26. Triggered with Dr. Leslie: Migraine Symptoms Explained

In this episode of Triggered with Dr. Leslie, I’m a little less triggered and a lot more explanatory. I walk through the different phases of a migraine, from prodrome to aura to the headache itself and the so-called “migraine hangover” afterward, and I explain what I believe those symptoms are actually telling you about what’s happening in the body.

Instead of seeing migraines as random or your brain as defective, I want to help you understand these symptoms as clues, so you can stop feeling confused by them and start seeing the bigger picture more clearly.

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 another episode of triggered
with Doctor Leslie this is where I go through the uh
various migraine reels um
on Facebook and become triggered
by all of the bad advice that I see and uh
go through them
so we're here for another installment today
let me share uh something that I found on Facebook
and I wanna walk you through it
so today is not so much me
uh ranting and raving
and I'm a little less triggered today
um
but I wanna talk through what the symptoms of migraine
actually mean okay
so we're gonna use a little
little example that I found on Facebook
okay so
here's a walkthrough
of the symptoms of a typical migraine right
so we've got the typical prodrome symptoms
so warning
so not not everybody experiences this
but it's a pretty pretty common
um
prodrome symptom or sort of like early warning symptom
it's a symptom that a lot of people don't realize
that they have
for many years like
it might take several years for someone to realize
that they will start to yawn
before a migraine hits um
because right yawning we we could yawn at any time
it's it's um and so a lot of people don't realize that
they start to yawn more as the migraine is coming on
neck soreness
this is a very very common symptom
I would say um
many many chronic migraine sufferers
their neck is always sore
they're they're always you know have a tight neck
difficulty you know range of motion in the neck
sensitivity to light and sound and smell
these are pretty common uh
symptoms that people experience either
you know in the throes of the full blown migraine or
you know
starting to ramp up a little bit ahead of time
irritability uh huh
this is a big one right
people get irritable definitely with the migraine
but before the migraine too
this is another one of those sort of early warning
prodrome symptoms where people
we start to get a little bit more irritable
um people start to get on our last nerve
and this is something too
where sometimes it might take
a while for people to realize that their irritability
it's actually indicating that a migraine is coming on
it's that one sort of like yawning
where it can be a little hard to um
for people to realize fatigue lethargy
thirst and food cravings okay
so these are common prodrome symptoms
before I go into detail on these
I wanna look at okay
then this post is also covering aura okay
so visual auras or other sensory auras
so visual auras are fairly common
like this says about 25% of people with migraine
also will have an aura
could be visual that's the most common type of aura
but yes some people will have an aura where it's
you know they're having
pins and needles type sensation or
you know the
left side of their body will go kind of numb or limp
this is usually I mean
visual auras are anxiety provoking enough
let alone you have something where it feels
like you're having a stroke'cause
one side of your body is tingling
or numb or
you know
and so on that can be very anxiety provoking
difficulty finding words this is garbled speech right
difficulty finding words and
and so on that's a common one clumsiness oh
I'm dropping everything right
I'm in the kitchen I'm trying to put the dishes away
and I'm dropping the cups
or I'm dropping the silverware or something like that
this is pretty common
now we get to the actual head pain part okay
so throbbing or pressure stabbing right
all different kinds of pain sensations
we've got the classic nausea and vomiting
you know neck pain stiffness
mood changes you know
who who could blame somebody
for not being in the best mood through all of this
but yes that is also a symptom nasal congestion
I've done a few podcasts on this one
this is another common one
obviously sensitivity to light
sound and smell classic migraine symptoms
motion sensitivity uh huh
right don't put me in the car with a migraine
or I might start to vomit right
or feel even worse that's
that's pretty common dizziness
I would say you know
not as common but definitely people will experience uh
dizziness
brain fog that's a classic right
and then we've got the post room
so coming out of it so big one the migraine hangover
right I feel like I was hit by a bus
a lot of times the abortive medication
particularly tryptins will generate that
you know I feel like I've been hit by a bus feeling
so fatigue is very prominent
continuing on with says cognitive challenges right
difficulty finding words and thinking
some people will feel very euphoric after a migraine
so they'll actually have an elevated mood
after a migraine
or some people could have a low mood after a migraine
so let's walk through these symptoms again
cause I wanna tie
into what these symptoms are actually indicating
so symptoms
I know they feel like they're totally random
and I know that they feel like our body hates us
and is trying to torture us
but symptoms actually give us a clue
as to what's going on sort of where
what the body might might be missing
or what might be blocked within the body
so let's go through some of these connections
with these symptoms okay
so
so let's go let's go through these symptoms here okay
so um
neck soreness
so any type of muscle soreness muscle stiffness um
joint pain joint stiffness
this is actually a classic toxicity symptom okay
so um
our body is continuously generating toxins
I like to call them metabolic waste materials okay
so our body is continuously generating these things
we're exposed to
natural and man made toxins from the environment
our body has to
clear all of these substances from the body
the liver is the main organ that's doing this work
but so
I'm just gonna frame it as
the liver is doing this work
just to keep it simple
so if the liver cannot keep up with the load
the body will protect itself
because it doesn't want these toxin molecules
circulating in the bloodstream
because when they do they
damage things OK we wanna get these toxin molecules
out of the bloodstream
if we can't get them out of the body
at least we get them out of the bloodstream
that's that's better for us
so guess
where the body likes to put these toxin molecules
if the liver can't keep up
the body will sequester them in our fat cells
in our muscles in our joints
the body is putting these toxin molecules in tissues
where they're going to cause
the least amount of damage okay
so if our body were to store toxin molecules
in our pancreas or our eyeball or something right
these are
vital organs that we don't want to have damaged
now we don't want any damage
but if I've got a choice between you know
storing toxins in my retina
or storing them in my fat cells or my muscles right
my body makes an intelligent decision
to store them in those tissues
so um
when they are stored in the muscles and the joints
the muscles and the joints hurt okay
these are toxin molecules that irritate
kind of damage that generates
inflammation
in the tissues that they're being stored in
so not only neck soreness
but any sort of muscle pain right
it's like you wake up in the morning and you're like
oh man I you know
I'm getting out of bed I
I'm like an old lady getting out of bed right
that's not just aging
that's the accumulation of toxins in your body
that your body has intelligently put in your muscles
and your joints and so on
to try to protect you it may not be pleasant
but it beats the alternative
so I wanted to talk about that symptom now we've got
fatigue
irritability
and sensitivity to light and sound and smell
so these are classic toxicity symptoms as well
I've talked a lot about this on my podcast
Healing Migraines Naturally with Leslie Caesar Andy
migraines are an indication
of a pretty significant toxin overload within the body
and so the symptoms that migraines are
generate or associated with
most of them not all of them
but most of them are just classic
textbook toxicity symptoms
and that's what these symptoms in particular indicate
I want you to think of the symptoms of a hangover okay
when you poison yourself
with too much alcohol on a Friday night
and you wake up on Saturday morning
what are what is that person experiencing okay
they're highly irritable their head is pounding
they are really really fatigued right
they don't want to get out of bed
they're not thinking that clearly
they're very sensitive to lights
please shut the curtains
it's too bright in here where are my sunglasses
you know quit tapping quit making all that noise
you're driving me crazy oh oh
it stinks in here
somebody take the trash out quit making those eggs
I'm gonna barf right they're nauseous
there could be literally vomiting
so these are classic symptoms
of a toxin overload in the body
that's what you're experiencing
so with these prodrome symptoms that are listed here
this is this is your early warning symptom
that the load is really starting to accumulate
and it's about to tip over okay
so in addition to that right
you're gonna like fatigue
you're yawning
you're trying to get more oxygen into your body
this is a symptom that we call air hunger okay
so when somebody's yawning oh right
the body's like okay need more oxygen right
yawning facilitates getting more oxygen into the blood
thirst and food cravings okay
so if I have a toxin overload if I drink more water
I'm gonna promote more urine production and more
elimination of toxins through the urine
so it would make a lot of sense for the body to
become more thirsty in this situation
and then food cravings
people are not craving
they're they're not craving kale salads in this phase
right
they're craving very very easy to digest foods okay
what are comfort foods they're made out of grains
or they're mashed potatoes or this type of thing grains
chips pretzels
ice cream things with sugar in them mashed potatoes
French fries
these are foods that are very easy to digest
relatively speaking and so the body is starting to say
you know what
we're gonna we're coming into some hard times here
I'm gonna
need all of my energy to deal with this toxin overload
that's accumulating so I wanna make it easy to
I I wanna make it easier on my digestive track
to break food down and I'm gonna need a lot of glucose
to make it through this and so
people will start to crave very glucose dense foods
that are very easy to digest
so that they're not putting
a lot of energy into their digestive tract
they're putting
more energy into clearing the toxin load
as best they can
and they're going to get more glucose out of that
easy energy
so then we go into the aura
I
but there's another phenomenon occurring here
which I'll address in another podcast
so I don't want to go into this one today
but let's take a look now at the full blown
headache symptoms okay
the what we think of is the classic migraine right
so we've got the pounding head pain
nausea and vomiting more neck pain
and stiffness now my nose is running
I've got the sensitivities
uh the brain fog the dizziness again
I want you to think of that person with a hangover
doesn't this sound just like a hangover
this is not a coincidence
migraine is a hangover without the alcohol okay
and so to give me somebody on a Saturday morning
that over did it the night before
that doesn't have a pounding head
that isn't nauseous that isn't literally vomiting
right they're definitely irritable
the you know they're gonna be stiff
they're gonna be hobbling around oh my goodness
your nose starts to run because you can
this is a vehicle for elimination
if I generate a discharge
I can eliminate some of these toxins
so we've got that nasal congestion kicking in
and then like I say
like I already talked about those other symptoms
they're just classic toxicity symptoms
many of these symptoms
you will find in other conditions
that are also
very prominently
indicating a toxin overload within the body
and you'll see that overlap
so this I just want to give you
kind of
a high level overview of what's actually going on here
behind these symptoms
because once you understand what the symptoms tell us
about the three things that our body needs
to feel good to be in a state of health
to not get migraines and other symptoms
when you understand these three principles
and you understand how the different symptoms tie back
to blockers
or deficiencies or missing pieces
within these three principles
then things start making sense
we go from you know
I'm doomed my brain is defective
my body hates me nobody else has this
you know why do I have to be so careful with everything
we go from being you know
angry and confused
to starting to understand what's actually going on
and what these things actually mean
and that guides us to what we could do
what we need to do to solve the problem
I hope that gives you a little bit of insight
again
I've gone through a lot of these different symptoms
or other health conditions in more depth on my podcast
Healing Migraines Naturally with Leslie Caesar and d
so hop over there and um
join us over there too I'll talk to you soon
I think the aura also being driven by a toxin overload