Newbie from Ireland joining


#21

@Shinita and @VirginiaEdie, thanks for the welcome.
@robintemplin, thanks for the words of encouragement. Is there a specific thread or somewhere here specifically discussing stroke. I dint see any in the health issue section. I’m glad you have had a good recovery, it’s encouraging

@kib1, @Shinita, @Just_Juju, thanks for the advice re doctors and patients trying to advocate for themselves . I saw stroke team yesterday (will update later) and and it was a serious negotiation with them.

@ctviggen, @Camellia, @Just_Juju. thanks for the food suggestions. I don’t have an ethical issue with eating meat, I just don’t like it, I never have. I have forced myself to eat some meat and fish but really don’t enjoy it. Chicken is fine, I will mince some beef to eat and taste some fish but get no enjoyment from it at all, in fact it’s a chore to try.
But I do appreciate all the suggestions and support.
I’m off to town for my weekly physio session and a swim and will be back later with the scary numbers from stroke team yesterday.

And apologies if my posts are sometimes rambling or incoherent, I’m just going with how my brain is working for now.


(Edith) #22

You may find your tastes change over time. I NEVER liked the fat on beef or any other meat for that matter. It would make me gag and I would remove it with surgical precision. Now, I LOVE the fatty parts of the meat.


(Robin) #23

There isn’t a specific thread on stroke. Members have shared their experiences as they happen or after the fact. I am not saying it is easy and I can’t claim that keto is a “cure”. But I strongly believe being in good health with keto makes all healing easier.


#24

This together with little beef, some chicken and other meats sounds a nice variety! I did vegetarian keto, wasn’t hard with my generous carb allowance but giving up plants for meat made it sooo much easier and better. Not like I don’t go off all the time but my typical days are nice and no challenge. Or not much, depends on what is around me…

Same but I don’t find it hard to buy sausages without additives… You don’t have that option there? Meat, fat, salt, spices, that’s it, we have this kind. Still, I wouldn’t want much processed food, it’s just some extra when in need. (Useful for fat fast days too…)

Many people need to cut out lots of potentially good keto food, we all have our tastes and sensitivities, your diet still sounds quite varied and you can cook, that helps. I always cooked for myself but when I went low-carb ages ago, I made very nearly everything myself as I had no other good options but it was fine. I just wasted so much time on new recipes I never use now… Oh well. I surely learned some things from it.

Sounds good, I will look it up… I make simple soups and they are nice but not exciting and my need for soup just goes lower and lower so I barely make soup nowadays. And I am a Hungarian, soup for every lunch was basic in my younger days, I do want multi course meals…

I see zero problem with it, I used carrots and peas on my original keto myself, they were totally needed in my soups and they are very tasty.
I used way carbier items, I still do, on carnivore, what’s wrong with that? I won’t unnecessarily restrict myself. The vast majority of my carbs comes from quite low-carb items anyway, I had times when egg was the first “culprit”… Not like animal sugars seem to matter to my body so I ignore those.
You eat berries so why wouldn’t you eat carrots? Just because some people came up with the idea of “no below ground vegs on keto”? :smiley: I never cared about that as it was a horrid idea for my individual case (and ate my daily chocolate covered frozen banana too. Anything is keto to me as long as I can keep the carbs low). I would have quit keto without my carrots and peas and banana in days, I needed them. Now I don’t.
Sometimes eating 3g carbs from something really sugary (but not added sugar or highly processed, hopefully) helps not eating much more carbs from low-carb, “keto” vegs to feel okay as a newbie. Do what works for you! It never was a good idea to deprive myself so I didn’t. I do train myself, going stricter, it helps my desires to change in the right direction (and I tend to follow my desires and really dislike feeling forced to do things right when desiring something else, resisting temptation is tiresome to impossible so this must be my way).

Very true, sometimes it’s quite drastic! I lost interest in most vegs and almost can’t skip meat for a day while I couldn’t eat it every month in the past… I liked meat, I just didn’t want it that often…
Of course, sometimes change is a necessity, we stop eating certain things we figured out bad for us… And sometimes we need to fill the void with something new.


(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #25

Welcome to the forums! You’re in the right place. A ketogenic diet can help a great deal. Might not cure your hip, but there is a reasonable chance that if you can stick to the diet, you might be able to avoid surgery, depending on how bad the damage is.

Patience is the key to this diet. As a woman, you may find that fat loss takes a while to start, since your hormones may need to re-regulate themselves first. Also, women tend to be more calorie-conscious for various reasons, and skimping on the calories is a good way to put your body into “famine mode,” which means it will stubbornly hang on to resources. Paradoxically, eating more can lead to losing weight. And a ketogenic diet helps us lose fat, while preserving and sometimes even gaining lean mass.

The key concept underlying this way of eating is the effect of insulin on the body. The metabolic dysfunction underlying the chronic diseases that plague our society are all reducible to insuli-resistance/hyperinsulinaemia. A high-carb diet stresses the body and causes various damage, both from hyperglycaemia and from hyperinsulinaemia. A ketogenic diet lowers insulin and glucose levels to a point where the body can start to heal the damage. This is why avoiding sugar, starches, and grains is so important. A ketogenic diet is rich in protein and fat, and low in glucose (which is what all carbohydrates are). Table sugar, sucrose, has the added problem of its fructose content (sucrose = 1 glucose bonded to 1 fructose), fructose being a known mitochondrial toxin.

There is a lot more to eating healthily, but the major deal of a ketogenic diet is to reduce serum glucose and serum insulin to healthier levels. The rest is just tweaks, in the end.


(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #26

There’s no guarantee of course but for most people (me included) being in ketosis will transform you.
I cured things I didn’t even know I had!
You can expect to feel different after only 3 days and fat loss very soon after. You can get down to a great weight in as little as 3 months. And it’s easy! no calorie restriction!
Just keep those carbs as low as you can … or even cut them out altogether.
Best of luck and keep everyone updated.
I hate posting after Paul, his posts are important.


#27

Thanks @Pjam, I’m certainly know when I stick to a keto approach that I have more energy and more mentally alert. It’s hard to measure that now due the stroke as that has me totally exhausted and unable to concentrate. Consultant said my brain is pulling all the serotonin I have in order to heal.
@PaulL , I’m certainly not calorie conscious,I don’t believe in calories really as a measurement to follow. And yes I’m totally doing this to reduce insulin levels and recover and remain healthy.
I’m eating much less than I was, one meal and maybe one snack but that’s all I’m hungry for. Once I’ve stopped the carbohydrate constant need for food I don’t get hugely hungry and eat as suits trying not to get hung up on regimented meal times.
And I’ve actually had the surgery, arthographic surgery to repair a labrum tear in my hip, that’s how I ended up having a stroke, during or just after surgery. Not sure yet how successful the surgery was though


#28

Ok finally here are the numbers I’m at, remember they are European so not sure how they translate to American or Imperial

On 19/08/2024 I was 86kg BMI 37.2
Blood tests in hospital showed the following
Hba1c is 56, they want it below 48
Cholesterol is 6.9, they want it below 5
LDL is 4.3, they want it below 2.5
I don’t remember my blood pressure numbers but they were high

I’m monitoring by glucose and ketone readings daily, blood sugars are much higher than they previously where but importantly don’t spike after food. I was in low ketosis this week. (using keto mojo monitor).

I am taking Eltroxin 50mg for low thyroid and have been for maybe 12 years, dose has never changed
Hospital prescribed the following for me
Atorvastatin 80mg for cholesterol
Clopidogrel 75mg for blood thinner
Lercandipane 10mg for blood pressure

Met with them this week and he started explaining pre diabetes to me and as I’ve had a stroke they were starting me on Metformin straight away. Well that was it for me and I said no. He tried to explain it would stop my body absorbing the glucose and I said wouldn’t eating less carbohydrates be better. He said the Hba1c was a 3 month indicator not a one night snapshot and i agreed but that blood test was 7 weeks ago and not reflective of the person I was now. That my diet has been totally turned around and in the 7 weeks I had lost 10% of my body weight. Bit of a stand off between us and the agreement was another round of blood tests to see where I am now. I tried to use the same arguement to reduce the statins (I’m smaller so should need less) but he wasn’t having it. I let that go, I don’t need to fight all my battles at once.

I really hate the idea of statins, my body needs cholesterol and creates it for a reason. Unnaturally suppressing it will cause more problems. He mentioned though using statins as a specific stroke reduction treatment and I really didn’t have the science to argue with him.
I’ve done a lot of reading and following all the science, I understand and believe it but since the stroke I find it difficult to recall the specific details and particularly articulate it. The info is in my brain, it just can’t come out of it.


(Alec) #29

Tipperary
I think you need beef. Can I suggest you try beef mince (shepherd’s pie without the mash?), or stew beef cubes up good and proper (over an hour) to make them soft and mushy? Chewing steak and beef slices can be unpleasant for some people, but the nutritional value of beef is 2nd to none… and you need great nutrition to do the healing you need.

Your story is a great one for us all to read carefully and heed the warnings that it tells us… we will all get different messages from it, but they will likely be important messages for us individually. Thank you so much for sharing your powerful story…. You now have to complete it with a full recovery.

Take care and good wishes!
Cheers
Alec


(KM) #30

I’ll leave the analysis of your numbers to someone else, but I always think about Dr. Ken Berry’s murmured comment. I don’t know about Ireland, but in the US, statins are evidence that a doctor is following “standard of care”. It’s more likely they’ll prescribe these drugs than not, regardless of their personal opinion.

He said in a Youtube, “I’m going to give you this statin prescription … but if you should happen to misplace it on the way out, that would be fine.”


#31

Thanks @Alecmcq , I do eat minced beef occasionally, make into meatballs or burgers or dry fry with some herbs and spices and make lettuce for wraps sprinkled with cheese. Or a Cottage pie with a cauliflower topping (Shepherds Pie is made with lamb not beef😉) but more in the winter than the summer

@kib1 I completely agree with you about the statins and the junior doctor I saw last was certainly following a protocol. I could have argued the science with him re heart health but not re stroke. On the day it happened one consultant was discussing cholesterol with me when I said it wasn’t really a measure of anything and statins weren’t the answer. She just starred at me and asked did I not believe in blood test results. I answered I most definitely believed in blood test results but just disagreed with her analysis of them and treatment. Well that was the end of that conversation.

I have to remember they are trying to keep me alive and prevent this happening again and it must be a very arrogant person or an idiot to ignore them. And at the back of my mind is well what if I am wrong and they are right and I die and they have the last laugh and my family are left wondering why I have to be so stubborn.
.


(KM) #32

I know. This attitude is just upsetting in this day and age. It’s not the 19th century. With so much info at our fingertips, why wouldn’t / couldn’t we educate ourselves to know more than our doctor about some things? I don’t think it’s the patients who are unreasonably arrogant!


#33

Back to numbers and decisions I’ve made. They told me my Hba1c (is that correct) is high. I immediately started monitoring my blood glucose. We measure in mmol/L and it should be somewhere between 4 and 7 I believe. 3.5 to 5.5 when fasting, under 7.8 after eating and anything more than an increase in 1.7 after food is considered a spike. They may be slightly higher when waking. This is all what I have read. Well the first few weeks I was getting readings between 7 and 9, much too high and really worried me. In fact I think the stress may have been driving them up further and I had to stop checking. The only good news is that they didn’t increase after food. Well I’m back checking again and checking ketones too and for the last four days I have been in moderate ketosis. Glucose readings all below 6 this week and this morning I got a 4.9 mmol/L reading. I’m very happy with that, obviously the number could’ve much better but happy that the numbers are coming down.
My current diet, fasting and exercise regime is possible because I’m at home every day and on my own schedule.
I want to do this the right way and want medical support with analysing numbers, taking correct blood tests, guiding food and fasting choices. And more importantly advising on meds. So I have made a decision to sign up with Aware Clinic. I don’t know if any of you are familiar with it but includes a nutritionist specialising in ketogenic diet, functional medicine doctors and others specialising in metabolic disease. They are founding members of the Ketogenic conference in Switzerland. I just need to figure out timing and finances.
Thanks for all the welcomes, well wishes and advice. Please jump in with more. I’m a bit hit and miss as some days my brain is my friend and well some days it just laughs at me🤣


(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #34

That’s super nice and low.
The dawn effect is a thing. Personally my BS is highest in the morning and comes down during the day.
The biggest change for me is the spikes. Don’t really have them now… A year ago I could easily see 11.5 mmol/L


#35

Thanks, that’s encouraging. Went for a walk and checked again when I came back, sugars where very slightly increased which is understandable by the exercise but ketones even higher and GKI dropped to 3 so just hitting therapeutic ketosis. I’d be happy to stop the constant monitoring now but will need to see my GP this week to get latest blood tests back and want to bring these numbers to him. I need to show him I mean business and don’t need Metformin


(KM) #36

Not to further muddy the water, but hba1c is a measurement based on the assumption that your red blood cells live exactly 90 days (which is average). It’s about the accumulated glycation over that period. If you have red blood cells that for whatever reason live longer than that, they will accumulate more, which will throw the reading off in a way that looks bad but isn’t. (vice versa, if your blood cells are dying off after 75 days for some reason, they’ll have less damage to report but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening.)

The bottom line is that it’s a somewhat useful marker of average glucose over time but, crazy making, it can actually seem worse or not reflect positive changes as your health gets better.


#37

Morning all, a quick question, I am cold, very cold. I’m normally too hot but I’ve been cold for over a week now. Is this a side effect of keto? Or could it be the meds I’m on? Or is it as simple as I am carrying less fat so less padding? Both my hand and face/nose affected by the stroke get so cold that it’s painful. Many thanks🥶


(Robin) #38

That’s a stumper! Could be a combo of all those things. Since it’s extremities tho, I’d guess circulation…? Are you able to get up and move around enough?


(KM) #39

Are these extremities actually cold to touch, or do you just have a sensation of cold? Actual cold could be a side effect of fasting / extreme calorie restriction, or reduced circulation.

One less common side effect of stroke can be a sensation of cold due to scrambled brain signals, although the body parts are actually the same temperature.


#40

They are cold to touch, but I’m pretty active at the moment. It seems it can be a side effect of blood thinners. But was wondering could it be a keto thing too, no carbs keeping me warm.