Starting Keto

Welcome to the community!

If you haven't already, read the stickies at the top of the getting started forum. Very informative and helpful.

If you do a search for keto, you'll find many threads with lots of info. Good luck with your journey!

tcunbeliever wrote: »

I was keto for 2 years for migraine control and recently transitioned to low-carb.

I'm always up for more friends, but I ramble and post non-fitness stuff sometimes, which can be annoying, so be warned!

Me too...I worry I drive my friends list crazy with my post, lol.

Keto was originally found to assist with migraines kind of accidentally - in studies using keto for other stuff it was noted as a side effect that most migraine sufferers noted a decrease or elimination in their migraines while eating keto. If you google "keto migraine study" you should find some more recent actual studies. There are lots of theories about how it works, but much like they don't really know what causes migraines, they don't really know why keto helps.

As an interesting point of note, keto has been used to treat epilepsy for 100 years, and today some of the same drugs are used to treat migraines that are used to treat epilepsy. They both involve something going wrong in the brain, and that something seems to be similar between the two.

As for me, I opted to skip the migraine drugs because I'm only in my 40s and for all the drugs you tend to get more sensitive to your migraine triggers over time...since I hope to have a long life ahead of me, I did not want to make them worse in 20+ years.

I started at the 4:1 epilepsy ratio, then transitioned to 2:1, then 1:1, then just focusing on keeping carbs low. It worked great. Now I'm low carb for about a month now, and so far no return of symptoms.

I have trouble finding studies on the treatment of migraines, alzheimers and epilepsy, but I've read a lot into studies and research on cardio (cholesterol, blood pressure, etc.) effects of a keto diet.

I've also tried researching into the hormonal changes. A lot of women with PCOS are in the keto group, on diet, due to recommendation by their doctors. I've had really bad hormone issues, including cysts (both ovarian and breast). I've found theories and some research into obtaining high fat/low carb diet does change hormones starting with the brain chemicals, I will continue researching.


I think this link is on migraines.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/28527061/

voncovenhoven wrote: »

Keto helped your migraines?! I get migraines, my neurologist never suggested diet to help.

Even if not keto, you should definitely look at diet. Anecdotally, I know several people who have gotten relief by going through an elimination diet, which generally looks pretty keto like during the elimination phase, but will mean you don't need to be keto forever if you can figure out your individual triggers.