Transcript
Dr. Mark Hyman (0:00)
What if brain fog, anxiety and mood swings aren't simply all in your head? What if the health of your mind actually starts deeper in your body, in your gut, in your hormones, metabolism and your immune system? Well, let me tell you, the connection is real and it affects how you think and you feel every single day. And that's why I created Brain Shaping Academy, a six week program that shows you how healing your body can help you heal your mind. Brain Shaping Academy relies on the same targeted nutrition and lifestyle strategies that I've used for 30 years to help my patients improve their mental, emotional and cognitive health. So if you want to feel calmer, clearer and more in control and stay sharp and protect your brain as you age, check out Brain shaping academy@Dr.hyman.com brainshaping that's Dr. Hyman.com brainshaping. Welcome to Office Hours. This is our dedicated one on one space to go deeper, get clearer and explore what truly moves the needle for your health. I'm Dr. Mark Hyman and each week we're going to pull back the curtain and share the insights, the research, the lessons that don't always make it into our conversations with guests. Because at the end of the day, you are the CEO of your own health and for many of you, your family's health too. And you might not feel it all the time, but you have far more power and agency than you realize. I'm glad you're here. This episode is brought to you by Function Health, empowering you to live 100 healthy years with over 160 lab tests for just $365 a year. And use the code MARK2026 to get $50 off your membership. If you've ever had a migraine, you know this isn't just a headache. It's the pounding pain, the nausea, the sensitivity to light and sound. Sometimes it's so severe you can't function at all. And for many people, the message they get is simple. Take medication, avoid your triggers, learn to live with it. But here's the problem. That approach may help manage symptoms, but it doesn't explain why this is happening in the first place. Because migraines aren't random. They're not just genetic, and they're not just about your head. Migraines are a whole body issue. They involve inflammation, hormones, blood sugar control, gut health, your nervous system, and lots more. So today I want to walk you through a functional medicine approach to migraines. Not just how to treat them, but how to understand and prevent them at the root. So what is A migraine? Well, let's start with the basics. A migraine is not just a headache, it's a neurological event. It can include throbbing or one sided pain, nausea or vomiting, sensitivity to light and sound, visual disturbances like an aura, and often brain fog or fatigue. So what's actually happening? Well, the brain becomes more sensitive and more reactive. There's inflammation, there's dysregulation in blood vessels and nerve signaling. And the nervous system is more activated than it really should be. And here's the point. Migraines are a signal. They're not the problem. What are the root causes of migraines? Well, this is where we shift the conversation. Instead of asking how do we stop the migraine? We ask what's driving it. So let's walk through the most common root causes. Inflammation. Chronic low grade inflammation is one of the biggest drivers of migraines. This can come from ultra processed foods. It can come from food sensitivities like gluten or dairy, poor gut health and environmental toxins. Inflammation makes the brain more sensitive, it lowers your threshold for a migraine. Blood sugar imbalance, well, that's one of the most overlooked triggers. If your blood sugar is constantly spiking and crashing, your brain feels it skipping meals, eating a lot of refined carbs or sugar, or going long periods without food, all of these can trigger migraines. Your brain needs steady fuel. And when that fuel becomes unstable, it creates stress in the system. The next thing that can often be a factor is hormone fluctuations, especially for women. Now many women notice that their migraines follow a pattern. And that's not a coincidence. Migraines most commonly happen right before their period starts, starts in the few days leading up to menstruation. So why did that happen? Because that's when estrogen levels drop sharply. Estrogen plays a big role in the brain. It helps regulate neurotransmitters like serotonin. It has anti inflammatory effects. So when estrogen suddenly falls, it can increase inflammation, it can disrupt brain signaling and can make the nervous system just more sensitive. That combination can trigger migraine. Some women also experience migraines around ovulation, when hormones shift again, or during menopause when estrogen levels become more unpredictable and so does progesterone. So it's not just about having too much or too little estrogen, it's about fluctuations and instability. And hormones influence inflammation, influence brain chemistry. They influence how reactive your system is. And that's why many women who experience migraines on a cyclical basis. And why actually tracking your Cycle can be one of the most powerful tools for understanding your triggers. And then you can actually do something about it. The next big factor is gut health. Now, there's a powerful connection between your gut and your brain. It plays a major role in migraines. In fact, we all often call this the gut brain axis. Your gut is constantly communicating with your brain through the nervous system, the immune system, and even chemical messengers like neurotransmitters. So when something is off in the gut, your brain feels it. Common issues we see include dysbiosis, which is an imbalance of gut bacteria, leaky gut, where the intestinal lining becomes more permeable, and food sensitivities, which can trigger immune reactions and brain inflammation. All these can increase inflammation throughout the whole body. And inflammation is one of the biggest drivers of migraines. But it doesn't stop there. About 90% of your serotonin, a key neurotransmitter involved in mood and pain regulation, is actually produced in the gut. So when your gut's out of balance, it can disrupt your brain chemistry, it can lower your threshold for stress, and it can make your nervous system just more reactive. And that's why so many people with migraines also experiencing bloating, irritable bowel syndrome, or other digestive symptoms. Now, your gut is not just about digestion. It's a central hub for your immune system, your hormones, your brain. And when you start to heal the gut, you often see improvements, not just in digestion, but in migraines as well. And I've had many patients I treated with serious gut issues that fix their migraines. So it really works. The next big factor in migraines could be nutritional deficiencies. And there's a few critical ones for brain health. One is magnesium. And I had a patient who was a radiation oncologist from Mayo, a resident who had intractable migraines. And she was on narcotics and anti nausea pills that were like, I think, get chemo patients. It was bad and turned out she just had a magnesium deficiency. And we treat her magnesium deficiency and her migraines went away. It's not always that simple. But for her it was also B vitamins are really important, especially riboflavin or B2. And also coenzyme Q10 is important in mitochondrial function, and that can be a factor also in migraines. There's not just one kind of migraine. And migraines are not because of the side they're on or where they are, but because of the cause. So it could be Hormones, it could be gut, it could be nutrients. So you've got to figure out what the issues. It could be mitochondria. And they, these nutrients basically support energy production in the brain and they help regulate nerve function. So when you're low, your whole system becomes more vulnerable. Another big factor is nervous system dysregulation. This is a big one. You know, stress doesn't just trigger migraines. It lowers your resilience. Your body's constantly in fight or flight mode. You're more sensitive to everything. You're sensitive to poor sleep, to chronic stress, to overstimulation. All of this keeps your nervous system activated. And that makes it much easier for migraine to happen. So why does conventional medicine not work so well? Where does it fall short? Short? Well, medications can be helpful for sure, and they can be life saving. And for some people they're necessary, but they don't address the root causes, they don't fix the inflammation, they don't stabilize blood sugar, they don't heal the gut, they don't regulate the nervous system. In some cases, they can even lead to rebound headaches, meaning you take the drug and you get another headache. So if you don't change the underlying terrain, the pattern continues. So what can you actually do? What helps? Let's walk through the functional medicine approach. The first is stabilize your blood sugar. One of the most overlooked drivers of migraines is just unstable blood sugar, which affects so many Americans. When your sugar spikes and then crashes throughout the day, it just creates a stress in the body. And for some people, that's enough to trigger a migraine. So it's one of the simplest and the most effective places to start. So how do you do that? We'll focus on protein with every meal. Good fats, the protein helps slow digestion, helps your energy more stable. Try not to skip meals, you know, especially early in the day. Long gaps without food can set you up for these drops in blood sugar. And be mindful of refined carbs and sugar like pastries, white bread, sugary snacks. Cause they cause quick spites and then you get crashes in your blood sugar. And for many people, stabilizing blood sugar alone can really dramatically reduce the frequency of migraines. So if that doesn't work, what else can you do? Well, you want to identify food triggers. Another key piece is identifying your personal food triggers, because migraines are highly personal. What triggers? One person may not affect someone else in the same way. So there are some common patterns. We see foods like gluten, that's A big one. And that would be an easy one to get rid of to see if your migraines go away. Dairy, another big one. Wine, especially alcohol in general, but wine especially because of sulfites, highly processed foods, there's a lot of additives, chemicals, things that can be all serious triggers. The challenge is these reactions aren't always immediate. Sometimes there's a delayed response, which kind of makes it harder to connect the dots. So you might eat something on Monday, but you get your migraine on Wednesday. Right. And that's where an elimination diet can really be helpful. If you get rid of all the common triggers for a period of time, and then you reintroduce them intentionally, you can actually start to see how your body responds. And that awareness is really powerful. And in fact, we have something called the 10 Day Detox Diet. You can go to 10day detoxdiet.com and it guides you through a whole elimination diet. It can be very powerful. And often that is enough to get rid of your migraines, just that alone. Next thing would be to reduce inflammation at a deeper level. Migraines are really about inflammation in the body. So the goal is to create an internal environment that's calmer, more stable. And that starts with your overall diet. Right? Whole real foods, lots of good fats, omega 3s, fatty fish, walnuts, flaxseeds, all help counter inflammation. So you want to eat a wide variety of colorful plants, vegetables, vegetables, fruits, herbs, nuts, seeds. All these provide antioxidants to support your system. At the same time, you want to get rid of the ultra processed food. There's no world in which we should be eating any of that. I think the safe limit is zero, in my view. I mean, if you have a Snickers bar once in a while, it's not going to kill you. But I'm just telling you that this is not part of a human diet. These are not actually technically food by the definition, the dictionary, which is something that supports the health of an organism, which these don't. So because they tend to drive inflammation, they really disrupt your body's overall balance. So when you lower the overall inflammation in the body, you often lower the threshold for migraines as well. Okay, the next big thing you want to do is support the gut. Your gut plays a much bigger role in migraines than most people realize. There's a huge connection between gut health and brain health. And I, I remember one patient where I literally treated her migraines with antibiotics to clear out the bad bugs in her gut and her migraines went away. So it can be something that obvious or simple, which traditional doctors generally don't do. So supporting your gut can have a really powerful impact on how often migraines occur. So how do you do that? Well, lots of fiber, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds help feed the beneficial bacteria. Prebiotic foods, fermented foods, things like sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt, all help a healthy microbiome. Now, but for some people, there may be more serious issues at play. Dysbiosis, food sensitivities, inflammation from other factors, infections, those need to be addressed. Yeast overgrowth, fungal overgrowth, bacterial overgrowth, all need to be addressed. Parasites, they, they can be factors and they can be treated with a good functional medicine.