Good morning everyone!!

[Sue]

Good morning!!

I wanted to share something with everyone that I have been doing for two weeks now. I started on the South Beach Diet per Dr. Grubb, even though I am still so symptamatic I cannot stand the extra weight I put on with the Lexapro.

More importantly I wanted to share with you my mental clearity has definately improved with this diet. Right now I am in phase I of this, which basically means I am only eating protein,(skinless chicken and turkey breast, Lean cuts of pork and sirloin hamburger) skim milk, low fat/ no fat cheeses, and vegetables. So I have not had any fruit, processed foods, breads, no cookies, ice cream, junk food. Only decaf coffee, (but have kept my gatorade, but one a day) and lots of water.

You are suppose to stay on this phase for two weeks, I may do an extra one just because I like the way my mind is right now. After that you gradually let each one of the above in with moderation. So I may find my culprit!!! When I do, I will banish it forever (Unless of course, it is the cookies )

I am just curious if anyone has actually found that certain foods have made you worse off??

Have a wonderful day

Sue

[Merrill]

Hi Sue ... Glad you're headed in a positive direction with this thing! I will watch with interest to see how this change in diet affects you...we all may learn something.

I'm curious about the protein piece... As I wrote in an earlier post, when I wasn't feeling terrific over the weekend (and I had tried the usuals...rest, [but couldn't fall asleep], water, salt, gatorade), I felt better after I had gotten up and eaten some grilled chicken. My head felt clearer and I recovered some sense of myself. Energy better too.

I've only eaten fish and poultry as (animal) protein sources for the last 24 years or so... and certainly not every day. Are other pots sufferers vegetarians or fish/foul vegetarians? Does extra protein help with your symptoms as it seems to be doing for Sue?

Thanks,

merrill

[MightyMouse]

We're both about to start the same diet here at home. I've got about 30 lbs to lose...and a few years ago, I did Atkins and lost a lot and felt great. I kept it all off until my spinal surgeries stopped me from exercising for about a year...add Celexa and I plumped up. After doing a bunch of reading, we decided that South Beach is a bit more "do able" for us. Also, one of our local restaurants now offers some lunches and dinners that are on the diet (the chef uses the diet himself, I think).

Good luck. Let us know how it goes! We'll be joining you in about a week (we're waiting for 2 books to arrive, one with the diet outline and the other is a cook book).

Nina

:)hoping we're both BIG losers!

[Guest tearose]

Oh my! I can't imagine a morning without high octane coffee! I need coffee and oatmeal every morning to come to life!

I do notice more energy after higher levels of protien. I found that if I avoid pasta and breads after 3 in the afternoon I feel better too.

Sometimes it is not the food itself that bothers me but the quantity of food I've eaten. I do much better eating mini-meals every three hours. Like grazing. Then I really feel at my peak! tearose

[Deb]

Wow, this sounds exciting! Since I was a teenager, YIKES! that was 30 years ago!!!???!!! Anyway, since I was a teenager I have tried to eat a healthy, well-rounded diet, but I do enjoy my carbs. I can't wait to see how you all three do!

[Merrill]

I'm also wondering what following a diet like this would do for people who don't have weight to lose... A lot of people with pots, especially those not on medications (myself included), have trouble keeping weight on ... When my symptoms get worse, I drop weight just breathing. Just thought I'd add that footnote.

m

[goldicedance]

Wish you much success on the South Beach diet. I tried Adkins and had success weightwise. However, after being on Adkins for a few months, my POTS symptoms got really bad. I don't know if there was any correlation between the two.

I think that I will look into the South Beach diet.

However, it is interesting that doctors have different views on diets. One doctor told me that the high lievels of protein with Adkins was good for us POTers. Another told me that it wasn't. Others said that the "grazing" plan was good.

Who knows? Only our own bodies know for sure. As they say, whatever floats your boat!

Has any of my friends out here noticed that they feel better at a heavier weight? Feel better when they take off pounds. I am not referring to how we feel mentally about the extra weight gain but rather the physical POTs feeling.

Would be very interested to know.

[Merrill]

I was skinny skinny skinny (to the point people worried about me, but I ate!) all my life (and I think I've had symptoms of pots since I was a teenager). I could never put on any weight, no matter what I did. Finally, after I met my husband-to-be in 1996 (I was 35 and 5'7" 108 pounds), I started to put on weight. And put it on, and put it on. Something in me calmed down, I guess; I have no memory of difficult pots symptoms for a few years, and I put on 40 pounds. I've been more symptomatic in the last year and a half; I dropped 17 pounds the first year with no diet changes and then got diagnosed in January. Yes, I feel much better at this heavier weight (and I look better too ) ... I'm at a comfortable weight now, but every time I buy new pants, they don't seem to fit a few weeks later. If I could move into a different pots stage, my weight would stabilize again. I'm sure of that...

[ethansmom]

The South Beach diet is pretty similar to mine that I have to follow due to food intolerances. I have trouble keeping weight on as well. I gained 80 lbs during pregnancy (thanks to Florinef) but stopped the meds so I could nurse, and then ended up losing all the weight plus 5 lbs in 7-8 months postpartum. People still comment all the time on how much I eat and how I never gain a pound- I literally eat 7-8 times per day. BUT what they don't realize is that I'd feel much better if I could put on 10-15 lbs and it would be well worth going up a size I have food intolerances to wheat/gluten, dairy, and eggs- so my diet is limited to protein, veggies, some fruits, and the occasional bread or pasta made with rice flour. These past few months I've been grabbing meals on the go and not watching what I eat and my POTS symptoms have gotten much worse- so today is my first official day of turning over a new leaf- so what a fitting post this was Last night I went out and had one last "hoorah"- chocolate ice cream with dark chocolate fudge, whipped cream, and chocolate sprinkles...to get me through this first week of behaving without cheating

I have read and heard so much about people with dysautonomia experiencing partial or even full recovery if they stick to a strict diet free from preservatives, chemicals, etc...and that is what I am going to try to do- I realize it means more cooking, and less eating out- but I think the payoff could be remarkable. I am going to try to buy all organic veggies and fruits, and mostly health food store foods, and see if I can get any results- at this point even feeling a little better would help!! Has anyone tried such a strict diet and had good results?

Sue- good luck with your diet, and I do hope that you continue to feel better from it!! There is no doubt in my mind that many of us are suffering more than we have to because of what we eat...so I'm glad you have found something that seems to be working for you!!

[MomtoGiuliana]

I suspect that many people in general would feel better if they cut out simple sugars and all processed foods. These are recent foods in the human diet, and our bodies have thus not evolved to process them well! I know I can feel great when I increase my intake of raw fresh fruits and veggies, but I don't necessarily notice any difference when I increase protein (Merrill--I am a vegetarian, btw--although I do occasionally eat meat. Jessica--I agree about organics! I eat organic as much as possible, and I feed my toddler almost all organic food. Expensive, but it tastes so much better and seems more wholesome, especially for a growing and small body). I agree that a high protein diet might not be suitable for someone trying to maintain or put on weight. Also, there are questions in the medical community about the long-term effects of sustained high protein diets (it's hard on the kidneys for example.) I also agree that every body is different. A diet that is great/healthy for one person may not be for another. I think the medical community is just beginning to understand this.

BTW, I asked my doctor to test me for wheat intolerance and he agreed. It came back negative, which is great, but I'm glad I had the test just to make sure.

[Deb]

Gosh Merrill,

You wrote MY story! I too was extremely skinny (5'6 1/2", 115 lbs although I did manage to gain to 135 lbs in my mid-thirties and felt great). I met my husband to be in 1995 (when I weighed 135), got married in 1996, and put on 40 lbs too. I have no idea how that happened, but I was miserable. I think that is when I first started having problems with my autonomic system. In late 2003, a little more than a year before I was diagnosed, I started losing weight for no reason that anyone could determine. I went down to 123. I was a mess. After I was diagnosed this past Dec. 31st and started on Florinef, I put back on 18 lbs. I now weigh 141 lbs.

I feel sooooo much better at this weight then when I was heavier. I had so much more trouble breathing, and the GI problems were more severe. I'll stop eating completely before I go back up to 175 lbs.

Something that I found that helps me is to eat small meals during the day. I guess I fit into the grazing catagory. Otherwise I get terribly bloated and nauseous. I have read a good bit about carbs and dairy products having adverse effects on people with POTS. I guess I'm just not ready to take that step.

Good luck to all of you, and I hope you'll keep us posted. If it helps you, then who knows? Maybe your example will be the impetus that I need!

[Guest Julia59]

I am on a sort of South Beach diet----but still have a snacking problem. I still can't eat much because of the slow gut motility, but you don't need much refined sugars to keep weight on.

I'm slowly trying to cut the majority of snacking---even though it is still all low fat healthy organic type snacks. I have cut sweets significantly, and my next hurdle is cutting my daily sprite. It's hard because I hate diet POP. If they could just come out with a soda with half the sugar.

I believe the South Beach is the best diet I have read about so far. It allows healthy carb's that are much needed by the body. Atkin's is a bit scarey for me---and people tend to put all there weight back on as the start eating carbs again.

Refined sugars is a big NO NO as I am learning more and more each day on what it does to the body. My mother is diabetic and had been addicted to sweets all her life. It is now showing in her glucose levels. She can never seem to get them under 200.

I am not addicted nearly as bad---but still struggle with my dark chocolate cravings. The good news is that you don't need much dark chocolate to satisfy the craving.

Julie :0)