Kickas.org Forums Treatments, Drugs and Alternatives NSD and diet-related; anyone feel worse before getting better?

hello everyone
just want to start off by saying how grateful i am to have come across these forums..
it has almost been a week now on my new diet adventure, i know i have screwed up quite a bit, but for the most part i have cut out starch to the best of my ability.
honestly, my pain has gotten much worse over the past week, i am hoping that there is some sort of detox process happening? i am going to keep sticking with it though. i also think i am losing weight which seems odd because i am consuming around the same amount of calories. anyhow, just wondering if this is a normal response?

thanks!

kelly

Hi Kelly
I just started this diet too a couple of days ago so I really hope worse before better is not true, I shall be following your threads and replies closely. Take care.
MJG

I've been reading these forums for 6 months now and they seem to go back & forth on the "feeling bad before good" detox process. From what I can tell (and from my experience - I'm 5 1/2 months into it), things get worse for those who have addictions to foods / medicine. For example, I was on Enbrel (biologic medicine) for almost 9 years. When I got off of it & went on NSD/LSD diet I had a MAJOR crash because the "gate" that was blocking the auto-immune system was now open. It was the hardest physical thing I've ever had to overcome.

Ok, now that I've scared you, I can tell you this is an extreme case. For most others, they are addicted to coffee, bread, sugar, etc. and it takes the body time to reboot / detox itself. Using supplements during these times can really help lessen the pain and/or make the healing process quicker. These "worse before better" times have lasted mostly for days & weeks; sometimes months for people on this forum.

Just remember to document your experience so you can review and say "yes, I feel like this today, but I'm better than two weeks ago". Small battles keep you going until the day you're healed.

thank you for your reply..
im really not sure what is going on. i was on enbrel for about 4 months, i just got off it almost 3 weeks ago. this morning i woke up at 4am with really loud noises coming from my stomach, no pain in gut.. just REALLY loud noises.. very strange, not the usual kind. im also in a lot of pain all over and i am kind of scared to eat anything at this point because ive for the most part been doing lots of fruits, veggies and nuts, but now i am worried that i am reacting really badly to something ive eaten?? ehhhh.. this is quite frustrating because i think i felt better when i was eating crap. dont mean to be so negative, im just a little overwhelmed as i have work in an hour and i feel like i dont know how im gonna make it through the day.
i do know that i have severe gluten intolerance/possible celiac but never confirmed.. i got a bunch of dried fruits and nuts from bulk bins which could be cross-contaminated? i just dont know, i feel very confused about this all..
any feedback would be helpful..
thanks,

kelly

Hi Kelly,
This diet takes a while to figure out. People differ from what they can and can't eat and it will take time to figure out what works for you. Also, this kind of healing takes time and I had a lot of ups and downs in the beginning but when I look back the flares slowly became less severe and less frequent. I would think that the enbrel takes a while to completely leave your system and maybe your also feeling the effects of it being completely gone after being used to it.

Sorry you are having such a hard time with it. It took me awhile to respond early on too but stick with it. It has changed my life.

Annette

@Kelly

It took me a few months to notice a difference with the diet. I was in a bad state, but ditched the only med I was prescribed, Naproxen (NSAID), once the prescription ran out, 1 month into my diet change.

I can completely relate to the LOUD GI tract noices. I've had IBS for most of my life, and much more so once my full-body inflammatory problem flared up 2 years ago.

When I changed my diet around in Jan 2011 it was as if I went through a withdrawl/detox process. I felt extremely weak, lightheaded (both from moving off sugars/starch and the existing high level inflammation), my GI tract was 'upset' to say the least, with hilarious amounts of gurgling and crazy noices. Much louder than ever before, in other words.
I thought it was going to implode, or turn inside out, or... it was nuts!

1.5 yrs into an auto-immune diet protocol my stomach is now very 'quiet' (unless I'm hungry!). I have no IBS problems unless I stray and ingest foods that do not agree with me.

Like others have mentioned, taking charge of your health via diet is a slow, and sometimes frustrating process as anti-inflammatory diets are very person-specific. Stick with it though, I assure you it is well worth it in the end.

I'm a terribly impatient person by nature, but 'luckily' I'm also stubborn (!), which has come in handy as I've figured out (still figuring out) what foods work for me.

As I have no signs of inflammation/bone changes that any of my doctors will recognize, I just stick to what I'm doing, anticipating long-term that my health will slowly keep improving. As it has, for more than a year at this point.

A read regarding an intially stricter (more limited) diet approach, that can probably be altered down the road:

http://paleodietlifestyle.com/dealing-with-autoimmune-diseases-and-digestive-problems/


Hang tight
/Kristine

Ah yes, the dreaded 3 week mark. Now that I've tried going off Enbrel twice (once without LSD, now with), I can tell you that you're at the hard part getting off the "drug". The good news is that you haven't taken it long enough so the side effects aren't as great.

As others have mentioned, I got the noises too along with LOADS of gas (especially when I was Vegan at the time of the 3rd week). Making a long story short, your body is just starting the healing process. If I had to do this all over again (and I never want to do this all over again), I would concentrate on meats / proteins and veggies. For nuts, try soaking them in water (read other posts about this) to help the digestion & always take a digestive enzyme before you eat. If you want to go further than that, take a digestive enzyme 1/2 hour before you eat & then an HCL when you are about to eat. This may help balance things.

Lastly, do your research on supplements & start right away. I went to an auto-immune seminar & it really started my process of healing with the supplements listed there. The two that helped the most for me back then were Gut Repair I & Pyloricin.

Keep up the good fight!

Hi there, without know what you're eating exactly, I would think this is just the fact that you have come off enbrel. Was it working well for you previously or helping at all with your symptoms? Now that you are off it and it is almost out of your system completely then your AS symptoms will return with a roar. The diet will take time to get them back under control.

I know some people say not to but I would suggest temporarily taking some anti-inflammatory pain relief (NSAID)if you find they help just to get you though this rough patch until you figure out the diet properly and it has time to kick in. My husband slowly weaned himself off NSAIDs over a period of about 9 months once he started the diet.

All the best

Wow! I came to the forums today to ask this very question. So thanks for all the information already.

I am having a hard time with total compliance. Just got a bottle of iodine the other day, and found out I was eating things that had starch in them without realizing it.

This could take awhile to figure out before I can really say I'm starting. At some point I will have tested everything in the kitchen and know for sure what's what.

I have been feeling better when I am compliant though and that is the motivation I need to continue. But each time I restart there is a time period when I feel worse before I start feeling better.

Valentine

thank you so much again, everyones posts helped me very much, i really hadnt even thought about the enbrel factor. the enbrel worked for me for about 2 months, than stopped working and made me feel like crap. what i still dont quite understand is that before i started this diet, my digestion felt pretty good.. so why now would my stomach be making noises, etc etc... ?
i am relieved that this may have to do with coming off enbrel, and im still going to stick to this diet for sure. this is rough though, really rough. i honestly dont think i have been in this much pain since all of this started, and the fatigue is killin me... but i oddly enough have a pretty optimistic outlook on all of this. i hope i can keep that up.
i have had to resort to nsaids a couple times, and tramadol today. not something i want to do, but i didnt think i was going to make it through work.

any advice is much appreciated..