9 months on keto and foot pain/swelling begins

#1

This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.

(Jay AM) #2

It’s funny. People who aren’t keto are willing to blame their problems on anything but their whole diet (only picking and choosing things to focus on or saying it’s genetic, inevitable, etc.) And then some people on keto want to blame the entirety of keto for a new health problem. You’ve been keto for 9 months, the entirety of this way of eating isn’t the issue. What do you do to supplement for potassium and magnesium? Does this happen all the time now or only sometimes? Have you added a food or increased a food intake since this started?

Sucralose and/or acefulsame potassium (can’t decide which since they are often found together) make my feet swell bad enough that I can’t wear shoes without velcro adjustment bands. I’m starting to suspect I may have the same reaction to stevia as well. I know of a condition where high insulin can cause the swelling so, for me personally, the sweeteners might be causing the insulin change. But, I also work a job where I’m sitting (though, I didn’t have swelling until over a year into the job along with weight gain.)

Do you do any tests like blood glucose? Have you had any blood tests done for vitamin/mineral levels?

(Rob) #3

Congrats on all the progress…

I don’t know an answer specifically but I’ll hazard a few thoughts.

  1. My biggest issue is “induced” gout which seems to coincide with weight loss periods. Thank god my job is mostly from home and seated! My guess is that I am flushing stored toxins from my adipose cells (it’s a thing) and mine induces gout. Your’s may do this? Weird that it would only come now but maybe it is stuff that was stored a long time ago (fat cells last 10 years) and is now being released. PS Gout is a fickle bitch and can affect any joint, not just big toe but I don’t know if it does whole foot swelling. I’ve had in the elbow, knee, heel and toes.
  2. It is a revealed allergy… something you were not allergic to until you altered your metabolic state - could be anything - plant lectins, dairy, sweeteners, nuts, supplements, are all on your usual foods list. An elimination diet would be required to test each thing… PITA! Quick and easy would be to remove the sweeteners (including jello - sorry) and see what happens. (nods at @J_A-M for saying so above)
  3. This could be some reaction to your current metabolic state, reversing pT2D but still healing in other ways, one side effect of which is this reaction. It might just go away as you continue to heal (no much help though is it).
  4. The old standby and root of most good and evil… Electrolytes! You have reduced salt but there are plenty of other levers to pull. I’ve heard of swelling due to too much or too little of all of the big three - Na, K, Mg. Play with these and see what happens. It could be that you are finally reaping the whirlwind of not taking Mg or K supplements (I don’t see them on your list).

If I have more useful thoughts, I’ll add… and best of luck. These seemingly keto induced pains are more than just a pain… they are disheartening in the extreme!

#4

So you mean when keto “heals” your body, you might have more foods that make you allergic to?

As if the carb restriction is not enough, there is more food to be restricted after your body is “healed”? Seriously? I might sound whiny, but I wanted to say: “I am not amused”

(Bunny) #5

Foods for Fluid Retention in the Feet and Ankles: Dr. Berg talks about what foods and diet for fluid retention in the feet and ankles. If you have edema, swollen feet and ankles, Dr. Berg talks about the common remedies including foods high in potassium and a powerful enzyme called sarapeptase.

Other:

  1. Retaining Fluid Yet Dehydrated?
  1. What Causes Painful, Numb or Tingling Feet?
  1. Ask your doctor about having the areas scanned with ultra sound (vascular clinic), could be calcium build up in the arteries?
Time to quit keto?
(Rob) #6

Might… there is never a might about it. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Nothing is free and just because one person doesn’t pay, doesn’t mean no-one has to. It is not amusing as my gouty toe etc. will infrequently testify. But it is worth the price if that is what it takes to avoid more deadly chronic disease… and most people don’t have anything revealed in the long term or maybe only temporarily.

(Jay AM) #7

The food allergies were always there. They were just hidden.

#8

I actually am taking magnesium supplements, I’m sorry I forgot to mention that… magnesium citrate i believe. I felt the apple cider vinegar was a good potassium source. And I still get a good amount of sodium, I just tried to drop it down a bit. I never get keto flu symptoms so i thought I was in the clear but maybe not.

Do u have some suggestions on the amount of these minerals I should be taking via supplements?

I thought gout too, it was why i started taking the tart cherry extract. I read somewhere celery seed extract helps with that as well but haven’t gotten around to getting it. I take so many supplements geez lol.

I will definitely cut all sweeteners out except my beloved stevia in my coffee. Is there a sweetener you can suggest that would be a better alternative to stevia?

I appreciate all the feedback. Thanks again.

(matt ) listed #9
(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #10

Everyone seems to react differently to each different artificial/non-caloric sweetener. Unfortunately, you have to keep trying until you find one that works for you. A lot of people find that they do better without any sweeteners at all—probably not what you want to hear!

Also to bear in mind: look very carefully at the ingredients list on any package of sweetener you are considering buying. The reason is that they often claim on the front of the package that the stuff has no calories per serving, but when you read the label, you find that there is some form of sugar mixed in, but they’ve chosen a serving size that will legally permit them to claim 0g of sugar. But then you look at the ingredients, and there it is! So please be careful. And here is a list of different names for what is all just sugar:
Types%20of%20sugar

#11

UPDATE:

So I started taking magnesium and potassium supplements a few days after it was suggested here and it didn’t seem to help much. Then I had a slip up and wanted to try to avoid the keto flu so I started drinking vitamin water zero and all of a sudden the swelling went away. I haven’t swelled in a few weeks now, so I assume it was some sort of deficiency. The vitamin water has vitamin c, b5, b6, b12, e, and electrolytes… so something in that mix helped me out. As a precaution I drink one every other day now. As for the pain, it’s minimal now and just associated with me working and being on my feet non stop 40 hrs a week.

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone!

(Maura hAGERTY) #12

I so appreciate your update. Glad there was an easy solution and happy ending.

(Bunny) #13

Not a really good source of potassium, what it also does is help hold potassium (4,700 mg a day on keto and half that when you reach your BMI goal) from other sources in the body longer from being flushed out so fast and absorb other minerals more efficiently including calcium[1]…

Research:

[1] Enhancing effect of dietary vinegar on the intestinal absorption of calcium in ovariectomized rats. “…the crypt depth of the duodenum thicker in the rats fed on a diet containing 1.6% vinegar (P < 0.05)…”