Hi all - I’m looking for advice from the seasoned carnivores out there! I’ve been on carnivore (coming from keto) for nearly 2 months - (I’m 66, female) - and have lost some but not a lot of weight since. (I lost about 22 kilos on keto over a couple of years) On Saturday I started getting pain in my left foot, behind my toes and it got worse over the next couple of days to the point where I could hardly hobble and had to take painkillers at night (which is VERY unusual for me!). Yesterday I had an X-ray which has come back showing osteoarthritis at that point in my foot. Here’s the thing: when on keto various joint pains - knees etc. mostly went away, so I’m wondering why this might be? I love carnivore (eat red meat, salt, chicken liver pâté, a small amount of cheese occasionally, butter, eggs - sometimes, cream in coffee and that’s it). I don’t really think it’s the fault of the carnivore diet, though others (not on here) will probably tell me it is! I’m looking for your thoughts about this as I’m a bit gutted and wondering what to do now. Has anyone got any helpful advice/knowledge which could help?
I’m also interested to hear of how your own health improved on carnivore and how long it took to see changes over your issues. I’m told it can take a long time - how long? - to improve some things.
My grateful thanks to any who respond!
Judith
PS I just received my blood test results from this Morning’s test - Uric acid levels are higher than they should be
Carnivore and osteoarthritis Aug 2020
HI, and 2 months on zc is wonderful!
I don’t think carnivore has anything to do with it: from the net:
Osteoarthritis is common for people over 40 years of age
- Caused by wear and tear of cartilage
Risk factors include:
- Overweight
- Hereditary
osteoarthritis is a degenerative disorder affecting mostly the large joints .
So reading that I think you probaby twisted or done something to hurt that area a bit, get it riled up in a way ya know…and you noticed it big time now and the pain kicked in. I believe it is something to ‘treat’ as needed for yourself.
Will you improve this on with zc? I am not sure, I haven’t read anything specific over the years of anyone mentioning it so I can’t say, yea I read someone got improvement but I also can’t say it won’t help so I am sorry I can’t go further into that for you.
reading up on it it says less weight overall for a person with less stress on joints etc. is a great way to help along with non-jarring exercise to keep the joints limber. Don’t jog if your foot hurts, swim instead kind of thing.
for the other… Uric Acid Levels. These levels fluctuate throughout the day, and are typically higher in the morning and lower at the end of the day…have you tried other times in the day…you know, making a more known factor thru the entire day? just curious on that.
One test at one time won’t give you truer results ya know.
Wishing you the best!! Keep on going with zc!
I don’t have time to respond fully, but you might find this article interesting:
https://www.diagnosisdiet.com/full-article/does-meat-cause-gout
Thanks Fangs, (actually I was hoping you might answer, I love reading your replies, you have such a way with words!) About the osteoarthritis - interestingly, Dr Berry says the opposite about age necessarily being a cause, though extra weight, yes; At this stage I think I’ll carry on with ZC as I’ve read so much about the benefits. Haven’t experienced many myself yet but I can be patient! It would be good to know how long others had to wait and what they experienced on the way. In the meantime my doctor has prescribed a week of prednisone- I hate taking any drugs but think I’ll have to give in to this one! Had my blood test at 7.30 am after a 13 hours fast. Maybe I’ll ask for another one soon and go at a different time of day. Good thought. Thanks again! Judith
Look into oxalates as well. Changing to a carnivore diet means changing to a no oxalate diet which can cause dumping of the oxalate crystals stored in our bodies. Joint pain can be a symptom. There are many threads on the forum discussing oxalate. You may want to do a search on it.
Thing is for the above when I read up on it on the net it is more about just being the most common form of arthritis. But being under that general arthritis blanket term I really feel this was something that was happening long before zc, so I would say a bigger NO now that zc has anything to do with it. I know you want to stay on plan and that is a good thing but I am sure zc isn’t gonna ‘cure a joint’ that might be eroded.
The prednisone could monkey with you a bit, it is known to increase hunger a bit so you be sure to just eat all the darn meat and seafood you need if you experience this cause you don’t want to be driven into eating junk just thru a drug. Eating anything on plan when needed is always better than not eating cause you think you shouldn’t and then getting that ‘well, screw this’ type feeling and go eating off plan anyway…so just take care of yourself thru that.
but I would be like you. I would take the drugs and deal with my arthritis situation. I don’t think any of us are immune in any from that joint pain we are all gonna get somewhere on us but with some treatment you could find better improvement…so hoping all goes well for you!!!