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CFS/vegetarian diet link?

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1
Hello. This is my first post.
I have has CFS for six years following an episode of sinusitis and over that time, the severity of the condition has fluctuated to leave me unable to work as a nurse for a period of approximately 10 days three times in a year. However, this year I have experienced the worst episode ever in terms of symptom severity and I have been off work for three straight months (still off at this time). As I have been so ill on this occasion, I have been researching theories re. CFS and the evidence available. I have been particularly interested in the ATP aspect of energy production within the mitochondria and have been concerned that my 17-year vegetarian diet may be restricting my obtaining some of the essential elements which required for ATP production - D-Ribose; Co-enzyme Q10; magnesium; B vitamins; essential amino acids and creatine etc. so I have bought various pills and powders with some improvements noted in terms of energy levels and recovery times. As a result of this, I have been spending so much money on dietary supplements to ensure that I have these in my diet that I am beginning to wonder whether I should give up being a vegetarian!

I would like to know whether there are other fellow sufferers who feel their vegetarian/vegan diet may have played a role in sustaining their illness and symptoms and, crucially, whether they noticed an improvement when (and if) they reverted to an omnivorous diet. Thank you.
 
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15,786
lewis7
Vegetarian and especially vegan diets can be badly deficient in B12, which normally only comes from meat. It's possible that your symptoms are due to B12 and/or related insufficiencies alone, or that those insufficiencies left you vulnerable to developing ME/CFS, or that being vegetarian has nothing to do with you developing ME/CFS.

A few patients seem to do better without meat, but I think the majority feel a lot better getting meat on a regular basis. Mitochondrial dysfunction seems likely to be a central part of ME/CFS, and if the normal ways of producing ATP (energy) aren't operating properly (glycolysis/gluconeogenesis), protein is the back-up method of generating ATP. And if there's insufficient protein in your diet, your muscles can get broken down to create ATP.

At the very least, it might be a good idea to try 1) high dose B12 supplementation and/or 2) eating a bit of meat a couple times per day.