Keto + Fibroids

(Lisa) #1

Hi! I had an ultrasound last week that revealed uterine fibroids. I read on the internet that the ketogenic diet is prescribed to help alleviate the symptoms of fibroids and PCOS. Then I read to stay away from meat and dairy. I seem to get conflicting info. Has anyone had any success with keto and fibroids?

(Troy) #2

Hi
Ok. Iā€™m no expert on this
But I shared the below info w a Family Friend a couple of months ago
Btwā€¦Iā€™m a Huge fan of Dr. Jockers!:smile:

Hopefully, it can be useful or help as well

https://drjockers.com/uterine-fibroids/

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #3

Iā€™ve seen many posts on these forums from women whose ketogenic diet helped their PCOS. I donā€™t recall seeing anything about fibroids, however.

(Empress of the Unexpected) #4

Donā€™t know about Keto as it relates to fibroids, but staying away from dairy seems to help many conditions.

(Jen Andrew) #5

Have you found a solution to fibroids since you have posted this?
I just got ultrasound too,which revealed fibroids. I have been keto for 3 years. I donā€™t eat dairy anymore, except for half and half with my decaf.
Do you have pain? Did you get MRI?

(Karen B) #6

Iā€™d be interested to hear your results also. Iā€™ve had fibroids for years. I eat a mostly paleo keto diet (with carb refeeds around my period and usually higher carb 1 or 2 days on the weekends). Iā€™ve noticed that my periods are getting lighter and shorter since going low carb. I have an ultrasound scheduled for July to see if the fibroids are smaller that they were last year.

(Aidii) #7

Any updates on this topic? Would like to know if this will help reduce fibroidsā€¦

(Khara) #8

Also curious about updates or new input and seeing this thread reactivate. I donā€™t know about keto helping as I havenā€™t been consistent enough long term. I will say Iā€™ve had experience with the use of ultrasounds to monitor fibroid growth and Iā€™m currently lacking any confidence in them. My experience was that the ultrasounds did not prepare my doctor at all for the full reality of my condition. They believed the size was considerably smaller than it actually was and the ultrasounds also did not show calcification that was actually present. This meant I went into surgery with an unprepared surgical team. They were surprised at what they found and ultimately they could not complete the removal. Iā€™d suggest not putting too much stock into what the ultrasound shows. Itā€™s a tool for knowing ā€œsomethingā€ is in there and thatā€™s it. Donā€™t assume it will show accurate size or condition. Knowing what I know now, Iā€™d push for additional alternative methods of imaging prior to any surgery consideration. And if life is able to be maintained somewhat normally, even if itā€™s a hassle here and there, rather than surgery, Iā€™d stick to watchful waiting for as long as absolutely possible along with an intentional healthy (low sugar, keto) diet to see if I could get my symptoms lessened on my own. This topic of nutrition has never been addressed by any of my doctors. Their field of knowledge seems to be only drugs and surgery. I think weā€™re still on our own when it comes to nutrition.

#9

The uterus is affected by hormones and thereā€™s natural hormones in dairy.

https://www.google.com/search?q=fibroids+vitamin+d+deficiency

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #10

This is why I would expect a ketogenic diet to help, but Iā€™ve never heard any actual reports to confirm that notion.

I do know that soy and other plant foods are rich in phyto-oestrogens, so perhaps a keto diet might help simply by cutting down on plant hormones, which are more likely than animal hormones to be inappropriate for us.

Dairy is not part of the normal human diet, since losing the ability to produce lactase after weaning is the genetic standard. The two mutations that allow people to consume dairy products containing lactose and galactose are common enough these days, but even if you are of Northern European or Maasai descent and can make lactase as an adult, you can still have trouble with milk proteins, such as casein. So eliminating dairy might be a very good experiment.

The ultimate elimination diet, of course, would be to go full carnivore for six months, just to see what effect that has. Whether that would really have a beneficial effect on fibroids, however, is anyoneā€™s guess, though I canā€™t see any way that it could hurt. Good luck!

#11

Soy is toxic but the hormones in milk are meant to grow a calf into a much bigger animal as fast as possible.

(PJ) #12

I have fibroids. They actually vary in size kind of dramatically in me. I have assumed itā€™s a hormonal cycle. Sometimes, they are barely noticeable, buried at the uterus level. (Note that while I am huge, I am lipedemic, so I actually have a waist; my fat is just about everywhere except my neck/head and waist. So the fibroid area is just below the waist and slightly about 2/3 my-left, not center.) And sometimes, they are at least twice as large, and literally this big rounded bulge, which is much firmer, is pushing out of my torso there.

I have yet to figure out what spikes the hormones that make this happen, though. At one point I began taking 100mg pregnenolone, 25mg DHEA, 100mg 7-KETO metabolites, every morning, consistently through the month. Since that began, I have had fewer cycles where it was at the ā€˜extremeā€™ firmness/pushout. But at the same time I dropped most chicken and pork and increased my beef. Then I began taking serrapeptase nightly, the serra enzyme brand from goodhealthusa.com (they have a euro site too), I take this before sleep. This very gradually seems to slightly reduce the size but more noticeably it softens it a bit.

I have not tried varying my dairy, carbs, or fat types in a way that I could track to any results. Some days I eat a lot of dairy and sometimes I eat none. Usually I eat ketogenically with fairly long fasting periods, and then sometimes I eat a bunch of carbs (usually with a fasting period following). But none are for long enough periods of time that if it changes the hormone equation and/or fibroids I would notice.

I find it real obnoxious, but my doc said once my hormones crash, as I am menopausal now, that it would all deflate on its own. This might be true, but since I donā€™t want my hormones to crash for 1000 other good reasons, thatā€™s why Iā€™ve been taking the pregnenolone, DHEA and 7-KETO metabolites. I found that adding these makes a real difference in reducing my lethargy. I can tell within 2 days, sometimes 1, if I forgot the supplement, as my sedentary ratio goes way up.

Before I shifted heavily away from a diet that was dominating in chicken and pork, eating more beef now, and added tallow and coconut butter in higher amounts, it seemed like the ā€˜high cycleā€™ on the fibroids was worse. This is not carefully measured. But I cannot recall now, not for ā€¦ a long time, that feeling of some pain like the growth was making it stretch and push inside me. It still has the larger/smaller cycle it just doesnā€™t seem as extreme and never seems as ā€˜hardā€™ as it did. But I suspect everything I have mentioned above, including the serra, is part of that.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #13

So what effect do they have on the human body? How similar are they to human hormones, such as insulin, IGF, HGH, and so forth? I assume there has to be some similarity, since cows and we are all mammals, but just how much transfers across the species difference? Itā€™s a persistent issue with rat and other animal models, just how much of what we learn in animals is relevant to human beings.

#14

There are humans who can tolerate another species milk. My younger brother being one of these but there is many of us who develop severe Acne and other hormonal issues from consuming it.

Why fibroids develop

The exact cause of fibroids is unknown, but they have been linked to the hormone oestrogen.

Oestrogen is the female reproductive hormone produced by the ovaries (the female reproductive organs).

Fibroids usually develop during a womanā€™s reproductive years (from around the age of 16 to 50) when oestrogen levels are at their highest.

They tend to shrink when oestrogen levels are low, such as after the menopause when a womanā€™s monthly periods stop.
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/fibroids/

#15

I have had fibroids as a result of estrogen dominance pre-keto. Thanks to daily hot chocolates (several times a day) with full fat milk, pastry, sugar etc It was removed surgically and I started eating keto about a year after.

I therefore follow a no-dairy, no soy ketogenic diet which has completely eradicated my estrogen dominance symptoms. I mainly use coconut milk (very rarely almond milk). I may use vegan cheese like once a yearā€¦and I donā€™t bake/eat keto treats with dairy.

Works for me.