Hormones: The Silent Trigger
If you’ve read my previous posts, then you know I’ve had great success in reducing migraines by changing my diet.
I’ve found relief and freedom from unpredictable, debilitating migraines by changing the food on my plate. Most important, I’ve been able to maintain the relief for almost 20 years now. But these last two years have been different.
Why did my migraine come back?
My migraines are back.
What did I do wrong? I’ve been fully committed to avoiding my migraine triggers, and never compromised on them. I also feel like I maintain a relatively healthy lifestyle with exercise, and I do my best to manage stress. So, why do I now feel like a little glass doll who has to be treated with such delicacy because any little thing will now trigger a migraine?
I feel defeated. So, I’m going back to the drawing board to see what else I can do to support my health.
What change triggered my attacks?
An obvious culprit jumps off the page right away.
Over the past two years, I’ve gone through fertility treatments, pregnancy, and postpartum – talk about a rollercoaster of hormones. While I know this on the surface, I don’t always know when a shift is actually happening, so I don’t easily make the connection as a culprit to the migraine.
Hormones have become the silent trigger of migraines for me.
How are hormones a silent trigger?
When I was making changes to my diet, there were very visible and very tangible changes. There were certain foods that I no longer ate, and there were foods that I ate more of. It was easier to make the connection of “when I eat this,” I feel “tired” or feel a migraine coming on.
When it comes to hormones, though, I can’t see them or feel them, so I don’t know when a shift is happening. I get frustrated and tell myself that I don’t understand why I’m getting migraines again. It feels like I’m doing something “wrong” that’s causing the migraines. But that’s simply not the case. Hormonal shifts are a necessary part of life, especially during all stages of pregnancy – before, during, and after.
What can I do to balance my hormones?
The question now is, what can I do to naturally support balanced hormones in my body?
I don’t 100% know the answer yet, but I do want to find out. I know that starting with one to two simple habits is what sets me up best for sustainable results, so that’s what I’m going to do. I’m selecting two simple habits that can support healthy hormones and better health all around. I’m sure that I will need to adopt additional habits beyond this, but this is where I’m starting. We’ll see how it goes, and join me on this journey!
Habit #1
I believe that sleep is an important starting point for improving any aspect of health. It’s easy to think that nothing is going on in the body when we try to catch those Z’s at night, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Just looking at our hormones alone, there are a lot of different hormones that get released when we sleep. So, this is step one. I’m aiming to be asleep by 10 pm, and I naturally wake up around 5:15 am. Honestly, I’ve been tired lately, so this shouldn’t be a problem, if anything, I may sleep a little later.
Habit #2
What I’m not doing exceptionally well on is staying hydrated. I’m usually good with water, but I’ve slipped lately. It’s easy to underestimate its importance in the body. Personally, I’m aiming for half my body weight in ounces of water each day because I know that I feel best when I maintain that level of hydration.
I focus on sipping water throughout the day so that I’m not chugging it all at once and then running to the bathroom with an overflowing bladder!
What do you do?
These two steps are basic and simple but important foundational steps to set the stage for better health.
Have you found anything that helps you manage migraines that are triggered by your hormones? Please share below so we can learn from you too!
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