Discussion Board

I took the drug Savella for fibromyalgia. I decreased the dose because it made my blood pressure go up too much. When I started Atkins, my blood pressure went up again. I ended up having to stop the drug Savella and finally stopped Atkins because of effects on my blood pressure and allergies. By the way, some of the users at Atkins can get really nasty when you dare say the diet affected your blood pressure. I was watching my sodium intake. I found it hard to keep it under 2,500mg, but it usually was 1,500mg-2,500mg. I also did not add as much extra fat as a lot of people do and just let my calories not be as high as they recommended. I was trying not to choose many fatty meaty. I never ate the skin on the chicken. Still my BP was affected. The Atkins diehards want to blame it on the dieter, not that ... hey maybe all that meat wasn't good for the blood pressure. The spikes in BP were a risk that I didn't want to take. The last bone in chicken breast that I bought was about double the size of the chicken that I bought 25 years ago. It made me wonder what they were feeding the chickens to make them amazon size. When I went to cook the chicken, the package said 12% solutions added and called it natural. Natural chickens don't have solutions added to them. Yuck!

Initially, I noticed a sharp drop in my BP when I ate Vegan the second day. I wanted to dance on the table. Today it seems to have normalized I guess. Now I guess I wait for healing and repair. I have had pain for about ten years from fibromyagia and my activity has decreased. Now it seems this horrible thing called menopause has caused imbalances in my body and I have some hair loss.

This is day three of going Vegan, MWL. My daughter is doing McDougall too but she doesnt need to lose weight. She needs to get rid of RA pain. She is allergic to wheat and carries epi pen for it.

The bloated feeling that I had before starting the Vegan plan is now gone. My waist is down 2 inches so there was definite bloat. My hips are down 1 inch. Blood pressure was ok today.

No responses to any of my posts.

Well, my BP is better overall. Pain is not better. I wonder if people get detox flu when they have been eating meat and cut it out. I have felt nauseated.

Welcome. I look forward to following your journey

Hey newme! Welcome. I'm trying to get on here more often. I think posting in my journal and reading other people's posts will help me stay on track. I like finding new journals! I've been back on plan for a week now and I feel like I'm new. So, I'll be here right along with you.

Welcome to the boards and McDougall. I hope you get relief from your pain.

Hi all,

Thank you for your well wishes. I stepped off the wagon when I visited my brother and today I was mostly back on plan... well except for the lowfat frozen yogurt cone. I have discovered that one or two of my other meds is affecting my blood pressure. It was lower before I took my meds than after. About 111/72 before and 131/90 after.

I will need to take my meds separately and check BP after each to try to track. I have the original book. I need to find it. I would like to get the MWL book.

I have not had much success with my doctors. It seems I have to discover everything on my own.

Welcome. When I stay following McDougall program and stay away from gluten I have no issues with my fibro. I have found if I slip back to any of the foods not on this plan or that have gluten then I'm right back to the bloating and pain. I love this way of eating for many reasons. there is a link to my blog in my signature feel free to read it.

How long did it take for you to be able to tell a difference in how you feel. I have been tested for celiacs disease and gluten and wheat allergies. Nothing came up for them but I have several other allergies or should I say delayed food sensitivities - casein, flax, cayenne pepper, MSG, tuna. I break out in hives. I wasnt eating wheat for about six week when I did Atkins/Vegan Atkins and now I still try to avoid it for the most part. Did you feel worse before you got better? I have felt much worse... many more aches and pains. Dry eyes so severe that I had to restart my dry eye therapy of daily fish oil. Flax oil is the other treatment but last time I used it daily I broke out in hives. I can only use flax on occasion so that the amount stays low in my system. Do I have to go through a detox period before I feel better.

Detox is normal on the program. I'm sure you know it varies for everyone. As for the dry eyes, instead of the fish oil, I would eat chia or flax seed. They talk about it somewhere in the forum --if you use the search button, you might be able to bring up old topics regarding dry skin and dry eyes. Keep on keepin on

flax oil is the best recommendation for dry eyes. but I can not eat it daily due to allergy type sensitivity to it. Eye doctor says it works better than fish oil. I can only take it about every 3 or 4 days though. I am not sure how much flax would be equal to 2,000 to 3,000 mg oil. I have wondered about chia but have not been able to find any official recommendations for it. I will have to try the search. My eyes have actually felt sore today so I am ready for relief. Thanks for the info

I found my old mcdougall book. I am not sure how it compares to the new one. By it I should have been feeling better within the first week. Not only have I not been feeling better, but I have felt much much worse. I feel like someone has beaten the hell out of me. The amount of pain is 100 fold what it was before. When I checked the inflammation factor the foods I was eating were higher in it. The more simple a carbohydrate, the higher the inflammation factor because it affects blood sugar more. My blood pressure is much better, but I hurt so bad. Sometimes my feet hurt to walk now. Back hurts daily. legs hurt. Pain overall is so much worse. Some days I have stayed in bed most of the day. I felt better than this when I broke out in hives for two weeks straight from an allergen.

How quickly you feel better really has to do with how bad you are before you start eating different. I was extremely bad it took me a couple of months for some things to get better and some got worse before getting better.