Back to Main forum index Back to Current forum index

Author	Topic: carpel tunnel syndrome & this diet
siroon 02-13-2003 02:35 AM	I was on the sample diet for 3 weeks. I went off it in a moment of weakness and hunger because I didn't have access to enough fresh eggs. Anyway, I had noticed that my the pain from my carpel tunnel syndrome had completely gone away. I wasn't sure if it was the diet because I had also started doing some wrist exercises around the same time I started the diet. Now that I've been off the diet for 5 days, ALL of my wrist pain is back. So now I know for sure the diet was responsible for relieving all of my carpel tunnel syndrome symptoms. Which is great because I took a 6 month hiatus from my software engineering career mostly due to my wrist problems. Has anyone else experienced relief from carpel tunnel syndrom on the sample diet? I am trying to get back on the diet to prove it again. I did really well today until another huge fight with my husband. So I ate a huge bowl of creamy pasta and about 3 or 4 bowls of ice cream. My wrists are screaming in pain! I lost 8 lbs over the 3 weeks I was on the sample diet. I think most of it was water. This most likely reduced the swelling so much in my wrists as to prevent pain from occuring. My guess is that a diet free of salt and cooked protein is all that is necessary to reduce the wrist swelling. Anyway, I want to thank you again, Wai, for your diet. I would be so thrilled to never have to have surgery and be able to resume my career pain free!
Wai 02-13-2003 01:06 PM	Wow, I REALLY hope for you that the diet really works on this kind of water retention too, and that it wasn't just a coincidence... It seems a tricky kind of water-retention to me, because it is so local that there must be other factors involved too (:why only the wrists?) In my opinion, the syndrome is basically caused by over-stressing your wrists, which leads to the inflammation of your wrist-joint. This causes water-retention because inflammations come with a cortisol response, since the cortisol needs to clean up the inflammation and damaged protein. I know that if you have an active pimple AND eat bad food, the inflammation increases. And just as water-retention aggravates excisting acne, it may very well aggravate your wrist-inflammation as well. The question is: to what extend is a clean diet enough to sufficiently reduce this particular swelling? And how great is the stress factor? PLEASE keep us updated, okay??? BTW, i will move this thread to the mixed experiences forum after you have responded, okay?
engesongwok 02-14-2003 01:06 PM	Hello, I have some similiar condition in my hands. Its been diagnosed as an "overuse syndrome" but its NOT carpel tunnel. (In my case). I had intesense pain, which the clinics prescribed giant horse pills of tylenol to relieve pain and swelling. I didn't take the full dose, and only took it for a few days. Instead, I did A LOT of stretching, and alternating dipping my hands in very warm and cool water. That helped somewhat. I got a craving for spirulina, it was enough to drive me up the wall. So, I got some, and my hands turned a wonderful pink color, and the pain went away. I then tried another raw diet, and I found a great deal of relief. I stopped that diet(raw vegan) because my stomach started to hurt, and I started to feel VERY tired continuously. This diet is much more sustainable with ample supplies of fruit, some nuts and raw egg yolks. I get all the benifits of raw foods with none of the drawbacks. I think eating the egg yolks makes all the difference. My hands are in much better condition then they were a year ago. I also had severe depression, which has almost entirely disappeared. I also had an undiagnosed condition in my leg muscles. It was the strangest thing. I would get intense pain from walking down hills. At its worse I would immediately get pain from walking down the tinest hill. After going raw, even for just 6-7 weeks, I find that I can walk down very long hills without having to stop because of the intense pain. I recently walked down a hill which always caused me pain. This time I walked down it as easily as walking on a flat surface.I think this is because I am no longer eating molecules which cause the red blood cells to clump together. Therefore more blood and oxygen are reaching my legs, hands, and everywhere else in my body.
siroon 02-17-2003 08:59 PM	I am back on the sample diet for 2 days now. Already my wrists seem better, but I know it's too soon to tell. After thinking back to when my CTS developed, I'm more convinced this diet can really fix it. I went through 4 years of college at the computer every day without any wrist problems at all. 6 months after being on the job (computer programming, of course), my wrists started hurting. I finally went to the doctor and got diagnosed a year later. Anyway, some other events correlated with the beginning of the pain. I had a baby (first and only) 4 months before I started working. Picking him up and carrying him has contributed a lot especially since he's a big, strapping almost 3 year old now :-) I have read that pregnancy hormones can cause CTS. But most importantly, about the same time I started my job, I went hardcore Atkins diet. I lost over 20 lbs and felt great otherwise. Since then (2.5 years ago) I have been eating megadoses of very cooked protein and tons of salt on everything! Interesting, isn't it? Fed up with my wrist pain and for other reasons, I quit programming last July expecting my CTS to improve. But it didn't. It actually seemed to get progressively worse since then. I took 100+ mg of B6 every day and wore wrist braces at least 12 hrs a day. I was on the computer only a fraction of the time I used to be on it. But no improvement, only worsening with more pain and weakness. I concluded that is was picking up my son that was the main problem, but I couldn't do anything about that. I love taking care of my son :-) Then I found this diet and experienced the most relief EVER! I also stopped wearing my wrist braces during this time because they were giving me eczema on my palms and stopped taking all supplements! I pray that I'll have the same experience this time on the diet and be able to. I would love to see others have the same results too :-) Thanks again, Wai
Wai 02-19-2003 03:01 PM	Thank you for your posts, engesongwok and Siroon, please keep us informed!!!
engesongwok 03-09-2003 03:01 PM	I have a new job repairing vacuums. So far I can work on things without any pain. But, the motion in repairing vacuums is quite different from typing. I pick them up all day however, without any pain. The topic of food came up at work. I told them I eat most things raw, they just looked at me really, really weird. When I peel some fruit and eat it, they watch me carefully,like its something really amazing. The thing that I find weird is how other people just "don't get it". They don't comprehend it at all. I guess they think it would deprive them of something. In a sense it might, as cooking is so cultural, but you get so much more back in return.