Bladder issues and keto, need advice/info

#1

I’m really hoping someone can help me. I’m struggling with some bladder issues and I am hoping to find SOMEONE who can shed some light.

About 18 months ago I tried keto for 3 months. I didn’t find it sustainable and went off it. I was miserable on it, it was expensive. I got bored with the limited meals. I also didn’t do enough research to really combat the variety that is truly available to me or do any kind of meal prep.

For YEARS I have suffered with bladder issues being that I never really feel relief after I go. I feel like I have to pee. All. The. Time. I feel like I have to pee after I pee. I’ve been to doctors, they just push prescriptions after talking to me for 4 minutes… which I’m not much of a fan of taking drugs after more drugs.

HERES THE PLOT TWIST!

After a few days on keto I noticed a difference with the bladder issues. Gone. All gone!

I am thinking of going back on keto, but I am hoping someone can shed some light on what causes the relief for something like this, because if I make this lifestyle change and it’s something specific I want to make sure I avoid anything that causes it to stick around.

#2

I’m sure that someone else can explain the specifics, but I believe that Keto reduces overall inflammation. In my short time on Keto, there are so many chronic things with my body that have all but disappeared and I think that this is the reason.

(bulkbiker) #3

Might have been the beginnings of T2 diabetes where the body tries to pee out the excess sugar…?

Keto will reverse the problem so the excess glucose isn’t there any more…

(Martin) #4

I’m definitely not a doctor, but my two cents:

If you have polyruia, then the general rule of thumb is that water follows glucose, meaning that your body is trying to clean the excessive amount of sugars from your system - with water. This leads to frequent urination. When you cut carbs, your body no longer needs to excrete all the excessive glucose, leading to much less urination, just like that. This is very common in pre-diabetics/diabetics, but I suppose there could be other triggers, as well.

There is also a possibility that you have an enlarged prostate, for which there is also some relief on KETO and Intermittent Fasting.

I’m not sure if you can have the Urinary Tract Infection for years? In this case, you feel like peeing, but little comes out and usually clears itself out.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #5

Whether we find keto a deprivation or an abundance is mostly a matter of attitude. I happen to love bacon, steak, pork, eggs, and so forth, so I don’t feel deprived. Only you can decide whether relief from your bladder troubles is worth giving up carbohydrate for.

I don’t know how this way of eating makes a difference, but I do notice that my bladder capacity is phenomenal when I’m in ketosis. It is a great gift to be able to sleep through the night, now, instead of having to get up two or three times to void my bladder. The only explanation I’ve been able to come up with, and I stress that this is completely a guess on my part, is that perhaps by reducing the amount of plants and processed foods I eat, I have also reduced the quantity of toxins my system needs to eliminate.

As for the matter of variety on a ketogenic diet, we have a whole Recipes forum with some great recipes. There are also the “What did you keto today?” and the “Boring Keto” threads to give you some idea of the variety of foods possible on a ketogenic diet. The forum search engine is your friend.

#6

Are you male or female?

Keto doesn’t have to be expensive. I am a certified cheapskate and calorie for calorie fat is still pretty cheap.

(Jane) #7

Compared to what?

Maybe you ate a clean diet w/o expensive processed foods. Or loaded up on rice and pasta which is certainly cheap, but not many nutrients.

Pork and 80% beef chuck and chicken thighs are pretty cheap in my book. And once you get fat adapted where you only need to eat 2 meals a day with no snacks your food bill should go down.

(Martin) #8

Yeah, I agree.

Yes, nutrition packed food is more expensive, but you eat much less of it. I eat much less on clean Keto, but spend about the same, because it’s quality farm food.

(Jane) #9

Same here

#10

Your problem must have either been blood sugar or inflammation, those are the two things keto takes care of. Without knowing what you ate prior day to day no way to say for sure.

I’ll have to disagree on the meals being limited or it being expensive. I can eat WAY more awesome things eating keto than I ever could eating SAD, once fat isn’t the enemy the meal choices are amazing. Same goes with cost, My weekly grocery shops are nearly identical in price as they were prior to keto. But again, without knowing what you’re doing specifically prior and while eating keto there’s no way to know why that’s not the case for you.

(UsedToBeT2D) #11

Keto solved my pee problem. KCKO. It turns out to be a less expensive diet, once you learn the foods.
In any case, invest in your health. It is far less expensive than poor health.

(UsedToBeT2D) #12

IMHO you are a T2D. Commit to Keto. You can only get better. As did I.

(UsedToBeT2D) #13

Keto has lots of variety. But to put put it simply, do you want variety or good health? I choose good health.
Once you choose good health, the rest becomes easier, but you still need will power to stay away from the garbage that you have been used to feeding your body. It’s hard at first, but after you experience the results, your will power will increase. KCKO. DO NOT GIVE IN.

#14

Female :slight_smile:

#15

Thank you! I don’t find keto to be as unrealistic now, as I said in my post at the time I found it to be expensive, not sustainable and limited. I admit when I tried keto, no clue what I was doing. Didn’t do my research or meal prep, which I know understand was my downfall and I didn’t stick with it. I found it limited, but I also didn’t look at all the options I could possibly have available to me at that time, which I have since done. Knowing what others have been through and changes they have seen is what I can lean on. First hand accounts are always better right? This was REALLY helpful!! I have some direction and a few things to check out now in prep for my lifestyle change :slight_smile:

#16

It’s surely harder in the beginning. I came from low-carb (80g net was enough for everything from day 1, I hadn’t sacrifice anything at all, just got benefits!) and used 40g net carbs on keto so one might think it was easy. It wasn’t too hard for a while as I would quit earlier then but it was still very different from low-carb. I still could eat anything I wanted as keto doesn’t ban anything (at least I don’t believe in such things, keto is all about ketosis to me… well certain items are trickier on keto but I doubt I ever found anything except melons and cauliflower practically impossible to eat on this woe. I am good at ridiculously tiny amounts. except cauliflower, I couldn’t go below 1kg with that if I just fried them) but I horribly missed my veggies (only could spend 25g net carbs on them and I hate green leaves so I didn’t eat them).
But one learns… And even changes. It gets easier for the vast majority. Some people never will feel fine on keto, it least but it’s extremely rare (probably most of them can’t even bring themselves to try it, maybe they don’t feel the need as they are thriving on high-carb or low-carb or whatever non-keto they do).

I found keto the cheapest woe I ever had (despite not eating any less) but carnivore is probably even better as long as I stay away from ruminants and seafood as that is very expensive and not so available here. There are other options and I prefer pork anyway, fortunately I handle it well, not everyone is like that.

There are very different keto styles anyway. My original, too carby vegetarian keto is nothing like my carnivore-ish :smiley: Interestingly, getting out vegetables immediately alleviated some boredom (I always use a big variety but I still have times when I find my food not enough exciting for a while). One would think it’s the other way around but not because eating very low-carb makes my variety/excitement need significantly lower. It’s like eating carby treats and desserts in huge variety often don’t make me any happier with my food, it easily makes me less satisfied in the end. Stupid carbs, I often say :smiley: I become a different person with extremely little carbs. Easier to satisfy. I can’t go to low with variety but I don’t need whatever people do with their dishes, sauces, marinades, very mixed vegetable side dish… Not needed, just nutritious, tasty food. Sometimes I don’t even want it to be so tasty, I just want to get satiated. I came a long way… I am still addicted to food but less.
But if someone wants, they can add so so so many things to their keto food. I hardly can imagine it being boring. Missing some carby food here and there, I still can remember that. But boring keto food… Unless I stubbornly do carnivore and run out of all meat (it happened once, never again. I love my eggs and eat them in huge variety but that’s still not enough even for a single day).
It helps a lot to like most of your keto staples and not craving the non-keto ones but sometimes you just need recipes, tricks, some nice sauces and spices…?

(Jane) #17

I totally understand.

I started out on Atkins back in Nov 2017 because I had never heard of “keto” and I knew I could lose weight on sub-20 carbs.

Then a friend told me to check out “keto” and Dr. Ken Berry online. I could never stick to Atkins long term because I was still in the “low fat” mindset so was hungry a lot and definitely easily bored with the food.

I found this forum and have been keto for 3-1-2 years now. Never going back to eating the way most people eat. A trip to Walmart confirms how detrimental it is using an “eyeball survey”.

Adding saturated fat to my low-carb menu expanded my meals tremendously and made them delicious. Also made keto sustainable for me.

The recipe section and the thread “What did you keto today” can give you an idea of the tremendous variety this way of eating offers.

(UsedToBeT2D) #18

The “eye ball” survey helps me stay strong. I look at the person and what’s in the cart. I no longer wish to be a survey subject.

(Jane) #19

I know. Same here. I can’t tell you how many times my husband and I have whispered to each other “needs keto, man”. And then glance at their cart full of chips, cookies, etc.

These are people so far gone it is painful to watch them even shop. And they have no idea they can “fix” it themselves.

Just look at any group photo from the 40’s and tell me obesity and diabetes is not reversible. I beg to differ.