Your hormones, dizziness and diet for the best headache management with dietitian Susannah Juteau

Your hormones, dizziness and diet, with dietitian Susannah Juteau

Susannah is a registered dietician and headache nutritionist. Her focus is to address headache conditions like migraine and the use of diet to assist with lifestyle management and reduction of headaches or migraines!  In group fit, Susannah sat down with Dr. Madison to discuss how food can impact hormones and how this can assist with migraines.

How can food impact hormones?

For a reminder on the many impacts of hormones on vestibular conditions, we have a blog post that reviews hormonal contributions to the vestibular system (click here) and how hormones change across the lifespan (click here).
Today the focus will be on estrogen and how diet can impact estrogen levels. Estrogen is an important hormone that can be a migraine trigger for some individuals 1,2,3. Rise and fall in estrogen levels throughout the female menstrual cycle can cause a flare up in headache, migraine or your vestibular condition. A change in estrogen levels is normal throughout this cycle, but diet can help avoid large increases in estrogen levels and sudden drops which can be beneficial to managing headache and migraine!1,2,3

Seed cycling is one way to use food and nutrition to assist with flare ups connected to your period. When Dr. Madison asked Susannah one thing that’s simple to try to help with estrogen levels, Susannah said eat more vegetables! Eating a plant based diet full of nutritious foods is a staple to health! We get so much dietary fiber, nutrients, micronutrients, and more from plants that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Focus on eating a diverse number of foods throughout your whole life and each day for the best gut health! Susannah mentioned that these types of vegetables assist with breaking down excess estrogen and can help keep the fluctuation in estrogen levels in a more normal range to avoid big spikes and falls. This can help manage hormone related headaches.

What is the best Diet

There is no ONE diet or BEST option for dizziness and diet. Overall, avoiding overly processed foods and sticking to a whole foods diet is a good starting point while also reaching out to a registered dietician and nutritionist like Susannah Juteau for further guidance and education.

Dizziness and diet have a complex relationship between each other, and it’s important that we nourish our bodies with the right nutrients in order to get to a better place in our gut health, our brain health, and our vestibular health.

Keep in mind the benefits of a healthy diet for not only assisting with hormone fluctuations but giving your body the nutrients and fuel it needs for best function.

Vitamins and supplements can be helpful, but relying on only vitamins and supplements for nutrition can’t replace all the benefits from a healthy diet.

If you want more tips, check out what Susannah offers on her instagram sn services on her website!

Website: www.headachenutritionist.com/

Instagram: @headachenutritionist

If you’re interested in learning more about tests that could be helpful, other dietary tips to help with hormone and headache management, or catch the full interview with Susannah and a PDF of information, consider joining our vestibular community that includes dozens of premium content modules of information and resources and a great community to support you!  Found out more at this link:

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1. SD;, S. (n.d.). Sex hormones and headache. Revue neurologique. Retrieved April 21, 2022, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11139745/
2. World Migraine Summit. (2022). How Women’s Hormones Affect Migraine. Retrieved April 2022.
3. Northrup, Christiane. (2015, May 29). Migraines. Christiane Northrup, M.D. Retrieved April 21, 2022, from https://www.drnorthrup.com/migraines/

Resources

Disclaimer

Remember: this post is for informational purposes only and may not be the best fit for you and your personal situation. It shall not be construed as medical advice. The information and education provided here is not intended or implied to supplement or replace professional medical treatment, advice, and/or diagnosis. Always check with your own physician or medical professional before trying or implementing any information read here.