Diet modification to address Peripheral Neuropathy

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

Good morning Dr. Jordan,

I have been dealing with a few health problems this year and I would like your opinion on modifications to make to your standard nutritional advice.

30 year old, Male, work at desk job, 5’-10", 193 lbs, 38" waist circumference, currently doing SSLP about 6 weeks in, started weighing and measuring food about 2 weeks ago.

In Jan/Feb of this year I started noticing nerve pains in my thigh, my leg falling asleep very quickly when sitting, also some odd sensitivities to cold, after a few weeks of hoping it would go away and instead getting worse; it started to become nerve pain on the top of my head and one of my arms I got aggressive and started to tackle some food choices, cut out donuts and processed food with a paleo-type template and started running a few miles a week along with intermittent fasting. I went from 240 to about 200 with this method until that progress stalled in late august. I was doing a pretty low carb, moderate protein, moderate/high fat approach and it improved the nerve stuff but would come back if I ate foods that were high in carbohydrate. My blood pressure also went from 140/80 to 110/80. I am not aware if I have any other symptoms of hyperinsulinemia.

I had a physical 9/4/18 my fasting blood sugar was 91 and to make this more confusing and complicated I also had horrible TSH numbers I have since been diagnosed with Thyroiditis (the Endo is not sure which flavor and said she will not know until it is resolved, but it’s unlikely autoimmune and once this hyperthyroid bout is complete I’ll likely temporarily go hypo then should resolve permanently) otherwise all blood work and standard health markers were great.

I felt like after the weight loss I wanted to continue to improve my waist circumference after watching your video and add strength training with calorie restriction. I do 1-2 days of conditioning and sauna a few times a week for recovery which has helped a lot especially with the thyroid stuff. I have made some strength progress that I am happy with but in this time I have altered my diet to try to make my strength training work better I increased my protein from about 90g/day to 190g-210g, and increased my carbohydrate to about 150g-200g and lowered my fat to keep my calorie restriction to around 1800-2100 depending on training day/activity level etc. This is where I am concerned I may be going in the wrong direction.

This nagging nerve tingling/pain is significantly better than earlier this year but has gotten worse since upping my carbs. How should I go about adjusting my macros so I can keep my strength training improving and try to get this nerve stuff kicked? I ate 1/2 cup oatmeal before and after training today and even with high fiber food of oatmeal, planned around training this nerve deal flared it up pretty good and I’m kind of lost.

Thank you for your time.

2

I do not think the nerve issue (if that’s what it is) has anything to do with your carbohydrate level. I would ask for a referral from your GP to a neurologist and complete your medical work up rather than self-treat at this point.

3

I will do that, thank you for the advice.

4

Hey Doc,

Firstly I am doing considerably better. As you suspected I do not have peripheral neuropathy.

I found out I was living in a house with a really bad mold problem (no evidence of ‘black’ mold) I am allergic to molds and just about every other environmental allergen so I have a hard time year round indoor/outdoor and being in that environment caused all kinds of strange health problems.

To fix the mold problem I moved in February, and I’ve been seeing an ENT for sinusitis+allergies and a neurologist for ice pick headaches (an atypical presentation of migraine headaches) and mild sciatica(that is unrelated to the mold deal).

My health is pretty good now, but my attempts to go back to train haven’t gone very well.

I suspect this is from fatigue tied in with these environmental allergies and/or fatigue from ice pick headaches.

During the activity, I feel great and don’t feel like I’m overreaching - anything from running, swinging kettlebells, to barbells -then later in the day I get hit with heavy fatigue and that night I’ll have horrible sleep. If I do no strenuous activity - just walking/climb stairs at work, I sleep well, maybe 6-7 hours with only a couple brief wake ups, but if do anything more strenuous I start having pretty bad insomnia, some nights as bad as only 2-4 hours asleep and then the lack of sleep starts triggering these headaches and I get stuck in this miserable feedback loop until I stop physical activity then a few days later I feel pretty normal. I’ve done an at home sleep study I do not have sleep apnea. I have a couple young kids at home so if I miss out on sleep there’s no make up naps or anything even if I could fall asleep.

This problem started when I was living in the mold house in 2017 and has remained since, 3+ years ago I used to exercise more and sleep more.

How should I approach this so I can make sure I am getting decent sleep and still being active? And should I be prioritizing sleep over exercise?

Thank you again for your time.