Active Low-Carber Forums
Atkins diet and low carb discussion provided free for information only, not as medical advice.
Home Plans Tips Recipes Tools Stories Studies Products
Active Low-Carber Forums
A sugar-free zone


Welcome to the Active Low-Carber Forums.
Support for Atkins diet, Protein Power, Neanderthin (Paleo Diet), CAD/CALP, Dr. Bernstein Diabetes Solution and any other healthy low-carb diet or plan, all are welcome in our lowcarb community. Forget starvation and fad diets -- join the healthy eating crowd! You may register by clicking here, it's free!

Go Back   Active Low-Carber Forums > Main Low-Carb Diets Forums & Support > Daily Low-Carb Support > General Low-Carb
User Name
Password
FAQ Members Calendar Mark Forums Read Search Gallery My P.L.A.N. Survey


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1   ^
Old Fri, Sep-15-17, 15:24
Warbishop Warbishop is offline
New Member
Posts: 11
 
Plan: Induction
Stats: 265/258/200 Male 6 ft
BF:
Progress:
Default My journey

Hi guys. I hope all of you are doing well. I came to this forum to seek answers to my questions. I've ran into some issues.

A little about my story.
I have been on and off Atkins for years. I've used it at times to lose 10-15 pounds here and there with generally favorable results over the years. I would consider myself fairly knowledgeable about the diet and low carb diets in general. However, it was until right before my 41st birthday did I truly understand what I'm dealing with. I'm 44 now...

The tragedy...
I was at the movies right before my 41st birthday and I noticed I was not feeling well. My chest was tight and had been for days. It seemed like it was muscle related and on the surface so I ignored it. That night at the movies it got tighter, so I excused myself to the restroom and once I got there my heart took off. It jumped all the way to around 170 beats a minute. And was pounding.

A guy there saw me grab my chest and asked if I was ok and I asked him to call 911. He did and I spent a few days getting worked over once they got my heart down with metoprolol. After a series of tests, stress tests and echos, they tried to tell me I was fine but had a panic attack. I said what? I am not the type to panic. They insisted it was in my head. Lol. I said no way, but nonetheless I was placed on lorazepam, metoprolol, losartan for bp and so on. I was released and went home.

This is when it really got bad...
I was the type to never take drugs , never been to hospital and didn't understand the full magnitude of the impact some of the drugs had. Within days my liver swelled up, my heart was skipping with thousands of pvc's a day, my bp was high but suddenly it was spiking to dangerous levels like 220-120. My heart stopped beating 3 times and was brought back from the precipice of death.
I felt such strain in my chest that I couldn't walk well. I was scared out of my mind, I knew my life was over. It was a matter of days or minutes til I was gone in my mind. I went to the doctor and told him the drugs are killing me and they assured me I was just having anxiety and gave me more lorazepam.

I came home, the next day, sat in the sun alone and cried for hours. I knew this might be it for me. I thought about all the things I never did in mylife and the feelings that went through me were gut wrenching. Then after what was forever feeling sry for myself, I realized that if I'm going to die, I'm going to die my way, and not with all these drugs tearing me apart.

So I weaned off everything. Which wasn't easy with lorazepam. I didn't know how deadly this drug was. And I decided I was going to diet exactly right and run until I couldn't run anymore. I was eithergonna beat this or die but I'd die my way. I dieted so hard, I run every day but carefully watched mypulse, I weaned off all meds against my doctors advice and I dropped 50 pounds and was running two miles a day. I was in Atkins exactly and I watched the scale more than I should've. I was coming back from the dead almost. Atkins saved my life, even being on Atkins made my pulse lower by about 10 beats per min.

Then ....

I was having sex one night and got a massive head ache. And then symptoms of a heart attack. I had impending doom. I thought oh no. I went to the ER, they said I had elevated troponin. They decided to do a heart cath and there it was. It wasn't in my head. I had 7 really bad blockages. They stented the two main ones including my LAD, which was at 90%. I was lucky. This is why I had had so much tightness and the drugs were killing me too.

Well...

After I got out of the hospital, I had to take effient fior 14 months and baby aspirin forever and new bp meds. But more issues came and I dealt with them.

Today my heart is doing pretty well. I survived so far. But with one draw back. I gained 40 pounds. It was very gradual. I was so upset. I had worked so hard and faught so hard. I was still eating exactly as I did when I lost it. I couldn't understand why I was gaining. It was very gradual. I gained the 40 back over about a year and a half even though I was still eating Atkins. I have no idea why. I thought it was meds maybe so I got off everything but the baby aspirin. Over the past month I've only lost 6 pounds roughly. But I can't seem to lose anymore unless I eat eggs like the Alan Keckwick diet. So my question is...

I want to beat this and get my weight right after all this. And this was the abridged version, but I can't seem to. I seem to be in a massive resistance for some reason and only a extremely strict diet seems to work. What could have changed? I men I have to be super strict to the point where I'm not sure how to get enough potassium. It just shouldn't have changed like this. I'm totally at a loss. I thought I did this diet very well. I guess not.

Last edited by Warbishop : Fri, Sep-15-17 at 15:33.
Reply With Quote
Sponsored Links
  #2   ^
Old Fri, Sep-15-17, 16:34
cotonpal's Avatar
cotonpal cotonpal is online now
Senior Member
Posts: 5,284
 
Plan: very low carb real food
Stats: 245/125/135 Female 62
BF:
Progress: 109%
Location: Vermont
Default

I don't have any specific advice for you other than don't give up but you might want to check out Dr William Davis. If you are not familiar with him he is a cardiologist who wrote Wheat Belly and more recently Undoctored. He started out most interested in how to reverse heart disease.

http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/

https://undoctored.com/

If you become a member of his Inner Circle on his Undoctored site you even get to attend virtual meetups where he will answer your questions live. There is also a forum where he often responds as well. It's worth checking out.

Jean
Reply With Quote
  #3   ^
Old Fri, Sep-15-17, 18:41
thud123's Avatar
thud123 thud123 is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 7,422
 
Plan: P:E=>1 (Q3-22)
Stats: 168/100/82 Male 182cm
BF:
Progress: 79%
Default

Wow, that's quite a story. Not sure what to say but glad you are still alive and ready to learn. I do welcome you and wish you the best finding answers.
Reply With Quote
  #4   ^
Old Sat, Sep-16-17, 03:45
JEY100's Avatar
JEY100 JEY100 is online now
Posts: 13,371
 
Plan: P:E/DDF
Stats: 225/150/169 Female 5' 9"
BF:45%/28%/25%
Progress: 134%
Location: NC
Default

Welcome warbishop
Glad you have found this helpful forum and are doing well. Since you are already eating and stopping meds not quite to doctor's orders, like Jean suggested, maybe check the websites of some of the cardiologists who are more LC, follow their blogs or possibly contact them?
In addition to the South Beach Doctor and Dr Davis, there is the Skeptical Cardiologist in St Louis area, here writing about skipping breakfast. https://theskepticalcardiologist.co...skip-breakfast/. Have you considered adding Intermittent Fasting? https://www.dietdoctor.com/intermittent-fasting Seems you are following the Atkins plan exactly, but sometimes the "second time around" is slower for a few different reasons Dr Eades covered in these posts, being older the one we all face. https://proteinpower.com/drmike/201...w-carb-dieters/
Another cardiologist found through his podcasts is Dr Bret Scher in San Diego, good interviewer. He has interviewed both vegans and avowed beef eaters, episode 9 he summarized his views on nutrition. http://www.myboundlesshealth.com Dr Westman at Duke has mentioned a cardiologist that supports LC. There are good docs with the medical expertise in cardiology and also supportive of LC. All the best,

Last edited by JEY100 : Sun, Sep-17-17 at 02:49.
Reply With Quote
  #5   ^
Old Sat, Sep-16-17, 07:45
GRB5111's Avatar
GRB5111 GRB5111 is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 4,036
 
Plan: Very LC, Higher Protein
Stats: 227/186/185 Male 6' 0"
BF:
Progress: 98%
Location: Herndon, VA
Default

Not sure where you are located, Warbishop, but for those in the greater Washington DC area (Northern VA, MD, DC), there is a non-invasive cardiologist (cardio-metabolic health), Dr. Eric Thorn, who also specializes in bariatric medicine as well:

http://www.ericthornmd.com/about.html
Reply With Quote
  #6   ^
Old Sat, Sep-16-17, 12:49
Mama Sebo's Avatar
Mama Sebo Mama Sebo is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 5,202
 
Plan: Keto, IF
Stats: 224/136/124 Female 64 inches
BF:44%/23%/20%
Progress: 88%
Location: Kenya-teleworking Austria
Default

Thank you so much for sharing, and for writing in such an engrossing way. Many of us are right there with you! Your story is either "been there, done that" or, oh man "I hope I 've warded that off' for many of us on this forum.
All the best for finding a doctor who can support your efforts, and know that this is a place to share your challenges as you figure out your path. You are still here, now what? Everyone's story, hisotry/ herstory, is different, but I can recommend that you look for the specific stories, track down information, be your own advocate for good health, and enjoy engaging with the folks on this forum. All the very best!!
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 05:58.


Copyright © 2000-2024 Active Low-Carber Forums @ forum.lowcarber.org
Powered by: vBulletin, Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.