Neurological oddities

#1

Hi all, im going to spill my heart out a little here, please do come back with your thoughts.

So for around 20 years now (im now 36) i have had very peculiar issues with my head. I have found that almost daily i have periods where i stop thinking clearly, my mind almost goes blank and i feel strong urges to zone out and stare/blankly gaze. Its very odd, i dont HAVE to do this staring for example i can act in work and force myself to act normal but its hard as i want to zone out. I also have had odd, shock like symptoms every now and then where i get what feels like an electric shock in my head for a second which makes me go tense and then its gone leaving me feeling like…holy shit what was that! Id often get very fatigued in the afternoons also following periods of this zoning out etc.

Theres been a number of other odd symptoms over the years also like feeling unsteady on my feet or like a blurry vision but i wont bore you with more details. Ive been to neurology and had MRIs. The latest scan showed some lesions on my brain but the neurologist called my scans healthy but ‘individual’, he 100% said its not epilepsy and discharged me saying eat healthy and exercise. So this is good news i guess as he wasnt worried but what are these lesions and why do i have these symptoms!!? (Rhetorical questions)

Anyway over the years ive found booze helps…its great until the next day haha then its worse so i get its not healthy but i dont begrudge anyone trying to jusy get respite from symptoms. The good news for me is that the keto diet helps me a ton, its really improves a lot of my symptoms to the point i cant quite believe it…i think that surely it cant be this simple so i go back to carbs to test and low and behold i feel awful again. This again is great news for me as i now have a diet and lifestyle that clears many of my symptoms up! I know it could all be me making this up, fabricating symtoms or being anxious or stressed etc ( thats what doctors seem to pass everything off as) but all i can say is that these symptoms persist whether stressed chilled sad happy nervous confident fat thin etc etc. The keto diet has proven phenomenal for me, but its still leaving me with huge gaping questions as to what the heck is going on in my head to cause me these problems?? If anyone has any ideas here itd be great to hear from you.

(Karen Parrott) #2

How much and how often do you drink?

#3

Ive cut down a lot, in my 20s id drink a lot due to not knowing what was going on but for about 3 4 years now i limit alcohol to a few drinks at weekends and keep them keto friendly i.e. spirit’s or wine.

(Diana ) #4

Regardless of what your doctor said, it still sounds like petit mal seizures to me. Possibly seizures but not epileptic type? If the Keto way of life made them go away, could it have been caused by celiac disease? candida overgrowth? leaky gut?

You may never get a true answer, but I bet you will stay on the Keto.

(Diane) #5

I recently began reading Dr. Sarah Myhill’s book Essential Medicine. I enthusiastically recommend this for anyone interested in getting healthy or in optimizing their health.

One thing that comes to mind is her assertion that many diseases of civilization are related to problems with energy delivery systems (mitochondrial function in the body, dendrite function [if I understood her correctly] in the brain). The brain is about 2% of our body weight but uses 20% of the energy we produce. So, it’s highly susceptible to problems in energy delivery.

After reading Dr. Myhill’s work, I’d say it might be beneficial to be very particular about the quality of fats you are eating (NO inflammatory PUFAs such as canola and soybean oils) as the fats that make up the myelin sheaths on nerve cells seem to be essential to energy delivery in the brain.

Here is a quote from Dr. Myhill’s book: “We need two types of fat for good brain function –firstly, medium-chain fats as fuels, such as meat fat (lard and dripping), butter, coconut oil, palm oil and chocolate fat; and secondly, fats for building membranes for energy delivery in the myelin sheaths –these are long-chain fats found in vegetables, fish, nut and seed oils.” I personally have to be very careful with all seed oils, as they cause a lot of inflammation in my body and exacerbate my fatigue.

Just some thoughts that occurred to me. Good luck!

#6

Thanks Diane i have often wondered if my brain doesnt process the glucose from usual dietary foods i.e normal diets with carbs. Id often find symptoms intense post lunch. My brain certainly feels as though it processes ketones a lot better than glucose 100%. Can i ask you what fats you’d avoid with the above? Id like to have food lists for the good/bad fats you allude to so i can really test out this hypotheses. The book sounds really interesting I’ll get a copy

(Diane) #7

I’ve been using avocado, coconut and MCT oils, butter, browned butter, ghee, tallow, lard, bacon drippings, some good quality olive oil (mostly for dressings), heavy cream and I add extra eggs yolks and/or heavy cream to my scrambled eggs. I’ve been experimenting and making my own mayonnaise with different oils (didn’t like extra virgin olive oil, it made the mayo taste bitter; avocado oil was ok, but not great) because the Primal Kitchen brand of avocado oil mayos are really expensive. I’d be willing to try cold pressed nut oils like hazelnut, macadamia nut, walnut, and almond (if I can find them and budget permitting). The reason I’m looking to add the nut oils is based on Dr. Myhill’s recommendation.

I avoid canola (AKA rapeseed, I think), soybean, sunflower, corn, cottonseed, grapeseed, peanut (although peanut oil is not the worst of the seed oils) and vegetable oils including products like Crisco.

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #8

I know exactly what you are describing. For me, was leaving work and sitting in my car staring at the steering wheel and realizing I’ve been doing it for many minutes. This over and over, not being able to find my words. I always called it fatigue, the kind where my mind is just done. I’ve used caffeine, nicotine, sugar and back in the day, adhd meds to combat this.

I knew in my heart of hearts it was sugar crashes. I did Atkins in my 20’s and felt better than a normal person should for about two years but then let the carbs creep back in over the years using many life events as an excuse for comfort eating.

As to the why of it all, for me I think a couple of things might be happening to make me feel clearer and brighter now. Better gut bacteria, no sugar/insulin highs and lows, more b vitamins in my diet, better sleep and much more protein (I was vegetarian prior to going back to this WOE).

I say do some searches on absence seizures and fatigue in relation to diet.

(Amy Ramadan) #9

After reading your post I am truly at a loss as to what to think, so sadly I cannot be any help to you. I do want to wish you the best of luck with getting to the bottom of this, as I know all too well how hard baffling medical conditions can be, as well as the physical and mental toll they take on you!! Keeping you in my thoughts and prayers and please keep posting as to your progress. I think you will find this forum is full of knowledgeable, supportive people, and that may be a bigger help than you ever could have realized. All the best…

#10

Here’s Tim Noakes’ Green List of food safe to eat:

And Red List of foods to avoid: