Migraines and Frequent Headaches

Underappreciated Causes and What to do About Them

First, it is important to note that there can be many triggers for frequent headaches and migraines. However, there are certain general causes that are not discussed often enough, or even known by migraine and headache sufferers which I will discuss in this article.

Overview:

1. Serotonin’s role in migraines

2. Estrogen (and Prolactin) excess promotes migraines and headaches

3. Histamine’s (and Nitric Oxide’s) role in migraines

4. Ammonia can worsen migraines

5. Vitamin B2 as a therapy for migraines

6. Poor Thyroid function and frequent headaches

Serotonin

Surprisingly (to many), serotonin plays a large role in migraines. To illustrate this point, many substances that have known serotonin-blocking effects have been shown to be useful tools against migraines. The ergot derivative drugs, such as bromocriptine and lisuride, have been shown to be useful in preventing and treating migraine, and these drugs are dopamine-increasing and serotonin-lowering. Two first-generation antihistamines (Cyproheptadine and Benadryl) also happen to be strong anti-serotonin drugs in the doses normally taken by people (at higher doses Benadryl can actually increase serotonin by acting similar to an SSRI). These antihistamines have been shown to be helpful in alleviating migraines, even in children. Lastly, a common herb that is used for migraine prevention is “feverfew” this herb has serotonin-blocking properties.

What does this mean practically? Doing things to increase serotonin may make you more susceptible to migraines, so they should probably be avoided in individuals who are prone to them. 5-HTP supplements and St. Johns Wart are two common “serotonin-boosting” supplements that you may want to avoid if you get migraines. The vast majority of serotonin is produced in the gut, especially when there is bacterial overgrowth. So having a clear small intestine would likely be therapeutic for migraine sufferers (and people who get plain old headaches).

A useful tool to keep the gut clean would be eating the “daily raw carrot salad” which is grated raw carrots, olive/coconut oil, vinegar and salt. The salad acts as a “broom” for the intestine, helping you prevent the accumulation of too much bacteria in the gut. There are many antimicrobials that someone may want to implement if they think that bacterial overgrowth is an issue for them, these can include monolaurin, caprylic acid (both from coconut), oregano, cinnamon and thyme, to name a few.

Estrogen is migraine-promoting. Progesterone is protective against migraines.

Migraines are far more likely in women than in men. This does not always mean estrogen is playing a role, but when a disease is more common in women (such as dementia, gall bladder issues etc) it is a good idea to investigate the role of estrogen.

Excess estrogen, especially when it is not balanced with progesterone, can be a causative factor in migraines. This is especially the case when a migraine is experienced in tandem with other PMS symptoms. In the luteal phase (the second half of a women's cycle) she should ideally be producing a lot of progesterone from the corpus luteam in the ovaries. If a woman is having a hard time producing enough progesterone then the balance of progesterone and estrogen will be off.

“Migraine headaches are strongly associated with high estrogen and low thyroid.”

-Ray Peat, “From PMS to Menopause”

Supplementing progesterone, topically or orally, has been shown to be very effective at treating and preventing migraines. This does not mean that all migraine sufferers need to go out and supplement progesterone (though they certainly can), but it may mean that they should work on increasing their production of progesterone, and their ability to detoxify estrogen. Increasing thyroid function is essential to increasing the production of progesterone, as well as eating a nutritious diet. Vitamin A (Retinol) may be the most important nutrient for progesterone production as all steroid hormones (progesterone is one of them) need vitamin A to be produced.

Doing things to help lower excess estrogen can be very beneficial for migraine prevention. Vitamin E (mixed tocopherols) is one dietary supplement that can help with high estrogen levels. Eating enough, especially enough protein, can help the liver to be better at excreting estrogen. The raw carrot salad can also help to remove excess estrogen that has been detoxified in the bile and needs help to be removed from the intestines.

“Many people find that daily use of the raw carrot eliminates their PMS, headaches, or allergies. The use of oil and vinegar as dressing intensifies the bowel-cleansing effect of the salad.”

-Ray Peat, “From PMS to Menopause”

Women who have migraines yet take estrogen (in the form of a birth control pill or HRT - hormone replacement therapy) may want to reconsider.

Prolactin is also thought to be high in migraine sufferers and in menstrual headaches. Estrogen can potently increase the production of prolactin, and so can serotonin. Vitamin B6, vitamin E and zinc are useful in lowering prolactin. If vitamin B6 helps you prevent menstrual headaches felt in PMS, then the headaches were likely at least partly due to high prolactin. Vitamin B6 is a common supplement taken to prevent PMS symptoms in general.

Ray Peat often talked about helping many men and women who were suffering from migraines by giving them supplemental progesterone. I will list some vendors of progesterone and vitamin E in the conclusion of this article, but he used Progest-E.

Histamine

I have already mentioned that certain antihistamines have been shown to be helpful when it comes to preventing and treating migraines. Histamine has the ability to worsen headaches of all kinds, especially when you get a headache as a response to eating something that causes an increase in histamine.

I elaborate on histamine and allergies in this article

When you eat something you are sensitive to, you may not even realize it because the symptoms could seem odd for an “allergic reaction”. Most people think of an allergic reaction as being itchy or maybe having trouble breathing, but lots of symptoms can occur because of an increase in histamine. Brain fog and headaches can certainly be a response to high levels of histamine.

Taking anti-histamine substances can often be helpful to protect against headaches, and maybe even migraines. The amino acid L-theanine is shown to be a good antihistamine, in addition to this, it also has very potent calming properties. Stinging nettle leaf tea and stinging nettle root extract are also antihistaminics. There are many nutrients that can help you lower histamine, such as vitamin B6, copper, zinc, vitamin C and Vitamin A. This means a diet filled with these vitamins and minerals can help with histamine issues, oysters, mussels, eggs, fruit, and organ meats can all be part of a nutritious diet. Some people supplement quercetin for its anti-histamine action.

Methylation is also involved with histamine metabolism, which means you may benefit from consuming more folate, choline, vitamin B2 and vitamin B12 (organ meats like liver and kidney, oysters, mussels, eggs, and certain legumes like peas). Phosphatidylcholine and creatine can also help with methylation, as a lot of our methylation is directed to producing these two substances.

I should also note, that excessive nitric oxide (NO) can also cause migraines. This means a migraine sufferer should probably avoid “boosting” NO with things like arginine, citrulline or nitrates, and certain NO-producing drugs should probably be avoided.

Ammonia can worsen migraines and headaches.

Ammonia can be produced under conditions where we are creating glucose out of proteins. This can happen if we do not eat enough carbohydrates, particularly because if you do not eat carbs your body will make them. Typically this process can increase ammonia quite a bit. Ideally, we get rid of ammonia by converting it into Urea by combing it with carbon dioxide (CO2). Therefore, our production and retention of CO2 can be a very effective way of removing excess ammonia, which should help protect against migraines and headaches. Please refer to my article on “How to Utilize Glucose Well” in that article I explain how oxidizing glucose is the main way we produce CO2 in abundance (the main important nutrients for that are thiamine/vitamin B1 and magnesium, but there is far more to the story than those two nutrients).

You can also take certain things that chelate excess ammonia. One such supplement is Ceylon cinnamon, in doses from 1-6g a day. Make sure you buy ceylon and not cassia cinnamon. This practically can mean that ceylon cinnamon and thiamine could be two useful supplements for headache-prone and migraine-prone individuals.

It seems that aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) may also be able to chelate ammonia. This is interesting because there is evidence that around 1200mg of aspirin can be an effective prophylactic for migraine. Aspirin, if it is to be used during a migraine, probably needs to be taken in high doses, much higher than the normal person would take. It has been studied in certain clinical trials as high as 6-9g a day, which is a massive dose. Most people would likely do well on 3g in a day to treat an active migraine. A typical aspirin pill is 325mg, so if suffering from a migraine one may want to take 3 normal dose aspirins, 3x a day. One could take more than that, this is just an example of what someone could do when they experience a migraine. Aspirin safe and effective for prevention AND treatment of migraine (http://haidut.me/?p=774)

If I personally had a bad headache and 1-2 aspirins didn’t help, I would just take more. 2 aspirins are 650mg, which is not a high dose. If I was personally taking a lot of aspirin, I would probably supplement some vitamin K2 due to the blood thinning effects of aspirin, but this is not essential to do for occasional aspirin use. Out of the OTC pain killers I consider aspirin to be the safest, ibuprofen isn’t ideal but also isn’t that harmful. Tylenol should be avoided.

I avoid Tylenol/Paracetamol/Acetaminophen at all costs, it is extremely harmful to the body and it is even used to commit suicide, which illustrates how dangerous it can be.

Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) as a migraine therapy

A common treatment discussed for migraine sufferers is high-dose riboflavin supplementation. The idea is, to take 400mg of riboflavin a day as a migraine preventative.

Typically the advice would be to spread out the dose throughout the day, maybe taking 200mg 2x a day or 100mg 4x a day, whichever is easier. One interesting thing about vitamin B2 is that it can help prevent gut-induced inflammation. It does this by blocking what is called the toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). Things that “activate TLR4” cause systemic inflammation. Anything that blocks TLR4 should be useful for migraines and headaches. Other than vitamin B2, things like naltrexone, vitamin D, progesterone/pregnenolone and even Benadryl can block TLR4, thus leading to less of an inflammatory response and thus can help prevent headaches and migraines.

Thiamine and vitamin B6 are other B vitamins that may also be useful for migraines. Keep in mind, this amount of vitamin B2 will turn your urine neon yellow, this is perfectly normal and is harmless.

I also want to quickly mention that the nutritional supplement Lithium Orotate seems to be able to help with migraines and headaches. Typical dosage would be 1-10mg, but some people go up to 40mg daily.

Thyroid Function and Headaches

A common sign of hypothyroidism could be frequent headaches. There are many reasons for this, perhaps one of them is the fact that adequate thyroid hormone is needed to oxidize fuel correctly, which then results in optimal CO2 production which can help protect against headaches. Another reason may be that poor thyroid function can lead to a worse ability to regulate blood sugar, which can cause someone to get hypoglycemic (have low blood sugar) more easily. Low blog sugar, or hypoglycemia, can certainly exacerbate headaches and migraines as when the blood sugar is low every stressor/trigger is amplified. In the book “Hypothyroidism, the unsuspected illness” by Dr. Broda Barnes, the doctor often references frequent headaches as a classic sign of suboptimal thyroid function.

Hypothyroid people, or people with suboptimal thyroid function/conversion, tend to get sick frequently. They can have recurrent infections or simply seem to be sick all the time with the cold or flu. This is probably part of the reason why hypothyroidism can lead to frequent headaches because headaches are often part of the symptoms experienced with viral and bacterial infections. Other signs of suboptimal thyroid function are cold hands and feet, constipation, trouble sleeping, high TSH and high total cholesterol, and of course, low body temperature and pulse rate. Since hypothyroid people tend to have lower basal body temperatures (like running at less than 36.5 degrees Celcius for example - we should be 36.6-37.2 degrees Celcius) they may be more susceptible to infection as a result of this.

“Since migraine and epilepsy can be debilitating, I always urge people to use progesterone to get rid of their symptoms, so they can focus on correcting the basic metabolic problems, which usually relate to diet and thyroid function.”

-Ray Peat, in “From PMS to Menopause”

Severely hypothyroid people typically need to be treated with thyroid therapy (thyroid hormone, or natural desiccated thyroid extract). However, if hypothyroidism isn’t severe in someone then there are many things they can do to help increase their metabolism/thyroid function or thyroid conversion in the liver (inactive T4 is converted to active T3 primarily in the liver).

Eating well is low-hanging fruit here. Your body needs optimal amounts of various nutrients (like the B vitamins, selenium, zinc, copper, and iron) so it would be wise to eat a diet filled with things like oysters, mussels, shrimp, eggs, dairy (goat dairy is best), fruit, roots, certain legumes like peas and so on.

Eating nutritious food is one thing, but you also have to eat enough. Many people eat less than 1500 calories on a regular basis, which would be too low for almost any adult. Eating enough carbohydrates is very important, so I do not recommend low-carb diets. Eating the right fats is important, saturated fat is nutritious and stable meaning it is the safest to eat. For example, butter has lots of vitamin A. Fruit oils like olive oil (yes, olive is a fruit) are great too. I would stay away from oils high in polyunsaturated fatty acids such as safflower or canola oil. Eating enough protein is also very important, almost everyone needs to eat at least 70g of protein, but many need far more (like 100g+ of protein) depending on their weight.

“Some women have "morning sickness" premenstrually, and it (like the nausea of migraine) is eased by salt and carbohydrate.”

-Ray Peat

A low level of vitamin D (shown on a blood test) could also worsen metabolism, among other things. Many people can improve their frequent headaches and migraines by getting their vitamin D levels up, with sunlight or supplementation if warranted. 50ng/ml, or 12nmol/L, is a good level to reach for. Also, COQ10 has been shown to be able to prevent migraines.

Conclusion

If you suffer from frequent headaches and migraines, you may have high estrogen, low progesterone, some degree of hypothyroidism, high levels of histamine, serotonin, ammonia and maybe gut irritation.

Increasing your thyroid function and progesterone production should be able to help both headache and migraine sufferers. Taking progesterone as a dietary supplement (when dissolved in vitamin E) can be very effective for migraine prevention and treatment. You can shop at:

Ona’s Natural, LifeBlud or Health Natura for good progesterone products and can use discount code DEAN. LifeBlud also sells a great vitamin E product that I personally use.

Lowering ammonia would be very beneficial for migraine and headaches. This should involve increasing CO2, which means increasing your utilization of glucose, as when we oxidize glucose we produce CO2 in abundance. Thiamine and magnesium are two nutrients that help us oxidize glucose, via the pyruvate dehydrogenase enzyme. Ceylon cinnamon can help lower ammonia.

High serotonin and histamine may be involved in migraines. Feverfew is a herb that is antiserotonergic and is a common migraine treatment. Certain antihistamines can block serotonins effects as well, such as Benadryl, and they can be useful against migraines. Keeping histamine and serotonin low with natural supplements like the calming amino acid theanine may be a useful tool.

Out of all the OTC pain delivers aspirin is the safest, and Tylenol is the most harmful. Many people commit suicide by taking large doses of Tylenol for example. Using aspirin for a migraine means you will likely need to use higher doses, 1200mg daily is likely sufficient for migraine prevention. Typically when taking aspirin it is a good idea to supplement with vitamin K2, to prevent the excessive blood thinning effects aspirin can have. Increasing vitamin C consumption and glycine consumption can also be useful when taking lots of aspirin, glycine is high in collagen, bone broth and gelatin.

400mg of vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) a day is shown to be safe and useful for migraine prevention.

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*None of this is medical advice. I am not a medical professional, always talk to your doctor*

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Discount code DEAN works at:

1. Ona’s Naturals (progesterone oil, topical progesterone and pregnenolone creams)

2. LifeBlud (Magnesium products, Taurine, Theanine, B vitamins, Methylene Blue)

3. Health Natura (oral pregnenolone, Methylene Blue)

4. Saturee (skin care products, desiccated liver, aged Cascara Sagrada)