I'm a 47-y/o male and I've been doing "Paleo style" since April 1st of this year. Came from a no high-glycemic carb diet (Sugar Busters) so the transition wasn't too tough and I've been pretty good about sticking to this WOE. The only non-Orthodox exceptions I've made are coffee, salt, and olive oil, all in moderation, and bacon in not so much moderation.

About 3 weeks in I lost about 7 lbs. and I'm now down 15 lbs. Although I need to lose weight, I did this because my BP recently went insane when my most recent meds stopped working and since I've been on every BP med there is, and numerous cocktails of combined BP meds, and nothing is working any more, I decided it was time for a radical diet change even though my doctor poo-poo'ed it (ya' gotta' love doctors, eh?). Anyway, my BP is now perfectly normal (this was after only 3 weeks on the diet) with only one remaining BP med, and very little of it at that. My goal is to get off the meds completely, once and for all.

BUT, a couple weeks ago I developed a horrendous migraine, which lasted until a couple days ago. It was mostly on the left side of my head, kind of under my left ear and radiating down to the base of my skull. At the same time my vision, which has always been pretty good, started deteriorating, mostly my near vision. Even though the migraine went away, the vision is still an issue.

I had a MRI on the noggin. Everything was normal. I had my eyes checked and while my doctor confirmed that my vision has changed sine my last visit only a few months ago (after being the same for many years), she looked and couldn't find any damage or issues in my eyes related to the blood pressure spike.

Since I was already eating low carb, I went into ketosis pretty quickly, about 3 days in. I had the "paleo flu", dizziness, etc. The migraine and vision issues didn't start until much later. So I have to ask some of you who have been through this, is it possible that the migraine and vision issues are related to the diet? Is it because of ketosis even though the timing seems off? Or is it just due to my blood sugar levels acclimating to a new level? Does it go away? For those who have been through this, how long did it take before everything got back to normal?

Any insight or information is much appreciated.

Jay

You give such good advice GS. Seriously- thanks on behalf of everyone!

Thanks for the info so far. I should clarify that this is the first time in my life I've ever had a headache like this. My doctor confirmed it is classified as a migraine but because it went away before I even got my MRI results back, which came back clean, he isn't going to escalate this to a neurologist. At this point my main concern is the vision problem. It came on as suddenly as the headache but it has not subsided yet at all.

As for the diet, while I don't weigh and measure everything, I eat a lot of fat, more than I ever have in my life. It's almost all animal fat too. Last night I ate a nicely marbled 16 oz sirloin steak for dinner. I usually sautee my veggies in beef tallow or lard. I never thought I'd get sick of fat, but I'm actually starting to reach that point. But I keep eating it.

Some good carbs may be the answer. I have been eating a lot of fruit, fresh and dried, so I thought I was getting plenty of carbs. Maybe I'm not although I do want to stay in ketosis for awhile and shed some more weight. I'll try adding some more carbs in though and see what happens. I'm not convinced coffee has anything to do with it since I've been drinking it off and on all my life and I actually don't drink that much of it now. I've always been able to start and stop drinking coffee with no ill effects.

Thanks for all the replies thus far.

Jay

Warren,

Interesting things to consider. Yes, I tested with Ketostix. Three days in I tested at "trace" levels of ketones. When the migraine came, I was up to "small". The only reason I even started testing is because I really started feeling like crap on the third day and reading other threads here, it sounded like I was starting ketosis. Since I was already eating a low carb/high protein diet prior to going paleo, I wasn't exactly surprised. Unfortunately I was not consistent in measuring with the ketostix. Some days I would and some I wouldn't so I can't say for certain what was going on.

As far as "a lot of fruit" I guess that's a relative term. I eat 1-2 bananas a day (spread out over the day), sometimes some pineapple, peaches or nectarines, plums, kiwis, citrus, and rarely, melons. I don't sit there chowing down on fruit all day like a monkey. I actually don't like fruit that much so to me, whatever I eat seems like "a lot". I usually have some fruit after a regular meal and that's it.

On the dried fruit, I was using that to help me transition since I gave up on artificially sweetened foods and drinks and was having trouble with the old sweet tooth, mostly in the evening. I was eating 3-4 figs or 6-8 unsulphured prunes at a time, a couple times a day. Sometimes I'd substitute dried cherries or raisins. I didn't think it was all that much but you could very well be onto something.

I may not be getting enough water. To be frank, since I went paleo, my appetite has been quite a bit lower so I just don't think about food or liquid all that often. I may be subconsciously sabotaging myself by not making a conscious effort to drink more fluids. It certainly can't hurt to drink more water regardless so I'll give that a shot.

Thanks for your insight.

Jay