Hey everyone, sorry for the delay!
Jordan’s Zero-Carb Update:
Anyway, like I said last week, Dad started the carnivore diet. I told him I thought it could take up to a month for the doom-y mornings to get better. I don’t say “doom-y” lightly. I mean waking up and having all your worries flood in plus more, feeling overwhelmed, wanting to hide your head under the covers and go back to sleep. This doesn’t even describe it well enough. doom-y like there’s something deeply wrong and there’s no way to fix it.
For those of you who don’t know, Dad and I had extremely severe depression/anxiety. We managed to get most of it under control with the extremely strict original diet. No cheating. AT ALL. I would say it worked better for me than for dad mood-wise. It fixed his autoimmune symptoms, he lost 50 pounds, got rid of his snoring and GERD, so it helped, but it wasn’t good enough to completely remove the anxiety-ridden mornings. And anxiety-ridden is putting it mildly. He was experiencing a doom-y feeling in the mornings that would slowly fade by the evenings. No way to live really.
Anyway he went from eating meat and greens to only eating meat and felt better in TWO days. TWO. DAYS.
What’s only eating meat mean? It means chicken, beef, salt, and water or sparkling water. That’s it. I stick to beef because I think it makes me feel better, but he’s doing chicken too.
Now he’s not all the way better. He’s waking up doom free, at about a 7/10 according to him. But that’s an incredible improvement. Doom is not a nice feeling to wake up to. And it’s only been eleven days. He saw improvement in 2. Even I’m surprised at how fast it was. I’m assuming it was this quick because he had already cut 99% of the problem foods.
He’s shocked. He keeps saying, “Can that REALLY have been carbs? Like.. REALLY?” And yep folks, somehow it’s the carbs. So that’s fantastic news. I’m over the moon. He did improve mentally with the old diet. He went off meds, and stopped napping, and is much clearer in his thinking. But the anxiety didn’t go away. It’s been so stressful watching him improve physically but not all the way mentally for the last 3 years. Plus then he shot to fame and there’s been extra stress so it’s been hard to tell what’s life and what’s diet. Turns out the anxiety was diet! So that’s great.
Here’s a video. Couldn’t upload it here, too big.
I was over there Tuesday and he was smiling, playing with the baby, and happier than I’ve seen him in years. Thank GOD. I’ve been torturing him with my diet for almost 3 years and it’s helped but that stupid horrible anxiety was so hard to get rid of. And it seems to be fading out extremely quickly! Success. FUCK YOU WORLD – WE WON.
Anyway. I’m pretty stoked.
Mikhaila, what about liquor? Are there any liquors that are okay for the carnivore diet?
Can someone please tell me what evidence there is that these low or zero carb diets lead to these improvements in symptoms of depression and anxiety?
I understand how they could help people loose weight and therefore alleviate weight related health problems, although there are many other ways to achieve these effects, but I’m struggling to understand the link to mental health improvements.
Is there a well understood or even proposed mechanism by which they work?
I appreciate people have reported dramatic improvements in their mental health after starting on such diets and of course anything that can alleviate people’s suffering is to be applauded but at the same time I’m keen to understand the efficacy of this approach.
Any insights would be appreciated.
Nobody knows. There’s nothing particularly scientific out there, it’s all anecdotal. My guess (just a guess) would be either a microbiome switch (so certain bacteria strains die off and stop triggering the immune system) or plant toxins stop irritating the immune system. Or both. For some reason some people with inflammation and immune system flares end up with mental illness.
Hi Mikhaila, thank you very much for your reply.
I guess I was really trying to find out if there is anything scientific out there, so I’d be very interested to hear of you come across anything else in that vein. I know the Keto diet was originally devised to treat epileptic seizures before there was effective anti seizure medication, so there’s a clear link to an effect on the brain there; presumably seizures, or at least some seizures are linked to glucose levels in the brain but I don’t know of any link between brain glucose levels and that and depression or anxiety. I was wondering whether that’s where the link to mental health came from. I’d also be keen to hear if anyone else knows of any else who can provide further insight.
There’s beginning to be some evidence, in the research, linking inflammation with depression. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s also linked with anxiety and with other mental issues and illnesses. (Not as the only cause but as a major cause.) It also seems to be linked with heart disease, FYI.
I’m battling extreme lifetime of depression I tried Keto awhile ago for a few months last few weeks, eating ribeyes, chuck roast ground beef pork rinds while cream and coffee. The pain in my foit is gone, but the anxiety and depression isn’t. Your father described depression using the death of your dog as the story. That you always said you felt as if your dog just died. Then when your dog passed, he asked so? And you said depression was the feeling your dog died multiplied. I can totally relate. I wake up everyday with every terrible grief type feeling bombarding me and it’s so hard to even get up when this happens everyday. Been off antidepressants for a couple years and I do not want to go back. Thanks for sharing. I’m hopeful for first time in years but this depression has been worst of my life. I’m trying anything I can and so far everything is anecdotal but I think two people as intelligent as you obviously are, I’ll keep at it.
I cry everyday and I’m a mom and try to hide it. I am a single mom and very lonely which adds to the trickery that depression does to ones mind saying you’re not good enough and what’s the point. I truly hope I start to feel some relief. Side note, my skin is amazing!
Any advice or thoughts on anything else I can do?
Thx
Ps. I really have trouble seeing any value in life so this is truly something I’m doing to try and save my life. Thank you.
The only thing that helped me after the pregnancy was going strictly down to salt, beef and water. Depression is horrible and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. Good luck, be ware of the pork rinds and cream and coffee. It took a solid 4 weeks of beef, salt and water only to help me!
I’ll try the only beef salt and water. The depression isn’t as bad but anxiety hasn’t improved at all yet really.
Ever heard of Keto rash? It’s no where near as bad for me as some of the photos you can google but my shoulder and lower back are having a tough time of it.
Hang in there. It’s pretty common switching over. Especially on the abdomen strangely enough.
Have you tried to get your thyroid checked? Specifically ask for a Free T3 and Free T4. Your best bet is to go to a functional medicine doctor or holistic doctor. Also, if you are not sleeping, your adrenals could be involved. Adrenal’s should be corrected first, before getting on thyroid meds. Also ask for natural thyroid medication like NP Thyroid or Armour Thyroid. Go to this site: “Stop the Thyroid Madness” and educate yourself. Hopefully, this will help. I have am Hypothyroid and have Hashimoto’s which is an autoimmune desease.
Been tested. Nope all was normal thank you.
I’m very anxious to start the carnivore diet. I’m going to cut everything but beef and pork initially and see if there is a difference in my mental clarity and depression/anxiety episodes (I have these periods of feeling like something is extremely wrong with my body and have severe anxiety about random events that are highly improbable which increase around my lady time so I’m guessing my diet increases the flood of hormones already taking place with that). I’m kind of scared to be hopeful despite the extremely good response you and your dad have had but I truly appreciate you writing this blog and sharing your experiences. I almost cry every time I hear him talk about how much healthier and happier you are and how hard it was for you growing up with your physical issues and your depression. I have scoliosis and back pain that accompanies that also but I would take that over my anxiety any day just like you and your arthritis. Thanks again!
Kirsten
Wonderful, just wonderful!!!
I get brain fog, depression and constipation if I eat anything other than meat, fish, salt, water, white bread, white pasta and vitamin tablets for the vitamin C. In my case I think its a delayed alergy to fructose (found in fruit), lactose (found in milk) and to a lesser extent frucatans (found in vegetables) as fructose and lactose cause my eyes and nose to run. This no fruit, vegetables, roughage or coffee (and a few other things like rye, barley etc) was suggested to me by the Professor of Gasterenterology at South Manchester hospital UK, Peter Whorwell, and in 15 years it’s the only thing that works!
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