Intermittent fasting - positive results??

[SBee]

After blood tests showed my thyroid (tsh) has gone up and cholesterol (triglycerides ) had increased I was told to speak to a GP.

Levothyroxine was upped to 150 which I expected. But this was a new GP and after taking a look at my crazy health conditions and the meds I am on he was asking if I would be interested in trying a non medical approach to try to lose some weight ( chronic fatigue has taken my much loved exercise to a poor state ) and try to reduce cholesterol without statins. That was a big yes from me.

He suggested intermittent fasting ( I am doing 16\8 ) and reading up on it seems to make a lot of sense, once I got over the shock that even a decaff white coffee would break the fast.

Have seen some older threads on this subject but am interested if anyone else has up to date experiences of intermittent fasting, and if it had effects on fibromyalgia symptoms ( am thinking of the sometimes coexistence of IBS in particular ) and maybe even pain?

 

[sunkacola]

Haven't ever tried this, but please do let us know how it goes, @SBee .
If it seems to improve any of your symptoms, then it is worth mentioning, just in case it might help another person. Best of luck with it!

 

[Badger]

@SBee I shall join you in the 16\8 fasting from today. I have been on and off with it in the last few months, but swing between good habits (fasting, meditation) and bad ones (drinking and junk food). My longest fast was about two and a half days. After the first hunger pang it became easier and in a way I felt better. I guess it was acid reflux and IBS not being triggered as much.

From what I've read fat burning will begin after glucose, then glycemates (synthesized glucose, approx 2k stored in muscles and liver) have been used up for energy. I would like to experience ketosis and autophagy. They help with weight loss and inflammation.

Let us know how you get on and feel. I hope to build up to fasting for 3 days a week in between 16\8 days.

 

[SBee]

Hi @sunkacola yes I will report back. Its not something I would ever have considered but this is a new GP in our surgery so obviously comes in with different views on treatments -whilst obviously keeping to vital medication reviews and prescriptions of course, hence the thyroid med increase. He hopes it will have a positive effect on my chronic fatigue too.

hey @Badger ! Nice to have a ' partner ' in this. My eating habits tend to be pretty good generally but when beginning this 16\8 about 2 weeks ago I seriously didnt think an oat milk coffee would make an impact in the fasting - I was shot down once I did proper research. So this week started on water only until I hit the 8 hour part, and even then it has made me think about what I eat and found I can clean my diet up even more. Be interesting to see the full impacts over time

i need 2 weekly bloods done due to the inflammatory arthritis so I will even see if they are affected, then a 3 month triglycerides check in Jan to monitor. The 16\8 seems to fit well into day to day life.

Again, do keep everyone updated in case it may benefit others knowledge.

 

[Badger]

@SBee so you're two weeks in, well done, it does seem to fit well day to day and gives our system a chance to rest overnight. Hopefully your test results will show positive signs. With weight issues, arthritis and diabetes in the family I'll need to make it count.

 

[SBee]

I will say @ Badger I kind of dismiss the first week given I was still drinking a coffee during the fasting stage.. But I look at that as a 'practice week'. Im still gazing longingly at my empty coffee cup until I can enjoy that first cup..

Same here with family health history, high BP, arthritis, auto immune disease, and heart disease, in our family genes. I think any small benefits we can make add up maybe to a bigger positive impact on our bodies.

I am looking forward to the 3 month check up on cholesterol levels, and as I said maybe the 2 weekly arthritis blood checks may show changes in time.
Good luck!

 

[Frizzybee]

I've been doing intermittent fasting 16/8 most of the time for decades now. I do cheat sometimes with a cough drop. It has dropped GERD to almost zero, but not much else. That does not mean it won't help someone else. I finally had to start taking desiccated thyroid and it has made a difference in my energy but not a lot. I also take selenium to help me convert T4 to T3. A lot of Fibro folks have trouble with that and do better on desiccated thyroid, which has T1, T2, T, T4 and calcitonin, rather than synthetic T4 for that reason. My cholesterol is fine. My high BP is still my most severe problem, and a lot of that is due to the pain and insomnia being so bad. I see the sleep disorder as the main underlying issue here. Lousy sleep causes high BP, high blood sugar, lousy emotional control, heart disease risk, dementia risk, and so on. Nothing has helped for that except addictive drugs and I don't ever want to be hooked on those again. It took me two years of tapering to get off alprazolam and it still left me with major brain damage. I also tried 20/4 fasting but that was torture and made cooking for my husband impossible. I really hope the IF helps you....

 

[sunkacola]

I see the sleep disorder as the main underlying issue here. Lousy sleep causes high BP, high blood sugar, lousy emotional control, heart disease risk, dementia risk, and so on

I agree with this point.
I have had a serious sleep disorder -- severe chronic insomnia-- since birth. I spent the first 30 years of my life chronically sleep deprived. I didn't even know what it was like to feel rested in the morning, to feel as if I had slept well - because I literally never had. This brought about many things, mostly emotional instability, mental breakdowns and lack of ability to handle stress, exacerbated by experiencing abuse in my early life. I am pretty convinced that in my case it also has been a contributing factor in my having developed fibromyalgia.

I have taken a medication that allows me to sleep....not always well, but at least sleep....for many years now, and without it my life would fall apart very fast. I don't think I would be able to live without it.

I think that lack of good sleep could be a contributing factor for many people who have developed fibro. Stress as well....and the two can go hand in hand and can exacerbate each other.

 

[SBee]

Hi @Frizzybee

Its a bit of a mess when thyroid problems are added to the mix with other conditions isnt it? This is the second increase in thyroxine in less that a year. 3 monthly test will show the latest results in Jan.

I agree the 29\4 IF would be horribly restrictive and difficult to maintain, especially when considering another persons food needs. The 16\8 seems very workable and therefore will be very easy to continue with. Im quite enthusiastic about this, its lime having a tiny bit of proactive control in helping my body which seems quite overwhelmed with so many detrimental health problems.

Sleep is unbelievably important. I am on a small AD dose ( for cyclical mood swings) and Amitriptyline (fibromyalgia nerve pain) which I take at night. Whilst both are used for genuine reasons, I value their 'side effect ' of helping with sleep. Its not perfect, and pain wakes me throughout the night but it helps.
I hate that its been many many years since I woke up feeling I had had a refreshing sleep.

 

[Frizzybee]

Hi SBee,
It was the thyroid symptoms that caused me to have to stop working and lose my home to foreclosure. They refused to treat me for it because I was "borderline". It took seeing a Naturopathic MD, who took one look at my lab results and put me on natural thyroid. It helped with energy but did not stop the other symptoms of hypothyroid. I'm glad Amitriptyline works for you. It made me gain 46 lbs. in less than 2 months, make me shake and caused tachycardia. We often have to spend a lot of years to find a drug that works. For me that drug is clonidine.

 

[SBee]

Hi Frizzybee,
Clonidine is a new one for me, had to look that up. In UK I cant see it being listed as used for fibromyalgia, but many drugs seem to be used not only for their primary function, but also as they can be effective for other conditions too, amitriptyline being one of those of course.
So far I cant see any major side effects from the amitriptyline, but am increasing dose slowly.

I have a phone assessment next week with a chronic pain clinic so will be interesting if they actually consider the holistic side given the hypothyroidism as well as other health conditions.

Meds is very much trial and error,good that the clonidine suits yourself. Take care

 

[Badger]

@SBee how are you getting on with your fasting? I've been hit and miss and hoping to stay the course before the end of the year

 

[SBee]

Afternoon @Badger hope your part of Wales isnt snowed under... In Herts\Cambs area we got away with hard frosts only ( so far )

Good you are mostly managing the intermittent fasting. Im weirdly worried in that I have found it so easy to work within my daily routine that I must be doing something wrong!
Only missed 2 days by an hour so not stressing about it.. Proof will be in the blood tests in Jan. In myself, i do feel I have more energy and a better sharpness of mind, but that may be due in part to upping the thyroid meds. For me, am more that happy to continue.

worse part is can only drink zero calorie drinks in fasting part - skimmed milk allowed in coffee but in the great scheme of things I utterly refuse to give up a decent milky coffee, skimmed oat milk is more a punishment than a pleasure.... Hence I drink just water and totally clock watch until the 8 hours window begins and kettle gets switched on

Keep on it Badger, I think even the smallest benefits build up to help us help ourselves.

 

[JamieMarc]

@SBee I did try intermittent fasting a few years ago, but found that it had zero effect upon my pain. Doesn't mean it won't help someone else. But I wanted to share my own experience with you.

@sunkacola I agree with you and I think that the majority of those who suffer from fibromyalgia do not get enough deep sleep. Anyone newly diagnosed with fibromyalgia, I always recommend that the very first thing they focus on is their sleep. As for me, since I do suffer from a lack of deep sleep, at bedtime I take magnesium, tizanidine, but no sedative for me since I am already on a benzodiazepine. There are entire books dedicated solely to strategies to help reduce deep sleep interferences. I practice strategies such as avoiding alcohol, no caffeine after 3:00 p.m. for me, etc, but I think as far as medication goes, you want a deep sleep promoter, magnesium in my case, a sedative and a stress response blocker, in my case a muscle relaxant.

Up until recently I was having difficulty with deep sleep. I knew that I had to do something about it. I'm always reading books on fibromyalgia, and I happened to come across a section about rest and sleep. And that is where I found my answer to get adequate deep sleep. As far as medications, none of them were new to me but I was either taking them at the wrong time or only taking them as needed. Once I began taking my magnesium at bedtime instead of dinnertime and my tizanidine at bedtime instead of only as needed did my sleep improve a great deal.

I do not wake up groggy at all. I feel well rested now every morning, although in a great deal of pain. I would say here that I want to caution anyone taking or considering taking medications or supplements to help them sleep. You want to be extra careful not to take two medications or supplements of the same class. That can be extremely dangerous and even life-threatening.

But I don't mean to hijack @SBee post about intermittent fasting. I just had to comment when I came across your post because it was something that I recently began actively working on and changing.

Let us know how the intermittent fasting goes for you @SBee
I hope that it helps with all of the things that you are doing it for and if not all, then at least some.

 

[SBee]

Hey @JamieMarc no way do I consider your reply a hijacking - most post flow the way a good conversation does, whatever the input is a sharing of experiences that help us all find ways that may work, or indeed may not work for us individually.

I do feel the fasting may work for me, in that my osteoarthritis has got a lot worse, so any weight lose can help the extra strain on affected joints. Also the last few months I have developed high BP for the first time in my life as well as high cholesterol. By losing some weight alongside giving the body extra time to work at its optimum, I hope it can make a positive difference.

I am well aware that for myself, the two arthritis types I have as well as the fibromyalgia kind of gang up on one another so if one condition is even more out of kilter then it affects the others negatively. My biggest aim for myself is to make even the tiniest of changes work in the hope that if I gain some slight 'control' over one condition it should stop the others reacting even worse as well. Its a good theory, just gotta see how that pans out..

As to timing of drugs? As I have said in other posts I do take mitrazapine and amitriptyline. The first is for mood swings and has been very effective doing its job. Bonus factor, I take it last thing at night and I fall asleep easily and only pain tends to wake me up. The amitriptyline, I take for fibromyalgia nerve pain, again timing here is crucial for me. Three hours before bed, any later and the zombie effect huts me the next day. Again,it benefits my ability to sleep longer and deeper.

Agree totally that supplements can negatively effect the interaction with medications so a medics advice should be sought.

Heres hoping your newer regime continues. I never underestimate the need for refreshing sleep.