Energy and sleep have tanked

(Megan) #1

I started keto at the end of May this year and moved over to carnivore about 3 weeks later. Can’t believe it’s only been just over 4 months, feels like I’ve been doing this way longer. About 6 weeks ago my energy tanked. When going upstairs in my home I’m often physically pulling myself up using the handrails. 4 weeks ago my sleep tanked. I am waking every 30-90 minutes all night, every night. I’m going to sleep ok, but when I wake I’m fully awake because I wake to a ton of pain - feels muscle, not joint. Zero chance of just changing position and going back to sleep. I usually get up and pee, just b/c I find it hard to go back to sleep if my bladder isn’t completely empty, and I’m sooo stiff and in pain walking to the toilet. I’ll sometimes sit up in bed and watch TV for a few minutes until the pain settles (the movement going to the toilet helps) then I lay down and go back to sleep.

I’ve had a bunch of blood tests done and the results don’t point to anything. In fact, a few things that have always been high are now normal - CRP in particular.

Pain at night isn’t new to me, but this is much much worse. I used to take 25mg of quetiapine for years to help me stay asleep better and stopped it about 2 months ago. Also stopped the 25mg of nortriptyline I’ve been on for years - it’s meant to help people with fibromyalgia enter a sleep stage we tend not to spend enough time in. If this is rebound insomnia or something else related to stopping these 2 night time meds it feels a bit weird it didn’t start happening as soon as I stopped the meds. I’ve also stopped my effexor, weaned off slowly. I told my doc I’ve stopped all 3 and he didn’t seem to think the sleep or low energy issues were related. Which probably doesn’t mean much, med cessation is a specialized area of knowledge.

Anyway, it’s possible this is all med cessation related, but does anyone have any other ideas re possible causes?

I was eating quite a bit of meat and have switched to a much lower protein and much much higher fat protocol to see if that helps. Very low energy is one of the things it targets. Haven’t been on it long enough to notice much change yet but will trial it for a while and see what happens. Amber O’Hearn says some people take a full 12 weeks to adapt to the protocol and start seeing benefits, whereas others start experiencing benefits quickly.

I’m also cutting down hugely on dairy and will probably trial eliminating it completely. I drink a lot of heavy cream throughout the day in my coffee and have been relying on a lot of cream cheese to get my fat grams b/c I hate the taste of butter, ghee and beef fat. But I’ve just bought a lot of pork belly to eat near exclusively for a while, and have switched the cream for a non dairy form of “milk”. It’s not carnivore but I don’t care. I don’t think I have issues with dairy but I won’t know for certain unless I eliminate it for a while then retry some.

Thanks for reading this.

(Joey) #2

I understand that many meds involve a lag effect in affecting outcomes … both after starting a regimen, or following cessation. This is worth considering - especially in the case of starting/stopping multiple medications in combination.

Sorry, I do not. There’s nothing about restricting carbs that I can think of that would produce the symptoms you’re describing - except for the energy bursts many folks experience as they become fat-adapted. Whether that’s involved in your insomnia is hard to tell.

But pain? No, I cannot imagine why you would experience that as a result of restricting dietary carbs. On the contrary, most of us (myself included) found that pains we’d grown used to began to dissipate and even disappear completely.

I appreciate this is not encouraging for you at this time, but I would suspect that med cessation has much to do with the changes you’ve described. :vulcan_salute:

(Michael) #3

So upping your copper from oysters or beef liver did not help? Looked like copper deficiency from iron bloodwork earlier, unless I am misremembering. Confirmed not copper?

(Megan) #4

Hey Michael, can’t see copper in any of my blood test results. Is it called something else? I eat some beef liver, how much do you recommend and how often, if it is about low copper?

(Michael) #5

If you eat beef liver semi-regular than probably not copper unless you eat a ton of zinc. One ounce of beef liver has 200% of RDA for copper, but zinc can deplete copper if you were running a surplus there. Sorry I do not have further suggestions :frowning:

(Megan) #6

Thanks Michael. I’m starting to feel a bit better energywise since lowering my protein and upping my fat considerably. Or whatever is going on is coming right for other reasons. Just got home from taking my dogs out and not feeling at all wiped out. Mood better too - less stressed and tearful.

Trying a few different supplements for sleep. One herbal one hasn’t done anything, tried a homeopathic one last night and woke half as often which is promising, and have ordered a combo 5htp/magnesium with a few herbs (different ones) supplement which will be here in a few days.

Really scratching my head about the night time pain. My day time pain (fibromyalgia and arthritis) has lessened a lot the past 4 months on this woe and it feels weird I suddenly have way way worse night time pain. My lower back, esp, hurts like hell when I wake at night. Anyone feel like buying me a new bed?