Dr Jean-Pierre Chaudot, Doctor specializing in migraine for seventeen years at the Pau hospital center and author of Bye bye migraine! A single solution to cure: understand, published by Dangles editions.
France Dimanche: Good news, you give hope to migraine sufferers to develop the power to stop their attacks?
Dr Jean-Pierre Chaudot : Yes, I am living proof of this, and patients who follow the therapeutic education program “Controlling migraine”, validated by the Nouvelle-Aquitaine regional health agency, also see improvements up to a cure. .
FD: Your experience led you to discover that migraines would be linked to a blockage of our breathing. What is the mechanism?
JPC : The first crises occur because we hold our breath in anxious expectation. We block the exhalation without realizing it and we do not eliminate carbon dioxide correctly. Finally, migraine is like carbon dioxide poisoning linked to malfunctioning boilers, it takes between 4 hours and 3 days to recover.
FD: What are the triggers?
JPC : They are very diverse: we can stop breathing when we are concentrated or stressed, when a smell bothers us, when we are carrying a heavy load, when it is oppressively hot… Personally, I had associated cinema and migraine, surely from the movie Duel by Steven Spielberg whose uninterrupted suspense took my breath away. There, these are natural factors, but then, the migraine being so painful, disabling, disabling, we will always try to link it to a past triggering factor, or even to come. As soon as we are in the presence of what we believe to have recognized as a triggering factor, we will “hold our breath” in the anxious expectation of seeing the crisis occur.
FD: So the idea is to learn how to control the level of carbon dioxide in our body…
JPC : Yes, and it can be lowered by hyperventilating, which consists of blowing as quickly, as deeply and as hard as possible for a moment. You have to start by doing it at rest, far from any crisis and count the number of exhalations necessary to feel this feeling of spinning (generally 3 to 8). This is the sign that you have eliminated carbon dioxide from the body, that blood exchanges are no longer acid enough but alkaline. It is important to know this number of breaths because it will be useful to you in the face of the crisis.
FD: That is to say?
JPC : At the first symptoms of discomfort, begin to hyperventilate. If you exceed your number of expirations at rest without your head spinning, there is indeed an excess of carbon dioxide and the attack is coming. At this point, start hyperventilating again in cycles of 5-7 breaths until you find your usual threshold. Drinking a Coke or coffee can help because caffeine stimulates breathing.
Comment hyperventiler ?
To learn, you can hold the top of a sheet of paper at arm’s length and blow in its direction as hard and as fast as possible while trying to make it fly until horizontal. It is quite similar to the attitude adopted to inflate a buoy. Outside of the crisis, a cycle of 5 to 8 breaths is enough to evacuate all the carbon dioxide in excess and feel the effect “dizzy”. A video on the YouTube page of Bye bye migraine! also give an example in picture.
AND HORMONES, THEN?
Dr. Jean-Pierre Chaudot does not blame hormones for migraine. If it hits some women two days before their period, for others it is at ovulation. Menopause can either intensify the attacks or calm them down, as can pregnancy. For him, this diversity of cases invalidates their direct responsibility.
FD: Do we really get through crises thanks to hyperventilation?
JPC : When you understand, you first say to yourself that it probably works thanks to a placebo effect, but the placebo effect only works for a while. And there it is final. You have to understand that it’s like with a fire: the sooner you act, the easier it is to put out. And as the pain increases, the less you breathe, because the slightest movement makes your head feel like it’s going to explode. This is why it is important to listen to your body in order to anticipate. We must learn to recognize all the situations likely to make us hold our breath.
FD: What role should be attributed to drugs?
JPC : If you can’t stop the crisis, because it is already very advanced, you started too late, or you were busy at the time, I recommend taking aspirin (Aspegic): 2 g once. At this dose, deprived of its anticoagulant effect, it becomes anti-inflammatory and also has the advantage of being a respiratory stimulant. You can accompany it with a double espresso or a filter coffee, because the caffeine will also stimulate ventilation. This is also the case of Coca-Cola which contains coca essence, a plant used by the inhabitants of the Andes to fight against mountain sickness which causes headaches of the same order as migraine.
FD: What about triptans?
JPC : It can be taken on medical prescription as a second intention. If it’s occasional, no problem, but beyond 5 or 6 per month, it’s too much. They relieve, but they do not act on breathing. By the time they take effect, you must continue to breathe well.
FD: What is the right reflex?
JPC : Blowing discreetly for two to three minutes is extremely simple and the best way to heal. Submission and fatality must be replaced by a warrior’s attitude. You can sometimes beat a retreat by taking medicine, but that does not win the war. The best weapon, the simplest, the least painful and the least expensive, is hyperventilation.
Find support
It is a method that works; I am completely cured”, writes Pascale Schweitz on the Facebook page of the book Bye bye migraine ! A testimony joined by many others, including those of doctors.
If everyone cannot benefit from the therapeutic education program, this page also allows you to ask a question to Dr Jean-Pierre Chaudot and find support, while waiting for the method to be better known and practiced. www.facebook.com/byebyemigraine