FAQ Episode 42: What can I learn from the Natural Migraine Relief course?
Frequently Asked Questions about Natural Migraine Relief for Women
If you’re a free subscriber to this blog, you have likely seen me refer to the Natural Migraine Relief course available to monthly subscribers.
I’d like to share with you why I wrote this course, and what you could learn from it about minimizing or clearing your migraine headaches.
I’ve seen a thousand and more patients with migraine in my medical career. In my office, in the ER…and I’ll admit, for many of those years there wasn’t a lot I could do for them other than relieving their acute pain. I had been Chief Resident in my training program, and as a young doctor thought I was ready to stamp out disease. But when it came to migraines, I found that medical science pretty much agreed that we still do not know exactly why people get migraines, or how to effectively clear most of them.
I had been taught: “you’ve got a headache…here’s a prescription.” We have lots of drugs targeted at the acute pain aspects, but very few that were able to address underlying root causes for the headaches. With the equivocal response and the multiple side effects of drug therapy, I experienced professional frustration along with the personal sense that I had in some respects failed these patients. As I went through the next three decades of my medical work, I investigated and practiced what we now call integrative medicine, where we use multiple science-based therapy options, including but not limited to pharmaceutical drugs.
I began to understand that migraines, like most medical problems, have findable and treatable biochemical root causes. This also means that in many cases if we address them specifically, we can reduce their final clinical expression-the headache itself.
To visualize this, let’s consider what I call the 'full cup theory’ of migraine headaches. Think of the clinical expression of a problem, such as a migraine, as the overflow of an 8 oz cup.
Think of this overflow as being the direct manifestation of a migraine headache and its associated symptoms. One might ask, which of the eight ounces in the middle cup caused it to overflow? The right answer is: all of them.
Many people consider that last half ounce to be the ‘trigger’ that we think caused the migraine. The other underlying ounces are the root causes that fill the cup to where a seemingly casual trigger event is the last straw. That trigger could be a weather front, a certain food, glare from headlights, ‘that time of the month,’ or a dozen others.
But, if the cup is almost full most of the time, it doesn’t take much more to overflow. Anything could push it over the edge, multiple times a month and for multiple different ‘reasons.’
But, if we could identify your specific root factors and reduce the volume in the cup to only one, two or three ounces, we now have built in a reserve where it would then take a much larger volume of triggers, say five, six, or seven ounces in this example, to hit your headache threshold, if at all.
And that is what I’ve dedicated my medical work to over the past 30 years…finding root causes for health problems. I’m no medical genius, but I’ve learned from other pioneering physicians in integrative medicine, and in the process have developed a method that looks for the root causes of an individual’s migraines, and then applies the best non-drug therapy options to “reduce the ounces in their migraine cup.”
Don’t get me wrong, drug therapy can be tremendously useful for pain and some migraine headaches. But if you don’t get at an individual’s “root cause factors” you are unlikely to see complete or lasting relief-with or without drugs. And that’s what I began to see by using the system I've developed to identify the root causes of my patient’s migraine stories. By surveying 10 broad areas of root causes for migraines, including more than 60 related medical disorders, I’ve organized over 90 potential non-drug interventions that can be tailored and triaged to your self-individualized circumstances. We do this by using the same Migraine Action Plan© tool that I’ve used with my own patients to self-individualize the therapy plan that best fits your story. And all for only $7 a month when you join Natural Migraine Relief as a paid subscriber.
To discover what’s contained in the Natural Migraine Relief for Women course, let’s review some of the questions people have about this 26-lesson online course and what it offers:
How will I know what to do?
I will walk you through how to best use the course and the details on how to individualize your Migraine Action Plan:
we start by reviewing four key supplements with the best track records for clearing migraines, and exactly how to use them.
each lesson takes the parts that apply to you and matches them to specific ‘what to do’ steps in your self-tailored Migraine Action Plan.
when you finish the course, it helps you to organize a specific ‘1-2-3’ plan to triage your individualized migraine therapy options.
in 16 of the 26 lessons I explain the 10 most important root cause factor categories that underly migraines, and how they may apply directly to your headache story.
What are the major migraine root cause factors you address in the course?
Inflammation: emphasizing 10 of the most common specific versions seen in migraines, along with management strategies.
Cellular energy deficit factors. This is a player in many disorders that is underappreciated for its impact on migraines.
Reproductive hormones through all four hormonal phases of life: premenopause, peri-menopause, menopause, and post-menopause
Thyroid hormone imbalance as a potential root cause factor
Parathyroid hormone problems and their effect on migraines
Adrenal dysfunction and migraines
Pineal gland deficits and migraines
Nutrient deficits and their role in migraines
Brain chemistry imbalance and autonomic dysfunction in migraine
Lifestyle and structural factors that impact migraine expression
How do I find out what kind of headache I have?
Lesson 4 reviews headaches of all kinds and how they relate to what you are experiencing. We also discuss when to seek additional workup with your primary care physician or a neurologist for your headache.
Are my migraines related to other health problems I’m having?
over 60 other health problems we discuss in this course correlate with migraine, and for some of them the therapy options we discuss can offer dual benefits.
-the five lessons covering inflammation, cellular energy and nutrient deficits especially apply to both migraine and many other health disorders.
What tests might I need to fully assess my migraine root cause factors?
we discuss lab tests that are specific to migraine root cause factors, where to get them and how to ask for them.
most of these are simple lab tests that may not have been offered to you in past medical encounters. They can be obtained locally and even by direct-to-consumer online order.
How do hormones and my monthly cycles affect my migraines?
four of the lessons detail the relationship of reproductive hormones and migraines. Whether you are having periods, are in peri-menopause, or are done with monthly cycles, these lessons have your slice of the reproductive cycle covered.
What about other types of hormones and migraines?
we have four lessons which are specific to the roles of thyroid, adrenal, parathyroid, and pineal gland interactions with migraine headaches.
What about integrating non-drug therapy with pharmaceuticals I’m already taking?
the right prescribed drug therapy can be invaluable for migraine. We talk about how to integrate what you are using with additional non-drug therapy for the best synergistic benefit.
Does the course cover diet, exercise, and lifestyle factors?
we cover over a dozen specific interventions in these areas.
How do I find reliable health professionals that can help me to implement my Action Plan?
Lesson 24 gives details on finding an integrative or functional medicine minded practitioner to fine tune some of the course recommendations that may require licensed professional assistance.
-we have an entire lesson devoted to multiple resources that support what we’ve discussed in the course, including how to find local professional support.
How does this course keep me up to date with the ever-growing knowledge base about migraine headaches?
I’ve added as a bonus to this course a free ongoing subscription to my weekly “FAQs on Natural Migraine Relief” blog. Through these Frequently Asked Questions postings you can ask questions that I can answer for the entire class.
The Natural Migraine Relief for Women course can help you:
better understand your headaches, and if they are migraines, to define more precisely which version fits your story.
recognize the underlying root causes that provoke your migraine. This goes deeper than just ‘trigger factors’ and gets at the genetic and biochemical factors underlying the migraine matrix.
understand how different health problems overlap with migraines and then find common strategies that can address them simultaneously.
take the personalized knowledge base you gather through the course with the Migraine Action Plan© to customize the best strategies for your migraine recovery.
It’s difficult to find this kind of personalized consultation!
While it would be ideal for us to sit down together so that I could hear your story, and then educate you on the details of an ideal workup and therapy pathway, in most of your cases that’s not a practical option. And given the breadth and depth covered in this course, it would not be practical cost-wise, as well.
If you covered all the details in this course by sitting across the desk from a physician, it could run close to $1,000 in typical consult time fees. But right now, you can get the full Natural Migraine Relief course, including the Migraine Action Plan™ for a tiny fraction of that cost.
My desire in producing this course is to see you get the upper hand on your migraines by getting the bottom line on their root causes. Because I feel so strongly about seeing that you have the chance to succeed, I’ve made the entire course a part of my basic paid Substack blog subscription, at only $7 per month.
The Natural Migraine Relief for Women course includes:
Module 1 | Basics of Migraine & Confirming your diagnosis
✔️ Why specific root cause factors are a critical yet misunderstood key to why you have migraines.
✔️ The broad range of kinds of headache- including migraines, and how to discern the differences between nine different versions of migraine.
✔️ How with each lesson you’ll take what you learn in the course to individualize your Migraine Action Plan and learn what remedies are best suited to your migraine story.
Module 2 | Migraine Root Causes: Reproductive Hormones
✔️ How hormone deficits and imbalances aggravate migraines and how to address your version.
✔️ We cover the full range of the reproductive hormonal timeline, from teens to 60s plus.
✔️ How oral contraceptives can either help or hurt your migraines.
✔️ How estrogen metabolites affect migraines and even cancer risk in women, and how to manage this problem.
Module 3 | Migraine Root Causes: Cellular Energy and Nutrient Deficits
✔️ How brain cell energy depletion underlies migraine and what to do about it.
✔️ Nutrient deficits that are known to provoke migraines and how best to augment them when indicated.
✔️ How deficits of cell energy and nutrient sufficiency affect multiple health problems, and how this relates to migraine when they overlap.
Module 4 | Migraine Root Causes: Thyroid, Adrenal, Parathyroid and Pineal hormone
✔️ How too little thyroid, as well as, too much parathyroid can drive migraines.
✔️ The role of adrenal building blocks in causing and clearing migraine.
✔️ How melatonin from the pineal gland is underappreciated for its role in preventing migraines.
Module 5 | Migraine Root Causes: Inflammation, Lifestyle, Brain chemistry and Structural Factors
Here’s what I’ll show you
✔️ Ten different specific inflammatory factors that can drive a migraine.
✔️ Strategies to manage lifestyle issues that affect migraines.
✔️ Non-drug management of the neurochemical imbalance affecting migraines.
✔️ How to manage structural and musculoskeletal root causes of migraines.
✔️ Have you been told you have a PFO? (patent foramen ovale.) It’s a common occurrence and a possible migraine co-factor.
Module 6 | How to Find an integrative minded physician
✔️ Why some doctors ‘get’ non-drug therapy, and how you can integrate their perspective with conventional therapy to optimally reduce your migraines.
✔️ What services these professionals offer and how they can help you to make the Migraine Action Plan work for you.
✔️ How to find integrative minded health professionals nearest you.
Module 7 | The Migraine Action Plan
✔️ Which of the root cause factors we will review apply to you.
✔️ How to connect them with the over 90 non-drug therapy options we discuss that fit best with your profile.
✔️ How to triage ‘your best options’ to make your migraine reduction plan work best for you.
Module 8 | Resources
✔️ Sources and web links for finding integrative practitioners.
✔️ A list of books, web sites and pdf references that relate to the topics we discuss in the course.
✔️ The Women’s Assessment Calendar to help you correlate headaches with 44 hormone related symptoms that help you to understand how hormone deficit or imbalances may be affecting your migraines.
All in all, you’ll be getting insights on managing your migraine that you won’t see anywhere else.
If this sounds like a fit for you, consider subscribing today. You only pay by the month, so you can stay “in the course” as long or short a time as you need. Join us today!