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Stomach + Heart


CraigS

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Hello all -

My wife and I are on day 16. I've been reading through the forums and am about half-way through the "It Starts With Food" book. Great and fascinating stuff, explains so many things about our health.

First, I will say that we've definitely been experiencing positive effects from Whole30. I'm also experiencing a few symptoms/side-effects - I've read a few threads that described similar issues but the details were a bit different.

First thing is the nausea. Since starting the diet I've had a kind of constant low-level nausea (maybe 3-4 on a scale from 1-10). It goes away while I'm eating and returns maybe an hour after I eat. It's significant enough that it makes me not want to eat, but I force myself, and then I immediately feel better. I am taking an approved whole food multi-vitamin, drinking plenty of water, etc. I thought it would have abated by now.

Second thing is my lack of quality sleep due to heart palpitations (which started the day of or the day after we started Whole30). Though now, I don't think they're really palpitations, as my heart rate and blood pressure are always normal. I guess you could say that I'm now much more restless at night since starting Whole30, and when I wake up I'm just hyper-aware of my heartbeat. Not sure if that makes any sense. I had my heart and blood pressure checked (including an EKG), all clear. Blood sugar is normal.

I'm trying to think of something I could be doing wrong...

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Nausea is not a common complaint. I'm not sure why you are experiencing it, but I wonder how different the Whole30 is from what you were eating before. Specifically, I wonder if you need digestive enzymes for a while to help you adjust to a higher protein, higher fat diet.

I started sleeping much better after my second week. I'm sorry your experience has gone the opposite way. Are you feeling hungry at night? Are you under stress from anything besides a new approach to eating?

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Good questions. Nothing else going on in my life right now, no major stressors, etc. I get fairly regular checkups, no major health issues. My blood sugar was a little high before starting Whole30, bordering on pre-diabetes.

I do get hungry at night but usually take care of it with a little left-over dinner or a little fruit (usually berries). Prior to Whole30 I had, sadly, a rather typical American diet - not a lot of fruits and veggies, good deal of dairy, and a good deal of carbs (not the good kind) and protein. I had a raging sweet tooth, and I do mean raging. Fast food 1-2 times per week.

How would I know if I need digestive enzymes?

Thanks for your answer Tom.

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Yes I definitely have noticed that too. Used to drink 2 cups a day pre-Whole30. During my first week I made the mistake twice of having a cup of coffee after dinner, ended up wide awake most of the night. I'm not even drinking a cup a day now, and when I do it's usually in the AM hours.

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Thank you Sarah Anne - I'm definitely not getting many carbs outside of the small amount of fruit I'm eating - I'll take a look at that. Right now the only veggies I'm really eating are green ones - very little squash & sweet potatoes.

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I would say you're probably making a significant adjustment hormonally, and the nausea is likely a result of that. I've heard several people say they're fighting through that, but when they come out the other side (generally around days 18-21) they feel like they've hit the "Tiger Blood' phase. Up your carbs a little bit, rest when you can, and try some ginger tea to help with the nausea. Patience is the key :0) Check back in a few days if you aren't feeling better.

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It's a little after the fact, and you've had 2 moderators weigh in, but just wanted to say: before I did my first Whole30 there would be times I would feel nauseous and it ended up being my body's messed up way of saying Eat! I would often go long chunks of time without eating anything Good, maybe grab a salty processed snack and truck through til dinner time. I would have to force myself to eat, but would immediately feel better. Often the nausea would return later, with a tinge of heartburn. I think because once I started eating I ate too much, too fast. Just my experience.

Fortunately, now "riding my own bike" I haven't experienced this again. But there were a few occasions early in my Whole30.

Good luck!

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Checking in with my current status. Tomorrow is my Day 30 (though I'm planning on extending my Whole30 for about a week). Most of my issues resolved in the last 24-48 hours or so.

My night wakefulness and heart palpitations (for lack of a better term) are resolved, possibly due to the little bit of melatonin I started taking every night combined with my body's hormones normalizing (assumption on my part).

The nausea has also been resolved. I did start taking digestive enzymes. Not sure if they helped, but I noticed improvement 3-4 days after adding them to my diet. I also agree with a few others who posted - I actually think the nausea was partly my body's new & exciting way of telling me it was hungry.

One other issue that came up over the past two weeks (trying to refrain from TMI) was just trying to stay "regular". It became quite a problem, and nothing I did seemed to help (more veggies esp. sweet potatoes, adding fiber supplements, etc.). Thankfully it also resolved recently.

It's been an interesting ride so far ;)

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