Carnivore Diet as a Preventative Treatment

[courtneyh]

Carnivore Diet as a Preventative Treatment

By way of introduction, I am a 51-year-old male who had been suffering from chronic cluster headaches for approximately 15 years. The severe cluster headaches occurred on average 2- 3 times a week.

Throughout this time, I have been through various Cluster Headache treatments:

 -    Neurologist prescribed treatments: Preventative Treatments:  a range of off-label treatments including high dosage regimes of verapamil, lithium and eventually long-term prednisone. Abortive Treatments: Oxygen and triptans.

-     Psylocibin: Preventative: 5mg psilocybin sessions followed by micro-dosing. 

As the psylocibin started to become less effective, I eventually reverted to a long-term prednisone treatment.

My wife had been researching cluster headaches and suggested that I try a diet that eliminated inflammation producing foods. This regime consisted of at least 3 months of following a carnivore diet. Once healed, maintenance included gradually introducing other foods (grains, pulses, vegetables etc.) being careful to omit all sugars and wheat- no bread no pasta. It should be noted that I had discontinued the long-term prednisone treatment due to the side-effects that I had developed (osteopenia and other long-term prednisone related side-effects).  The results of the new diet regime were dramatic!

Since the commencement of the 3- month carnivore diet in 2023 and the continued omission of foods containing wheat and sugar, I have only had an occasional mild onset of a cluster headache (once every two to three months), which I could easily abort with paracetamol and/ or oxygen therapy. 

Based on my experience with my diet regime, I would like to suggest the short-term carnivore diet to allow for the elimination of inflammation. Once the elimination, one could begin to introduce other foods slowly (and monitor how the body reacts to it) and continue with the omission of wheat and sugar from the diet.

Please feel free to contact me should you have any questions on the diet regime as I have my own experience of how devasting cluster headaches could be and would be more than willing to assist where I can.

 

 

 

 

[CHfather]

Thank you for posting this.  Quite a few people (though not all) have reported good results from ketogenic diets (I understand that carnivore is a subset of keto). 

[courtneyh]

Thank you. I found that the carnivore diet almost created a "clean-slate" where the was no inflammatory food substances. Once the elimination was complete, the keto diet allowed the introduction of further food types, with a close-eye on any foods that may cause the cluster headaches to return.