An Unusual Testimonial
I receive lots of testimonials in my FB migraine groups. I usually post them on my migraine testimonials page, which, by now, sports several hundred (if not over a thousand) testimonials. However, I sometimes receive testimonials that are not about migraineurs successfully recovering and preventing their migraines, but about family members who are not migraineurs, but use my protocol anyway.
Here is what I received from one of my migraineurs, who placed her 90 years young mother on the Stanton Migraine Protocol® way of eating.
My mom’s 90. In April, when I joined protocol, she went off all grains and sugars; increased her salt, water, protein and animal fat; and now, three months later, she consumes only very small amounts of protocol-friendly fruits and vegetables.
She’s taken maximum doses of 2 hypertension meds for about 30 years. BP has been normal every time we’ve measured since 3 weeks into this WOE [way of eating]. We were able to cut one [medicine] in half and will hopefully be able to dc it soon. Really astonishing, yet logical.
The Stanton Migraine Protocol® is a LCHF way of eating, but it is modified for migraineurs such that it is for total health (rather than weight loss), and it also allows the prevention of all migraines. Most migraineurs are not overweight–at least in my two groups, see one here and the other here this second one is ketogenic–and so weight loss is the last thing on anyone’s mind.
However, we change everyone’s lives. The protocol is not just about cutting carbs, but increasing dietary salt, water, eating whole foods rich in potassium, and healthy fats. Healthy fats include animal fats and zero vegetable oils. This diet is not high in protein, but higher than what people normally eat and what the USDA recommends and it includes red meat as well as all other animal products. It is grain, starch, sweetener and processed foods free. It does contain plenty of dairy–this too is quite the opposite of most nutritional wisdom.
There is not a person in the group left with hypertension, insulin resistance, or migraines after some period of adjustment to change. I think that is a pretty good track record. This group has been helping migraineurs–and apparently their family members–for over 5 years.
Comments are welcome, as always, and are moderated for appropriateness
Angela
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About Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.
Angela A Stanton, PhD, is a Neuroeconomist focusing on chronic pain--migraine in particular--physiology, electrolyte homeostasis, nutrition, and genetics. She lives in Southern California. Her current research is focused on migraine cause, prevention, and treatment without the use of medicine. As a forever migraineur from childhood, her discovery was helped by experimenting on herself. She found the cause of migraine to be at the ionic level, associated with disruption of the electrolyte homeostasis, resulting from genetic variations of all voltage dependent channels, gates, and pumps (chanelopathy) that modulate electrolyte mineral density and voltage in the brain. In addition, insulin and glucose transporters, and several other variants, such as MTHFR variants of B vitamin methylation process and many others are different in the case of a migraineur from the general population.
Migraineurs are glucose sensitive (carbohydrate intolerant) and should avoid eating carbs as much as possible. She is working on her hypothesis that migraine is a metabolic disease.
As a result of the success of the first edition of her book and her helping over 5000 migraineurs successfully prevent their migraines world wide, all ages and both genders, and all types of migraines, she published the 2nd (extended) edition of her migraine book "Fighting The Migraine Epidemic: Complete Guide: How To Treat & Prevent Migraines Without Medications". The 2nd edition is the “holy grail” of migraine cause, development, and prevention, incorporating all there is to know. It includes a long section for medical and research professionals. The book is full of academic citations (over 800) to authenticate the statements she makes to make it easy to follow up by those interested and to spark further research interest. It is a "Complete Guide", published on September 29, 2017.
Dr. Stanton received her BSc at UCLA in Mathematics, MBA at UCR, MS in Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University, PhD in Economics with dissertation in neuroscience (culminating in Neuroeconomics) at Claremont Graduate University, fMRI certification at Harvard University Medical School at the Martinos Center for Neuroimaging for experimenting with neurotransmitters on human volunteers, certification in LCHF/ketogenic diet from NN (Nutrition Network), certification in physiology (UPEN via Coursea), Nutrition (Harvard Shool of Public Health) and functional medicine studies. Dr. Stanton is an avid sports fan, currently power weight lifting and kickboxing. For relaxation (yeah.. about a half minute each day), she paints and photographs and loves to spend time with her family of husband of 45 years, 2 sons and their wives, and 2 granddaughters.
Follow her on Twitter at: @MigraineBook, LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelaastantonphd/ and facebook at https://www.facebook.com/DrAngelaAStanton/
Clueless Doctors & Scientists 
Excellent!
My BP was heading towards 150/95 and I was nearly prescribed a second med before I discovered low carb. It dropped back to about 120/80 admittedly still on a minimal dose of losartan.
Then my thyroid blew up and it went through the roof. Here’s interesting, hyperthyroid dropped my LVL by exactly the same amount as the statin I stopped taking. Overtreating to hypothyroid made it go up again. I was told by a retired consultant that back in the day before metabolic syndrome, when they saw high “cholesterol” they would check TSH.
Now here’s the weird bit, when my thyroid was high and my LDL low was when my leg arteries crapped out. When the thyroid came under control the arteries (and my BP) improved again.
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There is a connection between thyroid and bp though not this drastic–unless there is some problem somewhere. It is well understood that doing the low carbs diet (whichever version) incorrectly can send people into thyroid issues but it need not do so. For example, in my low card groups on Facebook (I have several, with 2 very active), I enforce iodine supplementation, unless the person tested for Hashimoto’s. We have people reverse hypothyroidism on my version of the ketogenic diet. So it need not damage the activity of the thyroid or compromise heart health.
LDL is a reflection of inflammation in the body. So if you have thyroid issues associated with some sort of inflammatory processes, your LDL would be higher. Even getting a cold will increase your LDL because LDL works with the immune system trapping pathogens. LDL is also the one transporting fat-soluble vitamins and mineral, and those are needed more in times of sick body.
I am very anti-high-LDL person, as you can tell. To me, LDL is a marker of general health rather than heart health. 🙂
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Agreed! It’s all so interconnected. Salt is blamed for hypertension when most hypertensives are not sodium sensitive (I think somewhere between a quarter and a third are). Low carb diets are blamed for hypothyroid when the majority of hypothyroids (like the majority of ill people) eat low fat diets, So are the people with high “cholesterol”.
My LDL went up on low carb, which I realise was because I was losing the weight the dietician made me gain, and when my weight stabilised the LDL came down and HDL went up by about the same amount. So losing weight is not heart healthy and hyperthyroid is? I think not . . .
I remember Jay Wortman on a diabetes blog explaining that low carbers may need to increase their intake of salt (and potassium) because of the effect of reduced insulin on the kidneys, and was banned as a troll!
Lots of old folks here, I wonder if the “falls clinic” would have fewer customers if they were not so aggressively treated for blood pressure. I know at least one doctor who has reverted to the old standard of 100+your age.
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Agreed. There are a few valid explanations for why LDL goes up when one goes on the LC diet. One is that on the LC diet one is actually using cholesterol the way intended, and hence it is in the circulation more. Anther–as in your case–is a temporary increase. That is associated with the clearance of the oxidized old LDL that your body saved from all the vegetable oils that it never was able to get rid of, because it just kept on coming in. And the third is that we actually eating more cholesterol–meaning reduced vegetable and seed oils and eating more animal products. The fourth is that by eating LC healthier diet, we have more fat-soluble vitamins to carry around. LDL is the lipoprotein ball that carries all fat-soluble vitamins and minerals and now, having more of that, we have more LDL as well. I believe all of these are correct.
There is also a fifth that few understand: LDL functions as part of our immune system. It is capable of capturing pathogens and hold them hostage until the immune destroyer cells arrive and do their things. So if you have a cold or are fighting some other bugs and go for a cholesterol blood test, you will have higher LDL. This is definitely true under every condition.
Thyroid in LC diet suffers from lack of iodine. There is more iodine in plants than in meat, though there is some in meat, and here is none in fat. So on the keto diet, in particular,not supplementing iodine is a mistake. Also, a cup of milk has almost the daily need of iodine, unfortunately most keto and LC diets scare people away from dairy. In my LC groups I enforce iodized salt consumption for all except those with Hashimoto’s or Grave’s disease, and dairy is highly recommended for all, except those who are intolerant–which, by the way, migraineurs are not. Most migraineurs love dairy and are not sensitive to it.
I found several people were able to come off of their thyroid meds in my groups.
And yeah, we need to increase salt and water on LC diet but NOT POTASSIUM!!! Be careful with that. I will have an article coming out on that in a week or so… the hormonesmatter.com page where I write is going down for an update, so when it comes back you will be able to find it. I will post a news-release when it goes up.
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My LDL is still “high” but less high than it was – and at my age that’s good. The major things that occurred with low carb were that my HDL doubled and my trigs went down to between a fifth and a tenth of what they were – insulin resistance went through the floor.
I guess you are following Dave Feldman
http://cholesterolcode.com/
amazing how much LDL can change, and be changed, while conventional wisdom has it that one high reading and you are on statins for life. Likewise for BP. I had a Holter monitor which showed my BP was very variable but clustered around 120/80. I get some “white coat hypertension” which was multiplied by the nurse’s meter being out of calibration, which is why the 24 hour monitoring. When I went back the nurse’s machine read similar to my home meter. I wonder how many patients had medication increases as a result of the duff meter, and how often they are checked.
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Yep. I would think that the majority of people are medicated for whatever for no reason–including white coat.
I do read Dave all the time and have found some anomalies he has not discussed. I will send him a note on that one of these days. Just too busy these days.
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Bravo!
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Wow you are quick! 🙂 Thank you!
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