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Reduced carbs headaches

lely

lely

Well-Known Member
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208
Quick question anyone find the suffered with headaches when they started to eat reduced carb diet.
 
Drink a lot, ( of water) increase your salt, (if you have no BP issues) and it should pass.
 
Yes your body can suffer various "withdrawal" symptoms for a short while, while it's adjusting to its new low carb regime. Do as Douglas says, and maybe ask Google about "low carb flu" or "Atkins flu".

Robbity
 
No, no headaches for me but dizzy spells so have increased my fluids and started adding salt to foods!
 
jddukes said:
Increase your salt intake. You excrete more on low carb and this can lead to headaches and feeling groggy.

J
Click to expand...

Water intake is vital, or you dehydrate more as you excrete the salt.
 
Yes that is a given and was just adding to what others have said as water alone may well not fix the problem. Most people do not have a problem with dehydration despite what many think. We tend to consume quite a bit of fluid in our western culture.
 
Salt intake needs to be balanced against BP considerations, and fluid intake and output. It's not quite as simple, and does require careful consideration not to increase the salt intake in excess of output.
Short term tends to balance out without any great worry, but overall, fluid intake should be high.
3L a day of water is a reasonable amount.
 
But if you need for example 4g of salt per day on a typical western diet (ie high carb) and you suddenly excrete a lot more, you therefore need more than 4g thus you are not in excess and consequently blood pressure is not a concern.

I increased my salt intake on low carb diet and my BP has gone down. The point - increasing water intake will not relieve a low-sodium induced effect such as a headache.

It is well explained in Volek & Phinney's book. That link I posted was to illustrate the point, I'm not sure about any of his books.
 
Wow. Was not expecting so much info, just yes or no answers. thanks guys.
Gotta love this forum.
 
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