Christian Healthy Lifestyle 

Age gracefully | Live abundantly | Thoroughly equipped for every good work

by David Sandstrom 

August 17, 2022

Don't suffer from migraine headaches or cope with migraine symptoms. Dr. Tanya Paynter talks about her 91% success rate resolving migraines.

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Show Notes

1.

Today's Guests...

  • Dr. Tanya Paynter
2.

Topics Discussed...w / Time Stamps

  • 5:35 Getting started with the detective work
  • 8:21 "Uncontrolled" migraine sufferers
  • 11:55 Secular vs religious meditation
  • 13:55 Doing things God's way
  • 17:55 Low serotonin is a problem for migraine sufferers
  • 21:41 What is whole food?
  • 26:53 The problem with probiotics
  • 31:14 Spirit-mind=body relationship
4.

Transcript... 


Scroll through the text below to read the full transcript.

Tanya Paynter 0:00
How can we heal the gut, this is the piece that I feel is so missing, in, in migraines and in specifically, but just in in health in general, a lot of people are aware of, you know, elimination diets and food restrictions and things like that. And I start seeing, especially in the migraine population, because if you identify a food that triggers a migraine, you don't want to eat that food. So then then they avoid it. But then unfortunately, because the inflammation is still there, then you start being triggered by other foods and other foods. And then suddenly, you can eat chicken and rice and maybe one or two vegetables. And that's it. And that's what you stick with. And then you become nutrient depleted, because you're not getting the variety that our bodies were made to have.

David Sandstrom 0:39
Welcome to the Natural Health Matters podcast where it's all about maximizing your health potential, so that you can look and feel your best at any age. I'm your host, David Sandstrom, Naturopathic Doctor and Biblical Health Coach, and this is episode number 90. Today we have in the show Dr. Tanya painter. She graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor's degree in cellular and molecular biology, and a minor in inorganic chemistry. Before attending basta medical school, she graduated in 2012 with a naturopathic medical degree, and has been treating women with chronic migraines for almost a decade. She is the founder of migraine mastery, a 24 week online program designed to significantly reduce migraines, and help women better manage their symptoms so they can get back to saying yes to life. Dr. Tanya, Welcome to Natural Health Matters.

Tanya Paynter 1:33
Hi, David, thanks for having me here.

David Sandstrom 1:37
Well, I appreciate you taking the time. So you know, one of the things I like to ask my guests is, how did you get to where you are today, where you are helping people with migraines, and you have your own practice, most people have a personal story. So I'd like to hear a little bit about yours.

Tanya Paynter 1:51
You bet. Um, so I remember falling in love with medicine in the fourth grade sitting in my chair, you know, learning about how the body is has all these different things inside of it and just being fascinated. So that kind of started my, my journey towards medicine. But fast forward to when I was 16, I was involved in a car accident, I was rear ended. And that kind of started my headache journey. And, you know, I just It started as just kind of kind of intermittent headaches, and then it went to daily headaches. And then the migraines started. And the next 15 years were spent trying to find some solution to it. And I just remember feeling so alone. And you know, nobody else had this that I you know, was in my family or in my social circle. So nobody really understood the level of separation you feel when nobody else really experienced is the same thing. Yeah. And so that kind of also with that in my medical bent it I was very driven to try to figure out what's going on for my migraines. Why is this happening? And how can I fix it because I knew there had to be something besides just medication options. And when I found you know, naturopathic medicine, and that whole body approach, where we really look at the person as a whole being and all of the systems working together instead of you know, just the brain and then just the gut and just the, you know, kidneys or whatever that really drew me and the rest is history. I went to medical school, and then I kind of consider myself my first patient took me four years to treat myself. But I started understanding how everything kind of put together and was able to successfully treat my migraines. Now I get a headache when I'm sick, basically. And I haven't had a migraine and over seven years now, so praise God, I really felt called to absolutely yeah, I you know, when you're going through it, it's not something you really praise him for, right. But now looking back and and how the impact that I feel called to have on these other women that weren't where I was 25 years ago. I just feel so blessed.

David Sandstrom 4:00
Well, you know, one of the phrases that you often hear is God won't waste your pain. And I think going through that experience, even though unpleasant as it was, you're in a better position now to help others because you've been there, you know, their pain, you know, what they're going through, and you know how to relate to those people?

Tanya Paynter 4:18
Absolutely, yeah, I actually thank him almost every day for what I went through those 20 years.

David Sandstrom 4:24
Wow. It's really awesome. So tell us a little bit about what you're doing right now in your practice and the course that you have just the 30 to 35,000 foot view?

Tanya Paynter 4:34
Sure. The short answer is I left a primary care practice about two years ago and had developed an online program specifically for women with chronic migraines just because that's where I was feeling led and my passion really lied with with those women that that struggled the same way that I did. I think as is so often the case right? And and so now I'm just I'm treating women online I shouldn't say treating we're we're we work together remotely with my team of of migraine support staff and myself and help women who have migraines, you know, 10-15-20 plus migraine days a month to to gain control of their migraines again.

David Sandstrom 5:20
So can you tell us basically your your strategy, and I know that you're, you're trained as a naturopathic physician. And I'd like to know, I have a pretty, pretty good idea. But for the for the Natural Nation, tell them a little bit about just speak to the idea of how a naturopath goes about even starting off with a patient that has 20 migraines a month?

Tanya Paynter 5:42
Yeah, yeah, well, first of all, we want to use every every tool available, right? A lot of people think that as a naturopathic doctor, you don't you're you're very anti medicine. And you know, you don't want to do medications. And, and while it's true, there are some medications that are not great. There are others that are amazing. So we want to make sure that we're using all tools, and then we approach things from a whole body perspective. And what that means is, you know, there, there is so much research out there on migraines, and all of the different things that contributes to somebody with migraine. So we know that there's some genetics, we know that there's neurotransmitter imbalances, we know that there's hypersensitive pain pathways involved, we know that there's some cellular dysfunction that's happening that's contributing, you know, and I can list you know, about I have a list of about 50, or 60, different things that research has shown is connected or correlates with an increased migraine pattern. So, I've compiled all of that over, you know, my the last decade of treating women with migraines, and really started to understand kind of the big picture of what's going on. So we look at hormones, we look at the neurotransmitters, we look at how the genes are functioning, there's a lot of lifestyle stuff that we need to learn because we live in a very toxic world with a lot of chemical exposures, a lot of synthetic synthetic fragrances and cleaning products and things that we just don't really think about, because it's just how we do stuff. But somebody with a migraine body has to be a lot more aware of those kinds of things. So we really help our clients to understand, alright, what are they being exposed to, that's not helping their situation, but then also evaluating their biochemistry to understand what is out of balance across the entire body, not just as I said, not just endocrinology, not just gastroenterology, not just neurology, but all of it, and then putting it together in a particular combination for that individual, understanding that they're not all going to have the same issues, but they have their unique collection of issues. And we need to figure out what those are for them. Whether it's a hormone, neurotransmitter and genetic imbalance, whether it's a detoxification and nutrient depletion issue, we have to figure out that unique combination for that individual. And that's one of the reasons why migraines can be so hard to treat is because it's not a one size fits all thing. It's a very individualized understanding of that person's imbalances.

David Sandstrom 8:07
Yeah. So has it been your experience that most of the patients that come to you, they've been to a medical doctor and been on some meds, and it hasn't worked? And that's why they find themselves in your office? Is that been? Has that been your experience?

Tanya Paynter 8:21
Yes, it has been, you know, the statistics show that about 40% of people with chronic migraines don't respond to medication? Well, so they're considered uncontrolled. And that's a really high percentage, right. So it's usually the women that that have been to all the different doctors, they've a lot of times been to, you know, some of the really prominent medical facilities in the country, and they just still have not been able to figure out what's going on, the devices don't work for them, the supplements they hear don't work for them, all the different modalities don't work for them. And it's a matter of putting all of them together in a specific combination for that person. But it takes some it takes some investigation work, right, we need to really dig deep to figure out what's going on with their body and working on adjusting things for them.

David Sandstrom 9:10
Right, the the functional or holistic practitioner has to put their detective hat on and do a little detective work to find out what where's the root here, not just treat symptoms, which is appropriate at times, right? If someone's really, really suffering, they might need some symptom relief. But over the long haul, we need to look at holistic principles. And I wrote I wrote a book called The Christians guide to Holistic Health. And it's my contention that we maximize our health potential no matter what we're dealing with, by aligning our lives more fully with God's natural design for spirit, mind and body. And it sounds to me like that's pretty much your approach. You look at a whole person approach human beings, our spirit, we have a mind or a soul, and we live in a body. And when we get when we start to look at a comprehensive approach to health care, we can't afford to ignore any part of a human being it's they''re all important, you know nutrition and exercise and sleep, they're all important hormone balance all that, but also our thought lives, what we choose the thoughts that we choose to ruminate on the beliefs that we hold. And our spiritual component, which is our relationship with God, relationship with one another, and our relationship with ourselves our self love and the self care. That's an important part of our, our sense of identity. That's all part of the spiritual component, as far as I'm concerned. So could you speak to the listeners a little bit about how you blend all that into your practice?

Tanya Paynter 10:33
And, yeah, I agree 1,000% With everything that you just said, that's actually one of the components that we focus on, is that kind of trichotomy of body, mind and spirit. So everybody knows kind of the physical stuff, right? That's kind of the bread and butter of medicine. But and I think that we're starting to shift more towards the mind and the spiritual part more so the mind, but the the research behind the spiritual part is coming in as well. Like, there is a ton there's over 3000 research articles on spirituality, religion, and chronic pain, and healthcare related issues. And so we're starting to kind of develop that as well, which I think is amazing. And it's something that we should have been doing this whole time. But um, but there's, there's a lot of research on, you know, emotional traumas, childhood traumas, things that we're experienced as, as young adults or as children, that is tied into migraines. So that emotional component, and you know, our mental health is absolutely a key piece that needs to be worked through, and can be a reason, an underlying reason for, you know, a migraine situation. But then coming over to the spirituality side there, there's a huge, as I mentioned, a huge body of research that shows that. So there's one study in particular that I found fascinating meditation, secular meditation, so non religious, non spiritual meditation, improved pain, chronic pain, depression, you know, all the numbers they were looking at and improved it when the meditation was spiritual or religious based. So you know, connecting with God, or, you know, a prayer meditation, something like that, actually, was improved over the results of the secular meditation. So we're kind of moving forward, you know, as we're connecting. Yeah, yeah, it's really interesting. And they've, they've done functional MRIs and showing the different parts of the brain that are engaged when we're meditating versus a spiritual connection, or spiritual meditation. So when we're engaged in prayer, or speaking in tongues, or you know, any of those things that are associated with a religious practice, they actually show different parts of the brain that's lighting up and is engaged in that. And those parts of the brain can help to regulate the pain signals that we get, you know, improves depression, improve stress response, I mean, the list is crazy how how much is affected from our heart functioning to our blood pressure to you know, hormone balances, all kinds of different stuff. So it's, it's really interesting. And now they've got a whole field of study towards, you know, spirituality and brain and brain function. So it's really, I love watching kind of this new, new, new practice coming out about it.

David Sandstrom 13:24
Yeah, I think that's really cool. Well, you know, I get a lot of not a lot, but I started a social media presence a couple of months ago, and I occasionally get some comments on some of my posts about someone who's hostile towards a belief in God and hostile towards biblical truth. And I just have to feel sorry for those people, and because they just really don't understand. You know, the Bible says, the fruit of the Spirit, first three fruit of love, joy and peace. Who would argue that a little more love, joy and peace in our lives is not health promoting? Right? I mean, so, you know, when we, when we do things God's way, we won't regret it. It's one of the things I learned from researching the book is that the Bible is our is like our owner's manual for life. And God is referred to as our Heavenly Father. And just like any loving parent, they want what's best for their kids, their children. So you know, moms and dads, they tell their small children, stay away from the stove, don't cross the street without holding my hand. They may not explain themselves at the moment, but they have the child's well being in mind. And the same is true with God. He loves us enough and he knows the future. So when he tells us to do something, it's for our benefit. And when he tells us to avoid something, it's for our protection. We've just got to hang on to those two truths. Those those truths are under attack these days. But it's a it's a it's a timeless truth, nonetheless that we can trust him and when we do, it brings more peace into our lives, brings relational connectedness, more love, and when we when we enjoy all those positive emotions, we trigger our rest and digest or a parasympathetic side of the nervous system. And that's where the body when the body does its healing, right? If we spent too much site too much time, in the other side of that equation, the sympathetic dominance, we do not heal and repair the way we want our bodies know how to heal, we don't teach cells how to do or do their jobs, we just have to get the obstacles out of the way. And sometimes that can be stress, mental, emotional, or physical. So if you could, let's talk a few a little bit about some of the physical stressors that you identify with people, some of the gut brain connection and that type of thing.

Tanya Paynter 15:45
Yeah, so, you know, in the way that we approach migraines, I've kind of identified eight major focus areas. And so one of the first things that we look at is diet and gut, those are those are kind of the very basic foundational, really, of any health journey, right? And I'm guessing that's not going to be a surprise to anybody listening. But so we definitely want to look at you know, How is the food that we're eating, literally feeding into our chronic health issues. And that can come back to you know, anything from the pesticides being used, the the genetic modification that's been happening, cross contamination of some of the genetic manipulation that's going on with some of the crops, you know, corn and soy, the last time I saw a study on both of those, they're both 100%, contaminated, including the organic, you know, not supposed to be it's just, that's the way God made things to happen. It's it's fertilize, you can't you can't stop the cross pollination. And so those two, you know, those two types of food now are pretty much 100% genetically modified. So, so there's a lot of stuff that is causing inflammation in our in our gut, and that translates to inflammation in the rest of our body. And then then we have to take a look at that gut brain connection. So now we know that the majority of our serotonin 95% of our serotonin is actually made in and around the gut. And so it's not in the brain like we used to think I mean, obviously there's serotonin in there. And maybe let me back up serotonin is one of our neurotransmitters in case anybody doesn't know what that is, which basically, is our it's a feel good neurotransmitter it it helps us to kind of stay even keel gives us energy helps us, you know, boost our mood. It's what's deficient when we're depressed. It's usually a serotonin deficiency. And so and so there is a huge correlation between serotonin issues and migraine. triptans the the main medications that are used to help with migraines, kind of a first line of defense is, works on that that serotonin pathway. And so we have identified early on that serotonin is a big problem in chronic migraines. And so if we look at where standard serotonin is made, it's made in and around the gut. So if we're having foods that are causing inflammation, if we've taken a bunch of antibiotics, and so our gut bacteria is not where it needs to be, because things you know, have been off from that if we're taking medications, a lot of medications actually negatively affect our gut biome. And so when we're taking medications, that can actually kind of compound the problem, because we're not our gut is never really able to fully come back to the the balance bacteria that it needs in order to be in a healthy state. And so then you start seeing this negative downward cycle in our health where we're taking medications, but the medications are then interfering with our our gut lining causing inflammation, overwhelming detoxification, and liver pathways. And then we start seeing nutrient depletion is happening because we're not absorbing our food properly. And you know, you can see how this is just this, this negative downward spiral. So what we want to do is really work on you know, what kind of foods do we need to be eating to support a healthy, healthy gut? And then how can we, how can we heal the gut, this is the piece that I feel is so missing in migraines in specifically, but just in health in general, a lot of people are aware of, you know, elimination diets and food restrictions and things like that. And I start seeing, especially in the migraine population, because if you identify a food that triggers a migraine, you don't want to eat that food. So then then they avoid it. But then unfortunately, because the inflammation is still there, then you start being triggered by other foods and other foods. And then suddenly, you can eat chicken and rice and maybe one or two vegetables. And that's it. And that's what you stick with and then you become nutrient depleted, because you're not getting the variety that our bodies were made to have. And then and then we start down you know that other other pathway have kind of a malnutrition and your body is fighting so hard trying to stay in balance without the tools it needs.

David Sandstrom 19:56
Yeah, let me interrupt you right there because I'm sure a lot of people will thank you right now. While she mentioned pro inflammatory foods and foods that people have trouble digesting, what are those foods? So what have you seen in your practice are the foods that are troublesome for a lot of people very common.

Tanya Paynter 20:12
So common common foods, I kind of base it on kind of a modified paleo slash whole foods diet. So we gluten and dairy, I think it's not a surprise for most people have heard that. But then we also look, a lot of eggs are inflammatory for people, Nightshade. So things like potatoes and tomatoes are problematic for a lot of people. And then, you know, soy, as I mentioned, corn, some of those other kind of GMO things, those tend to be pretty inflammatory across the board. But then specifically, with a migraine population, we see a whole other combination of things. So there can be high histamine issues. So histamine is a neurotransmitter. It's also what our immune system puts out to help fight infections. It's pro inflammatory. And it's also what's involved in allergies, right. So there are people that have are triggered by histamine related things. And so a low histamine diet can be helpful, but not everybody needs a low histamine diet. And then there's there's other types of diets like that low tyramine, low arginine, those kinds of things. And so then, you know, you get somebody who's chronically dealing with migraines, and they're trying to go low, all of it. And they're left with like five different foods that they can eat, right. But generally speaking, just for health, in general, doing a whole foods diet, so I like the imagery that somebody had said, early on, in my medical school career, do they say a whole food is a food that looks like it looked in nature. So you know, if you're looking at white rice, you don't see white rice growing, that's not a whole food, brown rice, wild rice, where, you know, it looks like it did when it was growing in the field, an apple, just a whole apple is a whole food, but apple sauce is not. So if you kind of look at look at it from that perspective, and kind of just intuitively, you know, what, what looks like it used to before it was picked or you know, taken to the market. And those are the kinds of foods that we want to be eating tons of vegetables, tons of fruits, grass fed free range, happy cows and chickens, right? Ones that enjoyed their lives, not somebody that stuck in a stall, or in a huge corral with 1000 other animals. Those are the kinds of foods that we want to be eating to optimize. And then of course, we want to avoid foods that are processed or contaminated with pesticides. So we want to go organic as much as possible. And you know, and then there's the the impact to the to the wallet that comes with eating that way, right. But it's a matter of prioritizing our health. And then there's also the time investment that is required, we should be, you know, we have to make our food, I actually did a do a study in my local church, with people to kind of look at how the Bible is a guide to our health, and there is so much in there. And one of the things that we did last month was talking about how eating healthy isn't easy. God, you know, when we fell, we were told that we have to work the earth like we have, that's part of what we have to go through is we have to actually put work into our food into our nutrition. And, you know, if you look in Genesis, if you look at some of those other passages relating to to diet, it all talks about, you know, take joy in the work that it takes to create something nutritious and healthy for our body. So, you know, we just have to make those those priorities and those change those types of changes.

David Sandstrom 23:42
Well, that was great. A lot of information. Well, I kind of sum up what you just said, but with this statement here, eat food is close to its God given natural form as possible. Right. Another way of saying it is buy food that spoils and eat it before it does. Right. So yeah, if it's in a box or a package, it's suspect, you know, people get into well, let's learn how to read labels. Well, yeah, you should read labels, and I do that. But it's not difficult to read a label on as you said, an apple, write a single ingredient food, we don't have to read the ingredients list. We know what's there. It's an apple, or it's a carrot or you know, it's beef. You know, it's a top sirloin steak. We know and as I said if you if you're practicing the good food choice habits, you know, you're you're eating a grass fed animal, pastured at least living a healthy happy life. And they provide a very, very high quality, nutritious form of food for us very nutrient dense, which is what we're after. So you mentioned earlier and I interrupted you, after we eliminate the kind of taking the fuel off the fire, so to speak, eliminate the foods that are bothersome, then you work on healing the gut. So let's talk about that a little bit.

Tanya Paynter 24:54
Yeah, so So now we're looking at okay, we're starting to get the foods that are going to feed the good bacteria. And then we can start doing some, you know, more targeted support. So what that looks like there are certain nutrients like glutamine, that can be very helpful. There are certain herbs like slippery marshmallow root that are very soothing and healing to the gut. So we can kind of start a protocol where we're working on foods and you know, teas and things that can really help to heal the gut up. And then of course, there's supplemental options to kind of, you know, really get those those bulk doses in. And then, and then we also need to look at revisiting our gut biome. So what what bacteria is in there a lot of times, especially if we've had a long use of antibiotics, and we've got a lot of yeast strains that are in there that can be pro inflammatory. So the good bacteria helps to kind of crowd out the yeast. So that's one thing. There's, there's a kind of new emerging evidence of something called SIBO, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, where bacteria from the large intestine is migrating backwards into the small intestine where it's colonizing too much. And in your body, we shouldn't have a lot of bacteria in our small intestine. So when that happens, our body sees that as an infection. And that can lead to a lot of kind of IBS type symptoms. And we're starting to really see a correlation between IBS and this SIBO infection. So if anybody has any issues with IBS, make sure you're tested for SIBO. But there's also a big connection between SIBO and IBS and migraine as well, about 54% of people are diagnosed with both. That's a pretty high percentage. So we know that that again, is highly it is it is. So that's something else that you know, is really important when it comes to that chronic pain piece, as we've been talking about. So we want to make sure that we're supporting that gut biome with good quality probiotics that we can add it now, the research has shown that the the general probiotics that we thought were helpful, the lactobacillus and the, you know, Bifidobacterium, and things like that, they are helpful while you're taking them, but they're not changing the gut biome in the way that we thought that it did. So when people are taking the supplement, they're seeing benefits, but when they stop, they kind of revert back to where they were. That's what the studies are showing. What they are seeing, though, is that soil based probiotics are what are actually influencing and changing our gut biome. So there's a handful of them out there, you can just Google soil based probiotics, those are going to be the ones that you want to look at when you're actually trying to change the gut bacteria in your body as opposed to just needing you know, a little extra gut, gut support. Right. So I think that's an important differentiation that we've recently discovered in the last five or six years.

David Sandstrom 27:45
That's a huge point. Yeah. So is there anything else you'd like to add to the spiritual connection to health? Because I love want to have a practitioner on this follower of Jesus Christ and blends that into their practice? Is there anything you haven't mentioned that you'd like to mention, as far as that goes?

Tanya Paynter 28:03
Yeah, I think it kind of comes back to kind of comes back to what you said earlier about the rest and digest a lot of chronic illnesses, migraines, you know, included in that are associated with that stress, that fight or flight sympathetic dominance. And one of the things that, you know, I've started looking into, and I kind of I alluded to the the studies that they did earlier, about, you know, how meditation is positively impacting, when we look at the role that stress and elevated cortisol has on our blood sugar on our neuro chemistry on our digestive functions on our immune functions. We see that this besides food, stress is the number one thing that is contributing to our general illness as a as a population. And so when I think about stress, it's, you know, it's sure everybody throws that around. Well, what does that exactly mean? I mean, if we look at we know a lot about how it's affecting our body, but what do we do about it? Because we live in a world where we're constantly plugged in, we're constantly connected via phones via you know, we're expected to respond to emails and text messages within within the hour, you know, that kind of pressure. That's not an that's not the way that we were designed to live. And so and I struggle with this myself is, you know, spending every day in the word just just for half an hour and even giving him a half an hour of my time during the day I struggled to do that. So I think that when, when it comes back to, you know, just kind of connecting our health with our spirituality is really evaluating our own priorities and what we're putting ahead of God putting ahead of our our own religious and spiritual practices. And I think that for me, I struggle with seeing that as the most important priority. It absolutely hands down should be I know that. I don't always follow that. And so I think that really just starting a conversation around what that looks like sitting down and thinking about it praying about, you know, how can I incorporate the Lord more into my everyday because I find that on the days that I start out, reading and praying for just 15 or 20 minutes, I am so much more focused, so much more relaxed and less stressed. And I tend to come back to Him in prayer throughout the day, and checking in with him, which then lowers my stress, as I continue to move through, it's really amazing, I started kind of, you know, observing this in my own habits. And so I start to see where if we can just really start to make this a true priority, a true goal of allowing ourselves that time to be with him that we actually like the our whole day the the trajectory of our whole day will change. And I've started becoming a little bit more unplugged. I've started engaging with my family more on the days that I do that, and being much more present. So yeah, I think that would be just another big thing.

David Sandstrom 31:15
Yeah, thanks for sharing that, you know, one of the things I've been studying lately, as of late is that, as you just mentioned, when we start our days off that way, nurturing our spirit, then our thought life, or our minds, or our souls will come in alignment with our spirit that's connected with God. And it's our minds that animate our brains an organ in our brains run the bodies. So if we start off properly, with the spirit alignment with God, our mind will come in alignment with our spirit, and our body will come in alignment with all of that. And that's when we really start to see the magic happen. And I just wish more practitioners would understand that because it is a massive point, you can go around chasing symptoms, till the cows come home, physically on a physical level. But if you haven't addressed some of these spiritual and mental emotional aspects, you're going to have a hard time getting over some of this stuff, or recovering and really walking in that vibrant health and vitality that you should be that you're genetically capable of, which is really a huge point. You know, before we before we wrap things up here, Dr. Tanya, I'd like to talk a little bit about your migraine Mastery program. So I know that's something you're heavily involved with right now. So why don't you speak to us a little bit about what that looks like, and how you got involved in that kind of thing.

Tanya Paynter 32:38
Yeah, so um, so when I, well, let me back up in 2019, actually, 2018 I was just scrolling through Facebook one day, and I clicked on an ad, which I never do. And within a half an hour, I had purchased this, this course on how to make an online course and I'm like, Okay, I don't even know why I did this. Very clearly. It was a poll I was being called. So I said, Okay, well, I'm game and I sat down and tried to decide, well, what do I want to do a course on? What am I creating here? And over the next, you know, two to three years, I, you know, I found I found, I found my purpose, right, this is what my entire life up until now has been geared towards preparing me for and, and doing, you know, God's work with this group of people. And so the program itself is a it's a 12 week course that takes women through all the foundational things that we need that we have science on that we know negatively affects our bodies and contributes to migraines. So again, as I talked about the eight areas of focus, there's the hormones, we look at the diet and gut health, we look at neurotransmitters genetics, the mental, emotional, spiritual components, and detoxification. So there's, there's, you know, those eight areas, and we're, they basically are going through and addressing all of those in a very structured way. Then I mentioned that it's migraines are not just a one-size-fits-all. Right, so then the next 12 weeks, for those that choose to work with me and my team, we actually dive deep into what they've noticed as they're continuing through that program, what they're observing about their migraines, starting to understand how diet is affecting them, how supplements affect them, that all gives us information, picking out patterns that we're seeing that gives us information about their migraines, and then we start really honing in on those problem areas. And then individualizing that plan for the next three to six months out helping them to kind of rebuild their health and bring them back to balance. And so that's essentially what the program does. And we're seeing about a 91% reduction of migraine days on average through through the clients that work with us and complete the course. Yeah,

David Sandstrom 34:58
Yeah, that is really good. A couple of questions that I hear you're right. Did you say it took you two years to put this course together?

Tanya Paynter 35:06
Yeah, I'd say that's about right. I started in 2018. And I was ready to enroll my first client. And in the beginning of 2020, I was also working full time at my clinic as well and raising a two and a four year old at the time. So it took me a little longer than it would otherwise have done.

David Sandstrom 35:22
But I get that I get that. Yeah, it took me five years to write my book. But it was kind of an on and off thing. I wasn't full time on it for five years. But so also, I wanted to understand this. So it's not just a course that people sign up for and they're off on their own and off and running. You work with the clients as they go through the program, is that correct?

Tanya Paynter 35:44
We have both available, we have just the foundation's course. So if they have a an awesome team, a doctor and practitioner team at home, that they can go to for support and help going through some of the labs and interpretation and applying that to them, then the foundations courses is great, and they can kind of do it at their own pace. And then for those that have a bit more of a complex history, or they've already exhausted all of the, you know, the knowledge that their doctor team or their team has, then they can choose to work with us through the program. And then and we're we're there kind of essentially walking right next to them the whole way.

David Sandstrom 36:22
I got you, I got you. That's really, really good. Yeah, and 91% success rate. That is that's absolutely phenomenal. I think if someone's listening, and they're listening, they're struggling with migraines. Dr. Paynter is the one to contact. I mean, this is this is an incredible success rate. I don't know if you'd meet another practitioner that can make that claim. And you're obviously very passionate about this. It's a God-given passion. And you're taking your pain. And you know what you've learned through your experience and sharing it with others and blessing other people spanning the kingdom of God, I love it. It's just, that's just really, really you're hitting a homerun with this. I love it.

Tanya Paynter 37:01
Well, I can't take the credit for it. It's all from him. And I just feel so blessed to be a part of it.

David Sandstrom 37:07
Very good. So before we go, what is the the most important thing you'd like people to take away from this conversation? What would you like people to remember from what we talked about today?

Tanya Paynter 37:22
Yeah, that's a great question. I think it would just have to come back to assessing priorities. I think it's really important for us to, you know, again, another personal admission, I was spending hours on my cell phone. Even when I wasn't working, I was sitting on the couch with my family, doing things on my cell phone. And so I started to realize, you know, this is this is becoming a problem. I, when I was not on my phone, I was wanting my phone. And so I think that when we kind of take a step back and prioritize. There was something about guilt for me, if I wasn't actively doing something, I felt like I was being lazy. I wasn't working hard enough. And I think that it's so easy to get into that trap of, you know, must do all the time. So after my kiddos ended School for the year, we went on a week long camping trip, and I didn't touch my phone once. Actually, that's not true. I did touch it a couple of times. But by and large, it was off. And I just engaged the whole time in a regular old book, and my family. And that was that was my week. And it was the most amazing week I've had in a very long time. Which when I came back, I just really started to reassess my priorities. And you know, do I want to be spending 12 hours a day in front of my computer working? Or do I want to spend six hours a day working and then the other 10 or whatever, with my family, enjoying the summer and making that a priority. So I've gone through a lot of, of emotional shifts, just in the last, you know, month, myself and that really kind of has driven home to me the importance of just really again, making God a priority and making your family a priority being present and not feeling like you have to go 100 miles an hour all the time because it's okay to sit and put your feet up for an hour or two a day. Like that's healthy. It's a good thing for us to do. So just kind of realigning that assessment of our of our day and understanding where we're choosing to put our time.

David Sandstrom 39:21
I love it. That's a great reminder. Thank you for that. I really appreciate I needed to hear that. That's really good stuff. So Dr. Dr. Painter, how can people get ahold you if they want to get in touch with you? What's the best way?

Tanya Paynter 39:34
Easiest way is probably my website migrainemastery.org. I can also are I'm also on Facebook, so I have my migraine mastery business page. And then also a free group for women with chronic migraines called migraine mastery in my migraine support group. And then I'm also on YouTube if you prefer to watch videos at migraine mastery a migraine free life

David Sandstrom 40:00
Awesome. Thank you so much for your time today. I appreciate you being here.

Tanya Paynter 40:05
It's been a wonderful conversation. Thanks for having me, David.

David Sandstrom 40:09
For more, go to the show notes page at davidsandstrom.com/90. There, you can find an audio as well as a video version of the podcast. And I also include a full transcript that's downloadable, and some type of a content upgrade for each episode to help you go deeper with that subject. If you're enjoying the show, I sure would appreciate you telling somebody about it. And I think they'll thank you for it. Just remind them that you've been enjoying this podcast and you believe they might get something out of it as well. Remind them that it's free. And if they don't know how to subscribe, just ask them to hand you their phone, and you can subscribe for them. And if I show it appreciate you help spreading the word it would help a lot. That's it for now. Thanks again for listening. I'll talk with you next week. Be blessed

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

About the author 

David Sandstrom

I want to help you maximize your health potential so you can look and feel your best at any age. We do this by aligning our lives more fully with God's natural design for our spirit, mind, and body. I've been helping people maximize their health potential since 2005.

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