To go to the doctor's because I've eaten too much salt and I think I'm dying

[poopcollector101]

I feel awful.

I've been doing the keto diet for 2 weeks. Part of this is that you replace your electrolytes by drinking salt water, 1tsp dissolved in water. I've done this past 2 days then yesterday for lunch I had a whole packet of pork crackling that was incredibly salty (actually made me feel a bit sick) and then ham hock salad, which was a bit salty, then I had some edamame beans with soy sauce (also salty) I didn't consider this at the time.
When I got home I had sprouts and bacon - more salt.

Then developed the worst headache I've ever experienced at about 8pm, literally feels like my brain was throbbing. Dry mouth and thirsty so I drank a ton of water.

I woke up at 5am with my head throbbing and I could barely move, husband have me a co codamol, barely touched the headache. I still feel wobbly now, my head feels so heavy and throbbing, it's like no headache I've ever had.

Should I go to the doctor this morning?

I thought keto was supposed to be more about 'clean' eating?

My knowledge of keto is a load of cream and butter and bacon! Bulletproof coffee was made famous by the diet. I've even heard people say 'calories don't count when you do low carb' which is a load of rubbish.

Even if keto is backed by scientist, what a terrible way to live!

Just eat small portions of home-cooked food. Don't have processed carbs with every meal. Don't eat pre-packaged food. Drink a healthy amount of water. That's really it.

I haven’t eaten carbs for 11 years Usually said by people avoiding starchy carbs, potatoes, rice etc. EVERYONE should eat some carbs... they are a main food group and avoiding them WILL make you exceptionally ill. CAVEAT there are a few chohorts of human that have evolved not to eat m/any, but it is unlikely that posters here are native Inuit with no external bloodlines!

It's one of the 'Diet Speak' shorthand things that poorly educated Diet Gurus spout, people pick up and repeat and inevitably leads to mistakes and misunderstanding... like the one the OP made!

There's a big 'bro science' vibe going on here Yup!

Get some medical help. Ring somebody now. Yes, it’s likely that it is related to your (mad) diet but even if it is, that needs to be treated and ensure nothing else is badly wrong if the stronger painkillers you’ve taken aren’t touching it.

Or, without wanting to worry you, it could be something else unrelated like a brain hemorrhage or an aneurysm or something.

Please, at the very least, ring your GP.

I’m astonished at the blasé advice being wielded here, and yet again, saddened by munsnet’s extraordinarily irresponsible policy on posting medical advice.

High protein diets are not actually very good for your kidneys.

And quite a few of them don't sound very good for your heart, either.

MyCat, you lost 4st. Weight loss in obese people is known to lower blood pressure and cholesterol.

I agree, lisbon, ffs, some people have no common sense.

sycamore54321 if the OP had a brain haemorrhage or a ruptured brain aneurysm, it is highly unlikely she would be in a fit state to post on here.

I'm astonished that anyone would post something so alarmist.

@Ponoka7
‘Food in vs calories burned doesn't work for everyone and science has proved that all calories aren't equal’

What utter bollocks! If you consume fewer calories that you burn off through exercise, you WILL lose weight.
Where is your scientific proof?
Also, do you actually know what a calorie is? It’s a unit of measure just the same as a kilo or a centimetre or a minute. Units don’t change size dependent on what’s being measured. A centimetre isn’t bigger if you’re measuring say your foot length or the height of your ceiling!

If your blood pressure is raised due to the salt, drinking yet more water could push it up further and put you at risk of stroke etc.

See your GP first. I was watching a programme about the keto diet the other day and it didn't mention the salt water thing at all. Surely if you're eating fat, veg, meat and fish and the food you've described you'll be getting salt naturally anyway?

A severe sudden headache is the primary symptom of both those things. Of course, like I said, it’s far more likely that it’s caused by the diet but it’s dangerous for people to tell her not to seek medical advice as they can’t know it’s not serious. NHS website says to seek medical help in cases of a severe headache that painkillers don’t relieve, or a severe sudden onset headache. It may still be possible to struggle through using a website despite these symptoms. Nothing alarmist about it.

This is why the internet is dangerous. OP has a potentially serious symptom and is in a lot of pain. People are posting to reassure her or give her suggested remedies etc. By any objective standard, she needs medical help, including for the possibility she has a rare but serious cause for the headache.

In any case, she also needs pain relief if she is suffering and over-the-counter pain relief isn’t helping.

doontobe60 calories in versus calories out is only part of the story which is why diets work initially then the weight loss tails off and people give up.

The key is controlling your insulin whilst also controlling your calories. A calorie is not just a calorie. A calorie from protein is an entirely different animal to a calorie from sugar, and your body treats it very differently.

Yes it could be a worrying sign of high blood pressure medical advice on how to handle might be best

The problem here is that by all means avoid starchy processed carbs (very easy to do in a healthy diet) but avoiding carbs is avoiding fruit and veg which is not healthy diet wise

What kind of a mad diet is that? My blood pressure would go through the roof!!!

OMG, a brain haemorrhage or a ruptured brain aneurysm are medical emergencies and the symptoms would not just be a severe headache.

If the OP thinks there is something that seriously wrong with her, then she should have gone to minor injuries or A&E hours ago.

If it isn't that and the OP just has a thumping headache from carb flu, what treatment are you thinking that a GP will prescribe? They are not going to start prescribing painkillers stronger than co-codamol for a carb flu headache, which has probably eased with the orange juice the OP said she was drinking.

@imshelthechoice yes I know that weight loss in obese people is known to lower blood pressure and cholesterol, however for many years my blood pressure has hovered just below the point where medication is needed despite me only being up to a stone overweight at most. I only piled on a lot more weight after bereavement and divorce in close succession but my blood pressure stayed more or less constantly borderline. This is the first time it's been consistently lower - obviously carbs don't agree with me personally.

your body won’t be able to produce energy from fat and protein as efficiently as it can with carbohydrates, and can actually be a sign that your body isn’t getting the energy it needs.
brain’s first source of fuel is glucose.When this is suddenly restricted (as it is in a carbohydrate-deficient diet), you can feel very tired and low in energy. Your seratonin is also affected by carbohydrate restriction, which explains the low mood when you give them up.
The Paleo diet demonises most forms of carbohydrates, allowing little wiggle room for even the complex variety, which have been hailed by nutrition experts as an excellent source of fibre.

Unrefined, low GI complex carbohydrates give you greater, longer-lasting energy and stable blood sugar because your body digests them more slowly.
It is not sustainable; it can result in nutritional deficiencies and encourage a disordered relationship with food. Often most of weight lost on the scales with drastic diets is water weight or worse, muscle; it is not a sensible way to lose body fat.
keto is bullshit and like all diets it doesnt work or certainly not healthily or long term.you arent losing weight to be healthy you are putting your body through shit to ge tto somewhere.
its about health
lifestyle.
healthy lifestyle.
balanced diet
good exercise
all foods

Don't get heath advice off Facebook groups.

eat some bread! might make you feel better faster

I think this thread is extremely harsh. OP wasn't asking for advice on the relative merits of keto dieting; and you can bet your bottom dollar if that had been the content of her OP, she'd have had hundreds of responses recommending it. It's an enormously popular diet on Mumsnet, even moreso than 5:2 from my observations. I think she's misinterpreted advice to increase your sodium intake for the first couple of days to alleviate headaches (that's pretty standard advice) as advice to do it every day, which is a bit dopey but hardly the most ridiculous thing anyone's ever done.

Keto flu or carb flu is a thing.

I know as I went through it.

On day 4 of doing the banting diet which for some reason I figured would be a good thing.

I felt like I was dying and I am not exaggerating.
I could not even get out of bed.

I did haul myself out, made a bowl of porridge oats and honey or sugar I cant remember which and ate that begrudgingly. About an hour after eating that, I felt a whole lot better.

Never ever again will I attempt one of these weird eating things. They are not for everyone, I very clearly need carbs and sugar.

My mum unbeknownst to me did this too not so long ago. She ended up hospitalized.

What utter bollocks! If you consume fewer calories that you burn off through exercise, you WILL lose weight.

Calories are only equal if you assume you're burning them under scientific conditions and incinerating the whole lot. The reality is that whilst your body will manage to release the energy stored in sugar very quickly, it will have a hard time digesting something like grass. So I could give you 100 calories worth of grass and 100 calories worth of sugar and your body would respond differently.

There's a discussion about this here www.health.harvard.edu/blog/theres-no-sugar-coating-it-all-calories-are-not-created-equal-2016110410602 from Harvard Medical School, who I am going to assume know their stuff. As the author says "It is true that fat has more calories than carbohydrates, including sugar. But by that logic, a sugary beverage is better for you than a handful of nuts. That’s just not what the unbiased studies have shown. Looking only at calories ignores the metabolic effects of each calorie; the source of the calorie changes how you digest it and how you retrieve energy from it".

and science has proved that all calories aren't equal

What?
Is this a new Orwellian World I have stepped into?

One kilocalorie is equal to the amount of heat that will raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius at sea level.

I don't think science (or anyone) has changed the definition of a calorie.

it will have a hard time digesting something like grass. And thus burn up more calories doing so.

Dear god, why would anyone do this sort of thing to themselves?

Just eat a sensible, healthy, low fat, balanced diet.

There is absolutely no need to cut out whole food groups such as carbs, which is not healthy, as carbs are vital for health.

And there's certainly no need to up your intake of things like salt, which is most definitely not healthy.

On a healthy, low fat diet you'll lose weight, feel better, look better and most importantly, it'll be great for your health instead of making you feel like shit.

I hope that you have stopped the diet - it sounds potentially dangerous

One kilocalorie is equal to the amount of heat that will raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius at sea level.

I don't think science (or anyone) has changed the definition of a calorie.

No, they haven't. I think what that poster was driving at was that not all sources of fuel are equal within the human body. We are not completely efficient engines. I might be able to release something close to the total available calories in sugar. I'll struggle if I decide to eat bamboo, even if theoretically the available calories are the same.