Am I missing a nutrient to address fainting spells?

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Stringdancer
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Am I missing a nutrient to address fainting spells?

Post by Stringdancer »

Hi all! This is my first time posting, though I've been lurking and gleaning info where I can. :lurk:

I was diagnosed with LC this past April. Since the onset of my symptoms (March 2020), I've been struggling with dysautonomia. Most of the time, the problem is that I get up too fast, then my vision goes black, I lose sense of sound, and I have to lean against something to keep from falling down. A couple of times, I have fallen, but that hasn't happened since my diagnosis and changing my diet. But the black vision and loss of sound continues. :help:

So here's a little history.

I went gluten free 10 years ago. Not officially celiac, but my grandmother was. The doctor I had at the time was an idiot. :banghead: I very quickly discovered that I"m extremely sensitive to gluten and have been known to react to cracker DUST.

3 years ago I started eating keto because I was picking up colds and flus faster than anyone I knew. It was FABULOUS! :barbell: I was in the best health of my life. It cured my severe allergies, helped me lose weight, and I stopped getting sick all the time. My son (who wouldn't give up sugar) was hospitalized for severe flu for 2 nights. I stayed with him the whole time and didn't get so much as a runny nose.

But then I got Covid, and keto was no longer helping me. :sick: I spent months not understanding why I wasn't recovering. My case was "mild", in that I didn't have to go to the hospital. But it was a brutal experience nonetheless.

I went to a Post Covid Care Clinic in Denver where I spent a week seeing multiple doctors and having ALL sorts of tests done. My primary doctor there was a gastroenterologist since my chief complaint was chronic diarrhea. He did the multiple biopsies and found LC. He strongly believes that Covid triggered it. He put me on 8 weeks of budesonide and told me to talk to my PCP about changing my diet. My PCP is a keto advocate, so I was already in the hands of a doctor who knows that diet matters.

But he pointed me to AIP and looking at the food list, I saw things that I already figured out that I react to. So I looked into carnivore instead.

I've been eating carnivore (minus eggs, dairy, and chicken) for 3 months. Also no coffee or tea. :sigh: It's definitely helping. I've been having BMs that are "almost normal". The only time I have D follows stress. Even mild stress sets me off. That said, I tried a raw, unripe banana the other day because I can no longer make keto versions of the summer treats my family has been enjoying. BIG MISTAKE! :flush:

Except for the banana, I've switched to a lion diet (only ruminant meats) for the past 3 weeks. I'm hoping it will help me not have D when stressed. I make every effort to eat organ meats (when I can find them). My meats are all fully grassfed and finished. The organ meats I can find are liver (which I try to eat twice a week), heart, and tongue. I also eat oxtail, osso buco, chuck roast, ground lamb, and ground bison. I eat ALL parts including cartilage. Basically the only things I throw out are bones and skin (from the tongue). I make home made bone broth and the left over bits that fall off the bone go into my ground meat when I cook it.

So all this to say (sorry for the length), the research I've done on carnivore says that I should be getting all the nutrients I need, but this is for the general public. Is there a nutrient I'm missing more of by having LC?
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Stringdancer
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Re: Am I missing a nutrient to address fainting spells?

Post by Stringdancer »

If it helps, (I hope it works) I've attached a screenshot of my eating journal. This is the page before I ate the banana.
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tex
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Re: Am I missing a nutrient to address fainting spells?

Post by tex »

Hi,

Welcome to the group. Since you have a dysautonomia diagnosis, I wonder if your doctor ruled out postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS). Although it's not common, it appears to me that it might be somewhat associated with MC, although I'm not aware of any proof of that.

I'm not a doctor, I'm just a student of MC, but as far as I'm aware, as long as there is sufficient fat in the diet, and all-meat diet should be quite adequate for providing all the nutrients you need, since meat contains all the essential amino acids. Based on our evolutionary history, we definitely do not need carbohydrates or fiber in our diet, to maintain good health, although most people Incorrectly believe that we do. Here's a reference that verifies this claim:

https://biblelife.org/stefansson2.htm

Regarding the banana reaction, if the reaction was indeed due to the banana, I'm not aware of any issues that we have with bananas, other than histamine. I get the impression that you are already aware that bananas, especially as they get riper, are a high histamine food. This issue is a problem for many of us, presumably because MC depletes diamine oxidase enzyme (DAO), and the body uses DAO to purge unused and excess histamines from the system. As DAO becomes more deficient, we tend to begin to have problems with high histamine foods.

Re: nutrients, MC tends to deplete vitamin D and magnesium, so most of us take vitamin D and magnesium supplements. I'm not sure about vitamin D, but I would think you should be getting adequate magnesium from an all-meat diet, and an all-meat diet should also provide any other trace elements that you might need. That said, please be aware that many of the symptoms associated with dysautonomia are also symptoms of a chronic magnesium deficiency, and many experts claim that at least 70% of the general population is magnesium deficient. The percentage of MC patients who have a magnesium deficiency, unless they're taking a magnesium supplement, is much higher.

Again, welcome aboard, and I hope this helps.

Tex
:cowboy:

It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
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Stringdancer
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Re: Am I missing a nutrient to address fainting spells?

Post by Stringdancer »

Thank you so much for responding Tex! :yourock:

I was taking a vitamin D supplement before my diagnosis, but I stopped because of all the other additives in it, which I think included safflower oil. I live in Oklahoma, so getting sunshine for 15-20 minutes a day isn't hard, but I don't like it. I'd much rather sit in the shade. :lol: Though I'd rather sit in the sun than take a supplement with additives in it. I'll have to keep my eye out for a good vit D supplement.

As far as magnesium goes, I did buy that Doctor's Best brand that was recommended, but had hoped that I was getting enough from my diet. So I stopped taking it. I guess I'll add it back in again.

I don't have plans to try bananas again. :poopbanana: This one was still on the green side, so yes, definitely not ripe. It didn't satisfy the way a nice serving of berries with heavy cream would have. I might try some cold coconut cream over the Thanksgiving holiday. But I'm hesitant on plants in general because of the studies cited in this video by Dr. Ken Berry. https://youtu.be/CWD-QvnKWqk I was just hoping that one banana wouldn't cause problems. :lol:

Again thank you so much! :biggrin:
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Stringdancer
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Re: Am I missing a nutrient to address fainting spells?

Post by Stringdancer »

Oh, and I think they did rule out POTS. They did so many tests on me, I don't know for sure. But my understanding is that they believed that the dysautonomia was related to the LC since I was pretty dehydrated despite drinking plenty of water. I may have to go back through my medical notes though. That week was a bit of a blur. :lol:
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tex
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Re: Am I missing a nutrient to address fainting spells?

Post by tex »

safflower oil should be safe.

I live in Central Texas, but I find it necessary to take 5,000 IU of vitamin D daily in the fall, winter, and spring, and half that amount during the summer. This keeps my vitamin D level in the 50 to 70 ng/dL range. if I didn't wear long sleeve shirts all the time, I probably wouldn't need as much, because I spend a fair amount of time out in the sun at various times during the day, most days.

Tex
:cowboy:

It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
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