Client reversal of migraine, fatigue, anxiety, insomnia & GI issues

5 min read, fact checked ✔

A sixty three year old female contacted me for Nutritional Therapy support for her health issues, presenting with severe migraine attacks, fatigue, anxiety, bloating, diarrhea, drowsiness, excess catarrh, inability to focus, ear aches, and insomnia, which was greatly affecting her quality of life. The client signed up to my longer-term programme which allowed me to analyse her historical medical history, and work together to slowly implement a bespoke nutritional and lifestyle plan.

The client disclosed being on a number of over-the-counter (OTC), and prescribed medications such as Amitriptyline Rizatriptan, Ondansetron, Loratadine and Avamys spray, as well as a number of past medications which the client had recently stopped. With these kinds of complex health conditions, it is essential to consider my longer programmes, as one-off consultations would be not be ideal to address the many potential imbalances that may causing the symptoms and medical diagnoses, which cannot be addressed at once.

Migraine is a form of neuropathic pain, a symptom that develops as a result of damage to, or dysfunction of the somatosensory system ⁽¹⁾, but very often related to underlying nutritional imbalances and lifestyle factors. The word migraine is derived from the Greek word “hemikrania,” later converted into Latin as “hemigranea.” The French translation of such a term is “migraine.” a common cause of disability and loss of work. Migraine triggers are complex brain events that unfold over hours to days in a recurrent matter ⁽¹⁾. 

Amitriptyline, a tricyclic antidepressant with sedative effects had been prescribed by the client’s neurologist. In conventional medicine, Amitriptyline is often prescribed for neuralgia and related conditions such as Fibromyalgia, and may have beneficial collateral effects on sleep. However the use of sedatives is linked to increased risks of dependency and side effects ⁽²⁾, and it remains uncertain whether any improvement of sleep related to Amitriptyline use results in higher quality restorative type of sleep, otherwise known as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, in the same way that alcohol, a sedative, improves self-reported sleep in drinkers. However, evidence suggests that the increased sleep which may be caused by alcohol consumption, is strongly linked to reduced REM sleep ⁽³⁾, which is a risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD) ⁽⁴⁾ and it may be possible Amitriptyline could have similar outcomes, with a research article linking Amitriptyline use with a consistently increased risk of dementia ⁽⁵⁾. Talking about alcohol, abstinence is a strategy commonly attached to a ‘dry January’, but reducing or even removing alcohol completely longer term can have considerable improvements on many aspects of health.

Many of the client’s prescribed medications were associated with a number of side effects which were disclosed by the client, as well as contributing to a number of nutritional imbalances. NOTE: you should never stop any medications without knowledge and approval of your prescribing healthcare practitioner. The client expressed her desire to cease Amitriptyline and develop a healthier lifestyle, which was noted and disclosed on my referral letters to her GP and neurologist together with my evaluation and requests for further testing for a series of blood markers I had recommended. Her GP was incredibly helpful in arranging further blood testing for the client which proved very useful and provided an additional layer of evidence to identify her root causes whilst supporting my rationale for tweaking her personalised dietary programme, a good example of working together as part of multidisciplinary team.

Based on my overall initial evaluation of the client presentations, my first recommendation was to rebalance her nutritional status whilst ensuring no interactions with her prescribed and OTC medications. The client reported reduced incidences of migraine episodes and reduced bloating after only a couple of weeks, which help set the foundations for further improvements. A number of dietary factors linked to anxiety-like behaviours had been identified from the client’s health questionnaire, and a slow transition to personalised options was slowly introduced, which had a beneficial effect on her anxiety during the next 3 weeks. The client reported a ‘flatter belly’ which correlated with her reduced bloating, but also accompanied by weight loss, which was an expected finding despite not being a weight loss intervention, which in my option is the best way to address weight loss, particularly with regards dietary adherence.

Despite the reduced migraines, anxiety, catarrh and insomnia, these symptoms had not fully resolved, and although a gastrointestinal investigation was strongly recommended from the onset, for reasons of cost it had been agreed to initially focus on improving her diet and lifestyle. However, two month on since commencing the programme, an excellent digestive and microbial evaluation was conducted, revealing a number of potential digestive imbalances and pathogenic triggers, which evidence suggested were strongly linked to many of her chronic symptoms and impaired immunity linked to her persistent ear aches, which then provided the rationale for a targeted supplement programme. This approach may not work for everyone, as anybody’s else’s root causes for similar type of symptoms may vary, thats why my Nutritional Therapy clinical training allows me to identify a person’s root causes and recommended evidence-based individualised programmes by supporting the person, not the disease. One disease can have similar symptoms, but different root causes. Irritable bowel syndrome is a great example of that.

For ethical, safety and cost reasons, it is very important not to recommended a needless array of supplements too quickly for a client, and always best to recommend them temporarily and in a targeted manner with supporting evidence for their use. An update letter was provided to her GP and neurologist explaining the outcomes of the stool test and how the results could explain her many symptoms. 

The targeted supplement programme has a significant effect on improving her symptoms by five months, so much so that her migraine, energy levels, anxiety, nausea and digestive function significantly improved to levels the client had not experienced for many years. Towards the end of the programme, the client had a routine appointment with her neurologist, who at the request of the client, supported by my referral letter highlighting my findings and her significantly improved wellbeing, agreed to deprescribe her Amitriptyline. 

About four months after having ended my programme, I met up with the client who confirmed that her improved health had been maintained due to her new established dietary and lifestyle habits, whilst disclosing almost no migraine relapses. If you would like to work with me to improve any aspect of your health, get in touch by phone / WhatsApp or email me by CLICKING HERE.