Podcast Episode 36: Treating Migraines, Headaches and Hormonal Sub-Types

Are you struggling with migraines and headaches? What causes them and how do you get rid of them? Headache specialist Dr. Robert Sheeler talks about the holistic integrative approach to treating migraines and headaches and finding the root causes that we can fix to make them go away.

You can find all the info and links about this episode at https://holisticwellness.ca/episode36.

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Topics Discussed in this Episode:

The functional subtypes of migraine
Migraine with aura versus migraine without aura
The four types of aura
The four hormonal subtypes of migraine
The steps to take to treat migraines in general
How sex affects headaches and migraine

Key Takeaways:

Boys with migraine with aura often get it between ages 6 and 9, and girls will get it between ages 8 and 10.
People with migraine, in general, will have more depression, bipolar disease, more asthma, more restless legs, and a number of comorbid conditions that go along with it, and it tends to be two or three times as much in the aura patients than in the non-aura patients.
About 30% of people who have migraine have migraine with aura, which can be visual, sensory, linguistic or motor.
Women make up more than two-thirds of the people with migraine and tend to get more cycle-related things if they have migraine without aura.
Migraine without aura is very hormonally sensitive and will often onset on women around the time they have their cycles.
It’s falling estrogen levels that trigger migraines in the people who are hormonally sensitive.
Menstrual migraines are more intense and are harder to treat.
Around the time of perimenopause and menopause when estrogen levels are falling, women will have lots of increased headaches, whether it’s natural menopause or surgical menopause.
Getting your ovaries out before the age of 40 increases your risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

Action Steps:

If you have migraines, consider taking magnesium supplements.
Consider doing intermittent fasting. Don’t eat for 2 hours before you go to bed. Eat only during a 7- to 9-hour interval in a day.
Learn more about migraines and try to go to a doctor who’s interested in what you have.
Make sure your ferritin is up in the 50 to 75 range by paying strict attention to your diet or taking some supplements.
Take a dose of three tablespoons of freshly ground flaxseed (ideally organic) a day.

Robert said:

“[The holistic, integrative, functional approach] in terms of headaches is that it allows us to look for a root cause of things. It allows us to try to find something that we can fix that will make your headaches go away or virtually go away.”

“When a patient thinks they have migraine, 98% of the time they’re right. And when they think they don’t have migraine, 83% of the time they’re wrong. So most of the time, what you think is migraine is migraine and what you think isn’t migraine is migraine.”

Thanks for listening!

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