Some memories don’t fade, they echo. A word, a glance, a moment that keeps the body on alert long after it’s passed. Your brain remembers the pain, and your chemistry follows.

In this episode of Migraine Heroes Podcast, host Diane Ducarme explores how holding on to anger, guilt, or resentment, keeps your nervous system locked in defense mode. Neuroscience shows that unforgiveness isn’t just emotional; it’s chemical. And Eastern philosophy has been teaching this for thousands of years: peace is not a mood, it’s a biological state.

You’ll discover:

💡 How resentment and rumination keep your stress chemistry “on,” flooding the brain with cortisol and adrenaline

💡 The key brain regions — like the amygdala and prefrontal cortex — that shift when you practice forgiveness

💡 How forgiveness lowers inflammatory markers, improves heart rate variability, and helps regulate chronic pain and migraine sensitivity

💡 What Eastern wisdom traditions reveal about releasing emotional stagnation — and why true forgiveness restores inner flow

You’ll also learn simple, science-backed ways to help your brain and body let go — not by forcing it, but by re-training your chemistry toward calm.

If you’ve ever felt trapped by your own thoughts, or noticed how emotional stress triggers physical pain, this episode is for you.

Tune in to learn how forgiving others — and yourself — can become one of the most powerful medicines for your brain.

🎧 New episodes every Monday and Wednesday

🔗 Discover our work on migraineheroes.com

References:

1. Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Theory and Application — Routledge (2016): Worthington E.L. and Hook J.N. presented a comprehensive framework showing how forgiveness interventions strengthen emotional regulation, empathy, and relational repair, with implications for trauma and chronic pain recovery. Explore the book here.
2. Forgiveness, Stress & Health (2016): Toussaint et al. show that practicing forgiveness reduces stress reactivity over just five weeks, supporting its role in lowering inflammation and improving emotional well-being. Read more here.
3. Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation — Psychosomatic Medicine (2003): Davidson R.J. and Kabat-Zinn J. demonstrated that eight weeks of mindfulness meditation increased left-frontal activation (linked to positive emotion) and enhanced immune response, highlighting forgiveness’s neurological parallels. Read the study here.
4. Forgiveness, Physiological Reactivity and Health: The Role of Anger — Radboud University Nijmegen (2008): Witvliet, C. shows how unresolved anger heightens physiological stress responses—elevating heart rate, cortisol and autonomic arousal—while forgiveness promotes healthier emotional regulation and improved physical wellbeing. Read the full text

You skip breakfast, push through lunch, and tell yourself you’ll eat later, but instead, your head starts pounding. What if fasting isn’t helping your focus, but quietly stressing your brain into a migraine attack?

In this episode of Migraine Heroes Podcast, host Diane Ducarme explores the paradox of fasting — why it can be both a healing tool and a hidden stressor for migraine-prone brains. With insights from neuroscience and Eastern medicine, you’ll learn how to find your balance between cleansing and collapse.

You’ll discover:

🍽️ Why fasting can support or sabotage brain health depending on your stress levels, hormones, and energy reserves

🧠 How blood sugar, cortisol, and neurotransmitters interact when you go too long without eating

🌿 What Traditional Chinese Medicine reveals about the dangers of “empty fire” and energy depletion

✨ How to fast in a way that calms, not shocks, your nervous system

This episode helps you reclaim a mindful relationship with food — one that nourishes your brain instead of draining it. Because sometimes, the bravest thing your body asks for isn’t restraint… it’s rhythm.

🎧 New episodes every Monday and Wednesday

🔗 Discover our work on migraineheroes.com

References:

1. Breakfast Skipping and Declines in Cognitive Score Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A 2023 longitudinal study of the HEIJO-KYO Cohort found that older adults who skipped breakfast one or more times per week had more than double the risk of cognitive decline (IRR ≈ 2.1) compared to those who ate breakfast daily. Read the full study here.
2. Associations Between Breakfast Skipping and Outcomes in Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Cognitive Performance, and Frailty: A Mendelian Randomization Study: A 2024 MR analysis published in BMC Psychiatry found causal links between breakfast skipping and increased risk of ADHD, major depression, poorer cognitive performance (β ≈ -0.16), and higher frailty scores. Read more here.
3. Fasting as a Therapy in Neurological Disease: This review (PMC) explores how fasting or caloric restriction may influence neurological disorders, including migraine, via metabolic and neuroprotective pathways. Read the full review here.
4. The Impact of Continuous Calorie Restriction and Fasting on Cognition in Adults Without Eating Disorders: A review published in Nutrition Reviews examines how sustained calorie restriction or...

You keep pushing through one more email, one more scroll — until the screen blurs, colors pulse, and the edges of your vision begin to shimmer. It’s not just fatigue. In a world bathed in blue light, your brain is overstimulated, your nervous system on edge, and your eyes are paying the price.

In this episode of The Migraine Heroes Podcast, host Diane Ducarme unpacks how modern light exposure hijacks your body’s natural rhythms. Drawing from both Western neuroscience and Eastern medicine, she reveals how screens, stress, and overstimulation keep your brain in “on” mode — and what you can do to calm the circuitry.

You’ll discover:

💡 How blue-wavelength light activates the same neural pathways that control alertness, pain, and stress

💡 Why constant screen time disrupts melatonin, sleep, and recovery — making your brain more sensitive to triggers

💡 Simple, restorative practices to help your nervous system down-shift from reactive to regulated

You’ll also learn how Traditional Chinese Medicine sees the eyes as the “windows of the Liver,” meaning that overstimulation drains your body’s Qi and depletes the calm you need to heal.

If your migraines, insomnia, or tension rise with every notification — this episode will help you reclaim the calm beneath the glare.

🎧 New episodes every Monday and Wednesday

🔗 Discover our work on migraineheroes.com

References:

• Exposure to Blue Wavelength Light Increases Subsequent Functional Activation of the Prefrontal Cortex: A 2016 study in Sleep (Alkozei et al.) found that short-term exposure to blue light boosts prefrontal cortex activity during working-memory tasks, showing how blue light can heighten cognitive alertness—sometimes at the expense of relaxation and sleep. Read the full study here.
• Artificial Blue Light Safety and Digital Devices, Environmental Research Communications (2022):This review evaluates how blue light from screens affects the eyes, circadian rhythms, and visual comfort, showing that prolonged exposure can disrupt sleep quality, strain the visual system, and alter alertness patterns. Read more here.
• Blue Light Exposure Increases Functional Connectivity Between Brain Networks: A 2022 Frontiers in Neuroscience paper revealed that blue light enhances connectivity across attention and working-memory networks, helping performance short-term but potentially overstimulating the visual and sensory systems relevant to migraine. Read more here.
• Blue Light Has a Dark Side – Harvard Health Publishing: Harvard Health explained how blue light suppresses melatonin and delays sleep onset, linking nighttime screen exposure to fatigue, eye strain, and circadian misalignment. Read the full article here.
• Screen Time and the Brain – Harvard Medical School: This overview from Harvard Medical School describes how constant digital stimulation reshapes neural reward circuits and attention systems—creating mental fatigue and stress linked to chronic headaches and migraine triggers. Read more here.

Disclaimer:

Why do your migraines always strike right before your period? What if your body is actually trying to tell you something—something that could help you prevent the next one?

In this episode of Migraine Heroes Podcast, host Diane Ducarme explores the intricate connection between your menstrual cycle and migraine attacks. Together, we decode what your body is signaling in those fragile days before your period—and how to work with it, not against it.

You’ll discover:

💫 Why hormonal shifts before your period can lower your migraine threshold—and how to spot the early warning signs before pain begins.

💫 What targeted lifestyle and nutrition adjustments you can make in your luteal phase to calm inflammation and stabilize your nervous system.

💫 How combining Eastern and Western approaches reveals new ways to regulate estrogen, liver Qi, and stress response naturally.

This episode goes beyond symptom management. It’s an invitation to listen deeply—to see your pre-period migraine not as betrayal, but as communication. When you decode the message, you open the door to balance, prevention, and peace.

🎧 New episodes every Monday and Wednesday

🔗 Discover our work on migraineheroes.com

References:

• Menstrual-Related Headache: A 2024 overview in StatPearls/NCBI Bookshelf explains that menstrual-related headaches stem from cyclical hormonal fluctuations—especially the premenstrual drop in estrogen—and offers guidance on diagnosis and targeted therapy. Read more here.
• Migraine in Women: The Role of Hormones and Their Impact on Migraine: A review in Frontiers in Neurology (PMC) explores how estrogen and progesterone modulate pain sensitivity, cortical excitability, and vascular reactivity, contributing to higher migraine prevalence in women. Read the article here.
• Migraine Associated with Menstruation: An Overlooked Trigger: A 2021 review in Frontiers in Neurology highlights that menstruation is one of the most under-recognized migraine triggers, emphasizing the biological role of estrogen decline and prostaglandin activity. Read the study here.
• Menstrual Migraine: A Review of Current and Developing Evidence: A 2018 PubMed-indexed review discusses emerging evidence that hormonal withdrawal, serotonergic fluctuations, and altered pain processing underlie menstrual migraine. Learn more here.
• Menstrual Migraine Is Caused by Estrogen Withdrawal: Revisiting the Evidence: A 2023 study in The Journal of Headache and Pain supports estrogen withdrawal as the primary hormonal driver of menstrual migraine, redefining its diagnostic and treatment framework. Read the article here.
• Menstrual Migraine Treatment and Prevention: The American Migraine Foundation provides practical tips on cycle-tracking, short-term prevention, and hormone stabilization to reduce migraine intensity and frequency. Read more

Are your migraines actually a side effect of perfectionism?

In this episode of Migraine Heroes Podcast, host Diane Ducarme explores the hidden connection between the pressure to control everything and the body’s pain response. Through both neuroscience and Eastern medicine, you’ll discover why the relentless drive to “get it right” can quietly keep your nervous system in survival mode.

You’ll learn:

💡 How perfectionist tendencies create chronic neurological stress that lowers your migraine threshold

💡 Why the need for control often roots back to fear, grief, or unmet emotional safety—and how awareness helps you release it

💡 Tools from neuroscience and Traditional Chinese Medicine to loosen control without losing your sense of self

💡 How softening the mind’s grip can actually strengthen your body’s resilience

This episode is for anyone who feels the constant hum of pressure beneath their migraines—the achievers, the caretakers, the ones who never rest until everything is perfect. Healing begins not in doing more, but in learning how to let go.

🎧 New episodes every Monday and Wednesday

🔗 Discover our work on migraineheroes.com

References:

• Perfectionism and Nonsuicidal Self-Injury: Pressing Issues and Promising Research Directions, Clinical Psychology Review (2022):This review highlights how perfectionism, rigid self-standards, and emotional suppression increase vulnerability to distress and how these psychological patterns overlap with migraine triggers such as stress, rumination, and nervous-system dysregulation. Read more here.
• Perfectionism, Worry, Rumination, and Distress: A Meta-Analysis: A 2019 meta-analysis in Personality and Individual Differences by Xie Y., Kong Y., and Yang J. confirmed that perfectionistic thinking strongly predicts worry and rumination—mechanisms that sustain emotional distress and somatic tension, relevant to migraine chronification. Read more here.
• Migraine: Multiple Processes, Complex Pathophysiology: A 2015 review in The Journal of Neuroscience by Burstein R., Noseda R., and Borsook D. described migraine as a multisystem disorder involving sensory, emotional, and vascular networks—bridging psychological stress and neural sensitization. Learn more here.
• Chronic Migraine Pathophysiology and Treatment: A 2021 article in Frontiers in Pain Research by Mungoven T.J. et al. outlined the neuroinflammatory and neuroplastic changes that maintain chronic migraine, emphasizing how behavioral and emotional regulation affect pain pathways. Read the full article here.
• Migraine – A Common, Chronic Neurologic Disorder: A 2022 review in Nature Reviews Disease Primers summarized current understanding of migraine’s complex biology, including genetics, cortical excitability, and environmental stressors, positioning migraine as a systemic neurobehavioral disorder. Read more here

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not substitute for providing medical advice. Always consult your healthcare...

Ever landed in a new time zone and felt like your head was playing catch-up while your body begged for rest?

In this episode of Migraine Heroes Podcast, host Diane Ducarme unpacks how travel and jet lag can throw your body’s rhythm off balance—and trigger migraines when you least expect it.

Whether you’re crossing oceans or just changing daylight hours, this episode gives you practical tools to keep your brain steady and your energy grounded.

You’ll discover:

✈️ How time-zone shifts confuse your body clock, cortisol rhythm, and melatonin cycle—creating the perfect storm for migraine vulnerability

🌙 Rituals to protect your sleep–wake rhythm before, during, and after travel, so your nervous system can recalibrate faster

🌏 The Eastern-medicine view on movement, fatigue, and why disconnection from Earth’s energy makes us more sensitive to pain and imbalance

🧘‍♀️ Simple grounding techniques—from breathwork to mindful eating—that help your body find home, wherever you are

Whether you’re a frequent flyer or just planning your next getaway, this episode helps you travel without fear—staying calm, aligned, and migraine-resilient on the move.

🎧 New episodes every Monday and Wednesday

🔗 Discover our work on migraineheroes.com

References:

• Association with Social Jetlag and Time Preference of Migraine Attack – Journal of Sleep Medicine, 2019: This pilot study found that migraine sufferers with a preference for a particular time of day for attacks had lower social jet lag and earlier circadian timing, linking sleep-wake misalignment with migraine susceptibility. Read the full study here.
• Migraine and Sleep — An Unexplained Association? – Int J Mol Sci, 2021: Waliszewska-Prosół et al. reviewed how migraine and sleep disorders share anatomical structures and mechanisms—such as serotonin, orexin, and melatonin pathways—highlighting the complex link between poor sleep and migraine. Read more here.
• Investigating the Relationship Between Sleep and Migraine in a Global Sample – J Headache Pain, 2023: A large smartphone-based dataset (11,166 users) showed that sleep interruptions and deviation from a person’s usual sleep pattern significantly predicted a migraine attack the following day, underscoring sleep stability’s role in migraine control. Read the full article here.
• Jet Lag: Current and Potential Therapies – PMC, 2011: This article reviewed how circadian disruption (as in jet lag) affects the nervous system and hormonal rhythms, offering relevant insights into how “travel-time shift” might trigger migraine via sleep/circadian misalignment. Read the review here.
• Jet Lag — What It Is, Symptoms, Treatment & Prevention – Cleveland Clinic: A patient-friendly overview from the Cleveland Clinic describing how rapid time-zone changes disrupt sleep, hormones, and circadian alignment, all of which are known migraine triggers. Read more

What if the fear of your next migraine is the very thing keeping it alive?

In this episode of Migraine Heroes Podcast, host Diane Ducarme dives deep into the fear–migraine feedback loop, how the mere anticipation of pain can activate the same pathways as pain itself.

We explore how chronic fear trains your brain to stay on high alert and how that hypervigilance quietly keeps your nervous system in “migraine mode.”

You’ll discover:

💭 How the fear of the next attack can actually spark the next attack, and the science behind that feedback loop.

💭 Practical ways to interrupt the anticipation spiral so you can regain calm, control, and confidence.

💭 Why blending Eastern-medicine wisdom (the art of releasing fear through flow) with Western neuroscience (the science of neuroplasticity and safety signals) creates a whole-new way out.

This episode is for anyone who’s ever woken up scanning for warning signs or felt their heart race at the first twinge of pain. You’ll learn how to stop living for your migraines and start living beyond them.

🎧 New episodes every Monday and Wednesday

🔗 Discover our work on migraineheroes.com

References:

The Not So Hidden Impact of Interictal Burden in Migraine: A 2022 narrative review in Frontiers in Neurology (Vincent et al.) shows that migraine has significant effects even between attacks—such as sensitivity, mood changes and balance issues—highlighting the continuous burden of the condition. Read the full review here.

Altered Neural Activity to Monetary Reward/Loss Processing in Episodic Migraine: A 2019 study in Scientific Reports (Kocsel et al.) found that individuals with episodic migraine have decreased neural reactivity in the brain’s reward system when processing monetary rewards, suggesting altered neural processing beyond pain episodes. Read more here.

Are Some Patient-Perceived Migraine Triggers Simply Early Manifestations of the Attack?: A 2021 review in PMC discusses how symptoms patients interpret as triggers—such as food, stress or weather—may actually be early-phase migraine indicators, shifting our understanding of “trigger” versus prelude. Read the full article here.

Premonitory Symptoms in Migraine: An earlier seminal study in Neurology (2003) investigated premonitory symptoms—such as mood changes, yawning and cravings—showing how the brain shifts state before the headache phase, thus reframing migraine as a multi-phase brain event. Read the study here.

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not substitute for providing medical advice. Always consult your healthcare professional before making any health-related decisions.

For women, men, and children who suffer from migraine disease, Migraine Heroes is your go-to resource for understanding, managing, and overcoming migraine attacks.

We cover all types of migraines and related headaches, including primary and secondary migraines, chronic migraines, and cluster migraines. We dive deep into the complexities of migraine with aura and migraine without aura, as well as rarer forms like hemiplegic migraine, retinal migraine, and acephalgic migraine (silent

Ever feel like your migraines strike right when your hormones swing? That’s no coincidence.

In this episode of Migraine Heroes Podcast, hosted by Diane Ducarme dives how hormonal shifts, especially sudden estrogen drops, can spark migraine attacks and emotional turbulence.

With a blend of neuroscience and Eastern medicine, we uncover:

💡 How to anticipate estrogen-related migraine patterns instead of being caught off guard

💡 The biology of “hormonal migraines”, what blood levels, cycles, and timing to watch

💡 How Eastern medicine interprets estrogen as an energy force that must flow harmoniously to prevent stagnation and pain

You’ll also learn practical tools to ride the hormonal waves with more stability — from nutrition and rest to emotional release and rhythm tracking.

Whether you’re in your reproductive years, perimenopause, or post menopause, this episode helps you tune in to your body’s natural signals and restore hormonal flow before the next migraine hits.

🎧 New episodes every Monday and Wednesday

🔗 Discover our work on migraineheroes.com

References:

Role of Estrogens in Menstrual Migraine: A 2022 review in Frontiers in Neurology explained how fluctuations in estrogen levels—particularly rapid drops before menstruation—trigger neurovascular changes that sensitize pain pathways and promote migraine attacks. Read the full overview here.

Menstrual Migraine Is Caused by Estrogen Withdrawal: A 2023 paper in The Journal of Headache and Pain presented evidence that estrogen withdrawal, rather than low absolute levels, is the main hormonal trigger for menstrual migraine, emphasizing timing over concentration. Read more here.

The Complex Relationship Between Estrogen and Migraines: A Scoping Review: A 2021 systematic review in Systematic Reviews (BMC) synthesized decades of research showing that both rising and falling estrogen levels can influence migraine risk, highlighting individual hormonal sensitivity as a key factor. Explore the review here.

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not substitute for providing medical advice. Always consult your healthcare professional before making any health-related decisions.

For women, men, and children who suffer from migraine disease, Migraine Heroes is your go-to resource for understanding, managing, and overcoming migraine attacks.

We cover all types of migraines and related headaches, including primary and secondary migraines, chronic migraines, and cluster migraines. We dive deep into the complexities of migraine with aura and migraine without aura, as well as rarer forms like hemiplegic migraine, retinal migraine, and acephalgic migraine (silent migraine). Our discussions also extend to cervicogenic headaches, ice pick headaches, and pressure headaches, which often mimic migraine or contribute to overall migraine burden.