How carnivore diet relates to treatment

[cigana]

I tied the carnivore diet (only eating animal) for 8 weeks. It didn't affect my fatigue much, but there was one surprising benefit that relates to treatment. Supplements/medication that would normally make me feel tired no longer did. So it might enable some of you to tolerate supplements you usually can't.

I have previously tried low carb (30-50g per day) and didn't have this effect, so it seems zero carb is important.

 

[hapl808]

Interesting. I found the reverse when I did Carnivore - I was much more sensitive to any supplements and had to stop taking pretty much everything.

 

[serg1942]

Thank you for sharing! A 100% carnivore diet is actually healing my terrible IBS, and one thing that has been key is to be able to tolerate more supplements so that the process of healing can get accelerated.

So, if not for fatigue, for those suffering from SIBO or IBS, I highly recommend to consider this highly anti-inflammatory diet!

 

[Nielk]

I have been suffering from severe headaches for years now. I tried basically everything I could to treat them with little positive results. Lately, I noticed that after eating meat, my headache lifts for a short period of time. I started the Carnivore diet a few weeks ago. I am only eating meat, fish, and eggs (I can't have dairy) and I'm feeling much better as far as my headaches go. I do notice though that on days when I only eat fish and no meat, I feel worse. It seems that it is the meat itself that seems to be therapeutic for me. I don't know why. My doctors are stumped. What is in meat that it makes such a difference with my headaches?

 

[cigana]

I have been suffering from severe headaches for years now. I tried basically everything I could to treat them with little positive results. Lately, I noticed that after eating meat, my headache lifts for a short period of time. I started the Carnivore diet a few weeks ago. I am only eating meat, fish, and eggs (I can't have dairy) and I'm feeling much better as far as my headaches go. I do notice though that on days when I only eat fish and no meat, I feel worse. It seems that it is the meat itself that seems to be therapeutic for me. I don't know why. My doctors are stumped. What is in meat that it makes such a difference with my headaches?

Fish is high in histamines, unless it's fresh (it has to be very very fresh). Histamines often cause headaches..

 

[Jadzhia]

What is in meat that it makes such a difference with my headaches?

It may be what's NOT in it. As cigana above says, could be histamine-related. I suppose you could do an experiment where you cook some meat and leave it in the fridge for a day, then eat it (as by then it would have developed some histamine). It's a pity there's no simple way to test how much histamine is in a food before we eat it!

 

[Nielk]

Thanks, @cigana and @Jadzhia for your replies. I hear you you about histamine. In my case though, it seems to act as a therapeutic. I could be in the midst of a severe headache, eat some meat and a few minutes later - my headache is gone for a couple of hours.. Nothing else, except strong painkillers do that for me.

 

[Eastman]

... It seems that it is the meat itself that seems to be therapeutic for me. I don't know why...

Maybe it's the carnitine?

Carnitine Responsive Migraine Headache Syndrome: Case Report and Review of the Literature

The effects of concurrent Coenzyme Q10, L-carnitine supplementation in migraine prophylaxis: A randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial

In case you are considering supplementing carnitine, do be aware though that some people think carnitine leads to increased TMAO production and cardiovascular disease risk.

 

[Nielk]

Very interesting, @Eastman. I’m going to look into it. Thank you.

 

[Seadragon]

I need to eat red meat (preferably beef) at least once or twice a week and I need protein (meat, cheese, eggs, fish) once or twice a day every day otherwise I feel worse. I don't tolerate white fish very well though, not sure why but I find it hard to digest.

Conversely at the start of my illness, I couldn't get enough carbs and needed less protein then. I also had an insatiable hunger yet now I have no appetite at all.

 

[GreenEdge]

The Carnivore Diet: Why Does It Work So Well?

 

[cheeseater]

Rather than what you ARE eating, maybe it has more to do with what you are NOT eating?

 

[Wishful]

Hmmm, yes, if a very restrictive diet shows some actual benefits, it might be by what they avoid. Lions in the wild don't wash down their extra-large order of fries with a big corn-syrup drink, with some donuts for desert.

 

[Wishful]

The Carnivore Diet: Why Does It Work So Well?

When I see a youtube image like that, I automatically assume that it's an infomercial loaded with false facts and misleading truths. Can "why it works so well" be condensed into a few lines of text?

 

[GreenEdge]

Can "why it works so well" be condensed into a few lines of text?

I will see what I can write... but I'm not promising anything.
I have just re-watched that video and found its content to be a very good summary.

When I see a youtube image like that, I automatically assume that it's an infomercial loaded with false facts and misleading truths

Yes, the youtube image looks like clickbait (doesn't it) and that youtube channel is new to me... Appears to be an individual who started 2 months ago and has made a dozen videos. This is the first video of his, I have seen.

Having said that, the video content is a good summary that should answer many of your questions, view it.

 

[Wishful]

view it

Nope. My computer is too slow to run videos without stuttering, and my internet connection is typically well below 4 MB/s, so also too slow to avoid stuttering. Just too painful to watch videos.

 

[Tammy]

Rather than what you ARE eating, maybe it has more to do with what you are NOT eating?

Agreed. Did you ever consider this @GreenEdge @cigana ?

 

[Wishful]

It's certainly not as simple as <whichever food> is good/bad for everyone. Well, some foods will be toxic for pretty much everyone, and highly-processed foods probably aren't good for anyone. Part of the complexity comes in via combinations. One food might alter your microbiome in a way that lets another food have an effect. The OP found that a meat-only diet changed the effects of supplements and drugs.

I still think it comes down to: try different diets and see which ones you are happier with.

 

[GreenEdge]

Rather than what you ARE eating, maybe it has more to do with what you are NOT eating?

I totally agree, here's why:

I found that what lion avoids compared to carnivore makes a significant difference - maybe 10 times.

I'm now gaining muscle at the rate of 1kg/week (last 4 weeks) and I'm only doing very minimal weight training.
All my life I've struggled to gain muscle. Before CFS, I managed to gain 1.5 kgs from 6 months of weight training.

Dr Anthony Chaffee is right, see:
10+ Year STRICT Carnivore (What Dr. Chaffee Eats in a Day & How to Build Muscle on a Carnivore Diet)

Can "why it works so well" be condensed into a few lines of text?

Meat is the most nutrient dense food available. We need to acknowledge that meat (especially red meat) provides all the nutrients we need, in the right proportions and in the form our body requires. If we couldn't get everything we needed from meat alone, humans would have gone extinct long ago.

 

[Wishful]

Meat is the most nutrient dense food available.

Wouldn't eggs be similar or even superior? Muscle cells might not have all the building blocks for making brain cells or liver cells, but eggs obviously do.

If we couldn't get everything we needed from meat alone, humans would have gone extinct long ago.

I don't think that's true. Animal lacking in an important nutrient tend to seek out sources, whether it's a salt lick, or carnivores chewing some leaves or herbivores eating some bugs or animal flesh. I've sure that our ancestors didn't devoutly follow the Lion Diet because they saw a convincing video about it. If fruit was convenient (and tasty), they'd eat it. If they weren't getting enough VitC from meat, they'd probably chew leaves more often because their taste buds convinced them to (evolved response). Likewise, people living in an iodine-poor region would evolve a desire to travel to the seacoast (and eat seafood) at appropriate intervals (the groups not doing so would fail to reproduce as effectively).

Shifting from a pure hunter society to an agrarian one certainly increased the rate of human population increase.