Anyone have MS, thyroid, or fertility issues?

gdaydreamer

Ok so my BFF has been wanting to lose weight for a long time, and has those medical issues. She is not Massively overweight, but does need / want to lose for health issues. I have been able to find articles both for and against this WOE for all. So I am looking for "real life" cases here that may be able to give some personal opinions so that I might pass them along to her.

LauraCoth

Having a hypothyroid condition will definitely stymie weight loss if the condition is not adequately treated -- and by that I mean receiving both T3 and T3 thyroid hormones, not just synthetic T4.

kpk54

There are a couple of people here that have MS. Hopefully they'll pop in. Have you looked up the Wahl's Diet for MS? Wahl' protocol. Give it a Google. Basically Paleo. Minding Your Mitochondria is a good (Youtube) video by Dr. Wahl's and you'll find others.

I have a neurological movement disorder (dystonia). It has minimized the involuntary head/neck movements...not cured...yet. I think dystonia and MS are fairly different though both are neurological. MS tends to be degeneratgive. Not true with Dystonia though. Check Parkinson's. There is some research there.

kpk54

Correction Wahls no apostrophe.

gdaydreamer

I have, and I have sent her links to several that apply to her. Just knowing how very much better I feel, I would love to have her experience the same. I was just hoping someone with firsthand experience was around that I could share with her rather than just bombarding her with links to websites lol.

Sarahb29

I have (had?) PCOS which caused fertility issues. For the longest time I just assumed it would never happen, then I followed Keto to lose weight for my wedding and as you can see by my pic it also boosted my fertility. My daughter was born 10 months after my wedding.

PS: You're a great friend

kpk54

Dr. Wahls was confined to a wheelchair with her MS. Her diet, videos, before/during/after and personal story are pretty doggone convincing.

macchiatto

I have both MS and PCOS. There is a wide variety of "MS diets" out there with very mixed recommendations so it's a little unclear. However, I agree that Dr. Wahls has one of the newest and most promising diets and she does recommend paleo/keto (with a lot of fruits and veggies). Her protocol is more extreme than I follow but the general principles were helpful. LCHF is also often recommended for PCOS. Not sure what specific fertility issues you're talkinga bout but my cycles are a lot more regular when I go low carb.

bametels

I have hypothyroidism. It's working for me; helping me to get the last, challenging pounds off.

suzqtme

I have MS and other autoimmune issues. The problem with assessing diet and MS is MS is most commonly a "relapsing/remitting" disease so you have the onset of new symptoms (or increase of old ones) and then after a day, week or months even, the symptoms remit or decrease or even disappear. So to say a particular diet "cured" or helped MS is virtually impossible without long term studies. Plus there can be years and years between relapses (aka exacerbations). A person would have to go off DMA (disease modifying agents or drugs), have periodic MRIs and have show no increase in the number of lesions on LCHF over a period of time that could be years. I think that is why there have been so many different MS diets.

That said, there has been some indicators that LCHF is at least protective and perhaps more with neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's, ALS, Parkinson's and others.

I do know that I feel better after about 3 months LCHF. And since I am not eating any grains, there is less inflammation in my system and that makes me feel better. But so does cooler weather. I'm walking much farther than I had for about 5 years (up to 3 miles if the weather is cool), I don't ache much, I've been going into my basement (again years since I have done so). I'm hopeful I will continue to improve my overall health.

Thyroid would be easier to assess with appropriate lab tests.

You sound like a really good friend. Would she be interested in just reading the board here to learn about this WOE and improvements people have experienced?

gdaydreamer

oh she absolutely would be interested in reading the board here. She has been on MFP for years. I think she is just holding off sending a request to this board until she is sure she wants to commit to this woe. And I wish she would hurry up, because heaven knows she would gain a lot more info from you guys than I can pick and choose to send to her lol.

KnitOrMiss

She can always come and scout around and read. She can skulk in the shadows as long as she wants. Tons of folks do that. There is no commitment required to join the group. Tell her to join for research. If she leaves, it doesn't send a message to anyone. No one would ever know...

gdaydreamer

true, just knowing her as well as I do (soul sister, we were roommates for almost a decade) I know she would be hesitant. That is why I was trying to do a bit of "research" to compel her. I don't want to "Low Carb thump" or preach at her, I just want her to give it a shot and see if it helps.