Skin issues on carnivore diet

(Edith) #22

I think I read somewhere once that histamine intolerance is more prevalent among middle-aged women. Probably another annoying something to do with our ever-shifting hormones.

(Eve) #23

@VirginiaEdie. That is pretty much the same for me. Before the keto diet l realised l had the histamine intolerance and canā€™t eat any aged, smoked, meats, no processed meats, no salami, pepperoni, ham, etc, no tinned fish at all, no seafood that comes from the shop, and no spinach or aubergine. If l do l get immensely bloated with very bad indigestion. The keto diet hasnā€™t helped but for me l reckon it is due to a leaky gut which may take a while to heal.

(Edith) #24

Yes, tinned fish is a problem for me, too. Racing heart/heart palpitations is one of my symptoms. Taking an antihistamine actually helps.

(Eve) #25

Piriton helps a little but not much , unfortunately. So l just have to be vigilant over what l eat!

#26

Your symptoms sound like (apart from what others have already suggested):

i) Seborrheic Dermatitus (ignore most of these disease triggers- carni seems to trigger you):
image

ii) Hives.:
image
image

I didnā€™t want to include pics, but have a search to see if you can identify- then see your primary care provider with possible referral to a dermatologist, would be my advice.

#27

My situation is very similar but instead of bumps I get dry skin and low skin turgor primarily on my hands. But it also goes away as soon as I introduce plants. Not necessarily carb-rich ones.

https://www.ketogenicforums.com/t/low-skin-turgur-and-dry-skin/

#28

Forgive me. Might be an electrolyte and hydration issue; when you are carni I mean?

#29

Op mentioned that he experimented with salt. And I experimented with electrolytes too if you read my thread

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #30

I would suspect so, and that probably most allergic reactions are rooted in genetics. That said, some allergies develop from overexposure to the allergen. Moreover, as in the case of this yearā€™s pollen counts, too much of certain allergens can make people react, whether they are normally allergic or not.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #31

It makes a lot of sense. A friend of mine, a nurse practitioner who specialises in womenā€™s health, says she believes that women are far more sensitive to things that might be toxic to a baby (we were talking about why my sister often throws away leftovers that still seem edible to me). Histamines surely fall into that category.

#32

@dr_wtf: I was familiar with the other thread you started and yes, the symptoms are partly similar. In my case, dry skin is also associated with those bumps I am having, it improves within a day or so if I go non-zero-carb. Letā€™s stay in contact and try to get to the bottom of this. Out of curiosity - could you descibe your overall body composition? I am tall, slim (ectomorph?), hard-gainer in the ā€œhealthierā€ state that Iā€™m in right now, very low A1C, probably fast metabolism.

Contrary to many other posters, I donā€™t think there is anything inherently wrong with what you are doing. This whole area is complex and most people are heavily confused about causal relationship here. For example, few weeks back I watched a Ken Berry video talking about how food comas are NOT normal and that thay are caused by carbs. Well except that in my case, they are clearly not caused by carbs at all (adding rice to my steak alleviates the food coma) and according to posters here they are a normal part of the culture. Which is as a big of a contradiction as you can possibly get and those are members of the same community.

I will be looking into this further in the future and my best bet right now is to do some lab testing before/after meals, especially insulin, glucose levels and electrolytes. Mechanisms behind some of the issues I have (skin, bumps, food comas) are suspiciously fast-acting and directly related to the meal composition.

#33

Ok, these were definitely different ā€œbumpsā€ from what is described here, but I think I should add this in case someone with this particular issue is reading the thread because of the title. A few months into Keto, I developed lots of hard bumps on my upper arms. They started to worry me because they felt like little tumors. The doc said that they were deposits of hard fat that would resolve as I went on losing. And so they did. They were so numerous that it alarmed me at first. To note: I was very, very overweight, and losing quite rapidly at that stage, as the morbidly obese do on good diets.

(Edith) #34

Food comas were never a thing for me when I ate carbs and now while Iā€™m keto. They really only occur after eating a large beef only meal. It is like being drugged. If I keep beef quantity below 6 ounces, it does not happen.

#35

Turkey sends me into a food coma every time. Always has, regardless of diet.

#36

Wow. Turkey is just a light snack to me (as all fowl, apparently. okay, maybe if I jumped a roasted duck, that would be different, who knows?).

I see food coma means something more sinister to someā€¦ I am not even sure about the definitionā€¦ I only ever experienced getting even less energetic and sleepier. I had that today and napped after my lunch. I have that energy drop in early afternoon anyway, Iā€™ve heard that is pretty commonā€¦? But a substantial meal makes it way more pronounced.

#37

I am 1,83cm, 81kg and 34 years old. Started gaining weight at 27, my maximum was 92kg. Started doing some calisthenics and low carb because of that. Helped with my atopic dermatitis. But after 3 months of lion diet it completely went away. Though it feels like I never stop losing weight when only eating meat since I have difficulties getting a sufficient amount of calories in. Fat disgusts me after some time. I am currently at a point where I feel sick just thinking about lamb due it being so fatty.

I did a HOMA-IR test like a year ago and it was 1.4. So insulin resistence is not really an issue. Before starting to gain weight my diet was crap my whole life by any sane standard. Autoimmune issues started at 14 and got worse over time.

I am looking into bloodwork also and maybe some microbiome analysis. The question is what to test for. I canā€™t find a proper holistic doctor where I live because they all offer some ridiculous nonsense like homeopathy and energy medicine so I donā€™t trust them. And normal doctors just tell me to take cortisone which I am avoiding through the diet.

My next step is getting better after the last carnivore break and then try to introduce fruit in addition. My current theory is that veggies are bad because they donā€™t wanna be eaten but fruits are not because they do want to be eaten. Challange is to not overdose on fruits. If that would be successful, Iā€™d try to introduce some nuts.

#38

When I was T2 and overweight, before keto, I would get food comatose after eating lunch.

As you can imagine, this was very embarrassing when on site or in the office.
No amount of coffee or walking in fresh air would counter it. It was like being all of a sudden virtually narcolepticā€¦hard to even hold my head up and eyes open never mind concentrate on work.

Iā€™m pleaseed to say that I donā€™t have those symptoms anymore since losing weight and reversing T2 on keto.
So I can only conclude that, for me anyway, the food coma was related to the type of food I was eating (high in carbs, even if small portions), insulin resistance, and the T2 condition.

But flip me that was embarrassing (at work) while it lasted. :slightly_frowning_face:

(Edith) #39

Yes, thatā€™s pretty much how it was for me but with meat. I think most carnivorous predators gorge themselves on the kill and then have to nap and rest their bloated bellies afterwards. I think thatā€™s what happened to me. :rofl:

#40

It seems that the experience is a bit different for everyone. In my case, the severity does not seem to have much to do with one particular meat or portion size. The first meal on a given day makes me feel disabled or drugged (as VirginiaEdie mentioned) if Iā€™m currently zero carb and the effect is very intense. On any keto (with maybe ~30 carbs a day? and eating vegetables), I did not have this problem. What I wanted to say if I managed to be precise is that it is not ā€œuniversallyā€ just carb-related as some people claim.:wink:

@dr_wtf: I started carnivore partly because of eczema too (~6 years of sebo dermatitis in my case) and it healed in about 6-7 months. Keto alone did not resolve that, triggers unknown. These side effects I mentioned are however pretty annoying. I donā€™t want to go back to fruit/vegetable keto because of eczema and right now itā€™s hard to stay zero-carb because of these weird side effects. Stuck between a rock and a hard place.>]

#41

Yeahā€¦I now have to watch seb derm too, and Iā€™ve never had in in my life beforeā€¦never before Covid/vaccine/keto/excessive gin drinking, which all happened at once for me! So I canā€™t narrow it down.

Iā€™m only using keto nowā€¦plus during a flare up E45 or sudocreme which seems to help.
There are stronger topical meds on prescription (daktacort for example, not sure of spelling.).
But Iā€™ve seemed to got on top of it, and flare ups are minor now.

Use a shampoo called Dermax (sic) too if you canā€¦but itā€™s a tenner a bottle.

Good luck!