Ketogenic diet helps a myriad of health issues

This is going to be a touchy subject and probably my most controversial post yet.

For the last two to three years I have been experimenting with carbohydrates. I read all I can because I must figure things out, It is my nature. I have found out so much about the body and nutrition over the last eight years and I'm glad I have. I still have infinite things to learn.

If you are a person that gets along fine with any food or any lifestyle and has hit the genetic lottery, you will not care so much as people that are suffering from very bad health issues. Still I think down the road you will pay from eating too many carbs no matter what body type you were born with.

Taking carbs out the diet is considered a fad or a diet that someone has made up. Their are cults for everything and there is science and history. Marketing and rumors keep carbs running strong in the world. America runs off carbs and it shows. I will not try to convince you that carbs are bad for most of us I will simply tell you my experience.

First I started experimenting with taking carbs down or out to get leaner. When I realized that glucose had something to do with my depression getting worse things changed for me.

If you take the carbs out, the calories have gone way down, so now I was eating more fat. This is where it gets complicated. Too much polyunsaturated fat bogs me down and too much fat period bogs me down. So I have to count my fat grams at each meal. Fat almost doesn't raise insulin levels at all and so the body doesn't really know when you have had enough of it. If I eat too much butter, coconut oil or palm oil I will get very sick at night when I'm sleeping. I will wake up feeling puffy and want to vomit. I fight it off for a half hour then get back to sleep. Butter, coconut oil plus palm oil have fatty acid chains that go straight to the liver from the small intestine and this is why I think this happens. It is a fat in the liver overdose. Going mild with these food products doesn't case a problem for me.

Like I mentioned this is very tricky and there is way more to it than simply eating bacon. It is very involved and you have to put effort into it if you want to make it work right. The benefits are endless to count. The trade offs are there. Life is not the same with the carbs, life is better and you have to look at it that way. If you look at it like you are missing out, you are seeing it the wrong way. If there are family members hovering over a cake, look at their bodies and think about all the health issues they might tell you about. It is all around us and if you can live without carbs you will have to enjoy what you have in life instead of thinking food is the source of enjoyment.

He took the carbs out. CONVINCED?

I think the best way to learn about carbs is to go down to 200 grams a day counted each day along with one gram of protein per pound of lean weight that is on your body. Then take the carb grams down about 25 grams a week until you have gotten down to 150. At this point you have to decide if you want to go the extra mile and go through a tough week or two until your body has adapted to the fats instead of carbs. If you're ready to take the plunge any lower than this you're brain will be switching over to more ketones for the brain to function. Small amounts of coconut oil will deliver ketones to your brain to help out with transition. So each week continue to take 25 grams of carbs out until you are all the way down to 25 a day. At this point you are eating a little bit of green vegetables, your usual amount of protein and more fat. Each week you take away the 25 grams of carbs a day you will need to add about 25 grams of fat to your diet.
Once you have gone two weeks battling on 25 grams a fat a day you may decide to go back up to 75 grams or maybe even 100 grams a day. Your body will be adjusted now and you might get along better this way. Even at 100 grams of carbs a day you will still have the benefits of good health, much better than life before limiting carb intake. If you find yourself binge eating one day like I eventually do from time to time, try not to get down on yourself because looking back on months clear of binge eating is a triumph and you should be proud of yourself for what you have achieved. Pick yourself up and get right back on track. It's that simple.

 A Kitchen scale is crucial. Here is my favorite scale.

When you eat high carbs you eat low salt. When you eat low carbs you eat more salt. As you progress your way down the carbs each week up the salt a bit more. You will need it. If you don't take in enough you will feel like a zombie. This might lead you to think that you need more carbs which is not the case, you need more sodium. Trust me and do it, you will thank yourself later.

Since it is very detailed what must be done I recommend reading the art and science of low carbohydrate performance. Use the book as a guide and keep it close by to help troubleshoot problems. You may have to go back to it a hundred times until things are running smooth. The book has helpful recipes in the back to give you ideas of what to eat and might come in handy for you if you enjoy cooking. Everybody has a different body so take any health issues that you might have into consideration and figure out the best approach. 

Arthritis you might be making it worse

This is not a depression specific topic however if you have depression and arthritis life could become too much. If you have trouble with joints you may not exercise and if you're not exercising your health might decline and depression can become worse over time.

I'm going to share this with you and this is a major surprise I discovered. I have removed sugar from my diet and more important I have removed carbohydrates from my diet. Doing this is not that simple and is tricky to learn all and do all that is needed to keep going without running into serious problems.

So after about three weeks I realized that my joints and tendons are incredibly strong. I have trouble with one of my elbows because of an accident and my knees can get fragile and lifting weights becomes difficult because of these problems. Now I can lift weights and I have zero problems, I feel very strong in parts that I once had weakness. I was interested in why this improvement has taken place and found an article about glycation.

Glycation is caused by too much glucose in the blood. It causes joints to break down and other awful things like aging and eye sight going bad.

It is ironic that my mother is a nurse in a rheumatology department (arthritis). My mother is a sugar bug and helps doctors in the prescription drug world. Most of her patients eat diets high in fruit and sugary yogurt to supposedly get the right nutrients to help out their arthritis, yet their problems worsen even with medication. They blame it on age or genetics. Most drink alcohol or the supposedly healthy glass or four of wine a night and coffee in the morning. Both of these are diuretics and vasoconsticters which narrow blood vessels. This is a problem for smaller blood vessels that take blood in small amounts to areas of the body. Not enough blood is getting to these areas and this can contribute along with the glycation, causing severe gout or arthritis. Do I even need to mention nicotine?

Maybe your doctor has hit on some of these points and maybe he has not. Maybe he wrote you a prescription and went to lunch.

Check out my blog about sugar if you need some info to help kick it out. Getting carbs out is possible and it maybe worth it to you if you're suffering from arthritis pain. I do know people with spine issues and they eat sugar, drink caffeine, and alcohol. Surgery after surgery and no fix.

Could there be other reasons that arthritis could occur? I won't argue with that and have no need to. Sure there could be. I will put myself out there and say that these issues that I have covered are the main reasons.
You won't know unless you find out for yourself.

If you're interested in getting the carbs out check out my next post about transitioning.

Magnesium too much and lethargic

I get on the supplements hard and obsess about my body 24 hours a day, yes even in my sleep I dream about my body.

This one is out there and maybe you have had this problem. I would say it is unusual, I will mention it anyway. I change my diet up here and there and am tweaking it like crazy all the time. So if I'm using stimulants like a fool I need more magnesium. That is half the reason that you are having high anxiety when flying high with caffeine or other stimulants. Low magnesium is not good and alcohol among other things can lower magnesium in our system. Let's say that I'm squeaky clean and have all stimulants and alcohol out of my life and I started taking magnesium supplements during use to level things out. If I keep going like the habitual person I am I am still taking the magnesium if I didn't pay attention fully to my diet.

What happens now is being really tired which I can think is other things for weeks or months before I figure out that it has been the magnesium. Not only will I be tired, I will have really weak muscles. I can also have shortness of breathe as well. Magnesium can be used to help put you to sleep. This gives you an idea of the lethargy it can have on you if you have to much in your system. Depression gets me low and if I have too much magnesium coming in I could be dealing with serious lethargic, weak, depression. I've got to do all I can to keep my life in order to overcome serious depression bouts.

It is an important nutrient of course and it needs to be in there at needed levels. It is another thing that has to be monitored on a regular basis. If you're using certain drugs or stimulants including or alcohol you may need a little more magnesium if you are experiencing anxiety and tightness in your muscles. If you are one of the few people in the world that isn't using some unhealthy thing you might be ok to get magnesium and calcium from food sources only and have no need for supplementing. 

Polyunsaturated fat dizzy and spent

I know from experience that polyunsaturated turn my body off. Everything goes haywire and my cells don't want to work with me. I know this because I get the poly's out and they creep back in.

Recently I was eating a lot of walnuts and flaxseed oil. Among other sources these two are super high in polyunsaturated fats, I will call them PUFA from here out. I was getting dizzy had low blood sugar and felt very weak. I took the high PUFA foods out and now I feel much much better. I have had this problem a few times before and since I eat the same things over and over again I can use it as feed back.

Most foods made in restaurants are made with PUFA's so if you eat out excessively you are at the mercy of what they are secretly making you back in their kitchen. Food made by you is not guess work and you are accountable for what is in your food.

Another thing is cooking with PUFA's smokes the house up even if the temperature is low. That oil burns up and to breath that in is not healthy for you or your family. Cooking with monounsaturated oils such as olive oil or macadamia nut oil is best to avoid this smoking.

There is mixed information out there about PUFA's being good for you or not. My experience is no they are not good in the diet. Even if they have a nutrient or antioxidant I would go to another food for it instead of taking in polyunsaturated fat.

If your diet is high in nuts and oils for frying or cooking check them out. If you are experiencing dizzy low blood sugar feeling and muscle weakness this may be the cause.

Short list of Foods and oils medium to high in PUFA's: 

Walnuts
Flaxseeds or oil
Sunflower oil or seeds
Grapeseed
Vegetable oil
Canola oil
Safflower oil
Soybean oil
Corn oil
Peanuts or oil

Overeating and Depressing results

I am guilty of overeating. If you are too than you might have an idea of how awful you can feel because of it. A good two weeks of binge eating can land me with insulin resistance. How I feel during this time is low blood sugar even though I just ate food. When I have low blood sugar my feet and hands tingle and I feel like I'm going to pass out. The worst of it is depression comes on hard.

Not everybody has issues like this, many do and overcoming the overeating may help overcome the bout of depression. Do we overeat because we are depressed or do we get depressed because we have been overeating? I think it is both.

As soon as the low blood sugar comes on I back off the calories. Chances are you don't count calories and have no clue how many you eat in a day. Eating less without counting calories leads to possibly not eating enough. Finding your middle ground is where the healing will begin.

Once I have things in check the symptoms start to gradually go away. The problems get worse as I age. I could get away with more when I was younger and I still had problems then, so youth isn't an excuse to overeat. I have to really keep an eye on this as I age because of the complications that come along.

Having a maximum calorie amount limit to live by is not a bad idea. The limit could be something that keeps you moving along, it doesn't have to be drastic like weight loss calorie counting. This is good health calorie counting. This will give you feedback to where you are and where your body wants to be. If 2000 calories a day for a month is doing you good than that is the range you want to keep your intake at. Keeping a small notepad in your pocket or purse will help you keep track throughout the day. This might help you to avoid snacking on various things through out the day, because you will hold yourself accountable for everything you eat or drink.

Sound like a pain? Do you want to get along with life and keep your head in check or do you want to be with a depressed brain and a body that's falling apart?

Sugar is going to be one of the main reasons you will be hungry above and beyond your good limit of calories. Check out my post on sugar.

Caffeine and depression

Caffeine or any stimulant will lessen depression after you take it in. It's an upper and depression has us feeling very low.

There is a cost though and it will go along with the depression when it comes. Adrenal fatigue is on it's way and weeks of starbucks in the morning will end with a crash. Then the morning coffee isn't giving you that boost anymore, so the only thing to do is up the coffee or maybe a few sodas on top of it to give it a little more. This worsens the adrenal fatigue and the big crash is coming and no stimulant will help. This might be considered as being sick and needing to rest a few days from work.

Adrenal fatigue will start up my depression and I can be zombiefied for weeks until my body can come back to life. I also need to mention the odd behavior that caffeine takes on people. I am much more calculated when I'm not using any stimulants. When on stimulants my behavior is off and I'm on strange errands and thinking about doing strange things. My mother goes up and down with caffeine and she usually argues with me and raises her voice very loud when she has been pounding the caffeine. She moves things around  house without knowing where she is going to put something and it turns into a mess. She will do this pretty much every high caffeine time. She then becomes exhausted and crashes.

Note that chocolate especially dark chocolate contains high amounts of caffeine and another stimulant called theobromine. Do you like to eat chocolate like most people do? keep in mind that it is a stimulant. Kombucha teas and most teas in bottles at stores are loaded with caffeine. If you check the drink and it doesn't have a no caffeine on the front label you may want to check the ingredients on the internet first. From my own experience most drinks have caffeine in them.

I have severe mood swings and stimulants have a big part to do with the mood swings getting severe at times.

Caffeine is a major part of Americas boost and if you are depressed and feel like your behavior has been a little troublesome, check the stimulants. Yes if you take them out you will feel awful. This has to happen for your body to get back on track. Thinking that putting the caffeine back in will center you is foolish. High sugar consumption leads to more caffeine intake because sugar makes you weak and caffeine temporarily brings your energy up. If sugar is a problem for you check out my post about sugar addiction. 

Sugar and Depression

I am a sugar addict and that isn't a joke. This isn't a laughing matter. I mention this to family members and they laugh. I could go on and on about all the bad health that sugar causes, I will focus on depression.

Is depression caused by eating sugar? Or is it depression making you crave more sugar? I think it is both. Eating sugar leads to wanting to eat more sugar. I can go very long periods of time without eating sugar including fruit and honey in case you wonder (sugar is sugar). Even without having it for a while I still will have those nagging cravings. My brain plays tricks on me and I will start to think of reasons why I need sugar to be healthy. I have to snap out of it and remind myself that my mind is not thinking right and I have to get it back on track.

I read a research report stating that an animal test showed that sugar was eight times more addictive than cocaine or opiates. That is a powerful drug! The dopamine reward system in the brain that cocaine and nicotine have, sugar also has. Face it or not sugar is like drugs.

When I fall off the wagon and start eating a little sugar I find myself completely binge eating a month later on pints of ice cream and entire boxes of sugary cereals in one sitting. Then I sleep all day and feel awful for a few days, then I repeat the process again. Sure enough depression comes on and it comes on hard. My head swells up and my brain is drained of all emotion. I will have zero energy and feel like crawling into a hole to die. Now I know I again have to get away from the sugar and have to go through pure agony to get away from the stuff. It can take me a good two months to nurse my health back to somewhat normal again.

Take away the sugar and withdrawals are brutal. I have overcome alcohol and nicotine and both are no big deal compared to keeping the sugar away. On top of feeling like total crap I have constant stomach pangs and constant thoughts of eating my favorite sugary foods. I even have very intense dreams all night about eating various sugary foods. It has taken me years to learn how to overcome these cravings. My best tool is to think about the consequences. If you don't care then you will easily stay in a very bad place until your health and mind are off so much you might end your life or your body ends it for you.

If you are depressed and have been thinking about ending your life, consider taking careful thought and evaluate sugar in your life. Sugar is a battle to overcome. Take it one step at a time and overcome sugars powerful addiction.

Calcium and Depression

I am an extreme person and tend to go overboard with most everything I do. I take healthy living to a very unhealthy level. I know it doesn't make sense. Things get on top of me before I know it and by then It is too late and I have to recover.

Calcium is one of those things I can get too much of and it does get on top of me. I get lethargic and depressed. My muscles become stiff and calcium foods start to not sound so good. Once I lay off the calcium I may lay off too much and start to see a difference in my teeth. The teeth are a good indicator of nutrition and where I am at. Heavy exercise will deplete calcium and if you are taking in lower levels and not really paying attention you might find that you will have sluggish workouts. Balancing calcium and magnesium is tricky. Going wild with the dairy and possibly even supplements can lead to build up in the system and cause troubles I listed above.

Personally a ratio of about 3 to 1 calcium to magnesium is a good place for me to be around. Since my depression flares up due to many different reasons, this is one thing I've got to keep on my checklist when the depression comes on very hard. I know tweaking things takes thinking, if you put in the brain power and give it a little thought each day with where you are at with exercise and stress, this can be an indicator if you could use a little bit more or less of calcium magnesium.

Having healthy nice teeth is a real motivator to take in supplements for me and I have to be careful to not over do it. Once the teeth are getting whiter and looking better it is addictive for me to push it a little more.
Other things left out that stain the teeth help of course, for me it is the nutrients that do it and using teeth whiteners isn't necessary.

If you are feeling very tired and maybe depressed check this out and find out if calcium is a bit high in your diet at the present time.

Chromium Upsets My Depression

This finding is the most recent in connection with my own severe depression. Chromium is a trace mineral that is in our food. Some foods have a little bit more or less. I use to put cinnamon on everything, I would put tons of it on oatmeal, apples, inside protein shakes, etc. For years I would do so and get to feeling lethargic. I have had depression off and on ever since I can remember. I'm not saying that the chromium is the culprit of my depression. I am saying that chromium brings on my depression. I look back on different times when I was having severe depression and some of the times I can remember heavy intake of cinnamon which has lots of chromium in it and to make things a thousand times worse I was taking chromium supplements because I read so many great things about it's glucose stabilizing abilities.

Recently I became very lethargic and depressed. I took a look at Turmeric spice I recently used for the first time. Turmeric is high in chromium, which I didn't know from the start. I did have a metallic taste in my mouth like the high cinnamon times. I took the turmeric out and slowly day by day I feel better and less lethargic. It takes days maybe weeks for trace minerals to get out of the system.

For your information chromium lowers blood glucose which makes me hypoglycemic and when I get hypoglycemic I crave sugar so badly I binge or overeat. Look up chromium on the internet and you won't read any bad stuff about it. There is a few websites that list trace mineral toxicity information and that is about all I could find. All the rest is how it is a wonder supplement and we should use it and it makes depression go away and so on. Here is my story, glucose lowering anything has put me in bad positions and for long periods of time because I didn't know that it was the problem.

In 2003 I was living alone and eating cinnamon toast crunch every meal. I was not into health at the time and my diet was very poor. I always ate a lot of cereal however at this point I was eating mostly cinnamon toast crunch and cinnamon raisin bagel sandwiches. This was my first major depression of my life. I had depression before, nothing like this though. This was real bad. I remember my taste buds were starting to reject the cereal and other life changes at the time changed my diet. Then after the changes of course my mood begins to change as well. This is only one example of a time period where I have had problems with this.

Other major glucose disposal agents that have caused me problems have been vanadyle sulfate and brewers yeast (chromium).

I can't leave out beer and wine. Both I have had troubling times with and both contain chromium. One more thing that can cause chromium build up in your system.

I have read different sources saying that chromium is not well absorbed in the small intestine, maybe some people absorb more than others is my guess.

If you have depression and you eat the same spices or foods over and over again like I usually do or if you are taking chromium or vanadyl sulfate or vanadium is the other name for it, than you might take this into consideration and investigate the situation. 

Introduction

I have mood swings, ok I have extreme mood swings that keep me isolated. I created this blog to share my experiences with experiments to get rid of depression. Maybe putting my experiences out there will have some interaction with others who have similar experiences.