Not doing so well on the Paleo

[Jones]

Hi,

I started the Paleo diet 8 days ago and followed it very strictly up until today. Unfortunately, I've been battling a fever and sore throat for three days and my D has gotten terrible -- water with undigested food. I keep thinking that I may as well just throw my food right into the toilet rather than waste time attempting to digest it. My stomach's been gurgling and cramping like crazy and the D is explosive (usually it's not). Blech.

So, I decided to eat some cream of rice today to try to soothe my stomach. Also, I'm taking some intestinal permeability tests this weekend and the laboratory (Geneva Diagnostics) recommends that you follow your usual diet. Paleo isn't my usual diet, so I'm going to add some rice in just so the test results aren't skewed.

Anyway, I'm a little bummed about the Paleo diet being so hard on my stomach. It's literally unbearable and gets me up multiple times in the night. I may have stomach flu (if such a thing exists).

I'll keep you posted.

Thanks,
C.J.

[MaggieRedwings]

Hi C.J.,

I know what you mean about undigested food and just wanting to throw what you eat in the toilet. I have battled that for years now.

I don't think the Paleo diet has anything to do with what is happening since you only started it 8 days ago. It really takes time for a diet to kick in and 8 days is not that long. It does sound like you might have a bug and if you do, you can believe that it will just make D worse for us.

I hope you feel better and give the diet some time. I just started it about a month ago and will do my first real evaluation after 6 to 8 weeks since the system does take time to get used to change.

Best of Luck, Maggie

[tex]

C.J.,

I agree with Maggie. The paleo diet most definitely does not cause fever, nor most of the other symptoms you have been experiencing. I'm just getting over a case of "stomach flu", myself, but mine wasn't very severe, since I was in remission before it came along, and it was probably just a "mild" case. The D was indeed rather explosive, though, as you describe.

Unfortunately, having MC does not make us immune to viruses, and various other maladies that "normal" people occasionally experience. Sometimes it's difficult to tell whether we're having an MC reaction, or something else, but one tipoff is the fever and sore throat that you mentioned. MC does not cause either one of those symptoms. Those symptoms are the result of either a virus or a bacterial infection.

There's nothing wrong with altering your diet as necessary in order to prepare for a test, though. If we're going to utilize the services of the medical profession, we have to play the game according to their rules.

Tex

P S I hope the virus doesn't linger, and continue to cause problems. I was lucky - mine only lasted a couple of days.

[artteacher]

It might help if you listed the foods you've eaten the last 3-4 days. Also, if you have a cold, that alone could really upset your stomach - it does for me.

There even might be things in the paleo diet that aren't agreeing with you, so it would be nice to hear exactly what paleo foods you're eating. And by the way, I'd like to see exactly what you're eating to help, and maybe to learn for myself, not to critisize. And if any of us offer suggestions, please please take everything with a grain of salt: you know your body best, and we're all so different.
Love, Marsha

[harvest_table]

I'm a little bummed about the Paleo diet being so hard on my stomach. It's literally unbearable and gets me up multiple times in the night. I may have stomach flu (if such a thing exists).

So sorry your having such a hard time CJ, my guess is you may have a flu bug of some sort which is throwing your already tender system into an uproar. You mention it is literally unbearable, that doesn't sound good. So, it's either a bug or perhaps something new your eating....

Since you were DX with MC 6 years ago but have continued to be plagued by problems all the while being GF and dairy free (I think?) if it was your new paleo way of eating causing these problems it could be (just guessing here) increasing foods like whole fresh fruits and vegies that you may not have been use to eating a very long time. I could not tolerate whole fresh fruits and vegies well until maybe 6 months into dieting, probably about this time my gut started to heal.

How is your paleo plan differant than the way you have been eating for the last few years? Are you introducing new foods you have not eaten for years?

Thanks for keeping us udated. This is how we learn about MC.

Take care and hang in there.
Joanna