Keto drastically increased joint pain and heartburn - HELP!

(Julie) #1

Has anyone had a flare up in joint pain when starting keto. This has happened to me twice now. My heartburn has increased too. I’m miserable but hear of all the long term benefits and want to try to stick with it long enough hoping these symptoms will subside. Not sure if I can tough out the joint pain though…I can barely walk. Anyone else experience this?

(Allan L) #2

I can’t comment on joint pain but one of the health issues I was having was acute heart burnt and had taken lansoprazole (A very strong PPI) for 10 years. During my first month on keto I had a couple of flare up days were I had to double by dose of Lansoprazole but then 1 month after starting keto I accidentally forgot to take it and noticed I didn’t have heart burn. I’ve now not taken a single tablet in 4 months.

Heart burn, asthma, IBS & obesity are 4 of the health issues keto has cleared up for me.

(Edith) #3

Are you eating a lot more of a certain food that you didn’t eat much of pre-keto, such as dairy or nuts? Many people really use a lot of dairy for their fat on keto, but it can cause inflammation. Dairy causes me terrible joint pain. Maybe you have a food sensitivity.

Edith

(Julie) #4

I have not really increased my dairy consumption but I’m wondering if it is a culprit. I’m trying to eliminate it but its hard with the limited food choices. I have thyroid/Autoimmune issues too so I can’t eat nuts. I had been using heavy cream, cream cheese, and hard cheeses, but have just begun to eliminate them, so now I am using MTC oil, olive oil, Bone Broth protein powder, coconut milk, avocados, meat, and low carb veggies. That is about it. Thank you for the suggestion

(Julie) #6

Thank you for sharing…gives me hope

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #7

Going keto helped my inflammation (joint pains). My husband isn’t as low carb as me yet, but his heart burn flares have decreased a lot. He has IBS and those flares have reduces a lot too.

Are you doing keto with 20 net or total grams? If net you might try 20 total.

I hope you find out what is causing your issues.

(VLC.MD) #8

Flareups of chronic conditions vary on their own time frame.
Joint pain corresponds in time with your keto, but isn’t likely the cause.
YMMV.

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

I have a bad knee that is mostly better on keto (especially given the amount of weight I’m no longer carrying), but some days it just hurts. I don’t notice any connection with what I’m eating or not eating, and it isn’t always related to how many times I’ve gone up and down stairs, either. There’s a simple way to test whether your ketogenic diet is causing the problem: go back to your old way of eating and see whether the joint pain goes away or not

(Julie) #10

Yes everyone I hear from says that this woe helps their joint pain and heartburn…I’m frustrated to be experiencing the opposite. Trying to stay with it and hopefully it will pass. Yes, I eat only 20 gm or less. Lots of nutrient rich leafy greens, celery, zucchini and such. Thanks for the encouragement.

(Moriarty Philip) #11

Had similar experience… increase in joint pain since keto…but not all the time and many other benefits though

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #12

Just wondering if your symptoms reduced? Hoping the pains stopped for you.

(Okay Rumba) #13

Starting intermittant fasting helped cure my year long ankle pain in about two weeks. I only run and workout during the end of my fast before my 1st meal. For example, I stop eating around 9pm and I tend to wake up around 8am…have coffee at 10am…workout at 11am…break fast with whey protein isolate after workout and start my 1st Keto meal around 2pm. I can finally run again. I could not run in Keto alone without IF.

(Stephanie) #14

I started Keto 2 days ago. I have hip “issues” but they get much worse whenever I go low carb. I want to see if it gets better over time, but like you, it has become pretty severe, keeping me up at night and now I can barely walk at times. In another conversation on this board, someone suggested increasing salt intake, which makes sense! I will try that and hope for improvement. I’ll let you know :slight_smile:

I’d love to hear how you are feeling these days, Julie. Did anything help? Are you still doing Keto?

#15

Another thing which applies to some people in the first few weeks or months of becoming fat-adapted is that some things get worse before they get better (also known as the ‘healing crisis’ in natural medicine). This can be because of detoxification processes (temporary movement out of yuckky stuff and in the process a more sensitive bladder and general aches) and/or new sensitivities to dairy becoming apparent. Also, the increased need for SALT is often underestimated by newbies - salt is so key to water being properly hydrating on a cellular level.

It’s a process.

It takes some time - but seems to resolve well within a few weeks or months for most folks - esp when attending to salt & minerals supplementation. If you use the forum search bar and research detox stuff there are lots of posts to read about people’s journeys.

(C Lanz) #16

Yes I have had Pretty significant rise in joint pain For the first two weeks each time I start keto
Seems to get better about for five weeks in
I was diagnosed with Psudo gout And had two surgeries to remove calcium tumor from hip area 6 yrs ado. I have trouble staying on keto But I lose weight, and feel better when I can stick with it for six weeks, and then feel horrible when I break down and stuff my face with carbs, good luck somebody told me you might want to make sure you Uric acid levels are normal, which mine are But some people have hidden gout that can flare up on a higher protein type diet.

#17

Maybe try some ACV in water or other dilution? I had something that felt like gout 3 months in and other than supplements (tart cherry pills and some others), this seemed to help but I do not have an official diagnosis. What is Pseudo gout?

Joint pain maybe try collagen or glycine? I have not but am considering it

(Tiam) #18

I know this is a bit old but I haven’t seen this become common knowledge yet.

Most of the joint pain comes from an intake of refined sugars, and varies in severity, relative to intake volume/frequency. A close cousin to refined sugars can be refined white carbohydrates. Consuming a high volvime of white bread, white pastas, and related processed foods can cause build up in the joints, which then becomes attacked during ketosis which causes pain.

As for the heart burn, it is also highly related to consumption of sugars and carbs. If you’re experiencing heart burn, you are eating the wrong thing at the wrong time for the body, or too much volume of food. If you severely reduce or eliminate carbs and move to fruits and vegetables for a couple days, you will notice a difference. Don’t consume citrus, or high acidity fruits; like berries or mangos, nor high carb fruits like bananas.

Don’t consume vinegars or anything acidity. Soda especially.

The natural and extremely effective heart burn repressing foods are watermelon, cucumber, and as a quick fix resort; cold almond milk. — other melons can be effective but cantaloupe and honeydew have a higher acidity content and may only provide short term relief.

Heart burn is accumulative, so if you eat something that causes short term relief, it may worsen the heart burn later in the day.

Take a day or three of heavy watermelon and or cucumber diet. With little to no carbs (especially during the sun hours), sugars, or acids and you will have a great amount of relief. Once you get down to levels of relief, then it becomes a game of finding what your body actually needs. The body has levels of all nutrients, and when it gets too much of one or the other, it responds with something to tell us so. Ie heart burn. Gotta experiment and listen to your body and you’ll find what you’re missing.

I’ve spent a lot of time with my own heart burn and natural remedies, if anyone wants to talk about it. Send me a message and I’d be happy to meet like minded people.

(Ron) #19

How would one go about doing this with watermelon being a high carb food?

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 100 g
Amount Per Serving
Calories 30
% Daily Value
Total Fat 0.2g 0 %
Sodium 1mg 0 %
Total Carbohydrate 7.6g 3 %
Dietary Fiber 0.4g 2 %
Sugar 6.2g
Protein 0.6g 1 %
Vitamin A 11 % • Vitamin C 14 %
Calcium 1 % • Iron 1 %
Daily values are based on 2000 calorie diet.

(Tiam) #20

When I mention carbs, I’m talking about the food group; revolving around grains.

Not pseudo-scientific guestimations of nutritional value.

I apologize that I didn’t clarify that before.

(charlie3) #21

I’ve had a sore left hip for 30 years, caused I’m sure, by overuse from bareback cross country riding. For most of those years the symptoms were so minimal there was no interference with activities or sleep. About 8 years ago I started to notice the left hip would tire before the right hip and some soreness. Eventually I was avoiding walking.

Three months ago I started keto, exercise, and miles of walking most days. As of now I’m back to hiking and walking freely. The let hip still tires before the right but it’s minimal enough that I’m walking for enjoyment. I can’t say that the keto or the exercise was more important. May be it is the combination. I always (wrongly) assumed decline of that hip could not be reversed. I was wrong.