Hey Migraine Mentees 👋 

Today’s newsletter takes another 5 minutes to read, so if you’ve only got 60 seconds, here’s what you need to know:

• The vagus nerve is one of the most powerful, underutilized tools in migraine recovery—regulating inflammation, digestion, and brain resilience...

• It connects your brainstem to your gut, heart, lungs, and more—playing a key role in calming the nervous system and reducing migraine triggers…

• When vagus nerve function is low, symptoms like pain, nausea, dizziness, anxiety, bloating, and chronic inflammation become more common—especially during attacks…

• Research shows that stimulating the vagus nerve can reduce pain intensity, lower inflammatory cytokines, improve gut function, and shorten recovery times…

• Easy ways to activate the vagus nerve include deep breathing, humming, cold exposure, singing, yoga, mindfulness, and using vagal nerve stimulators…

When dealing with migraine attacks, your nervous system isn’t broken—it’s overwhelmed.

And by working with your vagus nerve and autonomic=automatic nervous system, you can restore balance, calm inflammation, and give your brain the safety signals it needs to heal.

We hope this week’s edition gives you a new lens—and new tools—to support your migraine recovery from the inside out.

🧠 The Migraine Mentors

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In This Week’s Edition…

• 🥡 Weekly Take-Out

  • Meme of The Week - ❤️‍🔥 The Ending is The Best Part…

• 📸 Weekly TikToks

  • Avoid These 3 Things If You Get Migraines…

  • Vagal Nerve Stimulation For Migraine Treatment

• 🔈️ The Migraine Mentors Minicast - Podcast Series

  • The Vagus Nerve & Migraine - The Potential Missing Link in Your Healing Journey

• 📜 This Week’s Top Article

  • Why The Vagus Nerve Is Your Built-In Migraine Modulator

• 🍴 Migraine-Friendly Recipe of the Week

  • Creamy Sweet Potato & Parsnip Soup

🥡 WEEKLY TAKE-OUT

Meme of The Week

🥡 WEEKLY TIKTOKS

Avoid These 3 Things If You Get Migraines…

@headache_whisperer

#migraine #migraines #migrainerelief #migrainetiktok #headache #headaches

Vagal Nerve Stimulation For Migraine Treatment

@drerikreis

This little device is a Vagal Nerve Stimulator (VNS) and has the potential to treat a wide range of conditions, including: • Alzheimer’s d... See more

🗞️ MIGRAINE MINICAST

🎧 The Vagus Nerve & Migraine - The Potential Missing Link in Your Healing Journey

What if one of the most powerful tools for calming your migraines wasn’t a pill, a diet, or a supplement...

…but a single nerve that connects your brain to the rest of your body?

This week, we’re diving into the vagus nerve—a critical player in the migraine puzzle that most people have never even heard of…

🧠 From regulating brain inflammation to improving gut health and calming the fight-or-flight response, the vagus nerve is central to why migraines happen—and more importantly, how they can be treated.

🎙️ In this episode, we break down:

• What the vagus nerve is—and why it’s so important for people with migraines…

• The major migraine pathways the vagus nerve influences…

• Real-world symptoms that signal vagus nerve dysfunction…

• How to naturally stimulate the vagus nerve for daily relief…

• Why vagus nerve rehab may be one of the most effective, underutilized tools in migraine care…

This episode is for anyone who feels like they’ve tried everything—and are ready to heal migraines at the root by tapping into the body’s built-in calming system.

🎧 Tune in and learn how to work on your brain—not against it.

👇️ Click the link below to check it out! 👇️ 

📜 TOP ARTICLE

Why The Vagus Nerve Is Your Built-In Migraine Modulator

If you’re looking for a natural, science-backed way to regulate your migraines, take a second to breathe… And stimulate your naturally built-in migraine modulator…

(Queue “The Eye Of The Tiger” theme song…)

Enter: The vagus nerve.

Known as the body’s superhighway between the brain and the rest of your nervous system, the vagus nerve (Latin for “wandering”) connects your brain and brainstem to nearly every major organ in your body…

And for people who struggle with migraine attacks, this cranial nerve may hold the key to calming inflammation, reducing symptom intensity, and restoring balance to your nervous system.

Let’s dive into it…

🌿 Why the Vagus Nerve Matters for Migraine Relief

1. Neurological Regulation

The vagus nerve helps control the autonomic = automatic nervous system, which includes both the sympathetic (“fight or flight or freeze”) and parasympathetic (“rest and digest”) responses.

As we’ve highlighted in the past, when you're stuck in a chronic stress response, your brain can push into an inflammatory state and become more reactive to sensory input—like light, sound, motion, or even barometric pressure…

This processes turns down the noise on the parasympathetic system so the sympathetic system becomes dominant.

…Sound familiar?!

Stimulating the vagus nerve (in whatever capacity you choose) activates the parasympathetic system, which can subsequently calm the brain and reduce the neurological hypersensitivity that often triggers migraine and chronic pain syndromes.

2. Neuroinflammation Control

Migraine is increasingly being understood as a neuroinflammatory disorder, where pro-\inflammatory cytokines and primed glial cells contribute to pain signaling in the brain…

This mechanism is why many patients are prescribed SSRI’s, SNRI’s, and CGRP agonist-based medications.

The vagus nerve plays a central role in this “inflammatory reflex arc”—a feedback loop that shuts off the release of pro-inflammatory molecules, when triggered…

So when the vagus nerve is active, your brain can finally calm down its inflammatory alarm system, thus improving symptoms.

3. Digestive Health and Harmony

Ever noticed nausea, vomiting, or bloating before or during a migraine attack?

Your gut and brain are directly connected through the vagus nerve, which is why vagal nerve therapies and treatment can have such far reaching benefits and outcomes…

Dysregulated vagus nerve integration can lead to conditions like gastroparesis, leaky gut barriers, and microbiome imbalances, all of which can worsen inflammation and lower your threshold for migraine triggers.

Clinically, we’ve also seen that improving vagus nerve tone can help normalize digestive motility and reduce gut-driven inflammation that feeds into migraine cycles.

4. Systemic Anti-Inflammatory Benefits

When stimulated, the vagus nerve activates what's called the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway, which helps lower systemic inflammation throughout the body via the release of a neurotransmitter, acetylcholine.

Because migraines are tied to chronic inflammation (from stress, diet, poor sleep, genetic predispositions, hormonal imbalances, etc.), stimulating the vagus nerve can act like a brake pedal—reducing the fire before it spreads throughout the brain and CNS.

It’s a neurologically-mediated, metabolic outcome… So cool!

⚡ Ways to Activate the Vagus Nerve (and Calm Your Brain)

Now that we’ve covered the benefits of vagal nerve stimulation, you should immediately want to know how to do it… So here you go!

*Clinical Note: Only perform these techniques under the supervision of a medical provider or after you’ve had an evaluation performed to assess whether or not you’re a candidate for these exercises…

Here are some basic ways to stimulate your vagus nerve (and what we use clinically in our office at The Neural Connection):

• Diaphragmatic Belly Breathing (w/Box Breathing)

  • 4 seconds in through the nose, hold for 4 seconds, 4 seconds out through the mouth — repeat for 2–5 minutes (or to tolerance)…

• Cold Exposure

  • Splash cold water on your face or submerge your hands/feet/face to spark a vagal response…

• Gargling or Humming

  • Both activate muscles innervated by the vagus nerve in the throat and larynx, so try carrying a tune like “Old McDonald” or “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” for variation…

• Singing or Chanting

  • Try long, slow vocalizations (like “Om” or humming). The vibration stimulates vagus nerve activity through the vocal cords and the rest of the brainstem…

• Meditation & Mindfulness

  • This has been proven to increase heart rate variability (HRV), which is a direct marker of vagal tone and optimal vagal output…

• Vagus Nerve Stimulator (TruVaga)

  • Alongside all of these, we also utilize vagal nerve stimulators, like the TruVaga, to use with our patients in-office and for at-home therapies, which can give results in as little as 4 minutes of usage…

👉️ Click HERE to get $20-50 off a TruVaga device using the code “TNCPLUS” or “TNC350” and start your healing journey today!

🎯 You’re In The Driver’s Seat Now…

If you’re still stuck in a cycle of migraines, your body isn’t broken — it’s just overwhelmed…

And accessing the vagus nerve may be all that you need to click your reset button.

By supporting this powerful network of nerves and neurological integrations, you’re not just reducing symptoms — you’re improving the very systems that keep migraines alive: the brain, the gut, and the inflammatory network that connects them.

💬 We want to hear from YOU!

• Have you ever tried vagus nerve stimulation?

• What practices helped you the most?

• What are you currently doing today to stimulate your vagus nerve?

Let us know by replying to this newsletter or sending us an email at [email protected].

We can’t wait to hear from you!

🧠 The Migraine Mentors

🍴MIGRAINE-FRIENDLY RECIPE

Creamy Sweet Potato & Parsnip Soup

🥣 Ingredients (Serves 3-4)

• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

• 2 medium parsnips, peeled and diced

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 3 cups low-sodium homemade or additive-free broth (chicken or veggie)

• 1–2 cloves garlic, minced (optional, based on tolerance)

• Salt to taste

• ¼ cup full-fat coconut milk or cream (optional for richness)

🥄 Instructions

1. Sauté (optional): In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. If using garlic, sauté for 30 seconds until fragrant — do not brown.

2. Simmer: Add sweet potatoes, parsnips, and broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 20–25 minutes, until vegetables are very soft.

3. Blend: Remove from heat and use an immersion blender to puree the soup until smooth. (Or blend in batches in a high-speed blender.)

4. Finish: Stir in coconut cream (if using) and season lightly with salt.

5. Serve: Enjoy warm, optionally topped with fresh herbs like parsley or a drizzle of olive oil.

🥇 Why This Recipe is Migraine and Histamine-Friendly

🧠 Root Vegetables = Stable Brain Fuel

• Sweet potatoes and parsnips are low-histamine, non-triggering, and packed with fiber, potassium, and anti-inflammatory compounds.

• They offer slow-digesting carbs, which prevent blood sugar spikes — a key migraine trigger for many.

• Keeping blood sugar stable helps reduce neurovascular stress and lowers the risk of energy dips that can lead to headache onset.

🚫 Avoids Common Migraine Triggers

• No citrus, aged cheese, soy, gluten, or fermented foods.

• No canned tomatoes, processed meats, or additives — all of which can be problematic for people with histamine intolerance.

🧪 Low-Histamine By Design

• All ingredients are fresh, non-aged, and not stored long-term, which is critical since histamine builds up over time in leftovers and older produce/protein.

• Coconut cream adds healthy fat and a satisfying mouthfeel without dairy, which can be inflammatory or histamine-provoking in some patients.

 📉 Low Glycemic Index (GI) = Fewer Crashes

• Sweet potatoes and parsnips have a moderate-to-low GI, especially when paired with olive oil and coconut cream.

• This helps avoid the spike-crash pattern that’s often behind energy dips, irritability, and headache susceptibility.