5 Things I’ve Learned in 3 Years of Migraine Freedom
Hello fellow traveler!
You haven’t heard from me in awhile, and that’s because I’ve been relentlessly working on myself. The recovery from the L5/S1 spinal fusion I had nearly 2 years ago has been a long and winding one. Moving across country a few month after surgery sent me into a tailspin of more pain and less strength and mobility. If you know anything about spinal injuries, you know they are complicated and often cause persistent pain and disability. One month you’re great, and the next you can’t sit or walk, and the cause is usually totally unidentifiable. It’s very frustrating and demoralizing, and a lot like something you know ALL about……..migraine.
Today, May 23rd 2023, is my three year anniversary of migraine freedom. I am absolutely overjoyed to share this news with you, because it proves to me that my theories and methods not only work, but continue to be effective despite changing environments, addresses, life situations, and a major surgery. The cherry on top is that I’ve maintained migraine freedom with no pharmaceutical drugs, and no specific diets.
I’ve been researching, trialing, iterating and integrating so much information to further expand my theories and help my clients. I always use myself as the guinea pig, because I’ll never recommend a course of action that I' haven’t actually done myself. I’ve expanded my view of migraine from anatomical and biochemical to include circadian biology, mitochondrial health, quantum field theory, and more. Despite working very sporadically while I’ve been hurt, I have coached two clients to migraine freedom and the rest have achieved massive reductions in migraine days per month and overall MIDAS disability scores.
I’d like to share with you some of the main takeaways I’ve learned as it relates to migraine, becoming migraine free, and the medical system in the United States.
Our environment has a lot to do with migraine frequency and severity.
Specifically, the load on our system from toxins plays a huge part in this disorder. Environmental toxins can include the EMF exposure from 5G and our electronic devices, toxic chemicals on our clothes and in our beauty products, the toxins in non-organic foods, as well as the toxins present in our drinking water. There are a LOT of toxins that we are exposed to on a daily basis, and it is super overwhelming to even think about. Just “detoxing” is never going to lead to migraine freedom, but removing the toxic load from your environment does wonders for the migraineur working on her biochemical balance and mitochondrial health. I had my last migraine after moving to the absolutely pristine environment of Breckenridge, Colorado. Our water came from a glacier up the mountain through a well, there was no cell phone reception at our home, and the skies were never criss-crossed with white lines that we’re supposed to believe are clouds or contrails. In addition to having my last migraine, I also dropped every other symptom I had been struggling with.
Migraine-free does not mean we no longer have headaches.
I still get splitting headaches sometimes. They are caused by the very same things that would cause headaches before, but now they don’t evolve into migraines. Bummer, yes, but as you know a splitting headache is still preferable to a migraine. It usually responds to a variety of natural and OTC treatments and doesn’t involve much, if any, sensitivity to external stimuli (like sound, light, or odor). There’s no postdrome hangover, disabling fatigue, or vomiting. This is a major win!
We cannot magically leave behind our migraine brain and hypersensitive nervous system.
I must continually live the Migraine Freedom Lifestyle in order to ensure that my body has enough available electrical voltage to meet the needs of my migraine brain. My body battery is quite full at this point, meaning the threshold for a migraine to occur is huge - it would take a lot of poor lifestyle choices over time or a sudden physical trauma to cause one - but it’s still a remote possibility.
I also found that my nervous system is still hypersensitive, and the pattern for chronic migraine is still in my neurology. It is very easy for me to go into a chronic pain cycle with my back or hip from a seemingly minor incident. Prioritizing a balanced and soothed nervous system has been key to my recovery. I will never be “like everybody else” and be able to do all the fun crazy things they do without consequence. There will always be a consequence, but for me it’s no longer migraine.
The current mainstream allopathic medicine paradigm is totally and fundamentally broken - and not just for migraine.
If you’ve been treated by an M.D. in the USA for migraine, I needn’t say more. It’s an absolute nightmare of an experience for us. “We don’t know exactly what causes it, but here’s 30 drugs to try and fail, and if nothing works, get used to it, this is your life now.” is what every single client of mine has been through. I would imagine it’s what every one of us migraineurs has been through too, if we were lucky enough to get a proper diagnosis.
Here’s the sad part: it’s like that in orthopedics and pain management too. I had to endure gross negligence, misdiagnosis, and extreme pain and suffering at the hands of my doctors during this process. I have been let down by nearly every single practitioner I’ve worked with. It’s mind-boggling how poor the care is across the board in modern medicine. I am a health coach and wellness expert and it was nearly impossible for me to heal from a broken back- how on Earth is everyone else supposed to do it?
Migraine freedom doesn’t mean that all of our problems go away.
In fact, becoming free of our burden tends to introduce a whole new set of problems. This is because the cycle of migraine causes us to withdraw from the world when we’re suffering. It removes us from the stressors that triggered the event. In this cycle, the migraine itself is the defacto solution to many difficult situations and confrontations - we never really have to face and address the issue in the moment because we go into survival mode to self-care.
Without migraine, there’s no reason to withdraw and hide, which for me was very confronting. I realized I didn’t really know how to interact with the world, in relationships, and in business without the burden of migraine. It forced me to acknowledge and address my weak points and old wounds that I never knew were there. This process is liberating but often uncomfortable or even emotionally painful. I chose to learn new skills and tactics to adapt to this new life of mine, and the journey continues.
I also see this with my migraine-free clients: they suddenly realize that they want different things than before without the dark migraine cloud following them everywhere. It’s a whole new phase of healing and discovery that just wasn’t possible before.
All of this experience and knowledge is helping me solidify my theory of migraine and implement ever-improving protocols in my coaching practice. I’m even seeing a few studies and articles from mainstream medicine that are trending in the direction of what I’m doing, which is encouraging. One of the challenges I have in sharing the information critical to migraine freedom is it’s complexity, and it’s important to me to present in a stepwise approach, building on a foundation of the migraine-brain concept and building up from there.
I am currently writing a book to explain the main themes of my process and aim to have it published by the end of 2023. In the meantime, please download and read the foundational material in my Special Report: The True Cause of Migraine. It will introduce you to some key concepts and prepare you for a free Lifestyle Discovery Call with me to see if I can get you started on the right track.
I’ll be blogging and sharing intel via email, as I’ve taken a major hiatus from social media. My main @orianaleo account on Instagram was hacked and I haven’t been able to access it for years now, so please direct your inquiries to oriana@orianaleo.com.
Helping migraineurs become migraine-free without drugs or diets is very clearly my calling in life. I will be working on this for the rest of my career, and perhaps for the rest of my life, and I couldn’t be more thrilled and fulfilled. We deserve to be free of all of our shackles and fulfill our true destiny. What’s waiting for you on the other side of migraine freedom?
In health and freedom,
Oriana
