FAQ Episode 8: Why has the impact of migraine increased dramatically over the last 30 years? How not to be a part of this trend.

FAQs for Natural Migraine Relief for Women

A worldwide review¹ of the personal cost of migraine headaches showed a 40% increase in the disability-adjusted life year (DALY) cost caused by migraines in the 1990 up to 2019 time frame for adults under 40. A DALY equals the sum of years of life lost (YLLs) and years lived with disability (YLDs). One DALY equals one lost year of healthy life.  I think that this may be one of the most important indicators of the human cost of migraine headaches. The data covered patients in 204 countries. The study also noted that:

   -There was also a 36.7% increase in global incidence of migraine between 1990 and 2019.

   -The greatest increase in the global prevalence of migraine occurred among those aged 15 to 19, and this age group also had the highest migraine incidence. Prevalence rates were higher among females compared with males, with the highest disparities observed for individuals aged 35 to 39.

   -When analyzing DALYs based on age groups, women aged 30 to 34 had the highest DALY cost due to migraine, with those aged 25 to 29 ranking next highest.

The article gave no specific advice about the whys or what to do for these trends, ending their paper with the generic comment that “this knowledge enables better allocation of preventive and therapeutic measures, promoting a more balanced global health landscape.”  The statistical nature of this paper limited the authors’ ability to offer explanations or to leverage this information by offering any specific advice from its conclusions.

However, you and I can take this study’s information apart and see what it tells us about migraine trends over the last 30 years:

1. The incidence of migraine and the ‘years of healthy living’ lost to migraine has gotten dramatically worse over the last three decades.

2. The usual disparity of female: male migraine incidence was even worse than the usual 2:1 ratio in the 25-34 year age group.

3. The greatest increase in migraine prevalence occurred in women aged 15-19.

What has happened in the recent few decades to 1) make migraines worse, 2) increase their disabling impacts, 3) promote the disparity of how it affects women so much more than men and 4) be most pronounced in the late teen years?

Here are some root cause possibilities:

-For almost all of us, the amount of smartphone, desktop, tablet, and big screen TV screen time has increased dramatically in the last 30 years, especially during the mid-late teen years and for all of us under 40.   Have you ever been shocked to get your smartphone’s weekly ‘change in screen time’ report with the total number of hours engaged?  I know I have. And that’s just one of many screens we typically view daily.  Excess screen time overloads the sensory system, fractures attention, and drains our neurovascular resources.   It can deplete brain chemistry and cellular energy production while producing a deficit of key nutrients in the process.   All of these root cause factors promote migraines. 

-A related problem promoting migraine is the associated dry eye effect.  We blink ~66% less when looking at a screen, which can cause dry eyes in even the young and healthy.  Those in their late 30’s to early 50’s may have the added dry-eye effect of declining reproductive hormones.  Dry eyes can heighten provocation of the trigeminovascular pathway which is a prime initiator of migraine headaches.

-Over the past few decades we are all experiencing increased exposure to xenoestrogens.  There are chemicals that bind to estrogen receptors and promote estrogen dominance, which can aggravate migraines for women, especially those that are related to your menstrual cycle. These xenoestrogens include pesticides, herbicides, and plastics, particularly when they are heated in a microwave.  Estrogen dominance is also a factor in many other health problems beyond migraine, including weight gain, PMS, heavy periods, uterine fibroids, fibrocystic breast changes, and even breast cancer.

How to include yourself out of these migraine-promoting trends:

1. Reduce your screen time as much as possible. Also, consider using saline wetting drops every hour or two during intensive screen time even if you don’t have contact lenses, and even more so if you do.

2. If you are in the perimenopause to menopause years, especially if you are having other hormone deficit symptoms, you may benefit from individualized bioidentical hormone support therapy to help with dry eyes as well as the many other migraine-promoting hormone imbalances of this phase of life.  Call a local compounding pharmacy to find a qualified practitioner near you.

3. Minimize your exposure to xenoestrogens, especially in the kitchen when cooking. Exercise, good hydration, and the use of a sauna may also help to detoxify xenoestrogens.  The judicious use of a topical progesterone cream can be helpful if you have excess estrogen influence.  Again, check with a compounding pharmacy for more options.

4. Good restorative sleep and focused repletion of nutrients essential to brain chemistry and cellular energy production are key to both the above issues and many other root cause factors of migraine headaches.  One of my favorite options for this situation is riboflavin (Vitamin B2) at 400 mg/day.  There is significant literature support for this dose as front-line therapy in migraine.

There are many nutrients and non-drug therapies used to address migraine root causes, but which ones apply best to your story?  To discern among these options, and many more, you may want to look at my online course Natural Migraine Relief for Women with its unique Migraine Action Plan™ tool to help you assess the potential overlap of 60+ health conditions and medical co-morbidities while directing you to which of more than 90 specific non-drug intervention options are most applicable to your migraine story. To learn more about this course, what it offers, and how to get started, go to naturalmigrainerelief. online

Also, remember to subscribe to this Substack blog to get regular postings on Frequently Asked Questions about Natural Migraine Relief for Women.

¹  Li X, Yang CH, Lv JJ, et al. Global, regional, and national epidemiology of migraine and tension-type headache in youths and young adults aged 15-39 years from 1990 to 2019: findings from the global burden of disease study 2019. J Headache Pain. Published online September 18, 2023. doi:10.1186/s10194-023-01659-1