FAQ Episode 72: Hydration and Headaches

Frequently Asked Questions about Natural Migraine Relief

I’m pretty sure that you already know that your body is mostly water, somewhere in the 55-60% range. The role of water has even more impact in the brain, where it comprises some 75% of the volume. Water is the “solvent of life.” It is the matrix which allows the chemical reactions and electrical impulses of everyday healthy function, especially in the brain. I think of the role of water in any cell’s healthy function in the brain as functioning through three simultaneous phases:

• it transports the core building blocks for all cellular function: oxygen, amino acids, glucose, minerals, essential fatty acids, hormones and vitamin nutrients.

• it provides the framework that facilitates efficient energy production, reception of real world sensory input, and the trillions of neuron connections and interactions that provide crisp motor function as well as vast real time memory storage and retrieval services.

• it facilitates waste removal in a timely manner. I’m sure Marie Kondo would approve of the tidiness required by a healthy brain. Accumulative wastes and toxins promote dysfunction today, and degenerative disease tomorrow.

With this in mind, it should be no surprise that lack of optimal hydration is a well known promotional factor for migraine headaches.

Two of the most important root causes for migraine are exaggerated when the three phases I mention above are impaired:

• the inflammation of oxidative stress is worse when wastes are not efficiently removed, and when repair molecules don’t arrive on site when needed or in adequate amounts.

• the lack of key building blocks leads to reduced brain bioenergetics, where the hundreds of chemical reactions needed to service and protect normal brain function are underpowered.

Long term dehydration has a price

I was reminded of all the above when I reviewed research from the Laboratory of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute in Bethesda Maryland.¹ This was a 25 year study following over 15,000 middle aged people. It used an interesting marker that reflects long term and chronic status of general hydration, one’s serum sodium level. The hypothesis for this human study was inspired by previous mouse studies in which lifelong water restriction as demonstrated by higher sodium levels shortened the mouse lifespan by 6 months, which corresponds to about 15 years of human life! The shortened life span was accompanied by accelerated degenerative changes within multiple organ systems of the chronically hypo-hydrated mice.

One of the most common “routine general chemistry panels” any of us have drawn almost always includes a sodium level. The normal serum sodium range, defined as the interval that 95% of reference healthy population fall into, lies between 135 and 146 mmol/l. This study’s analysis showed that people whose routine, repeat serum sodium exceeded 142 mmol/l had an increased risk to be biologically older, develop chronic diseases and die at younger age. So you could be in the upper 36% of the “normal range” and still bear long term risk.

What markers did they follow?

1. 15 biomarkers characterizing performance of multiple organ systems and processes i.e: systolic blood pressure, renal function as per eGFR, cystatin-C, urea nitrogen, creatinine, and uric acid; respiratory function as per FEV, metabolic function via glucose, cholesterol, HbA1c, glycated albumin, and fructosamine, and immune/inflammatory markers, CRP, albumin and beta 2-microglobulin.

2. the diagnosis over time of eight chronic diseases i.e.: heart failure, dementia, chronic lung disease, stroke, diabetes, peripheral vascular disease and claudication, atrial fibrillation, and hypertension.

In both sets of markers, those with a sodium level greater than 142 mm/L had an appreciable increase of biologic aging and the accumulation of chronic disease diagnosis than those whose sodium levels indicated a better state of long term hydration (142 mm/L or less).

Dehydration is one of many root cause factors that puts stress on the brain

Accumulative stress without adequate repair results in cell damage → organ dysfunction → symptoms, and → chronic disease. Some of this process, like a migraine headache could occur today, but as this study demonstrates, others like cognitive decline or degenerative neurological disorders could take years to become apparent.

I like to quote migraine researcher Dr. Elena Gross when she makes the seemingly paradoxical, somewhat audacious and yet fully accurate observation that: “Migraine is your friend and not your enemy. It is trying to protect you, and by learning how to properly take care of your high-performance brain, you can make sure that this warning signal is rarely needed anymore.”

Improving your day to day state of hydration can measurably assist energy production and oxidative repair in the brain, both for migraine management, as well as long term disease avoidance and optimal longevity.

Review any of your past routine lab work and look for your serum sodium level. If its over 142 mm/L, especially if you have migraines, that would be supporting evidence that you should actively increase your daily hydration efforts. Your brain will thank you!

1. Middle-age high normal serum sodium as a risk factor for accelerated biological aging, chronic diseases, and premature mortality. Natalia I. Dmitrieva, et.al. eBioMedicine Volume 87 104 404 January 2023