What Rainy Days, Diet Changes, and TCM Can Teach You About Your Headaches
If you’ve ever had a migraine roll in with the same force as a Carleton County rainstorm, you’re in good company. Weather doesn’t just change the sky, it changes our bones, our joints, and for some of us, our heads.
I used to have chronic migraines (the kind that made me want to crawl into bed and pretend the world didn’t exist). They escalated in early 2024, right before I switched to a carnivore diet. And then? They disappeared. Completely. Even when I drifted off that way of eating this fall, they stayed gone.
Until yesterday.
Cue the heavy rain, the thick air, the East Coast damp that settles into everything from your laundry to your nervous system. My classmates were complaining about joint pain, headaches, migraines, brain fog… the whole Damp parade. And I got hit with my first really intense migraine in almost 2 years.
And it reminded me just how different Western medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine are when they talk about headaches, and how much clarity women find when we look through both lenses instead of just one.
How Western Medicine Sees Migraines
In the Western model, migraines are a neurological event, a kind of electrical storm that sweeps across the brain. It involves:
• Trigeminal nerve irritation
• Serotonin fluctuations
• Blood vessel changes
• Family history
• Sensory hypersensitivity
• And a long list of possible “triggers”
Weather? Absolutely a trigger. Humidity and low barometric pressure top the list.
Western care focuses on stopping the pain or preventing the next attack, medication, supplements, lifestyle, dark rooms, sunglasses, electrolytes, even Botox. It can be incredibly helpful, especially when the pain steals your vision or your stomach flips upside down.
But Western medicine doesn’t always explain why some women get migraines on rainy days and others don’t, or why certain diets get rid of them entirely. That’s where TCM steps in with its earthy, deeply intuitive wisdom.
How TCM Sees Migraines
Traditional Chinese Medicine looks at migraines through the lens of patterns, the internal weather systems shaping what you feel.
TCM asks questions like:
What’s your baseline constitution?
How’s your digestion?
How do you handle stress?
What’s happening hormonally?
What season are we in?
What’s the external climate doing today?
Instead of focusing on the brain alone, TCM looks at how Qi, Blood, and fluids are moving (or not moving) throughout your body.
And when migraines show up during rainy New Brunswick days, we’re almost always looking at one of these patterns:
• Damp or Phlegm blocking the clear Yang from rising
This shows up as head pressure, fogginess, nausea, heavy limbs, dizziness, motion sickness, weather sensitivity.
• Liver Qi tension or stagnation
Headaches that get worse with stress, frustration, or tight neck/shoulder muscles.
• Wind affecting the channels
Pain that moves, throbs, or shifts sides.
• Underlying Spleen weakness
A Spleen that can’t transform fluids well creates Damp, and Damp + humidity = migraine city.
In my case, early 2024 migraines were a classic mix: Spleen Qi Deficiency leading to Damp, layered with Liver Qi that had nowhere to go. When I went carnivore, I accidentally gave my Spleen a sabbatical. The Damp drained out. The migraines left.
Rainy day relapse?
Just old Damp whispering, “Hey mama… miss me?”
Why Weather Hits Some Women Harder
If you live in rural NB, you already know weather can make or break your whole day.
Rainy days bring:
• Puffy fingers
• Stiff joints
• Sinus pressure
• Head heaviness
• Mood dips
• “I swear the air feels like soup” fatigue
In TCM, external Damp aggravates any internal Damp you’re already carrying. When your body’s clear and warm, weather rolls through like nothing. When there’s Damp under the floorboards? One storm and everything swells.
This is why one woman gets a migraine, another gets bloating, and another gets knee pain. It’s the same weather, different terrain.
How Acupuncture Helps (In Ways You Can Actually Feel)
Women always ask, “But what does acupuncture do for migraines?”
Here’s the grounded, real life answer.
1. It moves the stuck Qi
Migraines often come from tension or stagnation along the Gallbladder, Bladder, or Liver channels. Needling them feels like opening a pressure valve.
2. It dries Dampness
If your migraines flare when it rains, Damp is part of the picture. Acupuncture helps your Spleen get those fluids moving again.
3. It calms your nervous system
Western and TCM agree here: acupuncture brings your body out of fight or flight.
Migraines thrive in tension.
A calmer system = fewer attacks.
4. It improves circulation to the head
Not in a clinical “vasodilation” way, but in a “the channels are finally open” way. Pain softens, vision clears, nausea eases.
5. It breaks the cycle
The more migraines you have, the more your body repeats the pattern. Acupuncture disrupts that cycle so your system can learn a new rhythm.
6. It supports your constitution
If you thrive on high protein, high fat foods, acupuncture supports the Spleen, Liver, and digestion so your diet works with you, not against you.
The Takeaway for Women Reading This
Your migraine isn’t random.
It’s not “all in your head.”
And it’s not a character flaw that you get knocked flat by a rainy day.
Western medicine explains the electrical storm.
TCM explains why the storm formed in the first place.
When you put those two perspectives together, you get a full picture of what your body needs, what it’s asking for, and how to support yourself through the seasons, both the ones outside and the ones inside.
A Gentle Note: I’m a student of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and this space reflects my learning as it unfolds. TCM is deep, layered, and complex, and I’m still finding my footing within it. I will refine my understanding over time. I will make mistakes. That’s part of doing this honestly. What I share here is my current perspective, shaped by my teachers, clinical training, lived experience, and my own biases. It’s not absolute, it’s evolving. I welcome thoughtful conversation, shared insight, and respectful correction along the way. I humbly welcome your insight. Let’s learn together. You can always find me over on Instagram to keep the conversation going.