Ep 20. How Hydration Supports Brain Retraining & Chronic Pain Recovery

In this episode, we explore a new perspective on the often-overlooked importance of proper hydration. Going beyond the usual advice of drinking water, we delve into how consistent hydration supports the body's physiology, enhances healing in a biopsychosocial context, and helps maintain a sense of safety for the brain (aka brain retraining). The episode also provides practical tips and mindbody techniques to incorporate hydration into daily routines as a form of self-care and symptom management.

00:00 Introduction to Hydration and Chronic Pain

00:58 The Biopsychosocial Model of Healing

03:19 Personal Experiences with Dehydration

05:38 Hydration's Impact on the Nervous System

12:13 Practical Tips for Staying Hydrated

17:36 Hydration as a Healing Ritual

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Thanks for listening - I hope you found this helpful.
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Education and techniques discussed in this Podcast originate from many sources, countless hours of research, training, and self-healing unless otherwise noted.

Music credit: MomotMusic, Kyrylo Momot
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Disclaimer: Information provided by Migraine Oasis & Karen Ash is for general informational & educational purposes only & is not a substitute for medical advice, psychotherapy, or counselling. Utilizing any of the education, strategies, or techniques in the podcast is done at your own risk. Consult with a physician before engaging in any suggested movements. If in immediate danger, call a local emergency number or go to the nearest emergency room.

Transcript

0:55

Hello and welcome. I'm so glad that you've joined me for today's episode where we'll be talking about something that sounds simple, but actually has a deeper implication than most people realize when it comes to chronic pain and symptoms like migraine. And that is hydration. Now before you roll your eyes and think, oh, I've heard this a hundred times, you should drink more water. And that's so irritating. I can't believe she's gonna talk about hydration. Hold up. I wanna offer you a very different perspective today. But before I start, I really would recommend that you go and get something to sip on as you listen to me, and trust me, it's going to go down differently by the end of this episode. This is not about preventing migraines or any other symptom for that matter, by just chugging liters or ounces for my US colleagues, of water. It's about equipping our physiology, our body, our brain with what it needs to feel safe and be in the best position to heal, essentially. If we're looking at healing from this bio-psychosocial model, which you may or may not have heard of, that's just the technical term for mind body medicine. It's bio for the biology, psycho for the psychology and social for the environments that we operate within. It's more like a holistic approach than the traditional, conventional medicine is called biomedical, just for context. If we're looking at this from this mind body or this bio psychosocial model, we need to take into account the first part, the bio, the biology, the physiology of our body. And a lot of times we're skipping over that and we're going right into the other aspects. But the basic needs of the body to function optimally, and that includes hydration, proper nutrition, rest, and movement, all these things. So if those are the basic needs and they're not in place . It's signaling to the brain that something is wrong, that we're not okay. And when your body is chronically dehydrated, even at low levels, your brain is perceiving that internal environment is unsafe or at the very least unstable. We're not having this, stability to the hydration, the stability to the sleep and the rest, and the relaxation, the stability to the good nutrition, these kind of things. So it's just one more thing that's triggering this subtle maybe, but this ongoing survival response, which affects how the mind and the body function. When we're chronically dehydrated, the brain is saying we don't have what we need. Shut down all non-essential systems. Because there seems to be some sort of threat. this survival response. And brain fog and cognitive issues can emerge. This is one of the aspects of dehydration when the brain starts to conserve energy and limits this higher level functioning, like focus, memory, decision making, those sort of things. And when I had my burnout, I had major cognitive issues. I mean brain fog and then just I, my memory was really bad. Like I wouldn't remember what had happened in meetings the day before. My brain felt like something was massively wrong with me. In hindsight, yes, that's one of the last symptoms of burnout. And that. Is part of the escalation of the symptom. But in hindsight, now looking back, of course, it's easier to see, but I realize that I was chronically dehydrated for, I would say at least two decades. I would say probably even more. I was at first in school to become a teacher, I never did do the teaching, but when I was doing student teaching, you can't just leave the classroom. I always thought to myself, this is a really challenging career for somebody who needs to be hydrated. I had kidney stones, so I was really conscious of being hydrated enough to make sure that the kidney stones weren't growing. And then as my career progressed and changed. I had a meeting planning company. So as a meeting planner, you're running around a hotel venue or you're sitting at a desk trying to check people in and you can't leave , so you can't really hydrate and be in the bathroom all the time. It was always this balance of. Trying to get enough water. And then when I was in the corporate world, I was in back-to-back meetings all the time and I just was never having time to hydrate properly. So I look back on that and I know my system was not only on edge from all the stress and pressure of those jobs, but I didn't realize how much it was also stressing my physiology my body by not providing it enough hydration for my brain to function, for my body to function, the muscles to be, um, yeah, that was another thing. I got Charlie horses a lot, those leg cramps. Oh god, they're horrible. In the calf muscle. You know what I'm talking about? Um. I used to think, oh yeah, I heard that's a lack of potassium. So I would eat bananas sometimes, and looking back again, that is a sign of dehydration or that's one of the symptoms that can come out of it. Then the migraines. I'm sure that they escalated by other factors, obviously, but I attribute this chronic dehydration as absolutely one of them. It helps my nervous system to just stay stuck in fight or flight in survival mode. It was just one of those components. We know the nervous system gets activated when it perceives danger. That's something that we talk about all the time in this mind body healing. It turns out though that low levels of dehydration can even raise cortisol, which is that key stress hormone, and it increases the sympathetic nervous system activation, which is this fight or flight state. And this keeps your system in a heightened state of alert and can feed symptoms like anxiety, irritability, fatigue, of course pain, all these different things. And it's similar to all the other things that we talk about that can activate the nervous system and make the brain feel unsafe. It's the life stress. It's the repressed emotions. It's the way that we treat ourselves, the perfectionism, the pressure, the lack of self-compassion, all these different things, and hydration or well lack of. It can be interpreted by the brain in this same way as a threat to the system. So I want us to start looking at this differently and looking at hydration and the brain's perception of safety. So let's start there. Even this slightest dehydration, like I said, is registering by the brain as a stressor, as a subtle sign that something is off. And our needs are not met. There may be a need to go into survival mode and that might not sound like a big deal as far as like, oh, just dehydration, like what's the big deal? But for somebody already dealing with chronic symptoms or migraine, especially if you nervous system is already stuck in that survival state, that fight, flight, freeze or fawn, it can be just one more drop in the bucket that tips our system over into a flare up or keeps us stuck. Your brain is just constantly scanning moment by moment, saying, are we safe or not? That it, it's just constantly, are we safe? Are we not? Are we safe, are we not? Hydration is just one of those foundational cues that it uses to make the call if you're safe or not. So we want to ensure that's not one of the many, many reasons that we already know we've got going on that potentially could be feeling threatening to the brain. Hydration is a biological building block. It plays a role in nearly every single system in the body. Our nervous system, digestive, circulatory, muscular detoxification, lymphatic drainage, even temperature regulation, inflammation. And considering the body is made up of 60% water and the brain and muscles, actually even more than that, it's no wonder that even this slightest. Dysregulation of this or dehydration can throw things off. So from a physical standpoint, hydration just keeps the body functioning better, especially during stress or pain. And like I said before, even the slightest dehydration can cause this brain fog, memory issues, constipation, anxiety, lightheadedness, headaches, the list goes on. We often assume that those symptoms point to some other serious issue, but sometimes it's just basics. Are you staying regularly hydrated? I'm not saying that all symptoms are due to de dehydration, of course not. Let me be clear on that. But could they be contributing to the issue? I say absolutely. Taking constipation for one, as an example, many people jump to over the counter laxatives, unaware that chronic use of those, especially if it's a stimulant type of laxative that can damage your body's natural digestive function. So if hydration could be part of the problem, you know, are providers ruling that out first before going to those over the counter that can cause all kinds of other issues down the road. And from a mind body standpoint, we know also constipation is yeah, that stems from internalized pressure control, fear, suppressed emotion, or fear of letting go. But hydration still is at that fundamental biological role. Headaches as well. I mean, classic sign of dehydration. The American Migraine Foundation says two thirds of all migraine have to do with some component of dehydration, and they've done surveys asking their members and two thirds said that they thought that dehydration did factor in. Which is why you hear a lot of people saying to migraine sufferers, just drink some more water.'cause they've maybe heard of that. And obviously, I hope you realize by now I'm not saying that it's just dehydration, but at worst, dehydration is sending a false danger alarm to the brain that reinforces these chronic symptoms. And at best, it's creating this suboptimal environment for the body to heal. So either way, we want to avoid it. And the key thing that I wanna point out is that it's not about drinking water once the symptoms start, it's staying hydrated consistently so the body doesn't fall into that deficit. Because here's what often happens with migraine, you're already a bit dehydrated, then the migraine hits, and if you have a migraine with nausea or diarrhea, then you can't keep liquids down and you're losing more. You're also not able to take in liquid if you're nauseous. So then this creates this really vicious cycle and you just get more and more dehydrated. So that's why I'm saying staying ahead of the dehydration is one of the simplest ways that we can do to avoid adding fuel to the fire, so proactively staying well hydrated in a continual manner. I want us to think about hydration as a mind body ally. I want you to start seeing it as a regulation tool. Not a fix, but a support to help your system feel less under threat. Also as a form of self-care. It can be communicating, i'm here, I'm listening to my body and my needs, I'm supporting you. This kind of thing sends the brain the messages of safety like we talked about, and a brain that feels safe. The symptoms begin to dial down. That's what this work is all about. Creating this internal condition that tells your brain, you don't need to sound the alarm anymore. We are safe. All is good. And we want to have the environment that supports that as much as we can. So what now? What should you do with this information? I can tell you to aim for two liters or 64 ounces of water a day. That's what's commonly recommended. But if I'm real, I struggle to get that. And there are a lot of other factors I think that affect hydration. For some people that number might just feel arbitrary. Others it might feel really overwhelming. It is a lot of liquid to consume. I have a pitcher of water on my desk all day, and first of all, water is just a little bit boring. So I put in lemon juice or I try to put in a little bit of cranberry juice and water that down so I drink a ton of the sugar, but it's, it's not easy to drink that much water. And I'm in the bathroom all the time, so I don't know how people stay completely hydrated. What I would like to point out is that yes, find ways that work for you, but what I don't want is for hydration to become another pressurized task on your to-do list. That urgency, like, oh, I have to do this. I now have to get hydration, right? Oh, no. That's just registering as danger to the brain, right? So, no, I don't want you beating yourself up if you don't drink enough during the day. I don't want you to obsessively track your ounces or liter. Just try to get a little bit more than you maybe normally would see if it has an effect. Actually, expect it to have an effect because I want you to use that positive brain of ours. This placebo effect is so, so real. The brain is so powerful. We want to expect it's going to help us. Yes, it's absolutely going to help you. Keep that mindset. But yeah. The focus on just small supportive changes. So I have three little simple steps through a mind body lens that I wanna offer. One would be just to check in with your body throughout the day. Ask yourself, do I feel dry, tight? Do I feel foggy? Do I feel sluggish? How's my energy levels? These can be early signs that your system needs more fluid. The second one would be to pair hydration with moments of nervous system regulation that you're already doing. If you meditate, pair that with having a glass of water beforehand or afterwards. Maybe you step outside and feel the air on your skin and have a glass of water afterwards, either way, just let your body register that something nourishing is happening in these moments. It just changes everything, right? It's not just, oh, I need a glass of water. It's like, that's nourishment. I am caring for my body in this way. I love that. To me, it just feels so much, I don't know. I'm more motivated to do it, I guess when I look at it in that way, versus I need to get eight ounces of water a day. That doesn't sound as exciting to do. The third one would be, don't use hydration to fight symptoms. So if your migraine starts, don't panic drink and start having tons of water to make it stop, that's not, you know, the urgency feeds the fear. The dehydration yes, it can be one of the components, but we're not saying if you get a migraine now you have to get super hydrated because this is going to fix everything. No, but instead. Yes, drink if you can. If you're not nauseous, if you don't have certain symptoms that are stopping you from doing that, but instead just sip it slowly. Focus on calming your system. I'm very big into visualization, so when I have water, I'll visualize that just coating my insides with this healing um. Balm, if you will, this healing. I don't know how to, how to explain it, but sometimes if you have a glass of water when you haven't had any in a while, have you ever felt it go up into your brain? I don't know, maybe I'm weird, but I've actually felt it rush into my brain and at those times, I often think too, I just visualize it, just coating and soothing the brain and going everywhere in between all the little pain pockets and having in this buffer around everything. I don't know if that helps anybody, but I, I really do a lot of visualizations and it just soothes me so much. I really like it. But back to what I was saying about this, just don't use the hydration to fight the symptoms. So just use water or whatever your drink of choice is. And again, just think of it as nourishing for your body, an act of self-care and act of self-compassion. And I think that really goes a long way in shifting something in the mindset. and remember with the mind body connection, if you're shifting something in the mindset, the mind and the thoughts and the feelings that we have around it creates certain feelings within the body. So it's a win-win in that way. And so if it takes getting a fancy tracking bottle or keeping a jug of water on your desk, or linking water with other habits like before your coffee or before, during, after meals, whatever works for you. But most importantly is just find small, easy ways to stay hydrated consistently. Consistently, that is the key. And the final thought is that water is part of your healing through safety. Water alone is not gonna heal neuroplastic symptoms. Hydration is part of healing because it sends your brain the signal that you're safe, you're supported, you're cared for, and it keeps your biology. This bio part of the bio-psychosocial, like we said in the beginning. It keeps that biology or your physiology functioning in the way that supports your healing. So it's not a magic solution, but it's a really powerful ally. And when you stop treating hydration as just a task and a thing to do because you're supposed to, and start looking at it as a mind body kind of ritual, a form of nourishment, a message of safety, it becomes this tool for change and a tool for healing. And so you're not just drinking water at that point. You're creating the conditions for healing. You're building trust within the body, you're communicating safety. I really hope that something that I've said has opened a new perspective for you, has made you think of hydration in a different way, has maybe encouraged you to take a look at this or to factor in smaller little ways that you can get more hydration into your routine and doing it in a way that supports your healing. So I will hope to see you soon, and thank you so much for listening. Appreciate you tuning in. Take care.