My experiences so far

[MoonStalkeR]

To start off...

I was born in Ukraine. I was in good health until around age 1 when was given antibiotics (which gave very ill effects) followed by diuretic drugs that critically damaged me. At age 3, I moved to NYC. In the following years - I received more antibiotic dosages and dangerous supplements, each one devastating my already crippled body. The medical visits eventually ceased and I stopped taking drugs in any form, nothing was more damaging to me. My health was severely impaired. Regarding diet, food that had an otherwise negative effect - including artificial and chemical additives, acidic, cold, allergenic, etc. was removed. Most of what I ate came from a single food combination that had the least troubling effects on me.

I always craved raw meat and heard of its healing qualities. It made sense to eat it in its raw, natural state. I stumbled upon the works of AV a little over a year ago at age 15. I incorporated regular consumption of raw eggs and honey, and occasionally had a meal of raw fish or meat. These additions benefited me slightly. The past months I showed strong and increased symptoms and decided to quickly experiment with actual raw paleo diets.

As you can probably tell, I don't usually go to doctors for help as they are the cause of my problems. They failed to diagnose anything so far or do anything besides further destroy me.

There are many symptoms and conditions I am experiencing, including (In no particular order)

-Nerve damage
-Symptoms matching numerous nervous system conditions
-Chronic Pain/discomfort in every part of my body
-Hypersensitivity/ allergy to cold (Get sore throat and cold symptoms immediately when in contact with low temp)
-Hypersensitivity to other environmental factors (temperature, smell, food, etc.)
-Significant digestive system problems (which my condition seems to be centered around)
-Underweight
-Poor vision
-Low energy
-Fatigue
-Trouble breathing
-Anxiety
-OCD
-Candida
-Symptoms matching IBS
-Scoliosis
-Hunger
-Thirst
-Constipation
-Insomnia
-Strong headache
-Abdominal pain

There are many more dysfunctions, many I am not even aware of as this is the life I know.

With diet I hope to undo the damage modern medicine put upon me, and possibly go beyond that. I will put any useful info or updates here as I experiment with diet when I get the chance to. If you have anything to say or can provide some info that can aid me, please go ahead.

[ys]

I am also underweight but managed to gain about 8lb by improving digestion.  I mixed and matched lots of different organs like liver, kidney, spleen.  I am careful not to overdo organs so I eat no more than .5lb every other day.  5-10 min of intense strength exercise every other day contributed to muscle gain.

I'd say anxiety is the first thing that I would get rid of since it is almost always the result of the mindset in my opinion.  Negative thinking usually results in stress and anxiety which have negative physiological effect on health.  So, positive thinking should reverse that or at least minimize stress and anxiety.

Good luck to you.

 

[MoonStalkeR]

Thanks. I have lost even more weight this month after trying different food patterns, about 10 pounds. I eat organs but they don't appeal to me lately. Strength exercise helped me with muscle gain, but at this moment I am in no shape to exercise.

I agree that negative thinking is very detrimental to health. My anxiety is uncontrollable and results from OCD thoughts.

[djr_81]

Wow, you're only 16?
I've got to say you write your ideas out very well for 16. I thought earlier that you must be in at least your 20s.
I know you're in rough shape right now but you've found a great tool to heal at a much earlier age than most of us here; stick with it. I hope you the best with it.

[Nation]

How much do you weigh and how tall are you?

I'm 5'9 and my average weight is ~138 lbs on this diet. I'm not sure if that's considered underweight by paleo standards. At least it's 8 lbs more than when i was a raw vegan.

[ys]

I'm not sure if that's considered underweight

it's pretty simple to tell in my opinion, if you look skinny then you are underweight, if you look a little better than skinny then you should be ok.

[MoonStalkeR]

Wow, you're only 16?
I've got to say you write your ideas out very well for 16. I thought earlier that you must be in at least your 20s.
I know you're in rough shape right now but you've found a great tool to heal at a much earlier age than most of us here; stick with it. I hope you the best with it.

Thank you.
I hope this will heal me, the earlier the start the better.

How much do you weigh and how tall are you?

I'm 5'9 and my average weight is ~138 lbs on this diet. I'm not sure if that's considered underweight by paleo standards. At least it's 8 lbs more than when i was a raw vegan.

6'0 and 116 at the moment. I remember hitting the 130s this year.... what an achievement.

[luis]

Have you been tested for celiac disease? It is caused by an autoimune reaction to gluten and over time it destroys the lining of the small intestines, greatly impairing the absorption of nutrients and causing all sorts of symptoms, many of them gastrointestinal. It is dificult to diagnose without a specific test, because the symptoms are very generic.

[MoonStalkeR]

Never tested for it. I removed gluten from my diet over a month ago to be safer. I think the whole population is intolerant to gluten one way or another, those with celiac having the greatest intolerance.

[MoonStalkeR]

Update:

My RPD times phased in and out several times. Starting mid-June I attempted to eat a diet consisting of raw meat and fruit. It didn't go well, I don't do well on fruit in the first place and it caused a lot of problems. I switched my diet around several times the following weeks, sometimes with more fruit, sometimes reducing it, replacing it with neolithic starches, etc. I found that being dependent is the biggest obstacle in achieving a good diet, my parents oppose this diet. Ordering a shipment of raw meat obviously becomes a headache. That is usually the only way to get actual food, I've yet to locate nearby suppliers. All I can get besides that is occasional seafood and eggs for fat. When I run out of raw meat I am forced to make compromises and use the least problematic foods. Cooked buckwheat, supermarket fish, and egg yolk is something I resort to. Every plant food I eat is problematic, and I don't have the resources to attempt VLC or ZC diets.

My long awaited, small, Slanker's order arrived recently. It won't last me long. My bowels seem calmer with reduced/no plant foods, but I'm experiencing a burning pain in my stomach that started a few days before the order came, possible ulcer. This happened before. My meat supply will run out soon, and hopefully I can order another on time. Meanwhile I'll have to find a carb source that causes the least problems...

[PaleoPhil]

You're even thinner than I am, and most consider me much too thin, so I empathize with you.

Most people seem to do better on cooked tubers than grains and grainlike-seeds like buckwheat. The latter would be the last things I would consider and if I were going to do it I would probably try rice before buckwheat, not that rice is good either, but its molecular structure is not close to that of viruses or bacteria and it is thus reportedly less likely to trigger autoimmunity than most other grains and grainlike seeds.

[MoonStalkeR]

Has your weight increased since RPD?

Cooked tubers do sound easier than grains and psuedocereals. I've actually tried potatoes today, my stomach and intestines felt unpleasant but I haven't eaten potatoes in over a month, I have to get used to them. I chose buckwheat because it seemed the least problematic for me, 1 reason is that it lacks the awful stickiness many cooked grains have, especially when overcooked. My stomach seems to dislike that texture and painfully ejects the contents. I'll consider trying brown rice and see if it works better, if potatoes don't work out for me.

[PaleoPhil]

Has your weight increased since RPD?

It did for a while, but now it's back down to just about 5 pounds more than before RPD. I'm still about 13 lbs. above my low during unstrict cooked Paleo. My digestion is improved, but my hunger is a bit less than it was and it was already low. Good luck. Let me know if you find anything that works well for you.

[MoonStalkeR]

Thanks. Good to know I'm not alone 

[PaleoPhil]

Yeah, underweight guys and overweight gals tend to get the most grief from people.

[MoonStalkeR]

After experimenting with adding back some cooked foods and raw dairy products...

Most importantly - Bread seems to soothe some ibs issues and relieves constipation. When I don't eat bread, I could be constipated for months. I began eating gluten free bread  consisting mainly of rice/potato/tapioca flours and starches as I want to avoid gluten for better absorption. Bread stops constipation, relieves pain, shields stomach from mechanical and chemical damage alike (from acid and food), and is easy to digest. I will keep this neolithic invention on the menu for now.

I am once again eating raw dairy, mostly butter and cheese. I lost my tolerance for pasteurized cheese, but raw cheese doesn't give me the unpleasant side effects. I'm keeping raw dairy as it provides some valuable fat and minerals. A stick of pasteurized mozzarella wrapped in lavash or some other flatbread was my trusted food for years re ibs issues. No one is 100% tolerant of dairy (even raw) imo, but it is certainly an upgrade over SAD food and provides necessary raw fat and protein. In the long term I would expect slight issues/disbalances to arise in any raw/pasteurized dairy consumer.

Rice products work OK provided they're cooked properly, but no direct grain products or starches do what bread does.

I'll be on vacation in PA for several weeks. Hopefully food won't be a big problem.

[MoonStalkeR]

I've found that my symptoms match dysautonomia, specifically POTS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postural_Orthostatic_Tachycardia_Syndrome

While I was away from home for a month with 2 trips back home staying for a few days each, I ate little raw meat. The first 2 weeks weeks I ate mostly cooked food, fruit, eggs and a little raw fish. The third week I just decided to just order from Slanker's so they would deliver it there. What's interesting is that people noticed a distinctive appearance in my eyes the morning after eating a small amount of ground beef.

[PaleoPhil]

....What's interesting is that people noticed a distinctive appearance in my eyes the morning after eating a small amount of ground beef.

What sort of appearance?

You reminded me that I sometimes get dizziness when I sit up rapidly from a lying position (or rapidly lie back). It's one of my symptoms that hasn't resolved completely on raw facultative carnivore, though it is improved over what it was with cooked semi-carby low-salt Paleo. It's fascinating that that link you provided identifies carbs--which I'm incredibly sensitive to--as a cause. It also identifies insufficient water and salt, which I've been trying to increase my intake of. It seems a little improved since I've been doing so, but it's early and subtle yet.

[MoonStalkeR]

They said my eyes have a healthier "glow", but didn't specify anything.

I often get dizziness upon sitting up, sometimes to the point of vision blackening. My vagus nerve hurts to various degrees every day for as long as I can remember, the pain is worst in the head where it occurs symmetrically on both sides with strong pressure sensations. Standing up can aggravate this, especially in the morning. I only recently found out about POTS in early summer. It was really surprising to find so many familiar symptoms and an identification for this mysterious condition that turns life into hell.

[PaleoPhil]

Interesting. I think you've hit upon something that helps explain things for me a bit more too, thanks. Dysautonomia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysautonomia) especially, which is linked to connective tissue disorders, of which I have several mild cases.

By coincidence, I've been basically putting into effect several of the treatments recommended at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postural_Orthostatic_Tachycardia_Syndrome#Treatment and getting some good results:

drinking more water
eating a little more frequently and as much food as I can stuff down my gullet
increasing salt intake
reducing carb intake back down again to around 2-4% of calories
consuming some coffee (but not too much in the same day and not too many days in a row)

Your link provides some nice clues that I'm on the right track.

[MoonStalkeR]

Glad to hear that you are showing improvement. How do you consume your salt? I add sea salt to meat and wait a few minutes or longer until it dissolves into the food.

[PaleoPhil]

I just shake it on and eat. I like the crunch of the salt (and sometimes black peppercorns).

[MoonStalkeR]

My weight is currently 62 kg / 135 ibs. Most of the newly gained weight seems to be muscle tissue. It is interesting how much gained muscle with few exercise beyond occasional pushups and pullups for the last month. Before eating a substantial amount of raw meat I was around 125, went down to 110 during experiments (removing bread and other foods). I was already eating significant amounts of raw meat at the 110 phase but my body was in bad shape due to a lack of bread. When I added back bread and some other cooked foods to my diet I gained more weight than I previously had. Maybe the raw meat was now properly absorbed and assimilated into body tissue?

Fasting is out of the question for me due to a number of reasons. I digest even when there's no food in my stomach (another issue I found as a symptom of dysautonomia), so hunger is very dangerous for me. If I go a long period without food I begin degrading fast, especially my stomach being eaten away by acid with no food to absorb or neutralize it. Raw meat benefits me greatly but doesn't absorb the excessive acidity (Neither does most other food). Bread is the only food that gives me significant benefit in this case.

I don't know whether to go back to wheat/rye breads. I seem to be getting benefits after removing gluten, but I added more raw meat at almost the same time. I got an itching reaction immediately upon eating wheat bread again, this could be due to other factors such as chemicals and yeast. The problem with the gluten free bread I eat is a complex list of ingredients that may make it more taxing on the digestive system.

[miles]

Isn't your body producing this acid for the bread..? The reason the bread absorbs it is because it's a mechanism to deal with the bread. If you leave out the bread gradually your body would produce less of this, am I not correct?

[MoonStalkeR]

You're correct. Cooked starches raise acidity substantially. My stomach however, produces excessive acid regardless if food is present or not. Bread is a powerful absorbent and manages to absorb acid better than any other food, even if it causes more acid to be secreted. When I went for a month without bread it felt like a hole was about to be burnt through my stomach. I canceled out bread numerous times and came out very ill each time. Seems that I require some form of bread until my nervous system recovers and stops this.