High energy/crash and sleep disturbance on new diet

[paul80]

Hi all.

Nice forum you have here.
I wonder if anyone can help me. Ive had m.e about 15 years and I am 31 years of age. Ive just started Dr Myhills treatment plan.

Ive been on the stone age diet about 2 weeks and it is affecting me strangely. After only a few days I felt quite good. I felt less fatigue and less brain fog. After a few days more I suddenly felt extreme amounts of energy, so I went from very low energy to extremely high energy. I was able to do much more and still felt fine the following day. My muscles would usually be sore and I would be tired the day after a lot of activity. This high energy only lasted about 4-5 days and then I had a big crash on Tuesday. I felt terrible, my legs were very sore and fatigued (I think I used them to much during the 4-5 days). I had to lie down most of the day as even my eyes were sore.

I recovered a small amount each day since Tuesday and today I feel almost at my usual level of illness. Ive managed to stick with the diet but it has been hard.

The other thing I noticed since I started the diet is that my sleep has been disturbed, I seem to wake up about every 3-4 hours. I go to bed about 9:30 and wake up about 12:00-1:00. I can fall asleep straight away again then but I wake again about 4:00-5:00. When I had the high energy I couldnt get back to sleep after that so I only got about 6-7 hours of sleep. When I had the crash and was ill I woke at the same intervals but I was able to sleep again after the last wakening.

Before this diet I had quite a bad diet, lots of carbs chips pizza pastry etc. and also sweets, crisps, cakes. But my sleep was mostly fine, I never woke during the night.

So at the moment Im hoping the sleep disturbance will lessen once my body gets used to the diet as it has only been 2 weeks. But that might be wishful thinking. Im also hoping I dont go back into the high energy/crash.

Any ideas or information anyone had on either of these issues would be greatly appreciated.

 

[adreno]

Is your stone age diet low carb?

 

[paul80]

Hi Adreno. Yes it cuts out all carbs during the day but allows some good ones in the evening. i've tried eating potatoes with dinner but still same result.

 

[adreno]

I would try adding more carbs during the day also, to see if that helps. Low carb diets can be rough on energy, and I don't believe they are healthy in the long run. Just make sure they are good carbs, like sweet potatoes, fresh fruit aso. A banana before bed might help you sleep.

 

[justy]

Hi, and welcome. Are you doing any other part of her protocol as well like supplements etc? I am also a patient of Dr Myhills, but i find the diet hard to stick too and have largely given up for now. Its particularly hard because i am a vegetarian and so did still eat carbs in the day. I would try what Adreno suggests
and try a bit more healthy carbs. Brown rice or sweet potato, with lunhc as well say.
It ceratinly sounds an unusual reaction as most people initially would expect to feel terrible in the first few days - especially if they have eaten a lot of sugar in the past and maybe have candida issues. If it were me i would change my diet more slowly so as to restore sleep, rahter than going for it all in one go. E.G cut out sugar entirely for two weeks, then if all ok cut out wheat, next caffeine etc, until you slowly allow the body to adjust. Just a thought.
Take care, Justy.

 

[paul80]

Adreno:

Ok thanks for the advice. I have a lot of will power and i was trying to stick to what Dr Myhill said 100% but i guess i should listen to my body. I'll try adding small amounts of carbs with every meal and see if that helps.

Hi Justy, thanks for the welcome. I done the mitochondrial profile test and got the results back on Wednesday. I have a bunch of supplements to take. So far i only bought the multivitamin. The vegEPA seem very expensive i hope they are worth it. I don't think my doctor will do the injections (Magnesium and B12) so i think i might have to try to do them my self.

I did have a bit of withdrawal from carbs the first couple of days but not too bad. I'll try adding some carbs now anyway. The funny thing is Dr Myhill said that cutting the carbs should help people who have sleep problems, seems it's the opposite for me!

My partner thinks i should phone Dr Myhill and ask her. Do you think she would speak to me about it, or does she only talk to her patients?

Also i would like to hear from anyone else that tried stopping all carbohydrates to see if they had the same reaction i did.

 

[pamb]

Hi, welcome and good luck. I don't know if it still applies, but my husband had the testing done through Dr. Myhill a few years ago, and she made it clear she just did not have time for followup but provided a list of UK practitioners doing the same kind of medicine and we were able to have follow up through one, Dr. John Forsyth. He was quite good, and unearthed some potential contributors (in John's case high exposure to a pesticide) but we had to give up with him finally as we ran out of $ and it certainly was not inexpensive. Not outrageously so, but with no coverage medical time and testing and supplements add up fast.

My husband is still mostly following Dr. Myhill's supp's suggestions more or less, and I think he has gone downhill since we gave up some of the supp's due to $. Unfortunately he refuses to follow a stone age diet. It's odd, as before ME he had huge self control and discipline as a competitive cyclist, but it all seems to have disappeared. Just exhaustion I guess.

 

[taniaaust1]

Maybe you had such an improvement with less carbs as maybe you have an undiagnosed carb issue which was/is making everything a lot worst??

I myself have hyperinsulinemia...and hence when I was eatting a lot more carbs, my insulin shoots up to much and I get more and worst ME symptoms such as more lethargy and tiredness. (insulin shooting up also can cause hypoglycemia so more sluggishness and lethargy there due to that too).

The new found energy.. it isnt surprising you crashed as just cause you have it there, with the ME it dont necessarily mean you can then use it and not get post exertional symptoms from doing more.

The sleep issues may be from your body like going more into over drive now... from your neuro system now being overly stimulated with all the extra things you were doing as a secondary affect to the diet change. eg If you go back to doing the amounts of things you usually do rather then more due to the energy.. maybe you would find your sleep would go back to its normal pattern?