Started keto-ing yesterday but I’m confused. I’m 70, F, pretty active but not a regular exerciser. My a1C has risen to 6.1 but with GERD (I’m been on Pantoprazole for 18mths) I’m not supposed to eat high fat. I am “cuddly” at 145 and 5"4", could loose 10lbs but more concerned about my a1C. Anyone else had the same double problem?
Pre-diabetic plus GERD Newbie!
mtncntrykid
(Ron)
#2
This is @EZB 's story and maybe he will chime in.
I am officially back OFF my GERD medication (Zegerid/omeprazole)! I was able to do this the last time I was on the ketogenic woe. I lost my way, but am back permanently. This is a BIG deal!
At age 13, I thought I was having a heart attack. I had horrible, stabbing pains in my back at a friend’s house on a sleepover. I went to the doctor the next day after it had improved, and he diagnosed me with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Apparently, all of my hunger pains as a child were also GERD symptoms, not hunger pains. (I ate 23 bowls of cereal for breakfast once as a child because I thought it was hunger.) My doctor prescribed Pepcid, and I took it for about 10 years, when it stopped working. I switched to a few other medicines over about the next 5 years, but settled on Zegerid (omeprezole and bicarbonate), which I took at 40mg per day until I was diagnosed with T2DM and went keto.
I thought I was cured (of GERD and T2DM) and went low-carb. Things fell apart, and I had to start taking Zegerid again. In that time, I learned that I am actually very sensitive to garlic. If I eat fresh garlic, the stabbing pains are unbearable. However, garlic powder seems to not be so bad for me. Anyway, I went from 20mg once a day to 20mg twice a day until I went back to the keto way! I stopped taking the medicine as often and got to every other day. Switching to an alternate-day fasting routing helped that. Well, as of yesterday, I hadn’t taken the medication at all in a week! I think that means I am officially done with it!
kib
(karen)
#3
Dr. Berg feels it’s a case of too little acid rather than too much. I think we have a whole thread devoted to how people feel about him, but what he says is that with heartburn / acid reflux and GERD, the valve between the stomach and the esophagus doesn’t close properly if the stomach pH is too alkaline. I know it sounds counter intuitive, but have you ever tried ACV?
https://www.drberg.com/blog/a-simple-fix-for-gerd-and-acid-reflux
Pineau
(Caryl H)
#7
No but it’s been recommended to me. Just sounds yucky to take daily. Do you mean take it while doing Ketogenic?
kib
(karen)
#8
I don’t know that it would be related to keto per se, but it might help with your GERD and it would be fine to try while on keto, it has almost no carbs. But the medication you take reduces stomach acid, so it wouldn’t make sense to do both at once. I was really just curious if you’d ever tried increasing your stomach acid to help with digestion / GERD.
Pineau
(Caryl H)
#9
Well I will certainly try it because my Rx for Gerd is a health risk. There’s a warning on it’s own info to not take it for more than a year and AARP did an expose’ about otc and prescription meds for Gerd as they’ve been found to contribute to heart attacks. Thank you🤩
EZB
(Ethan)
#10
I think there are many contributors to GERD. In my case, as @mtncntrykid pointed out from another post I had made, I can name at least a few: body weight, carbs, and garlic. Reducing body weight and eating low carb go together. My gastroenterologist had no issues with me taking omeprazole when I started keto. He had no issues with the high-fat intake and the proton-pump inhibitor. In fact, he said to come see him if I was unable to ween myself off. I haven’t even seen a contraindication with PPIs and the ketogenic diet.
As the weight came off, I was able to come off of the medication in 4-6 months. It is important to ween off and not abruptly stop taking such medications! Your a1c will naturally go down–and likely quickly–as you become keto adapted. The ketogenic diet has really been the solution to many of my health problems. I still have issues if I eat fresh garlic though. Garlic has been linked to causing a relaxed esophageal sphincter.
misterbutters
(Linda)
#11
Wow. You actually got to talk to your GI guy? I wouldn’t recognize mine if he was in my living room dancing with my sister. And I’ve had two colonoscopies and a upper endoscopy.
On a serious note, I can’t seem to get off of the PPIs even after a couple of years of keto. My stomach didn’t even really start to feel better until I cut way back on the fiber (the exact opposite of the doc’s recommendation). Now I’m kinda resigned to a lifetime of one zole or another.
Pineau
(Caryl H)
#12
Thank you Ethan, that’s so good to hear! I didn’t know about garlic being a common cause. I’ve always eaten my food too quickly so assumed it was that, plus drinking coffee and red wine for years.
Trying to reduce carbs for prediabetes and also watching out for my Gerd has been difficult so I am definitely going to continue with Ketogenic.
I’m finding it harder to shop on a budget than I expected. Also how to figure out my ratios. I used a calculator but it came out as fat 50%/protein 39%/ with carbs 11% which is so different from the 70/25/5 I’ve read about in 3 books.
mtncntrykid
(Ron)
#13
Make sure you have you setting on you macro calculator to “maintain weight level” and not “lose weight level”. Until you are fat adapted you will need all that fuel for the body to transition as well as making sure there is plenty of fat for you body to learn how to use.