Middle of the Night Nausea / Day Migraines

(Athena) #1

I started Keto at the beginning of August. Mid-August I started getting migraines, (which were previously completely controlled), throughout the day, that would not respond to my medication, but would go away for a while when I ate pink salt. I’m eating more sodium, and maybe there is a little improvement with the migraines. I enjoy salt and use it on all my food.

Now I’m waking up at least twice a night to pee, and when I try going back to sleep, I suddenly get more and more nauseous. I find getting up and eating pink salt fixes it, and then I’m able to go back to sleep.

I went off my diuretic a couple of weeks ago (with doctor’s ok) thinking things would get better. I tried Ketoaid twice, but both times it gave me very bad diarrhea. I’ve ordered sodium tablets from Amazon, but they won’t be here for a week. I also picked up potassium from the drugstore yesterday.

Help! My adult son who lives with me is freaking out over this and keeps insisting I go to the doctor, which I don’t want to do; she doesn’t want me having more than 2000mg sodium per day, and sodium is what seems to relieve my symptoms.

#2

Obviusly check with your doctor but the recommended supplements are magnesium, calcium, potassium and sodium.

I had a bout of naseua in the first few weeks, also not the first week. I do not remember what I ate but it started with dinner. It went away after a week. Bone broth sometimes brought it on in the beginning so I stopped eating it and only recently started again

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #3

Are you getting enough fluids? A high-carb diet promotes water retention, and eliminating carbs causes the kidneys to excrete extra water. So along with your salt, magnesium, and potassium, you need to keep your body supplied with water. I don’t go bonkers trying to stay hydrated, but I do notice that I drink a lot more water and coffee since going keto.

By the way, the scientific evidence for the connection between salt and high blood pressure is no more solid than the “evidence” that eating a lot of fat causes heart disease. It may not be really the right thing to lie to your doctor, and I shouldn’t advise you to do so, but I still can’t help feeling that what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her. . . .

(Athena) #4

I am getting a lot of fluids. I don’t force myself to drink water constantly, but I do drink water throughout the day. I’m never without a glass next to me when I’m home, and I’m home most of the time. However I’ve been thinking about it, and I’ve had diarrhea for some time now, many weeks. Maybe I am losing too much fluid, and with it, electrolytes?

I’m really starting to get frustrated. I’m not able to sleep more than 2 hours at a time without waking up in waves of nausea.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #5

You know, it occurred to me to wonder if you’re getting enough fiber. Remember that it doesn’t count toward the 20g limit, since you don’t digest it. It’s a thought, anyway. And I still think that if salt helps, you should get as much of it as you need.

Try vegetables such as broccoli (though beware: broccoli is 26% protein; don’t forget to count that). Celery is mostly cellulose and water, so you could eat a lot of that and most of it wouldn’t count (cucumber, too). Just a couple of examples, you get the idea.

Anyway, I hope you figure it out and start to feel better. We’re all pulling for you!

(Athena) #6

Good idea, @PaulL. I just went to the grocery store and got some broccolini. I hope it helps. :broccoli:

I’m not at all worried to take in as much salt or sodium as it takes to feel better. I read here we need as much as 5,000-10,000mg/day. I can’t wait for my sodium tablets to arrive. They say they will be here by the 19th. I’ll definitely be trying one before bedtime. :

(Sjur Gjøstein Karevoll) #7

Waking up in the middle of the night could be a symptom of high cortisol. Needing to pee could be a symptom of high cortisol. The nausea could be a symptom of hypoglycemia, which would be the cause for the high cortisol. Cortisol is in general also higher on keto as it helps upregulate gluconeogenesis.

If this is the case then it might just be a matter of adaptation. Other things you could do is eat more carbs before you go to bed, exactly how you want to experiment with this is up to you. You could “borrow” carbs from earlier in the day and have something like an apple or banana before bed, you could do the same but without reducing your carbs earlier in the day (going slightly higher on carbs in total) or you could just move all your meals to before bed.

It could also be something else entirely. I don’t know, I’m not a doctor.

(Athena) #8

I’m only waking up to pee once per night and have done so all of my life. The other times I’m woken up by the nausea. I don’t know about the cortisol but I do have diabetes (went off diabetes meds soon after starting Keto) so I think it would be weird to have hypoglycemia, wouldn’t it?

(Sjur Gjøstein Karevoll) #9

I’m not an expert on diabetes, but I’m pretty sure you can still become hypoglycemic when you have t2dm. Have you checked your glucose levels when you get woken up?

Anyway, if you’re diabetic then eating carbs before bed is not that great of an idea. If anything you want to go for low GI carbs if you try but I think the best option is just to wait another month and see if you adapt any more.

Also, if you’re not waking up to pee more than usual then some of the evidence for my hypothesis falls out the window doesn’t it? If sodium helps with the symptoms then that’s what you should focus on.

#10

You may want to do some BG checking, as was suggested when you are woken up due to nasuea, right before you go to bed and in the morning. A couple of days should give you an idea if that is the problem.

With regard to stomach issues, I am a big fan of psyllium fiber, Trader Joes sells it cheaply. While people use it as a laxative it also helps to bind