Dietary Changes

calderst

Just wondering....

Have any food or nutrition changes made a positive/negative impact on your symptoms?

SeasideOasis

I believe food and nutrition has done a WORLD of help. I was not eating well a couple years ago (when I was at some of my worth points). In the last, lets say year, I have stopped eating a lot of red meat (unless it is hormone free), stopped eating most chicken unless also without hormones added, cut down my milk intake, along with adding in more wheat, veggies, and fruit. I've also almost completely eliminated corn syrup. The BF is allergic, so it was hard at first as corn syrup is in so many things.

There is so scientific reasoning, but what I have taken from this is that the hormones in all the animals (and some other foods), plus my hormones (which are a mess and a half) coming together just equaled DOOM. I've got to seafood and free range animals and have noticed a HUGE difference in my symptoms. I still have my REALLY bad days, but there arent as many of them as there used to be.

jamk1446

Like aimssc, I found that cutting rBST treated beef and dairy have had the biggest impact on my endo. Within 3 months, my pain had diminished SIGNIFICANTLY as had my general PMS symptoms. I still eat beef and dairy but only hormone-free and organic if possible.

I have other issues so I have cut grains from my diet and significantly reduced my sugar intake. These steps have only furthered my healing. When I was diagnosed in 2004 after laparoscopy, my ob/gyn told me to plan on the disease to come back strong within 18 months of the clean up he did and that within a few years it would be likely I would be facing a hysterectomy. Here I am close to 8 years later with no hysterectomy plans in my foreseeable future and virtually no PMS or pain.

twinsanity

I can't say that I've noticed a huge difference, but I haven't paid extremely close attention to it, either. I rarely eat red meat, any ground meat I use is organic ground turkey. I've been told to go back to the red meat for the iron, but I'd rather not. I take iron suppliments and it seems to work. I have been told that caffeine also plays a huge role in the pain, but again, I've cut WAY back on caffeine and haven't noticed a lick of difference in the pain levels.

calderst

I guess it makes sense that the added hormones would only make our crazy hormones even crazier.

dizzymomma

I realize the last post on here was 6 months ago, but I have to share my success with changing my diet. I can't say that I've officially been diagnosed with endo, but my doctor highly suspects that's what I have and wanted to see if we could use BC to control my symptoms before doing any surgery. I got tired of taking the BC and my husband and I want to start trying for baby #2 (interestingly, my symptoms started well after baby #1, so NO, having a baby doesn't "cure" endo). Well, apparently I had forgotten just how much pain I had been in prior to BC. Because that first month without BC was torture. When AF arrived I was in so much pain I could hardly get out of bed, but I had to work, so I was popping 4 ibuprofen every 4 hours or so... for me it was awful. My sympathies go out to many of you, my endo must be fairly mild as I only have pain the first 2 days of AF. I was in so much pain and I knew I couldn't go back to BC, so I reaserched diet changes and decided to eliminate soy, dairy and gluten as well as as much processed junk as I could. It was a slow shift into it and the only thing I probably ended up eliminating 90% of was soy. I still eat greek yogurt and ice cream (I'm addicted) and I try to avoid gluten, but if we go out for a meal I don't stress over it. Anyway, I have been doing this for a month and eagerly/anxiously awaited AF to see how it went. I. Was. Shocked. NO pain - seriously. I had cramps and maybe a twinge (I would rate it a 1 on the pain scale), but it was virtually non-existant. I am motivated to continue this eating plan. I hope more of you can try it and I hope it works for you.

SeasideOasis

Just wanted to bring this thread back to the top, as I have done more experimenting.

I think the more 'hormones' you eat with your food, the bigger the problems. I have almost completely eliminated cow milk, hardly touch beef and try to eat only free range meats. Is it a little more expensive? Yes. Is it worth it in the end? Absolutely.

I also have incorporated more 'vegetarian' friends meals into our diet at home. While I will never be a full vegetarian...ever, however, I think the eating more natural has been doing wonders.

I think the IUD & the major changes in my diet have been what has helped me so much. I still get horrible pain, but I would say it is about 100% easier to manage at this point. Or, I am just getting too used to it

dizzymomma

Just wanted to bring this thread back to the top, as I have done more experimenting.

I think the more 'hormones' you eat with your food, the bigger the problems. I have almost completely eliminated cow milk, hardly touch beef and try to eat only free range meats. Is it a little more expensive? Yes. Is it worth it in the end? Absolutely.

I also have incorporated more 'vegetarian' friends meals into our diet at home. While I will never be a full vegetarian...ever, however, I think the eating more natural has been doing wonders.

I think the IUD & the major changes in my diet have been what has helped me so much. I still get horrible pain, but I would say it is about 100% easier to manage at this point. Or, I am just getting too used to it

I completely agree with you! I have a lot less hormones going in now than I did a few months ago. Interesting isn't it that LESS processed food costs way more than food processed with a lot of added junk? I mean - isn't it more work to add all that crap, so why is it so cheap? Dumb... but I breeze right past the $6 bag of 3 lbs. of chicken breast and pick up the $8/pound natural/no hormones added chicken and just try to remember that it is sooo much better for my family. Keep it up, hope it continues to help you!

Also - Could any of you recommend a soy-free, gluten-free protein powder?? Oh, and just to make it complicated - one that tastes good too.

myadorkablelife

I damn near eliminated caffeine from my diet. There's been some studies to show a link between caffeine and estrogen, and the increased amounts of cramp pain. I can't believe how much this has helped. It was hard at first, but two years later, I'm okay with it. There's a lot of alternatives that, in some cases, taste a lot better.

I've reduced my dairy quiet a bit (can't get rid of cheese, I'm a midwestern girl and my family might disown me)... and I'm trying to be careful with gluten. Red meat is hard, because I've got low B12 and prefer a steak every so often over taking more pills daily.

Do you ladies buy a gluten-free bread, or do you have another sandwich alternative??

chercee

I've made HUGE diet changes over the last while, and I absolutely can feel a difference.

I've been gluten-free for 3 years, because my Endo has made me completely intolerant to it.

These days, I am:
- gluten-free
- dairy-free
- soy-free
- caffeine-free
- red meat-free
- refined sugar-reduced
- alcohol-reduced
- increased protein
- increased fiber
- increased water

My pain is the best it has been in probably 5 years.

Check my blog: www.endowellness.blogspot.com for more details of the changes I've been making.