why
managing migraine feels so overwhelming
the internet treat early for best results
but don't treat too often
but also don't let it turn into medication
overuse headache right
the dreaded rebound so uh
absolutely right
I actually did
I did get triggered by a neurologist
talking about this right
so particularly neurologists are really big on this
and I know from listening to my clients
this is something that really gets them many times too
they go to the neurologist and you know
the neurologist as well
how how is the image tracks working well
I guess it's working okay
but you know DOC I don't wanna take too much
so I only take it after I've waited a little bit
when I know that it's gonna be a really
really
bad migraine'cause I don't wanna take too much of this
right that that's a good thing right
and then the neurologist kind of yells at them kind of
you know
reprimands them what do you mean
you gotta take it immediately
right at the very first moment
I call it the uh oh moment right
the uh oh something's going to something's brewing here
right you gotta take that medication right at the uh
oh moment so then they
you know my woman goes back
starts taking it right at that uh oh moment well
then she's running out of pills right
she can't make it through the month
she only gets 9 imitrex a month
so you know
it's becoming less and less effective
she's getting more and more migraines
she goes back to the doctor
I need more of this well
what do you mean you're taking too much
ha ha ha you're going to give yourself rebound
you're going to give yourself medication
overuse headache is
those kinds of appointments
where
I get a lot of people reaching out to me after that
type of frustrating appointment
so yeah this is this is a good one right
take it early
don't take too much right
I mean give me a break
okay here's another one avoid your triggers right
so if you've been following me on the
on my podcast
Healing Migraines Naturally with Leslie Caesar and d
I talk so much about triggers right
it's not the triggers that are causing your migraines
okay I know that's what you've been told
I know it feels like that right
to us it feels like that
but it's not really the triggers
that are causing the migraine
but everybody is told track your triggers right
you can't avoid your triggers
until you track your triggers
so this is the first uh
infuriating stage of this advice
because now I gotta track everything right
so instead of just living my life
I have to track everything right
like I'm a FBI agent so then you
first
you track it and then you try to piece it together
right
okay uh
was this really the thing
was it really the sunlight
was it really the tomatoes
was it really the sauce right
what you know what
what was it so we were kind of identify that
so then the bubble wrapping starts right
oh I
I call this we wrap ourselves in bubble wrap
because we're trying to
protect ourselves from all of these triggers
that first we had to track
and then we had to decipher and identify
now I gotta avoid all of these
and I gotta bubble wrap myself
and try to protect myself
but don't live in fear of them
because then you're gonna stress yourself out
and then you're gonna feel worse right
because stress is a trigger right
so hahaha but also right
be prepared at all times right
don't forget your hat your sunglasses
your snacks in your purse right
your water bottle right
all these things right
so I thought this one was pretty cute
um but again
I want to reiterate it's not the triggers
it's not the triggers that are causing your migraine
if you want to find out more
go to my podcast talk I've talked about this a lot okay
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
um let's see the next one
ah stress reduce stress right
but don't stress about stressing
but also keep up with everything right hahaha
so yeah reduce your stress if everybody could do that
nobody would have any problems right
but how how do you go about doing that
how do you go about reducing your stress right
so this is another very infuriating one
and what I would say about stress
I've actually covered this on the podcast
a couple times too
so what's so fascinating about stress right
and so I'm gonna use like in this case
I'm gonna talk about mental and emotional stress
like things that we call stress
you know I was stressed out
I got stressed out at work
my coworker stressing me out right
that type of stress
it's very funny
because if we really stop and think about it right
like I'm sure you have that one girlfriend
where like she's got her like hot button right
if that button gets pushed
oh boy is she stressed right
and to her this is like
this is the most important thing
this is like
you know
top level
you know
it's so obvious that this is horrible what happened
right no one would disagree
it's so clear cut right
and you know
we we love her
we care about her
we enjoy her but we're sitting there going
you know this really isn't that big of a deal
like this wouldn't bother me in the least
I'd love to have this problem right
so things that stress us out
and you know
I'm not talking about like a war erupts okay
I'm talking about these little idiosyncratic
things that we stress out about right
if we're really honest right
everybody has their little button or a couple buttons
many but some people have more buttons than others
but that button has to get pushed
it has to be a stressor that we're really sensitive to
that pushes our buttons and then something else right
could happen to us at work that
you know that infamous coworker
right that's just
you know bent on sabotaging everybody right
oh you know
hmm
that's just how she is and
you know I let that go right
but then there's that other coworker in the cubicle
next to her
she does one thing we're on it right
we're we're awake at 3 in the morning
I can't believe she said that
I wish I had said that back to her
I wish I were quicker on my feet
I would have really ripped it
you know I would have ripped a good one in the meat
right so one coworker
the next coworker
we're up at 3 in the morning replaying
you know every
every meeting we've had with her
for the past two years
and recrafting what we would say to her instead right
so you know
to just say well
let it go reduce your stress
you only live once it's just work
why are why do you care so much right
you go home you talk to your husband
you say
you won't believe what she did to me and he goes oh
you know why do you care
it's just these people that right
you just wanna strangle them right
because to you
you're in the state that your girlfriend was in
where it was like this is like haha
this is top level like this is obvious
this is so clear cut right
nobody would argue with me that this is a big deal
right but that's not really the case
we have these buttons and when they get pushed
this whole thing gets activated
we're only stressed out
when those particular buttons get pushed
so what's really the work here is not to do
you know deep breathing
you know
trying to willpower our way to stop thinking about
you know that woman in the cubicle right
what the real work is here is okay what is this button
what we like what is it exactly
really understand
what is this button that's getting pushed
how did it get there
and what what is
what sort of underlying meaning or story is this
is this generating in me and do I wanna continue that
you can continue it I don't care you or you say
you know what I don't really want to continue this
then we make a decision
and from there everything changes right
so it's not just about reduce stress or deep breathing
reduce stress or deep breathing
you know meditation yoga
uh spa day right
this is what we really wanna do
when we're talking about reducing stress
OK so uh
the next one the internet
push through when you can
but don't overextend and pay for it later
but also don't let migraine define your limits
I love this one right
um all this
you know hashtag
you know migraines don't define me
well let's get real
when you're laying in bed
hahaha and you can't function
you're pretty much being taken down by migraines
so they they are going to put a limit on you
that's for sure
and I'm I'm just chuckling because I've been there
right this is
this is the uh
this is just between us right
the little dark humor that comes with migraines
and I'm only laughing because I've definitely been
there with you guys
so so yeah it's sort of like this
this also drives people insane
what do I do today right
I got that thing on Friday Today's Tuesday
I know
I got all this other stuff between now and Friday
uh should I cancel something now
am I gonna make it till Friday
how many spoons do I have right
all of this mental calculation
around what should I do should I take a step forward
should I pause right
it's totally exhausting
the answer to this is not to conserve spoons
it's not to do all of this calculation
all of this mental gymnastics
the answer to this is to restore
your resilience and vitality
which is a very real thing
that allows you to weather stressors
physical stressors
mental and emotional stressors if you're moving
there's physical stress on your body right
so to push through to overextend
just to do anything to go to the grocery store
you're pushing
you're putting a stressor on your body
we have to have enough resilience
and vitality to weather that stress
and keep ourselves out of our migraine zone
so what's not talked about in the migraine community
people are talking about threshold
they're talking about spoons
they're talking about all this stuff
but they're not talking about
how you can actually increase
your resilience and vitality
which is different than the threshold
sometimes I think when I talk about this
people think I'm talking about threshold
I'm not talking about threshold
I'm talking about what I call vitality
what within Chinese medicine
what they call Chi in classical naturopathy
it's called the vital force
this is the organizing energy of the body
that keeps everything functioning
correctly optimally in a state of health
keeps everything tuned up
so this is not a
it's not something you can take a lab test for
and determine
but you can you can feel it
you can develop a sense of it
but it's a very real aspect I mean
you could call it a life force we are alive right
we're more than just a
like a bag of biochemical reactions OK
there is a life force here um
so that energy that vitality keeps us upright
keeps us out of our migraine zone
in the face of all of the stressors
that we're bombarded by and like I say
if you're gonna push through and go to target or you're
you're just gonna go to target
you're gonna be encountering a lot of stressors
and you have to have enough resilience
and vitality to weather that
so when you understand that
and when you have restored your resiliency
and vitality
then you get out of this calculation okay
you you
you're not sitting there
going through all of this mental calculating
so that you can make it to Friday
when you want to go to that concert
so here's the next one the internet move your body
but don't overdo it
but also don't avoid exercise triggers
so this is another really good one um
that I've talked about
your physical fitness level
is not the same as your state of health
and this confuses a lot of people
so a lot of people think that they're healthy
if they exercise and they're physically fit
a lot of people think they're healthy if they eat right
quote unquote eat right
a lot of people think they're healthy
if they get eight hours of sleep
they have a you know
reasonable sleep routine
they're not staying up until 2 in the morning
playing video games every night right
they're like oh
I'm healthy I have a good sleep routine
this is the insidious part of this right
because for migraine sufferers
they go well
I mean I'm so healthy
I eat so clean my goodness
if I didn't I would get a migraine right
I'm I'm not eating all this junk food
I I
I I would never dream of that I would get a migraine
I'm putting all this effort into my eating habits
I'm really healthy
I go to bed at 10
I get up at 6 I don't even sleep in on the weekends
I'm really healthy
my doctor ran my lab work and all my lab work was good
so I'm really healthy my cholesterol's great
I'm healthy
I'm very physically fit
I run long distance you know
I run 5 KS I'm very healthy
but I have these migraines
so migraines have nothing to do with my health
because I'm very healthy
right so this is the mistake that people make right
health supporting habits
support your health but you can
you can be out of a state of health
if your body is generating symptoms
you're not in a state of health
this is not a moral failing
this is not a character flaw
it just is what it is if you're experiencing symptoms
you're not in a state of health
so
you can be physically fit and not in a state of health
your blood work can be perfect
and you can have symptoms
your cholesterol can be great and you can
your body can be generating symptoms
a lot of times you know
for migraine suffers they're encouraged to exercise
get movement etcetera
but like I talked about on the last slide
if you exercise
you're generating physical stress on your body
and if your vitality is low
you you could get a migraine
because you can't weather that stress
so for a lot of chronic migraine sufferers
one of their top goals well
most of my clients when we start working together
you know of course
their goal is to not get migraines anymore
but other goals that a lot of my clients have is
you know I want to increase
I want to increase my physical fitness
because I haven't been able to work out in a long time
because I get a migraine every time I do
so I want to increase my physical fitness
and a lot of my clients bless their hearts
they will try to exercise right
oh yikes
there's the thought of
that sends a cold shiver down my spine
to thinking that you know
thinking of exercising with
you know 3
four migraines a week it's a total nightmare
but I tell them look
the time for more physical activity
is when you're feeling better
and you have more resilience and vitality
so I have a lot of clients where it's like
no more than a 20 minute walk
light walk around the neighborhood
you know stroll
just do that if you want to get outside a little bit
but I'll I'll be honest
I've had some clients where I've had to say
no more than 5 minutes walk
you're not you can't tolerate it yet
and then once they start feeling better
we start building up that resilience and vitality
then they can start walking
what I found is if
if people can walk for about 40 minutes
it's about two miles
they're not experiencing symptoms after the walk
they're not feeling drained
they're not having head pain
their you know
their muscles are not twitching and everything else
after the walk they're not sore
they're bouncing back
then we can start working on more physical activity
to really build
if people want to build more cardiovascular fitness
more strength
that's that's
when you probably have the green light to do that
but until that time we gotta take it easy
because we don't have that resiliency and vitality
to weather the stress of exercise yet
so here with here's the sleep one
so here's the internet rest when you're tired
but don't sleep too much
also keep a consistent sleep schedule right
so this is a notorious with migraine sufferers
if they get up earlier than normal
if they sleep later than normal right
it's a nightmare right
it can be a guaranteed migraine
for a lot of migraine sufferers um
and that's because routines conserve stressors
so when we have routines when we do certain things at
you know predictable times
our body adjusts to that
and it anticipates what we're going to do
so like if you think about eating right
if every day you eat lunch at noon at about 11:30
your stomach is like okay
she's probably gonna put some food in here
so I'm gonna start making hydrochloric acid
and your pancreas is like
okay the food's coming
I'm gonna start making some enzymes right
you're not just you know
putting food in a cold digestive track
it's getting
it's warmed up because you have this routine
and it's acclimated to that routine
if you then suddenly miss the meal right
now your digestive track is like
oh my goodness what happened
what happened to the food
I made all this stuff and nobody showed up
that's a stressor on the body okay
so when we surprise the body
that generates a stress on the body
if we have no routine if there's absolute chaos right
this is also very stressful on the body
because it never knows like
what are we doing next should I prepare for this
should I prepare for that
it doesn't know so it's very stressful on the body
so that's sort of the underlying mechanism for this
what we want to do is we want to have a balance
so when we're in a state of health
we want to maintain health supporting routines
on a typical day to day basis okay
we want to you know
we don't want chaos we want some predictable
events our
so that our body can anticipate things
but we want to have enough resilience and vitality
so that we can weather something unexpected right
so if the meeting goes long
and you don't get your lunch at noon
you don't get a migraine right
you can come out of the meeting
and still eat your lunch at one
and still feel good the next day
so here's the final message here and
this person who I I
I don't know the person that runs this account
I'm sure she has every good intention
this is not at all any sort of comment on her
but what she says what actually helps isn't doing more
it's calming the nervous system beneath it all
fewer rules and more safety signals
that's where healing starts
and this is where I would disagree with the take
why is the nervous system uncalmed in the first place
when I think of a nervous system that's amped up OK
on a hair trigger keyed up irritated um
I think of that as a toxicity symptom
when there's a toxin overload in the body
everything gets irritated the physical body
including the nervous system
which is composed of neurons
everything gets keyed up overexcited
on a hair trigger it's a toxicity symptom
so you're not going to turn around a toxicity symptom
with fewer rules and more safety signals
you get rid of toxicity symptoms
by removing the toxins from the body
and I've talked about what a migraine actually is
on the podcast as well
a migraine is a hangover without the alcohol
I want you to think about that for a minute
I want you to think about the symptoms of a hangover
and I want you to think of the symptoms of a migraine
they're pretty much the same
there's a reason for that
but when we have a hangover from alcohol
we go yep
I poisoned myself last night and now I'm paying for it
when we get a migraine
the same symptoms more or less we go oh
I must have a migraine brain
I've got a neurological problem
I have a safety signal problem right
I'm I'm defective I got bad genes right
the body generates symptoms in predictable patterns
and when the body is poisoned
it generates symptoms since the dawn of time
this has been documented
the ancient Greeks documented these poisoning symptoms
in a wide variety of poisons
not just alcohol
if somebody eats nightshade berries by accident
in the woods guess what
they're gonna have a pounding headache
they're gonna be totally light sensitive
they're gonna be vomiting right
they're they're gonna smell something and go
oh my goodness the odor right
you can read about the symptoms that occur
when someone eats
nightshade berries and they're
they're migraine symptoms
on a podcast episode I went through lists of symptoms
from different toxic substances
when people are poisoned with them
what symptoms do they experience
they experience symptoms that are
the same symptoms we experience
when we have a migraine
so to really address this
we have to get these what I call
metabolic waste materials
and toxin molecules out of the body
but we have to do that without harming the body
and we have to do that
without giving ourselves a migraine
in the process
and that's where my expertise
I've been developing this expertise
over the past nine years
that I've been working exclusively with women
with migraines
so like I say I
I'm sure the owner of this account
has everybody's best intentions at heart
but when you're trying to solve the wrong problem
you're not going to get
to the destination that you want to
get to
so
thanks so much for joining me on the inaugural episode
of triggered with Doctor Leslie
and we will see you soon
hi there
I wanna jump in real quick and tell you about my client
Beth she was getting 15 to 20 migraines and headaches
per month and as you can imagine
this was impacting her work performance
and her confidence she also has two small children
and she was
starting to feel like she was a horrible mom
because she had nothing left for them
at the end of the day but she reached out
and she booked a free console call with me
and after I asked her about her migraines
and her health history
I felt confident that I could help her
I help women
uncover the root drivers of their migraines
and follow a step by step plan to dramatically reduce
the frequency by up to 90%
without adding more medication
or taking a bunch of supplements
so we built her personal migraine map
followed the plan
and now she will get one to two migraines per year
which she uses ibuprofen to treat if she needs to
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