Kickas.org Forums Treatments, Drugs and Alternatives NSD and diet-related; No Starch/Carnivore Diet Problem?

For the last 2 months I've been following the "carnivore diet" (eating only meat, and also salmon and eggs). While I realize this is often seen as an extreme version of "no starch," I did it to guarantee that the diet had zero starch. I've found various food lists to be too unreliable for peace of mind (e.g., saying something is free of starch which nonetheless turned dark black when I tested it with iodine). Doing meat/fish/eggs only removed any doubt, which was the goal. I'm also assuming 2 months of zero starch (and I followed it with absolute strictness and no lapses) would be long enough to significantly reduce any klebsiella populations in the gut.

RESULT: Inconclusive.

It's hard to tell whether this worked or not; the really terrible crippling joint pains that required a cane to walk have dissipated, but during this time I've also been on Enbrel from about week 4-12, and was told that around week 12 or before patients start to see improvement.

So it seems impossible to tell if it was the diet, or the biologic, or both, which reduced joint pain (from 8/10 to around 3/10).

My two most serious and painful symptoms have been a badly swollen and immobile knee which can't bend, and disabling, severe fatigue that prevents exercise or even normal daily functioning.

These have both remained largely unchanged even with the Enbrel/NSD combination. Still can't exercise, still the flu-like total lack of energy, etc.

Put another way, if the current state of things is the best result that this diet can offer, I don't really consider it a solution. It's nothing approaching what "normal" used to be, nor is it like the near-total remission I've seen others experience using diet and/or medication.


Here's the main problem: I just got blood work done, and although the inflammation markers have gone down (CRP, etc.), my cholesterol (which was 173 earlier this year), is now 527, through the roof, with normal triglycerides (97) but crazy high LDL (398).

I've read various carnivore-diet defenders say that high LDL is no big deal, cholesterol doesn't cause heart disease, etc. That may be true, but I'm not qualified to evaluate it, and seeing a number that high (almost triple my old value!) is unsettling.

So my question, for anyone with advice: what's the next best step?

Go back to what I ate before, starch and all, relying on the Enbrel alone to keep the joint pain at bay?

Keep going with carnivore and risk the heart attack?

Try to find some medium, risking some starch inclusion but also getting vitamins and fiber that would lower the alarming blood markers?


I know it sounds a bit morbid, but if forced to choose, a short, relatively joint-pain free life on the meat diet, followed by premature death from a fatal heart attack, actually sounds far preferable to a longer but excruciating life with the way my joints used to feel, while back on the starch-heavy diet.

I also got a test done recently for the gut microbiome (results pending) while in the midst of this diet, so I'll wait to see if it measurably reduced certain bacteria or if it was all placebo.

I'd really appreciate any advice.