Keto and Fainting?
tmeadows_08
Posts: 1,231 Member
Hello! I'm Tabby and I've been reading around here for a couple of weeks. You guys are amazing! There is so much information on this Forum and it's been extremely helpful! I do want to get some opinions/advice if possible too. For background, I've been doing Keto for about 2 weeks and have been loving it. I feel good and have been losing weight and would love to keep it up long term. (Sorry for the long post in advance.)
So Friday, I went out for my best friends 30th birthday with some friends to have a drink . I know keto is supposed to lower your tolerance so I made sure I had plenty of water and didn't drink as much as I normally would. (I can put away a 12 pack if I'm really partying without being sick at all.) So anyway, I had 2 miller lites at home before we left, about 4 hours before we left and felt perfectly fine. I had 2 miller lites at Applebee's and we were getting ready to leave, I wasn't tipsy or even feeling the alcohol at this point. I felt extremely dizzy all of a sudden and sat down outside, broke out in a sweat and thought I was going to throw up. I got up and went inside to the bathroom and came to on the floor in front of the bathroom with people asking if I was okay. I got up to head to the car and came to on the pavement outside, and again, and again as I was throwing up all over myself. So basically, I fainted 4 times back to back, on my face. My MIL thinks it was low blood sugar, (she has issues with that and said it's how she feels when hers gets too low.) Do you think this is Keto related or maybe a combo of my dietary change and staying up late? I'm going to the Dr. this afternoon to get checked out but thought I'd see if anyone has experienced this. I've never fainted before in my life and my health numbers have always been good so this really scared me.
Also, I had a Zaxby's cobb salad (no fried onions or bread) for lunch with half of the fried chicken (they gave me fried instead of grilled like I ordered.
) and 3 scrambled eggs with cheese, HWC, and butter for dinner. Coffee with half and half and water. I also exercised A LOT the day before, not sure if that matters or not.
Thanks for your help!
So Friday, I went out for my best friends 30th birthday with some friends to have a drink . I know keto is supposed to lower your tolerance so I made sure I had plenty of water and didn't drink as much as I normally would. (I can put away a 12 pack if I'm really partying without being sick at all.) So anyway, I had 2 miller lites at home before we left, about 4 hours before we left and felt perfectly fine. I had 2 miller lites at Applebee's and we were getting ready to leave, I wasn't tipsy or even feeling the alcohol at this point. I felt extremely dizzy all of a sudden and sat down outside, broke out in a sweat and thought I was going to throw up. I got up and went inside to the bathroom and came to on the floor in front of the bathroom with people asking if I was okay. I got up to head to the car and came to on the pavement outside, and again, and again as I was throwing up all over myself. So basically, I fainted 4 times back to back, on my face. My MIL thinks it was low blood sugar, (she has issues with that and said it's how she feels when hers gets too low.) Do you think this is Keto related or maybe a combo of my dietary change and staying up late? I'm going to the Dr. this afternoon to get checked out but thought I'd see if anyone has experienced this. I've never fainted before in my life and my health numbers have always been good so this really scared me.
Also, I had a Zaxby's cobb salad (no fried onions or bread) for lunch with half of the fried chicken (they gave me fried instead of grilled like I ordered.
) and 3 scrambled eggs with cheese, HWC, and butter for dinner. Coffee with half and half and water. I also exercised A LOT the day before, not sure if that matters or not.Thanks for your help!
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Replies
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How are you doing with your sodium intake? If you were drinking plenty of water, maybe your electrolytes got out of whack? That had to be very scary.0
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It was around 2000 mgs Friday so lower than usual. I've been trying to drink some pickle juice every day but I might have forgotten that day. I've also been taking magnesium and calcium.0
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Definitely try to up that. But if it happens again I'd hit up the doc. I wouldn't mess around with that. Hope it was a terrible one time only occurrence!0
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Thanks, me too!0
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You need a minimum of 3000-5000mg every. Single. Day. On keto.
Every day.
It's dangerous not to take the sodium needs seriously.
If you're sweating and/or drinking alcohol you need even more. Some need as much as 7000-10000mg.
You lose sodium very easily on keto and even low carbs.4 -
Could have been low blood pressure. That can cause dizziness and fainting as well as nausea.0
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Sounds awful. So sorry.
I am having a hard time getting more than about 2500 of sodium per day. I am salting liberally and drinking on cup of boullion every day which gives me a bit over 1000- any ideas?0 -
@tmeadows_08, thanks for your kind words!
Do you have issues with your blood glucose (that you know of) ?
As you know, low sodium is a problem in the early stages of keto. It's not just that you don't taste as salty if someone bites you; as @Sunny_Bunny_ suggested, low sodium can disrupt your body's ability to maintain constant blood pressure. It can also mess with your ability to retain water.
Here's a quick bite:
https://youtu.be/WNV0GJcrqp4 0 -
Thanks for the video! The thing is, I love salt. Some of my favorite foods are super salty. Sunflower seeds with the shell, boiled peanuts, etc. I got the stuff to make bone broth today. I had a cup of that every day the first few days but I haven't had any in a while and haven't really upped my salt intake too much. I've never had an issue with blood glucose that I know of. My numbers are good at my check up every year. I went to the doctor today and he drew blood work to check iron and my thyroid and everything but he won't know the results until Wednesday. It could have nothing to do with keto. He didn't seem concerned about my diet at all. Said he'd try a heart monitor if everything was clear in the blood work...0
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@tmeadows_08 - Not to speak ill of your doctor, but very, very few of them have any clue about the ins and outs of ketogenic diets, including the sodium deficiency and what causes it.
It might serve you well to get a copy of Phinney and Volek's excellent intros to keto, New Atkins for a New You (for the general public) or Art & Science of Low Carbohydrate Living (more detailed) to have around for reference.
Keep us posted on your labs!
PS. An isolated fasting blood glucose test (if that's your annual test.... ??) will miss prediabetes 90% of the time.
Much better would be to spot check your blood glucose 1 hour after the start of a meal and/or get an HbA1c test to get a rough average blood glucose over the past several weeks.1 -
Oh no! I'm so glad you're okay . Thank you for bringing this up, in the past I have had fainting spells and they have no idea what they are related to, one time my potassium was low. He's are very important things to know on keto, I've been on the diet for a very short period of time. I've been taking BCAAs comment not sure if they're even keto approved, but I've been feeling okay. I don't know if you want to look into that, but I just might help you. I hope you get the answers from your blood work. Best of luck to you!0
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tmeadows_08 wrote: »Thanks for the video! The thing is, I love salt. Some of my favorite foods are super salty. Sunflower seeds with the shell, boiled peanuts, etc. I got the stuff to make bone broth today. I had a cup of that every day the first few days but I haven't had any in a while and haven't really upped my salt intake too much. I've never had an issue with blood glucose that I know of. My numbers are good at my check up every year. I went to the doctor today and he drew blood work to check iron and my thyroid and everything but he won't know the results until Wednesday. It could have nothing to do with keto. He didn't seem concerned about my diet at all. Said he'd try a heart monitor if everything was clear in the blood work...
You CANNOT get enough sodium even you life salty foods.
You say you haven't increased salt really... low sodium is almost certainly the issue.Oh no! I'm so glad you're okay . Thank you for bringing this up, in the past I have had fainting spells and they have no idea what they are related to, one time my potassium was low. He's are very important things to know on keto, I've been on the diet for a very short period of time. I've been taking BCAAs comment not sure if they're even keto approved, but I've been feeling okay. I don't know if you want to look into that, but I just might help you. I hope you get the answers from your blood work. Best of luck to you!
Potassium follows sodium. It will not get low unless sodium gets low first.
Keep sodium up and there's no reason to really supplement potassium. Beyond any specific issue that may put you at greater need.1 -
@tmeadows_08, check out the salt lick photos in this thread:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10568011/salt-and-other-minerals
Helps put the sodium thing in perspective!0 -
I'm sucking on Himalayan salt crystals like popping candy!2
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Salt tablets!! (I still use them) I had fainting spells two years ago after beginning keto before I took this seriously! If your doing Keto this has to be supplemented! Otherwise it will continue. Please heed the advice given!
I'm so glad you didn't get hurt!2 -
Where do you find salt tablets? I've checked a couple drug stores around here and there's nothing. I've asked the pharmasist and they act like I'm insane. There's all the magnesium and potassium you want, but no sodium.
I also looked on Amazon but only found a couple overly-expensive options that were all international shipments. (I'm in Canada.)0 -
Steph_Maks wrote: »Where do you find salt tablets? I've checked a couple drug stores around here and there's nothing. I've asked the pharmasist and they act like I'm insane. There's all the magnesium and potassium you want, but no sodium.
I also looked on Amazon but only found a couple overly-expensive options that were all international shipments. (I'm in Canada.)
I always have to ask the pharmacist for sodium chloride tablets. They always have them behind the counter at any Walgreens I've ever checked.2 -
I agree with the others. Sounds like low blood pressure, probably from low electrolytes.
I struggled with low blood pressure for years. It's actually better now because with keto I make a point of getting more salt. I eat a teaspoon of salt with water first thing in the morning. It helps.
I used to get light headed a LOT. When I got very close to fainting, it could take a few hours to get back to normal.
You could check for postural hypotension too. If you have that it means you BP falls when you get up. It can lead to fainting, especially when electrolytes are low.
Some around here have made "keto-ade" with Miso mixes and lots of salt. That might be an option for you.2 -
Thanks so much for the advice everyone! I think I'll go to Walgreens and get some of those tablets. At least this is an easy fix, hopefully I'll be more aware going forward and won't have any more issues.
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