The Paleo Diet and Fibromyalgia

[fibrofool]

Hows it going guys

Long time no speak.

I just wanted to report some recent changes in my life that so far are extremely effective.

The first thing I did was stop taking acetaminophen.

Believe it or not this caused my tension headaches and constant migraines to improve incredibly.

Who would ever think the very thing your taking to prevent these things would make them worse.

I did this on the advice of an acupuncturist and herbalist.

Most of my headaches must have been liver related.

The second thing I did was see a new chiropractor / nutritionist.

He is a Gonstead chiropractor which is a specialized facet of chiropractic care.

I attended a nutritional consult with him and he suggested an anti inflammatory diet which is basically what is known as a Paleo Diet.

This diet is grain free, dairy free, legume free, and nightshade vegetable free.

You can basically eat meat, fish, and shellfish.

(non nightshade)Vegetables, fruit, some nuts

You can also use as much olive oil as you want but no butter.

I know it sounds impossible but its not that bad once you get into it.

I started the diet immediately and initially had some scary detox type symptoms.

I am talking beyond oddball symptoms.

But after a few days some amazing things started to happen.

My muscle and joint pain are almost gone, my brain fog is lifting, depression is much reduced,  and many other positive things are happening.

I don't know if this is going to last forever but I will update this post if these are sustained results.

If anyone else is interested this is good site to check out:

  http://robbwolf.com/

Happy Holidays

[foxgrove]

Welcome home brother,

I am so encouraged by your progress.  What a wonderful thing to hear that your pain is lower and your fog is lifting.. Wonderful news!!  Thank you for such a great Christmas present.   Thank you and bless you this Christmas.  Be well and continue with the wonderful news!!

[Fa11enones]

Awesome news I'm about to start a radical change in diet to try and get some relief. Involves drinking sprouts and wheat grass first couple of weeks.  Then if detox kicks in too strongly I'm supposed to throw on some steamed vegetables.  Apparently this is used in some clinic out of California.  There is also a drink that is variant of soy sauce that supposed to help in the detox, got the name at home but can't remember.  Going to at least give it a go for my wife sake as she is deep in denial and desperately want me to try this route.  Can you detail some of the detox symptoms so I know what to expect.  I will be staying on the oxy and Neurontin because you can't quit those quickly. Glad to see someone is having some success, this gives me some hope.

[augoldminer]

Paleo Diet== Low Carb low glycemic index diet.

Fancy name= Old diabetic diet

You may push some ketones if your carb levels gets to low.

[Jeeph]

fibrofool,

My diet is not as extreme as the paleo diet, but I have seen the same results. I have been on it for about a year and am still the same (except when I cheat excessively). And looking into the science, there is absolutely no reason to think it will stop being effective.

What I figured was I needed to find a lifestyle change and specific triggers to know when, how and what really was a cheat for me. Because every diet, and most especially the more extreme it is, will fail for the vast majority of people. This is not calling anybody weak minded, just a statistical and psychological fact, most diets fail. Lifestyle changes have a much better chance of sticking. For example, I have eliminated dairy and reincorporated it in my diet twice and have noticed no changes. So I eat as much butter as I want. But I am grain free except for an occasional cheat because they treat me very badly.

So in the Paleo diet eating a slice of pizza is a failure, in my thinking one slice is acceptable as long as I succeed with my diet as a whole. The diet as a whole will retrain your body to metabolize foods differently while clearing out accumulated health inhibitors, changing the baseline. You can cheat without your body reverting back to its' old way of operation. It will take one to many, many months for your body to retrain depending how bad your body is screwed up.

Good luck and some other diet theories you could look into, as I have incorporated a little of each for mine.

The carbohydrate hypothesis. Read "Good calories, bad calories" by Gary Taubes.
The anti-inflammatory diet.
The low glycemic diet.
The eat as much organic and local as you can theories.
Macro-nutrition.
The elimination diet.
Along with the Paleo.

[Jeeph]

Paleo Diet== Low Carb low glycemic index diet.

Fancy name= Old diabetic diet

You may push some ketones if your carb levels gets to low.

Not really, the Paleo Diet is more strict. In the Paleo diet you don't eat dairy. In the low glycemic diet you eat full fat dairy foods for best health. Both have some science backing them, which is why it gets so confusing on what is really good for you.

And you shouldn't worry about ketones if you have healthy kidneys. The Eskimo's ate nothing but meat and not one of them ever died from ketoacidosis.

You will get plenty of carbs if you eat fruits and vegetables. You know that carbs are nothing but sugar right. The same as you put in your coffee or they put in candy bars. As Dr. Atkins put it (and I'm paraphrasing) "Why is it when someone suggests that eating more protein and fat while consuming less sugar is healthier for you considered so radical?".

[twistedpairs]

one of our local news anchors (not suffering from fm) tried the paleo diet.  He actually started liking it and lost 20 pounds in a month.  http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/11/23/frank-loses-nearly-20-pounds-in-1-month-on-paleo-diet/

[Jeeph]

one of our local news anchors (not suffering from fm) tried the paleo diet.  He actually started liking it and lost 20 pounds in a month.  http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/11/23/frank-loses-nearly-20-pounds-in-1-month-on-paleo-diet/

While not quite on the Paleo diet, I lost about 30 lbs in the first two months and have been between 147 and 153 since. The best part is I eat as much and whenever I want (within reason).

[Jeeph]

Can you detail some of the detox symptoms so I know what to expect.

Fibro and its' symptoms is the only known non injury health problem I have. I didn't have metabolic syndrome (cancer, diabetes, hypertension, auto immune diseases, ect..) so it comes to reason that I did not have much to detox from as compared to others. But here's what I remember.

The food cravings are like nothing you've ever experienced. You probably don't realize how addicted you are. It invades your thoughts constantly.

Anxiety driven energy. Pacing like an expectant father to worn down from the expenditure.

Mood swings, I imagine like PMS for a couple of weeks. No rhyme or reason to them.

For me it was about two weeks of those at higher levels slowly tapering down until almost two months. At which point I knew my metabolism changed. The detox symptoms ceased, the cravings almost disappeared, my caloric intake stabilized, my hunger minimalised (I know when I should eat, not have to) and I just felt different, better.

I also just let my body detox itself more slowly by consuming nothing but fat, protein, apples, salads, water and green tea. Not juicing and detoxifiers like it sounds like you are planning which will probably be more of a shock.

It was rough at first, you don't feel better. If anything you feel worse because you have those symptoms plus your fibro. But when I started I was in a stretch of feeling like I got beat up with a baseball bat every night for 3 or 4 months in a row. As you know, worse can actually be better as long as it's different. At least something is happening. So that will keep you going.

You also have to remember that everyone is different.

[fibrofool]

Thanks for all the info and opinions

My detox symptoms were burning and tingling in the anus, penis and inner thighs (which would

also move around to different areas), increased urination and urinary pain, also I had pain and

fullness in the front of the neck(felt like my frontal neck muscles were inflated with air and

tingling).

I am also having intense cravings for grains and dairy.

Which is difficult but I haven't cheeted yet.

I have also found that I am unable to eat sweet potatoes or coconut products which is a shame because these 2 things are very versatile paleo safe products.

But they make me feel horrible.

I have been eating alot of eggs, canned seafood like sardines, oysters, and salmon (in olive oil or water). Alot of minimally processed deli meats.

Grass fed beef and pork are good also but expensive.

The grass fed beef has 3 to 6 times more omega 3's.

As far as vegetables I have been eating kale, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, carrots, celery, and cabbage.

Fruits are helping with sweet cravings and I have been eating alot of kiwi, apples, pears, bananas, blueberries, rasberries, pineapple, unsweetened apple sauce.

I have been making fruit shakes with fruits and soy free, dairy free almond milk.

I have been having alot of trouble finding replacements for popcorn, rice, corn, and potato chips.

Omega 3 rich nuts are allowable on Paleo diet but limited and peanuts are out because they are a legume.

I also lost around 15 lbs. in under a week which I didn't think was possible.

It must have been mostly water weight but I went from 245 lbs to 220 lbs.

 

 

[Fa11enones]

Burning in the nether regions is something I experience on a daily basis due to my special brand of psoriasis so not to much to worry about there.  I started yesterday and man do I feel great!! Actually I feel like hammered shit and I'm still passing blood from a reaction to my antiinflamitories. Reducing the acidity in my diet will help with the recovery from that as well(Awesome).  The best thing though is seeing my wife excited again that made me feel pretty good. We've had a hell of a year with natural disasters and injuries so I was glad to see the spark of hope there. I'm going to keep a log of the forum which I might post later if it's successful.  Thanks again for all the tips hints and info.

[Jeeph]

fibrofool,

Don't cheat until you feel yourself change. You spent how many years training your body, it will try to revert back until it is happy with the new you. One little cheat may push back the conversion a long time.

If you want speed up the process, like I posted before you can look into different diets. Such as you say you eat pineapple, it has a glycemic index of 66, while table sugar is a 64. So your body gets more of sugar spike from pineapple. With the sugar spike, insulin increases, insulin is a hormone so when it goes up all the rest of your hormones go down, homeostasis. Not that I am anti-pineapple, just saying that those sugar spikes/hormone imbalances slow the healing/changing process.

I eat high cacao dark chocolate to cure most of my sweet cravings. It may sound stupid but I think it is better for you than say, pineapple. And I can back it with science. Knowledge is the power to make a change for life, while still keeping eating enjoyable.

Also saw you eat deli meats, I just thought I'd let you know that are a trigger for me if they have nitrates. I have eliminated and reincorporated them twice with noticeable effect. Not a flare bad trigger, but enough that I stay away.

Unless you eat cold water fish everyday I recommend taking fish oil. It's cheap and will do nothing but help with the diet you are on. With that don't worry about the grass fed red meat so much as long as you are getting your Omega-3's somewhere. But you need that saturated fat the red meat provides. Omega-3's are only half as effective at doing there job without saturated fat. Or as I like to say they are only Omega one and a halfs if you don't use them right.

(Not trying to sound like a know it all just giving you food for thought (pun intended))

[augoldminer]

Also saw you eat deli meats, I just thought I'd let you know that are a trigger for me if they have nitrates. I have eliminated and reincorporated them twice with noticeable effect. Not a flare bad trigger, but enough that I stay away.

I have found a few deli meats with high fructose corn syrup in them.
You have to read the ingredients on everything as even meat can have things like sugars in then.

I am a diabetic and don't eat anything with HFCS in it because it spikes me so bad.

[fibrofool]

Hi everyone

Just a quick follow up.

Over 3 months now and I'm still paleo.

I can definitely say that the headache relief from this diet is sustained and although I have had  some tension and migraine headaches.

The severity is much reduced and I can usually beat a migraine by taking a mix of aspirin and caffiene or some fresh fruit and vegetable juice made in my Jack Lalaine juicer with fresh ginger root in it.

I haven't taken one Imitrex tablet since starting the diet over 3 months ago.

I was taking 2 to 3 tablets a week for migraine relief.

I can also say that energy, balance, sleep, digestion and  a lot of muscle and joint pains are gone or very muted.

So I am going to stick with this Paleo diet and see what happens.

Some people say they are fully cured of fibromyalgia in 2 to 3 years of staying on this diet.

I guess we'll see what happens.

Take it easy

[Muaddib67]

I might have to look into some of this a bit. I've noticed that during the summer when I grill/smoke meats from a local butcher shop (who buys locally raised free range cattle, no hormones/antibiotics etc...) eat a lot of spinach salads with either homemade ranch or itallian dressing (also homemade), and get some fresh chicken from the farmers market (expensive since I can't use my ebt card to pay for that) which is also free range. I do eat a lot of eggs (also bought from the free range chicken man), that I feel better. I planted a garden for the first time in years last summer, but with it being the worst summer we've had ever (beat every single record. hottest temp, hottest average, longest stretch of over 100, and lowest rainfall amount) on record since the city was founded in 1870, of course everything died. I would like to try again this year, but don't think I have the energy to work the soil up. I do eat a lot of grains, but it's all whole grain, not the over processed, bleached, and nutritionally destroyed junk, brown rice, whole oats, barley, rye, flax, etc... I do feel a lot better when I'm eating like this. I have avoided processed sugars since I was diagnosed as hypoglycemic (recently a Dr called it reactive hypoglycemia) in high school. Oddly enough, I've found that refined white sugar is the worst for me, but fructose doesn't really effect me badly. 5-10 G of sucrose will throw me into fits, but I can tolerate up to 40 G of sucrose before it starts giving me problems. Some people try to tell me, sugar is sugar, they all effect your body the same. I call  on them, because I know for a fact they don't for me.

I suppose smoking/grilling the meat does let the fat drip off while cooking, instead of getting saturated by frying, and I pick well marbled meat so I get good flavor. I have lost 25-30 pounds by one simple trick. Just before going to bed, I eat a handfull of dry roasted peanuts. A dietitian told me that the first few hours you are asleep, your body needs protein to repair the damage done to your muscles during the day, and for some reason eating a bit of protein signals your body not to store fat reserves during the day. I know it sounds odd, but it has worked for me several times the past few years. It doesn't really matter where you get the protein from, it just needs to be simple proteins.

I don't know if what works for me fits any of the "official" diets, I just know I've found a mix of what works for me. YMMV.