Need To Eat Zero Carb For A Few Weeks, Tips To Reduce Stress?

SarahBeara

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I have been suffering with my digestion now for over 6 months. Mainly bloating, trapped burps, alternating constipation and diarrhoea and corresponding vagus nerve irritation mental symptoms such as anxiety and pounding heart. It's really getting me down and my life has become very hard.

I presume some sort of gut infection is causing this, I've tried various antibiotics (rifaximin, clarithromycin amongst others), charcoal, raw carrot salad etc and have only gotten worse as a result.

Sugar worsens symptoms and low fiber starches and pure glucose just gives me terrible blood sugar crashes.

The only thing that is allowing me to function and work right now is a zero carb diet.

Having been on a low carb diet before I know the long term usage is not good because of the stress response and increased cortisol caused by neoglucogenesis.

I feel my best shot here is to say on zero carb for 28 days to starve off whatever is causing this.

So I'd love if anyone had any tips to reduce the metabolic stress of undergoing this for the few weeks?
 

Zachs

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Eat almost entirely saturated fat.

You won't starve anything off though. In almost every case, restricting carbs to cure candida or whatever will always force adaption of whatevers causing the issues, making it worse when you do return to carbs.

Have you tried a zero fat diet? What is your current diet like?
 
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SarahBeara

SarahBeara

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I don't believe I have candida or anything fungal in nature and I've no symptoms to suggest so.

The thing is, when I went low carb before it did actually rid me of my digestive issues and they did not return when I ate carbs. I did however find it very hard to sleep (cortisol) and got a mild case of vertigo when overall cals dipped too low (very hard to eat enough on keto) so I'm under no illusion this is the optimal way to eat long term.

Typical diet is:

Breakfast: Sugar-y decaf coffee with milk, cannot handle caffeine at all exacerbates anxiety symptoms and gives me diarrhoea. The lactose in milk is mildly irritating to my gut, but that counteracts the constipation sometimes.

Lunch: Cheese on rice crackers, good quality grass fed cheddar cheese or some tuna on rice crackers. Afterward I'll have some lollypops that have really clean ingredients and they are slightly 'fizzy' so have some bicarb in there too. Occasional snacking on some homemade pop-corn made with coconut oil

Dinner: Meat in a homemade bone broth with carrots and root veg, occasional potatoes and rice.

I eat seafood once a week at least, mussels, oysters that sort of thing.

Supps: estroban, energin

Basically if I stick to the above I'll operate at 50% of my health capacity, I'll have occasional episodes of gut irritation but I'll be tired ALL the time and my brain feels like it's operating at half capacity too.

Peaty things that irritate my gut:
OJ (even strained with added bicarb)
Milk
Raw carrots
Geletin in large quantities
Fruit of all kinds (grapes being the worst)
 

Zachs

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Well if you do go the zero carb route, I'd highly suggest the Edward Edmonds method of all saturated fat. Make sure to get enough calories by drinking a pint of cream a day. Eat cheese, cream, coconut oil, egg yolks, gelatinous cuts of meat. Should be easy to get enough cals.

Coconut water might be something to try. It's got a good amount of potassium, magnesium and sodium as well.
 
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SarahBeara

SarahBeara

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Many thanks for the advice! Coconut water I have tried before about 5 years ago and it gave me diarrhoea but I was not eating low carb at the time so I'll try it again, maybe with a bit of added salt at bedtime.
 
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Stick to cream, butter and coconut oil for your fat sources with 80-100g of protein from beef, chicken, casein protein powder and gelatin.

Most important however is to get enough salt and potassium. Use a supplement of each so that you get at least 4g of potassium and 2-4g of salt daily.
 
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SarahBeara

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I think salt I can cover but I am concerned about potassium. I don't think you can get high dose potassium supplements too easily.
 
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Potassium Chloride Powder - 8 oz - NOW Foods
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Blossom

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I've read on the forum that some people use cream of tartar for potassium.
 

thegiantess

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Are you familiar with Danny Roddy's Generative Energy podcast? I would suggest subscribing and listening specifically to the mood and digestion episode. I think you might find it helpful. Otherwise Paul Jaminet of Perfect Health Diet has some info on diets for infection on his site. His entire framework is that he thinks most disease stems from infection and so he proposes a diet to help with many different types of infections. Sounds like you have SIBO. He might have some stuff on there specifically for that.
 

thegiantess

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Oh one other thing. I recently heard on one of Ray Peat interviews (don't remember which) a guy said he found gut relief with fructose powder. He said he tried everything else and starch and regular sugar just made his gut worse, but he was able to tolerate pure fructose powder.
 
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SarahBeara

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Oh one other thing. I recently heard on one of Ray Peat interviews (don't remember which) a guy said he found gut relief with fructose powder. He said he tried everything else and starch and regular sugar just made his gut worse, but he was able to tolerate pure fructose powder.
I'm an avid listener to the Danny Roddy podcast and was highly anticipating that episode, but nothing in it that was helpful to me unfortunately.

That's interesting regarding fructose powder! I have some agave syrup so I'll try that perhaps!
 

tara

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I don't think you can get high dose potassium supplements too easily.
I don't think high dose potassium supplements are safe - hyperkalemia can be deadly. I'd go with 100mg at a time.

Have you tried a clear apple juice and/or potatoes?
Have you looked at or tried out lists of SCD carbs?
With sugar crashes you've been getting, is that from large quantities? Have you tried small amounts every half hour? Eg 10g every half hour for 12 hours might not set you up for the crashes?
 
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SarahBeara

SarahBeara

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Yes, I knew that potassium large dose supplementation was unwise, I think there's a chance of sudden cardiac death.

Apple juice KILLS my gut, way more than orange juice does, bizarrely apples don't as much.

I'm on the zero carb diet one day. I am having 1 teaspoon manuka honey in a yoghurt at night to help me sleep and hopefully keep out of ketosis. So other than that no carbs at all.

Feeling pretty good today, had a normal BM (so rare for me) and also am finding myself being more productive at work (no afternoon slump) so here's hoping I can continue this for the next month or so.

Will update this thread as I go along.
 

DaveFoster

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I presume some sort of gut infection is causing this, I've tried various antibiotics (rifaximin, clarithromycin amongst others), charcoal, raw carrot salad etc and have only gotten worse as a result.
It's like using a hand grenade to clear an auditorium. It works, but it's dangerous.

The thyroid's downregulation will promote future infestations of bactera, not to mention selecting for resistant strains of bacteria as mentioned.

If you get the metabolic rate up, your gut will fix itself.
 
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SarahBeara

SarahBeara

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It's like using a hand grenade to clear an auditorium. It works, but it's dangerous.

The thyroid's downregulation will promote future infestations of bactera, not to mention selecting for resistant strains of bacteria as mentioned.

If you get the metabolic rate up, your gut will fix itself.

I'm a bit scared of trying thyroid as I have anxiety issues and a thyroid storm sounds scary.

Can't take aspirin as it kills my stomach, can't take coffee due to intense jitteryness and diarrhoea.

Any other suggestions?
 
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SarahBeara

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And just to question the fear of reducing metabolism temporarily. Doesn't every culture on the planet have some form of fasting? If it was that dangerous, would it not been discovered by now? I'm only planning to do this for 28 days max and I'm eating manuka honey at night to reduce the stress response (I am sleeping a lot better with this, I may keep it up once done)
 

DaveFoster

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I'm a bit scared of trying thyroid as I have anxiety issues and a thyroid storm sounds scary.

Can't take aspirin as it kills my stomach, can't take coffee due to intense jitteryness and diarrhoea.

Any other suggestions?
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Fasting is like having a broken vehicle and never putting any gas in it for fear of causing wear and tear. Fix the vehicle, don't remove the fuel source. This coming from a guy who dry fasted 3 days per week for the majority of high school.
 
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SarahBeara

SarahBeara

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Thanks for the detailed reply.

Just a query on cypro, would the 16mg be forever? or just until I feel optimal on thyroid? I'm wary of the weight gain on cypro.

Ditto thyroid, is that a forever thing?
 

tara

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I'm a bit scared of trying thyroid as I have anxiety issues and a thyroid storm sounds scary.
I think if you monitor temps and pulse, start small and increment slowly, you can avoid getting too much.
Dave's schedule might be fine for you, but you could slow it down even more - 2 weeks between increasing thyroid dose. T4 has a longish half-life, so it can take 2-3 weeks to build up on a steady dose.
Once your waking temps get in normal range (97.8-98.2 according to Broda Barnes), don't increase any more.
 

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