How One Man Found Strength Through His Struggle With Migraines

See David’s Prime 3 Takeaways

By the point I utilized to compete on NBC’s American Ninja Warrior (ANW) in 2022, I’d confronted well being issues almost my complete life. I’d dreamed of being on the present since I began watching it at 8 years previous, however for a very long time, nobody might have ­believed I’d be capable to understand this dream.

Important well being challenges prevented me from bodily maturing and collaborating at college and in sports activities. But once I was 13, I found a easy remedy methodology that allowed me to interrupt away from almost fixed ache and step into my power.

It modified the course of my life.

Seeing the Future

After I was 2 years previous, docs found I used to be legally blind in my left eye and liable to retinal detachment. For the following eight years, I wore a patch over my proper eye for 4 hours on daily basis to pressure the weak eye to see. Whereas remarkably efficient — I now have 20/40 corrected imaginative and prescient — I spent these hours in virtually full blindness.

That was just the start of my well being points. Shortly after beginning kindergarten, I started experiencing extreme migraine assaults. Each precipitated excruciating ache in my temples, and I’d vomit dozens of instances. I visited docs everywhere in the nation, however the medicines they prescribed had been often ineffective and got here with nasty uncomfortable side effects.

As a result of my signs stored me principally at house, I wasn’t growing in all of the methods a “regular” child would. I didn’t have many probabilities to attach or construct friendships with youngsters my age. I additionally couldn’t decide to taking part in workforce sports activities as a result of I’d need to miss too many video games and practices.

So I turned obsessive about ANW. After I felt properly, I’d assemble and navigate mini impediment programs with my brother. On unhealthy days, I’d attempt to watch the present from mattress, gaining ­inspiration from the athletes conquering ­obstacles on and off the course.

Discovering Reduction

In fifth grade, my migraine assaults had been so frequent and extreme that I missed the final 55 days of college and needed to be homeschooled the next 12 months.

Medicines made me really feel terrible, so I attempted alternate options. I used ice packs, warmth packs, and varied varieties of pillows. I attempted reforming my food regimen, avoiding synthetic sweeteners, MSG, and crimson dye. Nothing appeared to work.

After I was 13, my mother and father took me to a chiropractor, who defined how pressure within the suboccipital muscle groups on the base of the cranium usually trigger tension-induced complications. He prompt my mother use her thumbs to use stress to those muscle groups the following time I felt signs. On the subsequent signal of a headache, my mother did as he instructed — and I felt reduction virtually immediately!

As a result of my mother couldn’t all the time be with me, I wished to have the ability to do that for myself. I searched on-line for a self-serve trigger-point-release product however discovered nothing. So I made a decision to make my very own.

For my first prototype, I connected two bicycle kickstands to a chunk of metallic and used the contraption to therapeutic massage the muscle groups on my head and neck. It didn’t actually work, so I attempted once more, utilizing a pool noodle as a base for neck assist.

This mannequin mixed gravity and the burden of my head to place stress on my suboccipital muscle groups. I used it on the onset of a migraine assault and felt fast reduction. After I began utilizing it every day for prevention, the frequency and depth of the assaults dropped dramatically.

Discovering reduction for myself was unimaginable, however I shortly turned to the opportunity of serving to others. In a few months, I discovered a designer to assist advance my prototype. Inside a number of years, I’d developed greater than 100 prototypes, acquired 4 U.S. patents, and provide you with a reputation: Releevum.

I’ve all the time had excessive aspirations, however with my well being points, I’d typically fear that I’d by no means achieve success. The obstacles appeared insurmountable. However growing this product allowed me to pour my pent-up ambition right into a venture, and I lastly felt like I might form my future moderately than be stymied by my well being.

Upward Swing

I used to be 14 once I returned to in-person education in 2018. I used to be solely 4 ft, 11 inches tall and weighed 75 kilos. I wasn’t athletic. However later that fall, a ninja warrior coaching gymnasium opened close to my house in Boca Raton, Fla. I began attending open gymnasium classes, the place I might observe impediment programs on my personal.

I used to be horrible, however I liked the number of obstacles and the way individuals cheered for one another. With my ANW dream in thoughts, I stored going again.

The subsequent spring, I competed in leisure leagues. I positioned final in my first few competitions, however I progressed quickly. By the next 12 months, I used to be prepared for extra.

I pursued my college PE requirement by an impartial research on the ninja warrior gymnasium, and I began power coaching with a buddy. He confirmed me his lifting routine and shared his diet technique. I started consuming extra entire meals, largely abstained from sugar, and ratcheted up my protein consumption.

By my senior 12 months of highschool, I’d shot as much as 5 ft, 9 inches, and I weighed almost double what I had 4 years prior. I’d additionally developed from a social outlier into my college’s student-body president and obtained admittance to Yale College. I used to be thrilled by my progress, however I wasn’t going to cease there.

Dream Come True

In the beginning of my freshman 12 months of faculty, I utilized to be on ANW. I used to be considered one of some 250 athletes — out of greater than 100,000 candidates — chosen to take part.

I flew to Hollywood the next spring for taping. The expertise was transient: I fell throughout qualifying rounds. Though I used to be grateful for the chance, a part of me felt like I’d ruined my one probability at dwelling my dream.

Inside half-hour of touchdown again in my hometown, I obtained a cellphone name. For the primary time in its historical past, the present was filming two seasons at ­roughly the identical time, and the ­producers wished to supply me a second probability.

This time, I meant enterprise. Extra decided than ever, I made it to the second-to-last impediment. Although I couldn’t full the course, I went far sufficient to advance to the semifinals. There, I raced towards considered one of my childhood heroes, Joe “The Weatherman” Moravsky.

He beat me, however I left Hollywood enriched by the chance and honored to compete on the present that had impressed me in my darkest days. It was a full-circle second — the very best expertise of my life.

I’m hopeful that I can return and compete once more quickly.

Future Objectives

Lately, I attempt to do one thing bodily every day. I additionally attempt to keep curious, keep a optimistic perspective, and develop in my spirituality. I’m nonetheless attending Yale, majoring in economics and minoring in information science.

Along with my private pursuits, I all the time be certain to hitch associates for lunch or dinner. Having spent most of my childhood at house, I’m blessed to encompass myself with inspiring individuals and interact in deep conversations.

After I graduate in 2026, I plan to work in administration consulting and proceed my pursuits with Releevum. I obtained a $10,000 prize from Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch in November 2023, and I’m excited to launch Releevum into the world.

I created an answer for my very own drawback years in the past once I made my first profitable prototype, however there’s an extended solution to go. Hundreds of thousands of individuals with migraine proceed to undergo, and I can’t wait to make a distinction of their lives too.

David’s Prime 3 Takeaways

1) Obstacles are inevitable in each ninja and life. “Success is set by the way you deal with them,” David says.

2) Dream huge. By no means let the worry of failure cease you from attempting, he advises. We are able to accomplish much more than we expect once we commit to creating progress.

3) Life is a workforce sport. “True success can’t be achieved alone,” David notes. “Encompass your self with others who encourage you to drive for greatness.”

This text initially appeared as “Rising to the Problem” within the September/October 2025 situation of Expertise Life.