ME/CFS

[kijake]

I'm very, very new here. I did a search for ME/CFS in the forum and received no results. I'm hoping that there will be people who can answer to this disease anyway.

I suffer from ME/CFS. I have come to this diet, not to be cured, but simply to deal with issues that accompany and are aggravated by the disease. What I'd like to know is if anyone with this disease has used this diet to help themselves. It would be nice to know what the experience was like. I am worried about high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, food sensitivities, excess weight, of course. Since the disease doesn't allow any real activity, I'm not able to utilize exercise to reduce any of this. I am turning to diet to manage these health problems. 

If anyone has any experience with this disease and following this diet with the disease, could you please let me know what your experience has been?  TIA.

Kaylene

[katta]

Hi Kaylene,

I do not have an ME/CFS diagnosis, but I have similar symptoms, after getting sick with covid in March. I have the so-called "long covid" or long haul covid, which has included fatigue (PEM), POTS, and other kinds of disautonomia.

I started the whole 30 diet in July and while I can't speak to my cholesterol levels or blood pressure as I haven't had them measured, but it definitely helped control my weight and has helped give me a generally better feeling of well-being. I too am not able to exercise, and I have been steadily losing weight over the last months, and the sort of bloated feeling I usually have has gone. I feel like it has given me some energy as well. Quitting sugar, dairy, and grains specifically (and alcohol), really helped. I do have oatly products (with coffee, for example), and dark chocolate in the evenings (90% or greater), my only main transgressions. I hope you can find some relief too.

/Katta

[Miss T the Tarot Reader]

Hi, Kijake -

I've been diagnosed with ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, and other "garbage can diagnoses" over the years. I'm also allergic to mold and was exposed to toxic mold for a while. For me, W30 has been pretty darned magical! Many of us with serious chronic inflammation have to get to about 3-4 months of "Whole30-ish" or hardcore paleo/W30 before we can really get good elimination diet results. So it may take a while.

For me, my first true Whole30 turned things around all by itself. Doctors and nutritionists had put me on other elimination diets (which were informative but didn't make me feel good) and tried me on things a zillion years before W30 even existed, like Atkins diet, gluten-free (back before there were yummy GF products). So, none of these was particularly effective or felt good enough to bother with long-term. I'm not sure why W30 hit the sweet spot for me.
 

Allergy reactivity turns out to be a huge factor in my illness, including neuroimmune response. Whole30 with grassfed local beef and lamb—minus nuts and coconut, which I'm allergic to—just made me feel so, so much better. I hope that it is helpful for you. And yeah, it may take more than 30 days for someone with ME/CFS to start feeling the love. (And if you haven't read it yet, may I recommend "Through the Shadowlands" by Julie Rehmeyer? Nothing to do with W30, but a very interesting memoir involving an ME/CFS patient and advocate.)

I've done a few Whole30s and a lot of "Whole-30-ish" long-term, paleo-based eating. Though I do some coaching, it is not health coaching, so please don't take my post as professional nutrition advice.