Hi there,

I've been eating low carb for two weeks. I started off eating no grains, no sugar, and no fruit. I was primarily eating animal protein, non starchy vegetables, nuts, seeds, and some full fat dairy. A few days into my low carb eating, a cold I had turned into bronchitis. They gave me some meds for the bronchitis and a few days later I started having dizzy spells. I went to my doctor and found out that my BP was really high (I don't have high BP) probably due to the meds. Additionally, I was showing signs of dehydration, which was probably from a combination of being new to low carb and the bronchitis meds. The doctor told me to add in 3 fruits and drink a lot of water. I also stopped the meds.

I have now been off the bronchitis meds and eating my three fruits for 4 days and I'm still suffering from dizzy spells. I'm waiting on some bloodwork results, but I wonder if anyone has had these types of dizzy spells with low carb even 2 weeks into it. I'm not even really low carb anymore since I'm eating the fruits, but I wonder how much of this can be from my new eating plan or if it's all bronchitis related. I'm starting to wonder if there's some inner ear infection going on, since that can cause dizziness.

Sorry for the long post. I would appreciate any input.

Thanks,
Ann

hi there
eating the fruits is gonna throw u out of the atkins diet range. so i would guess its something else going on.

Low sodium/potassium could cause dizzyness and/or headaches.
Try drinking 2 cups full-sodium chicken broth to see if it helps.
Try 1/2 tsp or 1 tsp of salt in water if you don't have the broth available right now.

You should also be taking a vitamin/mineral supplement while doing low carb.

If you're eating 3 fruits other than berries, you're out of Induction range and are basically just eating a regular diet. Never had the dizziness you're describing, but I'm thinking it is something else since you got through the first few days of Induction and didn't have this. Either way, good luck and hope you figure it out soon -- I know it can't feel good! The only time I've felt like that was when I had some sort of croup that was going around and I couldn't breathe due to sinus issues.

Thanks, everyone for the feedback. I'm not doing Atkins, but just cutting out the grains and sugar to lower my carbs. I suspect it's not related to the diet (probably an ear issue), but I'm still trying to figure it out.