Does anyone here have any autoimmune issues?
Your experience with Keto and your condition?
I’m asking because my wife has MCTD - Mixed Connective Tissue Disease.
MCTD is a horrible combination of Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, and Scleroderma.
I’ve heard a Ketogenic lifestyle is very helpful when it comes to inflammation.
I’ve been trying to talk her into going Keto for 30 to 60 days to see what it does for her.
Thanks.
F
Welcome to keto and KF.com.
You are correct… Keto is a low-inflammation WoE so it can have a positive impact on AI issues. Not heard anyone mention MCTD (which sounds like one of the many doctor made up, poorly defined medical conditions… “we don’t know what the hell is going on but it’s several symptoms so we’ll give it a fancy technical sounding name but not really have any insights into how to reverse it”) but the piece parts of it have all been mentioned here. Do a search in the forums (magnifying glass in the top right corner) for the individual conditions to see what people experience on keto. Mostly good from what I’ve seen but not always (though very rarely, if ever, bad).
It may be necessary to go further than keto to really crack the AI nut… AIP (Auto Immune Protocol) is often tried to get really specific on what causes (if any) are food induced (e.g. dairy, lectins, nightshades, etc.). Keto still includes several potentially AI inducing components and AIP is a way to sort them out. You could do straight keto for a while to see if that is enough, or dive into AIP keto.
This is a good review of a couple’s long term experience with AIP - seems harder than keto but far from impossible…
https://www.ketogenicforums.com/t/a-month-or-more-long-experiment/30090
Psoriasis & Psoriatic Arthritis here. Have had it since I was a child, misdiagnosed as Ringworm fungus when I was in 8th grade (I’m 49 now). After 9/11 (I worked in lower manhattan at the time), I went from having some quarter-sized plaques to 90% coverage in plaques.
Keto has done nothing to help my skin. My plaques were just as stubborn on keto versus non-keto. However, my joints have improved - though I can’t say for sure if that’s Keto improving things or the 140+lb weight loss (I went from around 300lb to my current 165lb). My guess is it was the weight loss.
That’s not to say it won’t help your wife… It just didn’t really seem to help me, at least not directly. I am also not a terrific use case, since I still eat a lot of cheap Aldi’s stuff that is keto-friendly at the macro level, but isn’t what I would call “real food” 
I am 52 and was diagnosed December 2017 with psoriasis. It was misdiagnosed in May 2017 as ringworm. I have been keto since Sept 2017 and my psoriasis has continued to get worse, even trying steroid creams at first and now 5 months on Otezla with no improvement.
Honestly, it was the psoriasis that got me hunting for a diet. I was worried that I was feeding the ringworm (I thought at the time) and that I was eating my way into T2D. I am thrilled with my weight loss on keto (70 lbs in 8 months), but it has no effect on my psoriasis.
Celiac here with eczema and plain old arthritis. Keto has made my eczema disappear, and my severe joint
and neck pain is almost entirely gone. The celiac was already under control with a gluten free diet, but I feel even better now without any grains.
Fibromyalgia, vertigo and Post Orthotic Trachardia Syndrome. It’s helped my symptoms. My muscle spasms and shaking have decreased. I’m less lethargic feeling, more energy throughout the day. I still have moments of super drained but that’s to be expected.
Basically what fibromyalgia is, a made up category for 100’s of symptoms! Yay.
That is a classic!
It’s medical obfuscation, implying that because it has a cool sounding name, they understand much about it. If it has “syndrome” on the end of it, that is usually a dead give away for “sorry pal, it exists but that’s most of what we know”… 
Exactly, with my POTS, basically a dysautonomia, but nobody understands much about dysautonomia because it’s a wide range of different types and symptoms. So my cardiologist basically looked at me and said I have dysautonomia and to eat more salt, shook my hand and walked out the door. The salt has helped but it doesn’t solve a lot of other problems lol. But hey keto has been slowing fixing it.
I have hashimoto’s thyroiditis. I have been completely symptom free since day 3 of a 23 day fast I did in December. I fast weekly and eat keto when not fasting. Best I have felt in over a decade. I’m also down 30 pounds which is amazing since I only lost 7 pounds 2.5 years following the autoimmune protocol diet. Keto and fasting has changed my life!
I have chronic PLEVA, a psoriasis-like skin disease. It is sometimes called Mucha-Habermann Syndrome. Fortunately, it is only a few spots here and there. I have done AIP and experienced great success with it until Thanksgiving dessert came around. It’s taken me two years and A 25 pound weight gain to find my way to Keto and I’m interested to see if I get the same results for my AI disease on it as I did on the AIP diet.
Asthma (only triggered by stress+exercise at the same time) and seems to be worse with high dairy intake.
Psoriasis (turns out it almost completely disappears when i cut gluten)
Inflammation in knees, wrists and back (almost gone now I am eating carnivore)
PCOS (jury is out, but it may be autoimmune)
Family history of food intolerances and hypothyroid, which are kicking in over the decades.
Jury is also out on whether some sub-types of T2 diabetes may have autoimmune links. Likewise for Reactive Hypoglycaemia.
Basically, I am an evolutionary dead end, and happy to be so!
Keto is great, but of all the things above, it has only helped the PCOS and T2/RH
I love keto, and my body runs better on it, so I intend to stick with it for life, but is sure ain’t a magic pill for all ills.
Have you tried going dairy free? When I took dairy and gluten out of my diet my eczema and dermatitis went away. It took about 6 months but I am trilled to be able to wear short sleeved shirts again and not hide my elbows. 
I have not. This is all so new, I wasn’t sure where to start with food elimination. I noticed the start of the psoriasis in March 2017, but didn’t know what it was. I thought it was just a patch of dry skin. I had already given up caffeine in April 2017, then went Keto in Sept 2017. Now that those things are going well, I am beginning to research foods.
When I got a biopsy in Dec 2017, the results came back as it could be three things. I have a call in to the Derm to find out exactly what those three things were so I can do a little more research on my own.
It’s just so random and so frustrating that I could be eating SAD my whole life without any major problems (except being fat), and then when I start doing healthy stuff, bam, I get psoriasis at age 52. And no one in my family has any kind of skin condition or autoimmune disorder! Not even the ones who married into the family! Argh!
I did just get a Kenalog shot, so I can be clear for my vacation in a week. So, I have plenty of time to research before any experimentation will show any results. Thank you for the suggestion!
“But it sure ain’t a magic pill for all ills.” I’m so glad you wrote that as I’m really fed up with reading that it pretty much is, which depresses me sometimes. So many doctors etc, including ones that I greatly respect, write of the amazing cures they’ve achieved, but it’s not like that for everyone.
I am seropositive for rheumatoid arthritis and have rheumatoid nodules etc but I was rediagnosed as having psoriatic arthritis with rheumatoid features. Recently I had a bad episode of what was probably gout and currently I’ve been having a painful episode of enthesitis. I’m convinced that Keto / Paleo is the healthiest way to eat and possibly I’d be worse if I didn’t eat this way but… it sure ain’t a magic pill for all ills.
Another person here that has had Psoriatic Arthritis for the whole of my adult life. I’m 45 now. I’ve been on Keto for just over a year. All my inflammation disappeared on day 4 (I shit you not).
I had psoriasis on my scalp/neck/ears pretty bad and for the first four to five months I had flare-ups (lasting 4 days or so) that were worse than I had ever previously had but now my scalp is clear. Fortunately I never really had psoriasis on my body apart from the odd dot here and there the size of a penny. These dots have not cleared up at all, although they are getting no worse.
For the first few weeks, I was mostly eating eggs/avocados/bacon with some meat and veg for the main meal in the evening and spoonfuls of coconut oil. And gelatine. I also was eating cheese at times and having goats milk kefir daily. So I was not dairy free, but I wasn’t eating nightshade foods. I think the probiotic and bone broth/gelatin is important for autoimmune issues, to heal the gut.
The only times I’ve had very small flare-ups in my hands have been after I did something stupid like had a beer. Even then they are less severe and restricted to my hands when previously it would be my whole body.
@RADA It is worth trying for your wife. I think though I was lucky as after talking to others on here it became apparent that they didn’t have the same results as me or as fast for the same condition. You have nothing to lose by giving it a go. All the best
Welcome! I was diagnosed with six autoimmune disorders in the last 15 years. Keto has not reversed all symptoms but it definitely improves them. Other things that dramatically help me:
I’ve got tons of these issues fibromyalgia, IBS, allergies, dermatitis, asthma, insulin resistance, the list goes on.
I am finding Keto helpful for them, but find fasting even more amazing re inflammation etc.
I would suggest a combination of Keto and extended fasting as Primal123 describes, especially if Keto alone is not getting the inflammation down / sufficiently.
I have early stage rheumatoid arthritis that started showing up in my early twenties. It flares up mostly in my hands, fingers, upper spine, and my feet. I have been following a ketogenic diet for almost 4 years. I no longer have flare ups and in fact have stopped taking my medication as it causes too many other side effects. That being said, I do have almost immediate response if I eat food that I am not supposed to, such as frozen custard or pizza. Ketogenic life is my new life and I don’t regret making the change. PLUS… I FINALLY learned how to cook 
I also have Hashimotos, Fibromyalgia (although I question this as a bogus dx), Osterporosis, many, many food and chemical allergies and sensitivities, Chronic migraines, Asthma, Arthritis, Celiac AND wheat allergy… and on and on. Since starting Keto on March 6, I have not had a headache or migraine! I’m hopeful that many other symptoms will be alleviated with this WOE as I go on.