How long did it take you to repair yourself?

[Neone]

I imagine most people here, are here because they had some form of health problems. I read tylers testimonial thing and a lot of it coincided with what my wife was going through re. adrenal burnout/thyroid problems.  She has been eating a pretty much raw zero carb diet for about 10 months now and while things are miles above what they were she still has a lot of problems.  Low energy is still pretty common even though she has way more energy than before, Dizzyness and lightheadedness is another common problem, like at least a few dizzy spells every day. I imagine it has something to do with blood pressure.  Those are the two major things that we are wondering about and if anybody has had these symptoms (if you have thyroid/adrenal issues im sure you have) and if/how long it took eating raw for these symptoms go to away.

We have used a lot of different suppliments but pretty much the only things we are using right now is Dr. Rons adrenals/thyroid and ive got her to take betaine HCL with her meals to help burn up her food better since she has always had digestive problems that we have tried all kinds of stuff to help but havent found much worked. 

TL:DR; How long did it take eating RAF to heal your body and any ideas on something that we might not be doing that we could?

[William]

Dizzyness and lightheadedness is another common problem, like at least a few dizzy spells every day. I imagine it has something to do with blood pressure. 

It was so for me. Turned out to be the first symptoms of terminal heart disease, which was reduced in severity by raw paleo, but never got rid of it (remission) until I went strict raw zero carb.

Carbs are poison.

[djr_81]

I imagine most people here, are here because they had some form of health problems. I read tylers testimonial thing and a lot of it coincided with what my wife was going through re. adrenal burnout/thyroid problems.  She has been eating a pretty much raw zero carb diet for about 10 months now and while things are miles above what they were she still has a lot of problems.  Low energy is still pretty common even though she has way more energy than before, Dizzyness and lightheadedness is another common problem, like at least a few dizzy spells every day. I imagine it has something to do with blood pressure.  Those are the two major things that we are wondering about and if anybody has had these symptoms (if you have thyroid/adrenal issues im sure you have) and if/how long it took eating raw for these symptoms go to away.

I've had the light-headed and dizziness (most after standing) for quite a while myself. The frequency got noticeably worse when I transitioned to "zero carb" or carnivore. I've personally found that I needed a bit more salt in my diet to help alleviate the problem (I had cut salt when I went raw). I'm roughly 5 months raw carnivore now and I'm finding that I both use less salt every day and that my symptoms are diminishing over time.

[William]

I've personally found that I needed a bit more salt in my diet to help alleviate the problem (I had cut salt when I went raw). I'm roughly 5 months raw carnivore now and I'm finding that I both use less salt every day and that my symptoms are diminishing over time.

I only needed some dried seawater in my drinking water when doing sweaty work on a hot day. This indicates mineral deficiency.
The major symptom (a kind of heart arrhythmia/palpitations) never recurred after starting the pemmican-and-egg-yolk, but others that showed up during the 13 years of progressive damage are not so soon cured.

[TylerDurden]

I never recovered on raw zero carb. The symptoms just got worse and worse and increased so that I was forced to give up and go raw omnivorous-palaeo. My health healed fine on raw omnivorous(took 2-3 years) so I didn't really need raw zero-carb, anyway, even if it had been beneficial for me.

The catch with zero-carb appears to be, judging from numerous reports, that it puts huge extra pressure on the glands such as the adrenals/thyroid. Overworked glands are a particular issue in old age for people on SAD diets, so I'm inclined to think that going raw zero-carb probably reduces overall lifespan by a little bit.

[phatdave]

I imagine most people here, are here because they had some form of health problems. I read tylers testimonial thing and a lot of it coincided with what my wife was going through re. adrenal burnout/thyroid problems.  She has been eating a pretty much raw zero carb diet for about 10 months now and while things are miles above what they were she still has a lot of problems.  Low energy is still pretty common even though she has way more energy than before, Dizzyness and lightheadedness is another common problem, like at least a few dizzy spells every day. I imagine it has something to do with blood pressure.  Those are the two major things that we are wondering about and if anybody has had these symptoms (if you have thyroid/adrenal issues im sure you have) and if/how long it took eating raw for these symptoms go to away.

We have used a lot of different suppliments but pretty much the only things we are using right now is Dr. Rons adrenals/thyroid and ive got her to take betaine HCL with her meals to help burn up her food better since she has always had digestive problems that we have tried all kinds of stuff to help but havent found much worked. 

TL:DR; How long did it take eating RAF to heal your body and any ideas on something that we might not be doing that we could?

Does your wife eat organs? Is she stressed - is she getting enough rest, fresh air and movement?

[Neone]

We eat as much organ as we can get our hands on. Every few weeks I would say we get a huge load of organs dumped on us at once and we eat until we cant stand to look at another liver or heart haha.
Stressed? Well when you feel pretty crappy and your internal organs are already stressed, its kind of hard for it not to radiate out. So yeah, she is stressed. 
Enough rest? as good as she can, but when you're sick you have trouble getting a good sleep.
Its winter right now too, and when you're cold and hypothyroid, the outdoors isnt the most appealing place for you at -10 haha. But we do get out for a walk whenever she feels up to it on a nice sunny day or something.

We did live in a tent for about 8 months this year and I would say that did help a lot too in many ways (fresh air, less stress etc.) and I feel like our health hasnt been as good since we moved back indoors, mabye thats part of the problem. I will find out in another month or so when we can get back outside 


As far as Zero Carbing goes.. we are not 'strict' zero carb, but they are infrequent for her, like mabye a piece of fruit a month.  We have experimented with trying to put plant matter back into the diet but you never feel quite right after eating it. So we question weather its really a positive thing.  I dont really believe fruit is natural, at least not the type and availability of fruit that we have today.
So who knows. We have heard about the whole stressing your adrenals on zero carb before, thats why we experiment by adding fruit back in, but havent noticed anything other than there seems to be a 3 month mark on ZC where we just started craving the shit out of sweet haha... who knows, i guess we're all guinea-pigs here.


Im also thinking that recovery is kind of like a curved gradient, where when you're sick its hard for your body to make use of a lot of what you're putting in it, but it gets a little bit and uses that to heal, the next time you eat your body is slightly healed and can uptake a little more nutes this time... so as you get healthier, you get healthier faster? Mabye i am just expecting super-accelerated results, and should be happy with how good it is after 10 months, since it seems most people it took them a few years to actually get back to 'normal'?

[wodgina]

I never recovered on raw zero carb. The symptoms just got worse and worse and increased so that I was forced to give up and go raw omnivorous-palaeo. My health healed fine on raw omnivorous(took 2-3 years) so I didn't really need raw zero-carb, anyway, even if it had been beneficial for me.

The catch with zero-carb appears to be, judging from numerous reports, that it puts huge extra pressure on the glands such as the adrenals/thyroid. Overworked glands are a particular issue in old age for people on SAD diets, so I'm inclined to think that going raw zero-carb probably reduces overall lifespan by a little bit.

When I read about your 5 week? RZC experience on yahoo years ago you never mentioned the almost hospitalization, teeth almost falling out etc your RZC experience has appeared to of gotten worse with time.

[goodsamaritan]

I learned about various detoxes and cured my eczema in less than a year.  But healthwise I didn't feel any surge in health.  I got on RPD jan 2008 and I feel I bounced immediately up in 2 months after malnutrition with fruitarian.  High fat low carb is really great which I began Jan 2009.  I'm on raw omnivore.

[TylerDurden]

When I read about your 5 week? RZC experience on yahoo years ago you never mentioned the almost hospitalization, teeth almost falling out etc your RZC experience has appeared to of gotten worse with time.

I distinctly recall having weakened teeth with raw zero-carb trials. I did 1 trial 3 years into rawpalaeo, 1 a couple of years later, and 1 after that, 3 in all, 1 of which lasted only 3.5(?) weeks, the others 5-6 weeks. As for not mentioning symptoms, I didn't mention all my former SAD-diet symptoms in my testimonial, partly because I hate letting it all hang out.

I have to admit that I was very surprised at the thinning/loosening of my teeth as that only happened with raw dairy, normally. And it was remarkably sudden. The only thing I can think of is that somewhow calcium-absorption was blocked by going zero-carb. No idea how. Naturally, I'm happy to accept that others can get very strong teeth on raw zero carb, I just don't know why I'm an exception(adrenals don't affect teeth do they?)

[wodgina]

On your trial 3-4 years ago of 5 weeks zero carb you mentioned feeling tired on zero carb.

That was it.

[TylerDurden]

On your trial 3-4 years ago of 5 weeks zero carb you mentioned feeling tired on zero carb.

That was it.

Good lord, talk about british understatement! It's clear that the fatigue I suffered at the time was the dominant symptom that really shattered me at the time, but I had other symptoms such as insane cravings for carbs,thirst/dehydration that couldn't be slaked with water, the teeth etc. Mind you, when I was suffering in my SAD diet days pre-RPD, I would mostly only mention the stomach-aches I got and similiarly omit various other unpleasant issues such as chronic constipation etc.

[raw]

Neone, she sounds just like my mom who's suffering with thyroid and digestive problems. later on i found out that digestive problem causes all the other problems. she must needs to follow mono diet and stomach calming diet. my mom found that high meat or rotten meats is the best for stomach. that will make the healing quicker itself. good luck.

[Nation]

my mom found that high meat or rotten meats is the best for stomach.

how much of it does she eat? is she RZC?

[William]

  It's clear that the fatigue I suffered at the time was the dominant symptom that really shattered me at the time, but I had other symptoms such as insane cravings for carbs

Such craving almost always is caused by not enough fat.

[Neone]

She eats pretty mono.  We rotate between bison, mutton, sometimes beef and lamb and chicken. 
We get the mutton back whole, just skinned and gutted, I string him up in our room and we start cutting off what we want.. We are coming to the end of it, its been hanging for almost 2 weeks now so the meat that is left is pretty high.

It is thyroid and digestive problems, we have been working on them for a long time now, its just such a mystery.. is it the acid of the stomach? is it the gall bladder?  Is my body too cold to digest my food properly? do i have a mix of 10 different small problems making one big one?  Could it be a reaction to the small ammount of grain that the mutton gets still.  Mabye there is nothing wrong with her physical digestive tract except stress..  *shrug*

She eats raw, zero carb.  Mabye one grapefruit a week, so i would still call that zero carb. She's just going with her body on this one, any time she eats fruit or veg or anything that isnt from a dead animal, she doesnt feel as good as if she had just eaten meat instead. She doesnt crave carbs.

It seems most people get rapid small gains at the start, and then the body sets in and spends a few years doing the real repair work inside where you cant see it.

[jessica]

re: dizzyness
-if the adrenals are low there will be dizziness after standing, and as someone mentioned its good to add a bit of salt, although i would recommend seaweed instead, also to avoid undereating or zerocarb if symptoms are aggravated, not large meals and not constant eating tho
-if thyroid is low there will be pulse in ears, morning headache virtigo type dizziness, this is also
helped by seaweed esp iodine
both are benefited from proper sleep(eat quite a few hours beforehand, do not stress body to stay up past first real sleepiness feeling, sleep til naturally awake if possible, light curtains to readjust to sunshines wakeup call if possible) non stressful exercise, yoga, weights and cardiovascular activities under 45 minutes to promote circulation, respiration and benefit sleep.

re:repair
my digestive issues(bloating, indigestion, edema, constant hunger, diarrhea, feeling of constipation/urge to poo) have mostly cleared up although it has been a good two years since i have eliminated the most severe allergens in my diet, but now i find odd things cause allergies, those that were not on the blood test...which is fine its mostly stuff i have to taste extremely small amounts  of at work (rice, bean, coconut milk, hemp seed) and do not ingest otherwise anyway...so still slight bloating/edema/rash if i taste and ingest an allergen...i also have a really fucked up liver i attribute some of this to that!

i will say that once eliminating the severe allergens and while eating mostly raw it only took 1.5 years for my brain to recover from damage done by crippling anxiety, panic, mania, depression....etc...to the point of "pyschosis" that felt to cause a bit of brain damage(no joke) so these things have seemed to heal and my emotions are better then i can ever remember, for the first time last week i felt the feeling of happiness for no particular reason

i was in such extreme ill health of the brain that i was very destructive internally and externally to my body and caused premature menopause by destroying my adrenal function, that is the one thing i am not quite sure is repairable, but i do not feel the crazy surge of hormones from the adrenals at the drop of a hat, this may take quite a while to heal as it was not a slow or short process to destroy

i do not get dizzy upon standing very much anymore, i was quite underweight so i was told to gain weight which is not very socially acceptable LOL! but it think it quells some of the adrenal fears that one is starving! and also helped to raise my blood pressure which has always been extremely low, i also add seaweed or salt to meals which i had never done before

as for fatigue, this is something you must honor, to rest when necessary and to play when the energy arises...but do not force! that is what causes the damage in the first place! i know this is not totally feasible giving the demands of work and life but doing the best to honor whatever the body is telling you is very important...also i might add that a lot of this results from mental stress and asking the brain process taxing ideas or activities so honoring ones true path also leads to healing

[TylerDurden]

Such craving almost always is caused by not enough fat.

I actually ate very large amounts of raw fats at the time.

[wodgina]

Good lord, talk about british understatement! It's clear that the fatigue I suffered at the time was the dominant symptom that really shattered me at the time, but I had other symptoms such as insane cravings for carbs,thirst/dehydration that couldn't be slaked with water, the teeth etc. Mind you, when I was suffering in my SAD diet days pre-RPD, I would mostly only mention the stomach-aches I got and similiarly omit various other unpleasant issues such as chronic sontipation etc.

Those symptoms (ketosis/flora and fauna adaption) aren't exactly life threatening everyone goes through this. Only the tough ones resist temptation 

[wodgina]

Such craving almost always is caused by not enough fat.

I actually ate very large amounts of raw fats at the time.

Probably the yeasts in your gut screaming out for SUGAR! Eating fat can help but it's more of a waiting game me thinks.

[jessica]

Probably the yeasts in your gut screaming out for SUGAR! Eating fat can help but it's more of a waiting game me thinks.

pickin on tyler d!

[TylerDurden]

Those symptoms (ketosis/flora and fauna adaption) aren't exactly life threatening everyone goes through this. Only the tough ones resist temptation 

  The health-problems I got were not immediately life-threatening at the time, I merely stated that the sudden health-problems I got from doing zero-carb were extreme, worser versions of what I'd had pre-rawpalaeodiet, so bad in fact that I would have had to undergo hospitalisation sooner or later, given that there was a constant steady, unceasing decline in my health(I figured that I had less than 4-5 further weeks before I'd have to have carbs or get a heart-attack, lose all my teeth etc.). The suddenly weakened teeth is, IMO, a pretty good indication that there was something seriously wrong given that my teeth had been very strong up until RZC. I can only assume that my glands were so overstressed/overwhelmed by RZC that they couldn't cope.

[William]

She eats raw, zero carb.  Mabye one grapefruit a week, so i would still call that zero carb. She's just going with her body on this one, any time she eats fruit or veg or anything that isnt from a dead animal, she doesnt feel as good as if she had just eaten meat instead. She doesnt crave carbs.

I would have gone along with that, until I had a stroke and did some research, found that when you eat anything that increases blood glucose level, it stays up for two to three weeks.
For the real benefits of RZC, the blood glucose must be low and stay low.

It seems most people get rapid small gains at the start,

I got a huge gain at the start, because IMO I was not eating anything (evil carbs) that would provoke the heart arrhythmia.

and then the body sets in and spends a few years doing the real repair work inside where you cant see it.

Yes, and I've been wishing that it would hurry up and do it - maybe there's a way - recently some at ZIOH have been air drying (or aging) their meat in the frig, and delfuego found that after doing that to a roast for three weeks, he had the same energy and good feeling that he got years ago from a protein supplement drink (whey). Makes excellent pemmican too.
This is probably pretty much like high meat, which also done in the frig - my point is that you are likely to get a different microbial culture when meat is allowed to dry age at frig temperature.

[William]

I actually ate very large amounts of raw fats at the time.

Large compared to what?
Unless you weigh everything and mix to the known proportion(=>70% fat by calories), and force yourself to eat crummy tasting stuff you will not choose enough fat. IMHO

We were all fat-shy. Some still are.

[TylerDurden]

Large compared to what?
Unless you weigh everything and mix to the known proportion(=>70% fat by calories), and force yourself to eat crummy tasting stuff you will not choose enough fat. IMHO

We were all fat-shy. Some still are.

  That's just stupid. I was eating so much raw fat in the way of marrow/tongue in addition to the main meals I was eating(the latter mostly being high in fat, anyway), that I easily reached 80%. The reason being I was so afraid of rabbit-starvation that I avoided  in most cases eating any lean raw meats.

Whatever the case, 1 size doesn't fit all, and the fact that so many do come a cropper on rzc diets, even though they take Stefansson's warnings re fat into account, means that the rzc diet is not a holy grail and should only be attempted, really, by those who have a genuine problem with carbs due to some prior health-problem etc.