Will my diet cause me problems?

[marcus99]

Hello 

 

I am wondering if anyone knows if a no/low-fat diet will cause problems in the long run?

I notice this reduces my symptoms by a lot, like almost by 50%.

I am eating only 10~ish grams of fat a day. But I get enough calories (over 4000 calories, I eat more than 30 sandwiches every day...)

For many times I have retried to add the fats, but every time the problems return again... Even a single glass of whole milk gives me a lot of symptoms. As does a tablespoon of olive oil, it does not matter where the fat comes from I've tried everything. Even coconut oil gives me symptoms.

I am 6'6 and 180 lbs currently.

I have found online that apparantly in Japan around 1950 they only used to eat 12-16 grams fat a day, so could it be possible...?

 

,Marcus

[Weyland]

You really eat 30 sandwiches a day ? That must be expensive . Why are you eating so much ,are you into bodybuilding?  

I would say do whatever makes you feel the best . If your worried about eating such low fat diet ,just get regular blood work done. You don't need a doctors order anymore to get your own basic blood work done .

[marcus99]

2 hours ago, Bladerunner said:

You really eat 30 sandwiches a day ? That must be expensive . Why are you eating so much ,are you into bodybuilding?  

I would say do whatever makes you feel the best . If your worried about eating such low fat diet ,just get regular blood work done. You don't need a doctors order anymore to get your own basic blood work done .

Yup, some days even 40  It is cheap, 20 sandwiches is about 1 euro (1.06$) here (Netherlands). I move around a lot and do much exercising (for improving my POTS), so I burn tons of calories, I lose weight at only 3000 calories  And I am trying to gain some weight

What kind of blood work should I be looking at? Which values? In my country we still need my doctor's order, but I am sure I can get her to run some bloodwork for me.

[Weyland]

Wow ,great food prices over there . Here in the usa that many sandwiches would cost a lot .

I would just do a basic blood panel to see how your kidneys and liver are working on your current diet. But if you feel good ,probably not much to worry about . Is your exercise program helping with your POTS symptoms  ?

[marcus99]

13 minutes ago, Bladerunner said:

Wow ,great food prices over there . Here in the usa that many sandwiches would cost a lot .

I would just do a basic blood panel to see how your kidneys and liver are working on your current diet. But if you feel good ,probably not much to worry about . Is your exercise program helping with your POTS symptoms  ?

Exercise is definately helping. It takes a while to get going but definately helps. I started about 3-4 months ago exercising. My HR went from 80 seated to 160 standing back then within 1 minute, now it goes up to about 120.

Here is an example programme: http://www.dysautonomiainternational.org/pdf/CHOP_Modified_Dallas_POTS_Exercise_Program.pdf

I started on the rowing machine, now have been doing upright cycling for a while and starting to mix in some up-right stuff (treadmill).

Currently exercising about 6 days a week. I find a need a huge amount of exercise volume. It feels like the more the better for me. In the start I got crazy heart palpations after/during exercise and in the night. Because of this I had to start slow (literally every 5 beats the fifth one skipped a beat). Now I barely get them anymore and am able to push my body further to improvement  The low-fat thing was a huge player for me aswell, just as much as exercise.

[Weyland]

Wow that's great to hear . I am in the same boat ,my hr is about 80 seated and 150 standing .it drives me crazy . I haven't started exercises yet because I feel like garbage all the time . I will most definitely will start soon . How long have you had your POTS ? 

[yogini]

Maybe you mean a different word than sandwich?  A sandwich (in the US) would at the very least have 300 calories (often much more) and generally lots of fat.  30 sandwiches would put you at 9000 calories per day not including other stuff you eat. I  would check with your doctor about your fat intake if it is outside of guidelines.  Some people with dysautonomia get sick from eating a lot at once (it lowers your blood pressure) and also have food intolerances or gastric conditions, which might be factoring into to your ability to eat things.

Edited April 13, 2017 by yogini

[marcus99]

10 minutes ago, Bladerunner said:

Wow that's great to hear . I am in the same boat ,my hr is about 80 seated and 150 standing .it drives me crazy . I haven't started exercises yet because I feel like garbage all the time . I will most definitely will start soon . How long have you had your POTS ? 

Probably I have had it for like 8 years, it got worse and worse over time. I am 23 now, it started significantly affecting me around age 15. Got "diagnosed" about 6 months ago. I got in a spiral of less and less and less activity. Due to this it got worse and worse I think. Now that I look back on it, it seems to have been starting after I stopped being very active in sports. Was always very active doing things physically age 1-14, then during high school it lessened and by age 18-19 even less. When I think of my history, it seems each period that I had less activity physically it slowly started getting worse.

I have read a lot about POTS, and for me I think the theory of "cardiovascular deconditioning" makes the most sense (theory from Benjamin Levine: http://profiles.utsouthwestern.edu/profile/14262/benjamin-levine.html ). This is apparantly different from "regular" conditioning and pertains the micro-circulation (very small veins going everywhere).

I think I am just a person who is prone to be sensitive to this phenomenom. I also have joint hypermobility, which apparantly a decent amount of people with POTS have aswell. They saw POTS in the 1900s too in certain soldiers. They called it "soldier's heart", back then the treatment was graded exercise therapy. I believe exercise is very important for this problem no matter how hard it is. Build up slowly.

I remember reading somewhere that this Benjamin Levine said that he had a patient who hadn't been able to even sit upright for two years. He got her to eventually walk around again after a few weeks of slowly adding in exercise.

Do you feel like you got into a spiral of less and less activity aswell which worsened/caused your POTS?

10 minutes ago, yogini said:

Maybe you mean a different word than sandwich?  A sandwich (in the US) would at the very least have 300 calories (often much more) and generally lots of fat.  30 sandwiches would put you at 9000 calories per day not including other stuff you eat. I  would check with your doctor about your fat intake if it is outside of guidelines.  Some people with dysautonomia get sick from eating a lot at once (it lowers your blood pressure) and also have food intolerances or gastric conditions, which might be factoring into to your ability to eat things.

We call this a sandwich here:

Just a slice of a bread, I add something sugary to it to avoid fat. Nutritional content on package says it has 0.7 gram fat per 100 grams. I make sure to pick a bread with 0 added oils. Some breads here go to like 2 grams fat per 100 gram because they use an oil during baking.

One slice is about 80-100 calories I estimate. Then a bit of extra calories for some jam. I think I get like 4500 calories daily currently on average.

I just had two plates with a mountain of white rice and lentils for dinner, no problem at all. But had I used a tablespoon of oil with it, I would have had a severe crash with fatigue etc for sure.

My gastric emptying is extremely delayed when there is any fat in my meal. It feels like it stays in my stomach forever, my whole body shuts down. Very weird! :S

[Weyland]

Marcus99,, I was diagnosed with pots in December . It has caused me to be way less active and not able to work . So yes is the answer to your question . I believe my pots has worsened because of not being active enough and not exercising.  I just dont feel well most of the day. Been trying different meds but none of them have really worked for me . So exercise is the next plan for me ..

[yogini]

Funny! A sandwich here is two pieces of bread plus fillings like meat and cheese, plus mayonnaise, etc. 

Ask your doctor, but I think it probably would not be healthy for most people to eat so much plain bread in one day. But  I have a much easier time digesting foods other than carbohydrates (like bread), so I understand why bread would be a main staple.  I think it is probably not POTS itself, but a co-condition which affects your ability to eat - so I hope you are able to get a diagnosis.

[kalamazoo]

The important thing about food is that you eat a variety. You need multiple sources of vitamins and proteins from different sources. As long as you're supplementing your diet with vitamins, shakes etc you should be fine. People usually lean two ways when it comes to dieting, KETO which is high fat low carb or low fat high carb. Your body needs 1 or the other to sustain itself. This is exactly what my nutritionist/dietitian told me. I'm vegan and have been for a long time and recently moved over to low carb moderate fat. Obviously everybody needs time to adjust to dietary changes but do what works for you but remember you need something to sustain you. 

[marcus99]

Thank you for the replies everyone

7 hours ago, Bladerunner said:

Marcus99,, I was diagnosed with pots in December . It has caused me to be way less active and not able to work . So yes is the answer to your question . I believe my pots has worsened because of not being active enough and not exercising.  I just dont feel well most of the day. Been trying different meds but none of them have really worked for me . So exercise is the next plan for me ..

I hope exercise will help you, but I think it will, just don't be discouraged if you don't see instant results. What also was easier for me in the start is to exercise later in the day (in the morning my symptoms are the worst).

7 hours ago, yogini said:

Funny! A sandwich here is two pieces of bread plus fillings like meat and cheese, plus mayonnaise, etc. 

Ask your doctor, but I think it probably would not be healthy for most people to eat so much plain bread in one day. But  I have a much easier time digesting foods other than carbohydrates (like bread), so I understand why bread would be a main staple.  I think it is probably not POTS itself, but a co-condition which affects your ability to eat - so I hope you are able to get a diagnosis.

They are no longer looking to diagnose me any further unfortunately, before I had came across POTS online they kept saying I need cognitive behavioral therapy because I am an "unexplained case". (I bet they thought it's just in my head). My feet turn red/purple from blood pooling after standing for too long, so obviously that is not "in my head" :P. I had an echo preformed on my gallbladder to check for stones, they found none. Also my liver values were normal, so I have no idea why the eating of fat causes such a huge problem :(. I have lost all faith in my Doctor's so unfortunately I am on my own here. But that is okay

2 hours ago, kalamazoo said:

The important thing about food is that you eat a variety. You need multiple sources of vitamins and proteins from different sources. As long as you're supplementing your diet with vitamins, shakes etc you should be fine. People usually lean two ways when it comes to dieting, KETO which is high fat low carb or low fat high carb. Your body needs 1 or the other to sustain itself. This is exactly what my nutritionist/dietitian told me. I'm vegan and have been for a long time and recently moved over to low carb moderate fat. Obviously everybody needs time to adjust to dietary changes but do what works for you but remember you need something to sustain you. 

My main staples in my diet are wheat bread, skim milk, once a day some lean meat (chicken etc), some potatoes, some rice, some fruit, some vegetables. I ran this through cronometer and the only thing that seemed lacking was vitamin E (found in vegetable oils etc). Managed to find a fat-free source for that (dried apricots) so I eat some of those.

I remember in a desperate attempt to fix myself I tried ketosis about a year ago for 3-4 months. It made me very very bad. Completely brainfog and everything got super bad regarding POTS. You could even see one of my eyelids started hanging all the time, it made me really sick, very weird

Regarding "the best diet" I see similar as you mentioned, some people love the low fat high carb approach, others the low carb high fat one. I think maybe we just need to accept there is no "one best way" and it works differently for everyone

I wonder what difference you notice from the shift of vegan to low carb moderate fat?

I looked a lot into the biochemistry of the body and it seems there are metabolic pathways for synthesizing fats/cholesterol from carbohydrates. I considered asking my doctor about this but I figured she probably has no clue about this anyway and I'll just come across as a paranoid crazy  

[yogini]

Hi Marcus, I'm sorry you've had such a hard time finding a doctor. I think there are others on this forum from the Netherlands. Maybe it would be helpful for you to connect with them.

[kalamazoo]

Since becoming vegan/low carb mod fat I have felt sooo much better. I originally stopped eating meat because my doctor told me that when you eat dense foods your blood goes to your gut to assist with digestion, by not eating dense foods and smaller meals it limits that. And it really helps. My stomach is really sensitive but if I over eat or eat too much fat Ifeel bad. Veganism has helped me feel waaaaay better, I lost weight, have more energy and I eat 3/4 small meals every 4/5 hours. It has helped me a lot, but everyone is different of course but I recommend it as long as you're supplementing correctly as needed.

[BuffRockChick]

One of your eyelids drooping?  Was your pupil on the droopy side smaller?  May want to look into that.  I read about medical conditions for fun (because bodies are amazing) and recently read about a condition of the nervous system which causes a drooping eyelid.  :curiousity: