The Original Norwegian Print

Several months ago, I received an email from Iver Mysterud, a reporter for the Norwegian Health Magazine “Helsemagasinet”. This magazine is available in stores as well as online. I was asked to not share openly anything until May 13, 2026, the date of the new print out, so there is no conflict. So here it is, today is the 13th of May and in Norway it is already the 14th, so I can share both the original Norwegian and the English translation. The original 5 articles are on pages 21–30 in the magazine.

The English Translation

I only include here those parts that are specific to me and my protocol, so 3 out of the 5 parts:

Part 1

Get Rid of Migraine with a Low-Carb Diet, Proper Hydration, and Increased Salt Intake

The American researcher and migraine sufferer Angela A. Stanton is claimed to have developed a protocol that helps everyone — one hundred percent — become migraine-free. Is this too good to be true?

Text: Iver Mysterud

The prerequisite, of course, is that migraine sufferers follow the protocol strictly and consistently over time. It can be demanding, but for many it is more than worth it. They have received their lives back as a gift after years of suffering.

Stanton had lived with migraine for many decades and did not receive help from the doctors who should have been able to help her. She discovered that symptom-suppressing medications did not work and realized that it was up to her to find something that removed the problem.

To get rid of migraine, one must first understand what happens in the body before, during, and after a migraine attack and why such attacks occur. She used her research background to read medical literature and dig deeply into what happens in migraine patients and found a solution to her own problems. This was a simple protocol without the use of symptom-suppressing medications.

Could this also apply to other migraine sufferers? Could her solution work for others?

Stanton summarized her insights about migraine in a 2013 book titled Fighting the Migraine Epidemic. Because she was disappointed that migraine sufferers in various Facebook groups were only concerned with how to use medications to suppress the pain, she created her own group in February 2014. There she shared her experiences with other migraine sufferers, many of whom tested the protocol.

In 2017 she revised her book, integrating the experiences of more than 4,000 migraine patients in the Facebook group. (Naturally, many more have been helped by the protocol as of 2026.) She repeatedly writes in the book that the protocol works for one hundred percent of those who try it and follow it over time. The condition is that the migraine is not caused by tumors, head injuries, or neck injuries.

In Brief

This is Part 1 of a five-part series on migraine in which we present the American researcher and migraine sufferer Angela A. Stanton’s general explanation of what migraine is, what happens in the brain, and how attacks can be prevented and stopped.

She claims to have developed a protocol that helps everyone become migraine-free. The essence is to eat a low-carbohydrate diet, maintain proper hydration, and increase salt intake because migraine patients require more salt.

As of 2017, the protocol had been tested and found effective by more than 4,000 migraine patients. The Stanton Migraine Protocol is a measure patients must follow for life to remain migraine-free.

Part 2 discusses practical tips for preventing or interrupting a migraine attack.
Part 3 presents Stanton’s hypotheses about why migraine exists from an evolutionary perspective.
Part 4 discusses another pioneer who emphasized that sugar intake is problematic for migraine sufferers — the chemist and researcher Rodolfo Low (1912–1998).
Part 5 provides insight into how migraine is treated at Dr. Hexeberg’s clinic.

Resist the Craving for Sweets!

A glucose molecule can only enter a cell with sodium transporting it in (while sodium itself is transported out). With salt deficiency, a migraine patient therefore gets too little glucose into brain cells. The brain then signals that it needs glucose, and the patient craves something sweet.

However, eating sweets will worsen the condition. What the patient really needs is more sodium.

Electrical tension (to transport something across a membrane) requires that four key elements be present in sufficient quantities in the electrolyte: salt (sodium), potassium, calcium, and magnesium. Salt is the most important of the four, and in addition water must be present in the correct amount.

The brain can also function excellently on almost exclusively ketones, which are produced when one eats mostly fat and very little carbohydrate.

No matter how much one craves something sweet, it should be avoided.

I will now continue with:

• The section on full moon, exercise, and updated protocol
• Morning hydration instructions
• Calorie minimum requirement
• Carnivore variation
• Evolutionary background (next major article section)

Part 2

Practical Tips to Prevent or Interrupt a Migraine Attack

Text: Iver Mysterud

The Stanton Migraine Protocol is detailed regarding what a patient should do to prevent an attack or stop one once it has begun. Below are excerpts of what this involves. For full details, readers are referred to Angela A. Stanton’s book.

When a patient notices warning signs or early symptoms (prodromes), they must act quickly.

Act Immediately at Prodrome

According to Stanton, migraine always begins with at least one prodrome. Pain that appears without a prodrome is not migraine.

Typical prodromes can include yawning, anxiety, irritability, increased urination, fatigue, visual disturbances (aura), food cravings, or feeling “off.”

When this happens, the patient must immediately correct the electrolyte imbalance — especially sodium.

Salt and Water

Migraine patients require more salt than the general population. At the first sign of prodrome, the patient should consume salt — often dissolved in water — in specific measured amounts.

Hydration must also be correct. Too much water without salt worsens the imbalance. Too little water also worsens it. Proper balance is essential.

Sugar or starch must not be consumed in this phase. Carbohydrates worsen the sodium imbalance in brain cells.

Nutrition

A low-carbohydrate diet is central. Sugar and starch disturb electrolyte balance in the brain of a migraine patient.

Stanton explains that Western dietary guidelines emphasize high carbohydrate intake, which is particularly unfortunate for migraine patients.

Reducing salt intake, as commonly recommended by health authorities, can also worsen migraine because migraine patients have an increased salt requirement.

The brain of a migraine patient is hyperreactive due to increased connectivity between sensory neurons. This makes correct electrolyte balance even more critical.

Not Only Headache

According to Stanton, migraine patients are characterized by a wide range of symptoms, but most researchers and doctors focus only on head pain.

There are migraine types without pain (silent migraine). This implies that pain is only one symptom of migraine and not a requirement.

Migraine consists of multiple phases:

• Prodrome (early symptoms)
• Headache phase (may or may not include pain)
• Postdrome (after-effects)

Migraine is therefore a series of phases, often with pain in the middle.

Aura — visual disturbances — is a common prodrome.

Why No Large Clinical Trials?

Stanton also explains why large clinical trials of her protocol have not been conducted. It is more difficult than one might think to carry out in practice, and there is no industry funding available, as no pharmaceutical profit is involved.

Conclusion of Part 2

Angela A. Stanton appears to have arrived at a general explanation of what migraine is, what happens in the brain, and how attacks can be prevented and stopped.

In her book, she is highly critical of symptom-based treatments offered by physicians and of parts of migraine research.

Many migraine patients never receive a correct diagnosis. Some receive inappropriate treatment — for example, blood-pressure–lowering medication — because blood pressure is high during an attack. However, as a group, migraine patients tend to have low blood pressure outside attacks.

Some professionals use definitions that are not aligned with empirical observations of migraine. Some individuals diagnosed with “migraine” do not actually have migraine.

Stanton encourages all migraine patients and those who wish to help them to read Fighting the Migraine Epidemic to understand the details of how to prevent migraine attacks.

The process leading toward a migraine attack always begins with something that puts the brain into alarm mode — such as a difference in smell, a change in sound, or visual movement. These may imply danger, and often the first thing a migraine patient notices is a feeling of anxiety.

Part 3

Why Does Migraine Exist? An Evolutionary Perspective

Text: Iver Mysterud

In this article, Stanton presents hypotheses about why migraine exists from an evolutionary perspective.

According to Stanton, migraine is not a disease but a brain type — a neurological variation characterized by heightened sensory processing and hyperreactivity.

This hyperreactivity likely provided evolutionary advantages in ancestral environments.

A migraine brain reacts more quickly to sensory changes — smell, sound, light, subtle environmental shifts — which could signal danger.

The early anxiety many migraine sufferers experience before an attack is, in Stanton’s view, part of an ancient defense system. The brain goes into alert mode.

Migraine-related symptoms — including anxiety, gastrointestinal changes, increased heart rate, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, irritability — are not separate diseases but part of a coordinated physiological sequence preparing the body for fight or flight.

Stanton finds it unfortunate that many migraine patients receive separate medications for each of these symptoms as if they were independent disorders.

From this perspective, migraine may have conferred survival benefits:

• Enhanced environmental awareness
• Rapid detection of danger
• Increased sensory discrimination

However, in the modern world — with artificial light, processed foods, fluctuating blood sugar, stress, and altered salt intake — this hyperreactive brain is easily destabilized.

High carbohydrate intake and low salt intake may create chronic electrolyte imbalance in susceptible individuals.

Migraine, in this framework, is a delayed pain signal indicating biochemical imbalance in part of the brain.

Stanton argues that when electrolyte balance is maintained — particularly sodium balance — the cascade does not occur.

My Thoughts:

I thank Iver for his excellent writing. The discussion/interview took place via email. I think Iver captured the essence of our discussion very well. We received several new members from Norway and other countries as a result of this magazine into our Facebook migraine group. There is also a most recent academic publication you may care to read on migraine.

If you have migraines, join us.

If you know someone with migraines: ask them to join us.

Comments are welcomed, as always, and censored for appropriateness.