Keto Flu

 "It's not that we have little time, but more that we waste a good deal of it." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

There is another (non-stoic) quote along similar lines:

"Youth is wasted on the young" - George Bernard Shaw, American Playwright

In other words, youth have no frame of reference other than being young, and when you are young, you have a lot of unencumbered free time.  Therefore young people don't appreciate their health, stamina, freedom from demands, and lack of pain.  They have not yet experienced the loss of abilities, overwhelming obligations, and the fragility that come with age.  They (we!!!) don't appreciate the perks of being young.

That *almost* ties in with today's post, which is about "Keto Flu".  It's not exactly age-related - more like overweight-related.  That said, I was never overweight or had to deal with Keto Flu until I got older.

 The term "Keto Flu" is partially descriptive.  For those not familiar, the word "Keto" refers to ketosis.  Ketosis is a fat-burning condition that the body goes into when dietary carbohydrates are not sufficient to maintain a glycogen metabolism - the body switches to burning dietary fat (and body fat) for energy, which releases ketones.  "Flu" is a description of how you sometimes feel initially when transitioning into ketosis from the body's preferred mechanism of burning carbohydrates.  You don't actually develop an infection, but you may feel as if you have the flu for a while.

Some of the symptoms (which I am dealing with at this very moment), are fatigue, headache, brain fog, body ache, lowered energy levels, and constipation.  There are other symptoms, such as dizziness, insomnia, sugar cravings, irritability, and nausea that I've managed to avoid.  Praise the Lord for small things.

The reason for these Keto Flu symptoms appear is not known, and apparently not much research is being carried out on this subject.  This lack of research is puzzling, because Keto diets have become fairly common.  There are a number of conjectures about the root cause of Keto Flu symptoms - aside from the obvious cause (duh) of your body switching over to ketosis.  But they are just that: Conjectures.

• Dehydration:  When you go into ketosis, you shed *a lot* of water.  As urine.  Carbohydrates in the form of glycogen require a lot of water to store in tissue.  When you stop ingesting carbohydrates, glycogen stores deplete, and the water required to store that glycogen is no longer needed.  It's not unusual to drop 5-6 lbs of water in the first day or two.  You typically have to get up several times in the night to pee.  When you deplete so much water, so quickly, at a cellular level, it stresses the body.  You need to make sure that you are hydrating enough.  Hydration is also important if you are prone to kidney stones - you need enough water to keep the salts dissolved in your kidneys.
• Loss of electrolytes and electrolyte imbalance:  Shedding water also removes critical electrolytes that are dissolved in that water.  Potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium and chlorine ions are all vital electrolytes that are flushed from your body along with the water.  You need these for your muscles to work properly, and lack of them causes fatigue and headaches.  I am inclined to believe that most of the symptoms are caused by this process.
• Carbohydrate withdrawal: Sugar and Carbs are known to hit the dopamine center of the brain.  This would explain the sugar cravings, irritability, and possibly the constipation.  Constipation is also a well-known issue when smokers quit.
  
• Immune reaction: Does not seem likely.  Eliminating carbohydrate shouldn't trigger an immune response.
  
• Detox reaction from eliminating processed food:  Possible!  There are crazy amounts of chemicals in processed foods that your body might feel it's missing out on, even if they are bad chemicals.
  
• Intestinal microbiome reaction:  This is a poorly-studied area of our biology, and I suspect it will soon become a major area of treatment of many disorders that are currently poorly understood.  It's entirely possible that a keto diet causes *a lot* of bugs that live in our guts to become unhappy.  When they are unhappy, they might release nasty chemicals that make us feel bad, so that we will feed them what they want - starchy processed foods.

One thing I'm fairly certain of - if I were to eat a bag of Doritos, a container of french fries, or a bowl of ice cream, my headache, brain fog and fatigue would fade away.  I just don't think that's the best way to eat.  I'll try to stick to cottage cheese, greek yogurt, green veggies, and protein drinks until I get where I need to be.  When I'm there, then maybe I can indulge a little.  I'm about 2/3 there (with a gut-busting food session over the holidays), just need to finish the job.