#149: Healing Headaches and Migraines with Dr. Meg Mill

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Hi, I'm Dr. Tabatha, the Gutsy Gynecologist. I'm a triple board-certified OB-GYN and functional medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey, and I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. After caring for thousands of women, I've come to realize that your gut health determines your gyn health and your overall And it's a super gutsy thing for me to go against conventional gynecology practice to bring you the truth. No more Band-Aid medicine, ladies. We're talking root cause resolution on this show. So if you're struggling with hormone imbalance, weight gain, period issues, anxiety, insomnia, you name it, then you've come to the right place. And I want to be your gutsy gynecologist. So welcome.

Thank you.

All right, ladies, I'm really excited about this episode because I get so many questions about headaches and migraines and is it related to my hormones, to what I'm eating, all of that. So my guest and I are going to dive deep into all of that today. I'm super excited. But first, I want you to know that my 8-week Gutsy Hormone Solution is coming out again. Let's It starts November 27th, so right after Thanksgiving. You need to join, you guys. Like, the transformations the women in my group are having are just— they're so exciting. Women are constantly losing weight, they're feeling more energy, their brain clarity— like, they can finally finish tasks and get through their job without struggling, and they're sleeping so much better. And just the sisterhood, to see everybody connecting and supporting each other, is so beautiful. And I just— it fills my heart because we get on a Zoom call once a week during the program. So you get to have me every week for an hour, which— that's really hard to do. Like, usually, you know, it takes 3 months to see me or more, but you can have that in the groups. setting, and we get together every week and we troubleshoot and I answer all your questions and I educate on the processes going on in your body and why things are happening, why you're feeling certain ways, and how to overcome them. And I just— it fills my heart to see the transformations and to hear all of the gratitude from the women for everything they're getting out of this program. Like, I am just So thankful that I was brave enough to start it, brave enough to keep going, and to tweak it into the amazing program that it is now. I've been doing this for like 2 years now. So I would really, really, really tell you, like, you should join this program if you are north of 35 or 40 years old, if you're struggling with your weight, Definitely, if you have food cravings, especially carb cravings, sugar cravings. You don't have to, but that's usually a big piece of it. If you're having any gut issues, any hormone imbalances, all of that. It's not for you if you are trying to have a baby, if you're working on your fertility issues and you really want to optimize how to have a baby. That is my good friend Sarah Clarke. And her program, Fab Fertile, which I do case reviews for every week. So I'm on their staff for Fab Fertile. So if you have fertility issues, that's where you should go. Otherwise, ladies, if you want to look amazing and feel amazing, um, do what I did and do the Gutsy Hormone Solution, and I will help you all along the way. My health coach, my nutritionist, nutritionist, all the ladies in the program. It's so good. So I hope to see you there. It will change your life. And don't worry about the fact that it's the holidays because I'm going to teach you carb cycling and how to eat for the holidays. You don't have to starve yourself or be deprived. Those are old ways of thinking. Those are all wrong. That is why you're still stuck. So we have to get out of that mindset that we need to eat less and exercise more. That is all incorrect. Those are wrong, bad advice. So I'm going to teach you how to use your body's innate intelligence and to tap into your metabolic flexibility. That is the key. That's the magic that helps you burn your own fat for fuel. So— If that sounds amazing to you, I want you to go to the link, sign up now. So I will see you there very soon, and we're going to get you feeling amazing. Okay, so back to the show for today. My guest, Dr. Meg Mill, she's a functional medicine practitioner, but she started out as a pharmacist in the conventional medicine world. So that's why I love her, because She has kind of gone through the same process that I have of leaving conventional medicine and finding the world of functional medicine. And she's going to talk about why that's so important when it comes to headaches and migraines. So she has a virtual medicine practice just like I do. She works with patients worldwide to heal the root cause of their health struggles through advanced diagnostic testing and personalized support with her 2 decades of clinical experience in conventional and functional medicine, she can help people improve their health naturally while still understanding and respecting conventional practice protocols. I love that she can see it from both sides. That can be really helpful, especially if you're on chronic medications for headaches and migraines and you're ready to get off and figure out what's really going on. Okay. So she's been on Fox News Channel, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Reader's Digest Health Magazine, Life and Style, all kinds of national publications and podcast appearances. So she's the real deal. She's got a proven method called EAT, E-A-T, and we're going to talk about the real root causes of why you're having headaches and migraines and how to even approach this and tackle it from the get-go and get you living a pain-free life instead of managing your pain. We're just going to get rid of the pain. So if that sounds good to you, or if you know anybody who's struggling, please share this episode. And don't forget to hit the subscribe button. That tells iTunes that you want to know about these topics and they're important to you. So hit the subscribe Maybe even send me a 5-star review if you're loving it and finding value out of this. So thank you so much for letting me be a part of your day and trusting me to bring you the amazing people and all of this important information that you deserve to know about. So thank you. Here we go. Well, welcome, Dr. Meg, to the Gutsy Gynecologist Show.

Thank you for having me.

Oh my gosh, I'm so excited about this topic because I get asked this a lot and I've yet to talk about it. So thanks for coming on.

Absolutely.

Oh my gosh, how did you get into dealing with headaches? Is this something that you were suffering from?

You know, actually, it's interesting because I actually came to functional medicine for gut health. I had been in the the conventional side and was having so many issues with my gut health that that's actually kind of what led me on my personal journey. But when I work with people, we all— like a lot of us do, I do a really detailed intake questionnaire and a symptom questionnaire. And I noticed this pattern when I was first even starting out. I would either have women coming to me with headaches and migraines, and that was the reason they were coming. Or another thing that I was noticing was happening was that when they were filling out these forms, even before they came to me, they were putting like chronic headaches, have had headaches, and they were marking it, but then they were coming to me for actually different reasons. And when we would get into our first consult and I was saying, you're marking that you have all these headaches that you're suffering, they would just even think, oh, I've had these for so long. They weren't even considering it as a health concern because it was just a normal part of their life. And then we'd work together and I would see this huge difference of like, wow, now I don't have the headaches. Now I don't have the migraines. This is life-changing. And I just really became passionate about, we got to reach more people to know that they don't have to— women don't have to suffer. Because I think It's normalized. It's just like, oh, yeah, I have headaches. Oh, yeah, this is just something that's a part of my life that there's nothing I can do about. And really, there's so many things we can do to really change that.

Oh, my gosh. You hit on such an important point. I think that migraines and headaches in particular, we have just trained women to really think this is something you're going to live with, you're going to suffer with your entire life. And I love that you come from conventional medicine like I do, because you understand, like, how physicians and providers address headaches and migraines is, let's just get you some symptom relief. Let's manage the pain. You know, there's pain management clinics all over the country. That's what they're called. And they're really not trying to get rid of the headaches. So, like you said, we've normalized this. It's a part of life. Just deal with it. How can we manage it? And— keep you functioning. What a shame, right?

Absolutely. I mean, it's just the Band-Aid approach, really. The treatments for that in particular is just cover up the pain, deal with the pain, but they're really doing nothing to address the root cause why they're coming, why you're getting them. So you're really having to take this medication and still suffer from the headaches. It's like this cycle of like, okay, we're covering up the pain, but it's not going away.

Right. And like you, when I transitioned into functional medicine, I just started seeing the headaches go away. People were shocked and amazed, and it was a byproduct. It wasn't the reason they were coming. It was like, oh, by the way, I haven't had a migraine in 2 months. How amazing. And yeah, it's incredible when you start talking about the root cause issues. So that's what we're going to talk about today.

Yes, exactly.

We're going to unpack all of this. And what would you say is the biggest surprise that people have when they, when you start talking to them about root causes?

I think it's really the combination. So I, I think what happens, you know, everybody knows that they get certain triggers. So I like, if you're someone who has headaches or migraines all the time, that's like, okay, maybe that I get smells or maybe light or different, but I think it's Really, sometimes when it comes— let's actually talk about food, because when it comes to the food, it can be really— first of all, the foods that cause headaches can be really surprising, or the migraines, because people— they're often foods that are healthy. And so you're eating these foods, like, let's say, give an example of like an avocado. So avocados contain histamines. We can dive more into how histamines can also be a migraine trigger. And so you might be eating avocados thinking, No, I'm eating a healthy fat. It's something that's good for me. And meanwhile, you're actually triggering her. Or citrus foods. So some of the foods are really surprising. They're not foods that you're thinking, oh, I should be avoiding. And then the fact also that some of the combinations of foods can trigger. So you can think like, oh, maybe I have this food and I don't have a headache, or I can eat it sometimes, but other times I get a headache, and you rule it out like it's not that. But sometimes we look at that threshold and the combinations of food and what puts you over the threshold. So I think it really, when you dial in, it's really dialing into your specific triggers. And sometimes those can just be so enlightening for people.

Yeah, without a doubt. And I would say if you're still eating the standard American diet, you're going to fast food restaurants, you're eating tons of boxed and bagged food, right? Prepackaged dinners, heating your vegetables in plastic in the microwave. Like, oh, this stuff makes me cringe. But if you're still doing all of that, you need to start from the beginning and clean that up, right? Do you usually have your clients go through an elimination type diet just to hit the reset button?

Yeah. So what we do, I actually put it into 2 buckets. Well, first, actually, maybe 3, because you're bringing up the standard American diet. So first, I guess that's step 1, cleaning up your diet. So we can do that first. And then we also Take a look at some of the known triggers. So we're going to look at things like histamine-containing foods, which can be like aged foods, fermented foods, tyramine-containing foods, again, like aged and cured. We look at nitrates, salicylates, which is actually citrus. The nitrates come in hot dogs, things like that. And then we're going to look at MSG, which is in a lot of, like you're saying, the prepared box foods, any artificial sweeteners. And so I have them kind of take a look at their diet and see where they're getting all of these things. And then we also, in another bucket, look at food sensitivities, and that's where that elimination would come in, really, either just doing an elimination diet or even doing food sensitivity testing to look at their specific food sensitivities, and then we eliminate those. And food sensitivities are so hard for people because you really get those— you can get them 4 to 48 hours really after. So it could be the food you ate yesterday that's giving you the migraine today that you're not even putting the connection to.

Right. That's really challenging to ever figure out what symptom goes with what Food. I find that all the time for women, skin conditions, eczema, headaches, fatigue, all of that. I love that you're doing that approach. Are you evaluating the gut in all of this as well?

Absolutely. We always have to look at the gut.

Love it.

Yes. Really, when we're looking at that, the food sensitivities are one of the aspects that we look at with the gut, really making sure that you're not getting that immune response, that inflammation, and then healing your gut. Really, whenever Even looking at different micro— it's so interesting. I love data. I'm sure you do too, like the different microbes that can be in the gut, even that could possibly be histamine-producing or different things that are actually promoting the headaches from bacteria that's in the gut. So cleaning all of that up really can make a difference. And you can just see sometimes— it's interesting. I'm sure you have this too, when people come to me and they're talking about headaches or even when you're talking about hormones. And sometimes we're like, well, we need to go to the gut. And they're like, well, why? That's not why I'm here. And they're like, well, yes, but taking a step back, it really is impacting you.

Yeah, it all starts in the gut. So I want people, I want all my listeners to hear this. It starts in the gut. There are bacteria in the gut that produce toxins and different things and histamine reactions that can contribute to headaches, right?

Absolutely. Yeah. And it is, it's not, you're not thinking about it, especially for people that don't have clear gut-related symptoms. You may not be feeling— you may have the bloating, the reflux, things like that, but you also may not be. And so I think then it's harder to think, okay, this could be coming from the gut, but there's still so many connections. Or even parasites. I've cleared parasites that then it's like, wow, how long has that been in your body that when that's gone, the headaches start to go away too?

Yeah, without a doubt. So important. OK, so we're going to look at the gut, food sensitivities, how foods are triggering your symptoms, your headaches, your migraines. How about hormonal patterns? That's a really big one I hear. It's like, I think it's related to my period, but I'm not sure. Like, what does that look like?

We see that more often with migraines, and then particularly if you're getting them Every month. So if you're someone who's like, okay, I know 3 days before my period I'm going to get the migraine, or I know even ovulation, because we have that rapid change in estrogen, sometimes it's like every time that someone ovulates. So you can kind of look at that pattern to see if this is something that you're experiencing. And then that's a good time to really get your hormones checked and look at the differences in— a lot of times the most common thing that I see, which it can be different for everyone, but is estrogen dominance. So when we're seeing this, you're seeing that estrogen dominance most likely that week before your period. And so that's the most common time to have the hormonal migraines. And I use the DUTCH Test for my testing to do the metabolites. And often, it's something that I have found interesting. I'm not sure if this is a pattern that you see, but I'll see sometimes people even with normal estrogen levels, like a normal estradiol, that are not metabolizing their estrogen right. And so even if you got that blood draw, Sometimes and you see that estradiol level okay, then if your metabolites— if you're not clearing your estrogen, so we need to make sure that you're clearing your estrogen too. So it's really finding the reason behind— another thing with hormones is test, don't guess, because finding that reason behind that hormonal imbalance. Do you have low progesterone? How are you metabolizing your estrogen? Things like that can make a huge difference in the way people feel.

Yeah, without a doubt. I think that's super important to know that It's not just your overall level. Even if your period seems, quote unquote, normal, or your doctor tells you you're fine, like, it still could be hormone-related because our hormones do shift every day of the month. And I try to explain to women, like, if your estrogen level is really, really high in the luteal phase, and then you stop making estrogen so that you can shed that lining for a period, Dropping from a 10-story building doesn't feel good and will probably kill you, whereas falling from a 1-story building is less traumatic. And that's what's happening when your really high estrogen level is dropping compared to a normal estrogen level or a lower level. So the symptom is just more severe. Wouldn't you agree?

Yes.

All the time.

Yeah. That rapid change in hormones. Often. Yeah. And I think it's like people are just told to unfortunately go on birth control, and that's not the answer. And you're not, again, solving the hormonal imbalances. And so it's really finding that once we find that hormonal imbalance and you get your hormones in check, then it just all starts to clear up.

Yeah, without a doubt. And I would say that I saw a ton of women who couldn't tolerate the birth control pill because it caused headaches for them.

Yes, exactly.

When I was a conventional gynecologist. And it just goes to show hormones really play an intricate role because we have estrogen and progesterone receptors in our brain. And so our brain is responding and in our cardiovascular system. So our arteries are responding to these hormone levels. And so it's really important to evaluate all that. And You probably see this all the time. Patients will go to their conventional gynecologist and get some kind of testing if they're lucky enough. And so this is where my frustration is, is there will be some gynecologists out there who will do some basic blood work and it's in the normal range of the lab reference. And so they're told everything is fine. Can you talk about that a little bit?

I agree. Yes, those are wide ranges. Based on not always the healthiest population too. So it's like really we look at those optimal ranges and this place and the thyroid is the other place where I see that so often happen. You're told it's fine and you're not getting the right labs or the right ranges. And so yeah, we need to look at the ranges that make you feel optimal. So even if something is within that standard range doesn't mean that's optimal for you and that's the range that you should be in to feel your best. And so I think functionally, we could look at much tighter ranges to make sure that you're feeling well.

Exactly. And when medicine really developed a century ago, like we— or more than that at this point— we were dealing with patients in the hospital situation that were very sick and we're trying to keep them alive. So those lab references are really not helpful. They're trying to keep you alive. They're not trying to Like you said, be optimal or thrive at all. So such an important thing.

It's hard for people to understand that because I think it is because it's like you're being told by someone that you trust that, oh, things are normal and you still don't feel well. And I think it's so hard for people often because they don't feel well and they know they don't, but you're like, oh, you're fine. And so just knowing, like, you should be able to know your body and know there's something that you— there's ways you can feel better.

Yeah. And the doctors in the conventional world really hang their hat on those lab values. And it almost doesn't matter what the patient is saying. Sometimes it's the labs are fine. And the biggest problem with that, you understand this as a pharmacist, like blood is a transport mechanism. That's not where the magic and all the processes are happening. That's where things are transported in and out of the cells and into the tissues. And so it doesn't give you accurate representation of what's going on at the cellular level. You know, I see that all the time. It's like, well, her sodium and potassium on her CMP is normal, or something like that. It's like, that's not where sodium and potassium work.

They don't.

If it's off in the blood, you're probably in the ICU. Like, it's bad at that point.

Yeah.

And we just, we've forgotten that, you know, it's like the What I see all the time is doctors ordering a CBC, a CMP, and a TSH. That is the complete health panel that patients get at their yearly exam. Oh, and a basic lipid panel.

Yeah.

So you get those things. Those are for sick people. Those are not, you know, like if something shows up on that, you probably aren't walking around. That's just my take on it. So I would love for you to talk about the side effects because when I get new patients, they're often on Motrin and Tylenol and Klonopin and all these crazy medications chronically long-term to manage their pain.

Mm-hmm.

But what are those medications really doing to them? Are they, you know, safe to be on long-term?

I think even just the first— I actually even like to take a step back further. I think like people think that just because something's over the counter, that they can buy it in the store, that they think it's safe. And so with that, you know, when you are managing pain with like an Advil or a Tylenol or like an Aleve or, you know, anything like that that you're just buying over the counter, you know, we know that ibuprofen and naproxen, which are Advil and Aleve are in the class of NSAID drugs. And we know, it's funny when I'm talking about this because it's like we're using data from pharmaceutical data, not— because sometimes people think like, oh, you're just saying this. It's like, no, the companies, the drug companies know that there's cardiovascular risk, that it tears your stomach lining.

It causes all sorts of things.

There's liver risk.

Yeah.

It's like we all— the whole cocktail COX-1, selective COX-1 was created like a billion-dollar drug when we had back with Celebrex and some of those, because those were really trying to get those stomach lining, those ulcer effects down. But then they were increasing cardiovascular risk by 30%. So you're switching risks, which we didn't want. And that's what happened, that those went away. But you're taking these medications that you feel are safe or being told are safe. And they're really always causing something. So there always is a side effect. I think we laugh at, you know, we all watch those commercials and it's like, this is the best drug ever. And then there is like this long list of 2 minutes of everything it can do. And it's kind of like, aha, that's great.

All the gifts.

Exactly. And we move on and then your doctor tells you to take it and you do. But not that you'll get every one of those risks, but there always are risks. So I think just really thinking about that, like Every time you put something in your mouth, there is a risk, and you have to think about the possible side effects from the minimal to the maximum of side effect possibilities. And then do you want to keep putting those in your body? Like we're saying in this space, particularly with headaches and migraines, but a lot of cases you're just covering something up and you're not really treating it. So flipping that around and thinking like, okay, I'm going to decrease the risk of other health conditions and also really fix my problem. And I think once we can find It's almost like I'll show people almost like a web. It's like you think, we say root cause, but look at it like a web of different things that are connecting. So it's like, okay, if we can unwind this web and take all these pieces and put them in the right places, almost like one of my people I was working with said, it's almost like a sliding puzzle that you're just moving. We're moving the pieces around and we're getting them in the right place. And then we find that you really don't have to deal with the problem and you don't have to take the medication.

Yeah.

And really, we talked about those, but when you're bringing up like Klonopin and some of the pain medications, I mean, they're addictive too. So we have to also consider what your long-term consequences there can be.

Yeah, exactly. I remember my first year of medical school, we had pharmacy class. That's all you do is learn, memorize drugs. And when I heard that taking Tylenol and drinking alcohol together will cause like liver failure. And we just allow this to be sold over the counter. We don't talk about it. It's one of the biggest causes of liver failure and people have no clue. They really, really don't. And that NSAIDs are the leading cause of ulcer disease along with H. pylori and things like that. It's like, why don't we talk about this? As a physician, you know, I recently had a patient who had a Hashimoto's diagnosis with a huge flare of her thyroid, and the prescription from the doctor was Motrin, 800 milligrams every 8 hours for 3 months.

Wow.

Luckily, she questioned that and thought, because it upset her stomach, she was like, I just want a second opinion. What do you think of this therapy. And like, I was shocked. Like, really? The doctor forgot the side effects of Motrin at this point? Yes. To take it every 8 hours for 3 months, you will rot a hole in her gut for sure and create food sensitivities and every other problem under the sun. Probably turn on auto— another autoimmune process. I'm sure you had Hashimoto's. Like, wow. Like, that just It just blew my mind and it reminded me that we really forget about all the potential risks, especially of over-the-counter. So, I think the work you're doing is so important to help people realize, like, we're not supposed to be on any kind of medicines all of the time, long-term. That's not what medicine is for, you know? So—

And really, the drug companies want you to be on the medication.

Oh, God, yes.

Because they're getting paid if you take the medication. That's promoted because that's how everyone's getting paid. So it's a backward system in some ways of the information people are getting because it's like, oh, yeah, take this, take this. And we're managing to the medication. So there's always a bottom line there too.

Exactly. So you're going to evaluate the gut, you're going to evaluate the food they're eating, their whole diet. You're going to evaluate their hormones. What else is implicated in headaches and migraines?

What else are the root So we can even go back to some basics. So listeners can just even start right now. So even dehydration and lack of sleep can be triggers for headaches and migraines. So really making sure that you're staying hydrated. And I know really evaluating, are you really drinking enough water? And then are you getting hydrated at a cellular level? You were talking about the sodium and the potassium, and you need to be able to be hydrated at the cellular level in order to really have the effect for your headaches and migraines. So really just making sure that you're sipping water throughout the day, not chugging all at once, because I know sometimes we go Go, go, go. And then it's like, oh, we're so thirsty, and you drink it all at once. You can excrete a lot of that water. And so maybe adding some electrolytes to your water too, like at least one glass a day, put some electrolytes in just to again make sure, because I know a lot of people that are getting more health conscious. I filter my water, which is good, but then I'm also doing a reverse osmosis filter. So adding some electrolytes can help there too sometimes. But just saying, so staying hydrated is important. And then really making sure, taking a look in the mirror, are you getting good sleep? Are you getting good quality sleep? You know, because I think we go and a lot of times people like, you know what, if you maybe have little kids and you love that quiet time at night, or, you know, that's your time to just rest and have— it's like the downtime. So we don't want to give that up, but then we'll choose that time to stay up over sleep. And sometimes then people are getting a real lack of sleep without even noticing it.

Yeah, for sure. I know that was the case for me. I wasn't getting enough sleep and That's when your brain does all its washing and cleaning. It gets rid of all the debris and toxins. And if you don't physically do that, you're going to have headaches and feel sick and exhausted. I know from firsthand. And going back to headaches, if you don't have enough progesterone, you're probably not going to get enough sleep either.

Yeah, exactly. It's just like that.

Yeah, it is.

You're right. Because then if you don't have enough, then you're up and you can't sleep. And then so it's like putting all of those pieces together to make sure that you are. But I think people don't realize that they're not sleeping a lot of— I don't know whether you see this, but—

Yeah.

You know, like when I said, when I have these intake forms, I'll be like, oh, I get good sleep, I'm sleeping okay. And then we dive into it and we talk about how they're actually sleeping. And it's like, oh, well, I, you know, they think you may think you're getting sleep, but like really putting the mirror up, are you sleeping well? You know, are you really prioritizing that in your life? So that's another just easy thing that's free, easy. You can do that today, right?

If you have to hit snooze 10 times or drag your butt out of bed, you probably didn't sleep very well. Or if you got up 5 times to pee, or if your husband kept waking you up or your kids, that's not restorative sleep. So we need to fix that for sure. So are there any foods that we should focus on or make sure we're getting in our diet to help with all of this?

Yeah. So one of the biggest, one of the minerals or the vitamins that minerals that I see most commonly is low magnesium. So really look for, say, a lot of our soil is eroded now that we're not getting the magnesium we need from the soil and things like that. So that's a good food to add. We can add things like pumpkin seeds are actually a very high source of magnesium. So that's something that you can just kind of start to look what foods have magnesium. You may need to supplement some. It's sometimes hard to get enough in your diet. And then looking, getting a good amount of omega-3 fatty acids can be helpful. So foods like that, we want to even see foods that are hormone supporting. So things that help you metabolize your estrogen, even like it can go deep, like even eggs can have choline that can help you metabolize your estrogen. So we're putting things in different places. But I would say if you're going to look at one source, then maybe focus on foods that have magnesium in them.

Yeah, that was always my go-to for pregnant women because they commonly get headaches. They're dehydrated, their hormones have shifted, they're not sleeping well, they got a lot going on, or they don't eat enough food just because their stomach's all pushed up. And it was crazy to see all of the heavy-duty prescriptions that were given to women who are pregnant, and it's just as simple as taking magnesium and their headaches would go away. And then you take it as a preventative. You take it every day. You get those foods in your diet, sometimes supplementation, and you don't have those headaches. So it can be such a game changer to do these simple, basic things that we're just not doing anymore, right?

Yeah. No one's talking about it. It's like, okay, just take the medication. We'll just do it that way instead of actually just going back and taking a look at all of these things to make the connections.

Yeah. So the other piece I don't think conventional medicine is really talking about are environmental toxins and all of that, like all the hormone disruptors, all of the heavy metal toxins, all the plastics. Like, that's definitely causing headaches, right?

Absolutely. And I think you had said earlier, I mean, Just one thing you can simply do is move all of your containers to glass because the BPA— I do am amazed sometimes that we're still using plastic containers, then we're heating them in the microwave or putting them in the dishwasher and it's breaking down that structure of those chemicals. And then you have the BPA leaching into your food. And so just making some of those simple shifts can go a long way to really make that change. So looking— and I think it can feel overwhelming and expensive to people. So just— I always tell people just one thing at a time. So maybe make one shift, and then if you use, like, let's say, a bottle of makeup, you can go to the ewg.org Skin Deep site and look up a product that is low in chemicals and switch out your foundation or switch out each time. You can make those shifts over a period so that it doesn't feel as overwhelming.

Yeah, exactly. And you can still buy vegetables in their plastic, or sometimes I buy the premade potato mashed potatoes. I'm not the best, but my kids need to be able to cook stuff quickly. And I just say the best thing you can do is take it out of the plastic container and heat it up in a glass container or put it on stainless steel pan on the stove. Like, those little shifts add up over time because if you're cooking that stuff every day, like, oh, the worst thing that killed me was that mac and cheese in that, like, Styrofoam plastic little container they had.

Oh, yeah.

Like, talk about toxic. You could see it melting into the food. And it's like, that's what kids are coming home and eating after school. And it just kills me. Like, please. So if you can help your kids and yourself just find ways to navigate all that and just make better choices with the stuff you are eating, what you do have, I think you could go a long way for sure. Right?

Absolutely. Yeah. You just start taking one step at a time and making some of those easy Then do another one. With headaches and migraines, you can go deeper and look at— we could go into mold toxicity, some different heavy metal, lead and cadmium have a high connection with. Some of those things you need testing for to really see where your levels are, and then we need to clear those out. But you make some of these endocrine disruptor simple shifts, those can make a lot of difference for people before you need testing. really want to look deeper, then you kind of can get some of this testing to see where we can look at if you are carrying any heavy metals or anything like that. And also think about your environment. I mean, did you move and then this started, or did you have a change? And sometimes people don't put those connections together. But once you start to look at some of your environmental factors and how this really formed— I actually had someone, she'd been getting headaches since she was 6 years old, and we were working things, and I was We were unwinding and we were talking about Lyme disease. I was like, did you have— we were trying to figure out at that point in her life what happened. Here we got to she had been on a camping trip and she did have a tick bite. Here, this is back from— she's an adult now at 6 years old, looking back at a history of Lyme that was undiagnosed. You really can put a lot of these pieces together maybe that you weren't even thinking about could be a connection.

Yeah, I think it's really important to do the deep dive functional medicine one-on-one approach. If you go through all of this basic stuff we've talked about and you're still suffering, there is a reason. You can figure it out. It just takes a deeper dive of actually testing and not guessing of you as an individual and looking at your history because Functional providers, the way that we are trained to look at a history is like no other. It is nothing like I learned in medical school, that is for sure. It's so different. Like you mentioned, going back to childhood, looking for those incidents and those events. And I would say for my patients, I probably only have to do the deeper testing of mold and Lyme and heavy metals, like, probably 10% of the time. What do you think?

I save it too. People will even come to me like, should I get a mold test? And I was like, no, we need to do stool tests first. If you're like, how we were saying, it begins in the gut. It's like prioritizing what tests you see most effectively. And I agree, I don't have to do— we can most often get things solved without having to go into those deeper testing.

Yeah, I don't think it's usually the zebra. I think it's usually a lot of the basics that we're just not addressing and dealing with and always got to do the gut. So if you come to Dr. Meg or myself for hormone imbalance and headaches, we're going to want a stool test. I know how it goes because I promise you that's where the answers lie. So, oh my goodness. What is in your free guide for my listeners?

Yeah, so you can go to just— it's helpmyheadaches.com. And that's a free guide with 8 steps of some of the things we talked about and some more in-depth things, some things you can do to actually start to today, just to really go through and look at those things in your life. And it gives you action steps to take for each of those 8 pillars to really start saying goodbye to your headaches today. It can open your eyes to some of the things to try. Try those. Like we're saying, those are free, easy steps that you can do. And then if it resonates or if you feel like you need more, then you need to look deeper. And there's so many resources we can provide.

Yeah. And you work one-on-one with clients, right?

I do, yes. I have a virtual functional medicine practice. I see people all over the world one-on-one. And so that's another— I'd love to help you if that's something that you're interested in, if you feel like this is something you've been suffering with for a long time. My website is just Meg. It's www.megmill.com. So it's M-E-G-M-I-L-L.com.

Perfect. I'll have those links in the show notes so everybody can check you out because honestly, if you have recurrent headaches, You need to get that taken care of. That is no way to live. Like, I honestly can't even remember the last time I had a headache, and I had them all the time, you know, through residency, through undergrad, as an attending. Like, and I had them for a multitude of reasons. The reasons changed over the years. Like, when I was younger, they were from the birth control pill. And then it was You know, alcohol-related, and then it was study and sleep deprivation-related. And, you know, that continued. And then it was my horrible, horrible diet. So I think that's another point is the reason that they started might not be the reason they're continuing. So it does sometimes take somebody from the outside to look in and say, here's what I'm seeing, right? I always say you can't see the picture if you're in the frame.

Yeah, that's a good thing. I like that. Yeah, it is so hard, isn't it?

It is for sure. So reach out to Meg, get the help that you need. You deserve to feel amazing. Stop living with these headaches and covering up this pain. So thank you so much for being so awesome. I got a ton of good tips on here to start trying. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you so much for having me.

Oh my gosh, I hope you got so much out of that episode. There was so many golden nuggets in that episode. She was dropping And all kinds of awesome nuggets of advice. So one thing that stood out to me, it's like going back to basics, making sure you're hydrated enough, right? So you should be drinking at least half your body weight in water every day. So if you weigh 160 pounds, you should be drinking 80 ounces of water. And sometimes you do need electrolytes. Sometimes it's as simple as adding A quarter or half a teaspoon of Celtic sea salt into your water in the morning, especially if you have adrenal fatigue. Those adrenal glands need that sodium and potassium. So sometimes it's about adding some electrolytes. Sometimes we need more potassium. The big piece is also magnesium. I see this all the time. We're so magnesium depleted. Because the food we eat is so deplete of magnesium, and magnesium is actually needed for over 500 processes in our body every single day. So we're now dealing with toxins coming in in our food, in our air, in our water, in our cosmetic products, and our cleaning products—you name it—and magnesium is required to take care of those toxins. Toxins to get rid of them through our liver and our skin and our lungs, and so we burn through magnesium more than we ever have before in this day and age. So I would say it's probably mandatory for geez eighty percent of us. I'm just guessing, but that's what I see in my practice is that's how many women need magnesium supplementation. I would love for you to get it through your diet, but like. I said, even the healthiest diet is lacking because our soil is so depleted now of magnesium. So get MagLift. It is at my supplement store, the Gutsy Gein supplement store. You should be taking magnesium every day, most likely. If— definitely if you're suffering from headaches, constipation, fatigue, brain fog, Muscle cramps, leg cramps, foot cramps, eye twitches— those are usually all signs of your body needing more magnesium to do their processes. So, you know, we have some minerals that help us contract muscles, and then we have some that help us relax the muscles, and we get into a pattern of dysfunction where we have too much of the minerals that cause the contraction and not enough that cause the relaxation. So calcium causes contraction of the muscle, magnesium causes relaxation. So stop if that's you. You don't need as much calcium, you need more magnesium. So the links are in the show notes. Get that, get whatever you But make some changes. Take what Dr. Meg said, start incorporating it. If you're finding you're overwhelmed or you've done all of that and you're ready to dive deeper, reach out to her, reach out to my clinic. I have a team. We can help you as well. Like you don't need to suffer. You honestly don't. There are answers. Nobody is so. Unique and far gone that you can't be helped. Because sometimes I hear that. I, I get women who are like, I, I just don't even know if you can help me because it's been so long, or I've tried so many things, this and that. There is always a root cause or root causes that just haven't been uncovered yet, and it takes the right practitioner to help guide you through that journey. And sometimes it takes more advanced functional medicine testing that you're not getting through your regular doctors or even some other functional doctors. So because functional medicine people, they kind of have their special niche too, just like regular doctors, of what they're good at, what they treat the most, what they're comfortable with. So you got to remember that. And so don't give up Hope. Keep searching. You will find the right provider and you can feel amazing. I completely believe that you do. And if you want to lose weight, join the Gutsy Hormone Solution. I will see you there soon. Go have a kick-ass week, ladies. See you later.