Two months in on low carb: been a rocky road

Patti2008

I did a low carb diet several years ago for fibromyalgia/hypoglycemia management. I had less pain, less brain fog and as an unexpected bonus, lost all the weight I put on when I quit smoking. Because of my past experience, I was really looking forward to feeling better. Instead, I had more pain, less energy and more brain fog. I knew this had worked for me in the past, so I hung in there and did some trouble shooting. If I had not previously had a good experience, I would have given up thinking this diet was not right for me.

I was originally shooting for under 50 grams of carbs. I experienced depression. I have had clinical depression most of my life and have a strong family history of depression/ chemical dependency. I often joke that if all of us had gotten Prozac with our mother's milk, life would have gone much better. With input from people on this forum, I increased my carbs and my mood stabilized.

I did continue to have increased pain and brain fog and finally traced that to a dairy allergy.

I also have been looking at thyroid function since I had a thyroid ablation several years ago. I am going to try some supplements specific to thyroid and be vigilant with the timing of my synthroid.

I also think I have issues with leaky gut after years of Prilosec and NSAIDs use.

I am sharing all this in hopes that it might help others who have started the diet and aren't getting the results they hoped for. I think the diet can bring other issues to light and it would be easy to blame the diet and miss the real problem.

Benefits I have experienced: I stopped Prilosec and though I still have some GERD it's mild. Even though I am still experiencing a fair amount of pain, I have been able to stop taking Tylenol and ibuprofen at night so I can sleep. I am sleeping more deeply. And today when I did my measurements, most showed some decrease. I am glad I hung in there.

cstehansen

This self experimentation is a must. You never know when you may have a food allergy (dairy for example) or something else that gets amplified because of being intensified. I am guessing you ate more dairy when going low carb than before as most of us do in the forms of cheese and HWC.

Many drugs do wreak havoc on your gut in the long term, so what you are talking about there makes perfect sense. Congrats on being able to cut back on those.

I would encourage you to continue the self experimentation as there may be some other foods which are causing issues for you. I do this because of T2D diagnosis. I am finding some foods that don't bother others do raise my BG and vice versa.

MyriiStorm

Thanks for sharing your experience, Patti. I hope you continue to see improvements in your health, and a decrease in your pain levels.

Patti2008

Thanks for your kind and encouraging replies! Cstehansen, I have been following your bg saga with interest. Hope you figure it out. I have been seeing research lately showing the importance of sleep and that most people need at least 7-8 hours of sleep. Sounds like that is a challenge for you.

RalfLott

@Patti2008 -

I just listened to a couple of interesting "detox" talks by Deanna Minich on YouTube. (She's a nutritionist, as opposed to a supplement hawker, so it's actually possible to listen to the entire talk.)

The many takeaways included:

• Keep journal entries of food, sleep, moods, productivity, energy levels, etc.;
• Make sure you eat (& track) all the micronutrients you need to facilitate elimination of everything your body would just as soon be rid of; and
• Give the process plenty of time to work!

Meanwhile, the sticky thread "START HERE - LCD LaunchPad" has a ton of great tips on all sorts of LC subjects.

In particular, Steven Phinney and Jeff Volek cover a lot of ground on how to help smooth the transition - you can find one of their longer interviews, with segments separated by topic, at the JumpstartMD Youtube page.

Patti2008

Thanks so much! I'll take a look/listen.