Jade

My migraine attacks started about five years ago. They came on slowly, and at first, I didn’t pay any attention to them until they started to impact my daily life, both personally and professionally. I wasn’t diagnosed with migraine because I have sciatica, so I was treated for my sciatic pain and migraine as one. It wasn’t until I discovered Nectar Health that I realised migraine is a condition in itself.

I had about three migraine attacks a month, with an intensity of about 7/10. Most of my attacks occurred around my period or when I was tired and stressed. During each attack, I was sensitive to light, smell and noise. 

Migraine attacks really began to affect my work. Sometimes I would ask to work from home or take the afternoon off, but that’s not something I could do all the time. If I had a migraine attack at home I could manage it by going to sleep and being alone, but by far the most difficult part was when I had a migraine attack when I was out. On the way home, it used to feel like the longest trip home ever.

I discovered Nectar Health through a Facebook post. At the time, I was convinced my sciatica was triggering my migraine attacks. Sometimes I’d have a migraine but no leg pain, but I was convinced they were connected. But I decided to get in touch because I had been reading about the gut-brain connection at that time and I was interested to try something new.

During my first Zoom consultation with Diane, I was surprised at how enthusiastic and confident Diane was that she could help me. I was also pleasantly surprised that the journey would happen through food. There’s a lot of buzz around holistic health these days, but ultimately I do believe in “Anima Sana in corpore Sano”, which loosely translates as “a healthy mind in a healthy body”.

Even though I wasn’t sure whether my sciatica was triggering my migraine attacks or the other way round, I knew some system was ‘broken’.

Diane recommended foods to include daily. Some ingredients I was more familiar with and were easier to find, such as red beans, but I wonder if I’m the only person who had never heard of hawthorn berries before?! I enjoyed discovering new foods, and now rose-bud tea, hawthorn berries and Sichuan pepper are pantry staples. There are some ingredients I’ll never get along with, like poria cocos and rhemmania, but that’s okay!

I’ve been incorporating my recommended functional foods and teas for a few months now, and my migraine attacks have decreased to about one every two months. This is usually around my period and it’s a lot more manageable. The intensity has also decreased to about a 3/10. The main difference is that if I have such a migraine attack, I no longer need to go back home and interrupt what I am doing. It is very manageable and I can continue being with others and keeping at my activity.   

Along with reducing the ache behind my left eye, my sleep has improved, the dark circles around my eyes have also reduced and I don’t have sugar cravings anymore. And most importantly, I feel more in control of my migraine disease.  

The Nectar Health approach is definitely more commitment than taking medications, but it means I’m taking care of myself in other ways. I’m cooking myself a meal each morning, making sure I have enough sleep and eating proper foods. This has put me in the right mindset of creating better habits for myself.

I’m incredibly grateful for Diane for who she is as a person, beyond the services she offers.