Healing my chronic muscle pain/inflammation thru antinflammatory diet

Hi Green Girl, thank you so much for your reply. I'm glad to hear that the decent sleep will return at the end. I'm now 4months off all psychiatric drugs. I will stuck it out.

Hello buddies

I just realized my 10 yr  anniversary was this past August 

 

As noted in the title of this thread, very painful, stiff, and inflamed  muscles were my worst, most disabling and longest lasting symptom.  The pain and stiffness just got worse and worse as time passed, long after all of my other WD symptoms had cleared up.

 

Just past the two year off  mark I began a strict whole food plant-based diet and very soon I began experiencing some relief!    Within 3 weeks of beginning the diet my pain was about 80% resolved and after about a year on the diet it was fully resolved.

 

Info on various anti inflammatory diets is widely available online. I used the free info on the nourishing meals / whole life nutrition websites, starting with the Phase 1 food list, although I did not include any animal products or oils:

https://wholelifenutrition.net/articles/elimination-diet/free-elimination-diet-resources

 

All is well, I’ve been all healed up for years now. Hopefully my experience with the diet can help some of you who are suffering similar muscle symptoms. 

Hi Greengirl,

  Thank you for coming back to share your 10th anniversary! How lovely to know you are doing so well. I appreciate your suggestions and also believe food is a critical piece of vibrant health.

Best to you and thank you,

 

Carita

Thank you and I am checking out the diet now. Congratulations on your healing!

 

PG

It's interesting you mention jaw tension, because I am having that really bad 6 months off. How long did yours last?

Thank you for this information. I have changed many things in my life and I'm ready for the next step which is diet. I'll be researching this one and will let you know if I decide to go this route.

 

It's amazing how much a simple dietary/lifestyle change can be the answer to the issues faced in benzo withdrawal, yet doctors fail to recognize and just prescribe, prescribe, prescribe. Strange times we live in, indeed.

 

Congratulations 

 

na- 

Hopeful heart

My Jaw tension and involuntary jaw clenching were horrendous at 6 months off.

If I remember correctly those jaw symptoms were all cleared up by a year off and once gone never came back.  But while it lasted it was quite painful, kept me up or woke me up many nights during the first year off.

 

You’re in the thick of it right now. hang in there! Bit by bit symptoms clear up and things do get better!

Wow, thanks so much Greengirl for your most encouraging recovery via diet!!!

 

I happened to be forced to change my diet with extreme restriction just a 1.5 months ago as I started reacting almost everything I eat that contains msg, artificial sweeteners, or natural food high in glutamate, gluten, sugar at an extreme level.

 

I will check out the website you linked. I don't have much left on my plate that is safe to eat.

 

Can you share more about your diet by couple examples?

 

Also, how long did it take for the sensitivity go away if you ever tried any old food items?

 

Thanks again for coming back and helping out!

 

4mom

In addition to these diet changes, has anyone tried turmeric for support as well?

Hi Greengirl! 

Congratulations and thanks for sharing your diet.  I also recovered quickly as soon as I went on a very similar diet.  It seems the stress of w/d brings on severe food allergies to lots of foods, and then those foods cause symptoms similar to w/d.  I finally stopped writing about it because so many people thought that was crazy.  I read neurologist Dr. Perlmutter's books how food affects the brain, especially the neurotransmitters are made in the gut.  I follow all his diet recommendations similar to yours.  Just absolutely no packaged foods, dairy, grains, sugar, and nothing refined.  Just veges, fruit, and grassfed meat or wild fish.  It worked like a miracle for me too.  I discovered through months of elimination diets that I had severe allergies to coffee!!  When I stopped the coffee and was strict on that diet, my years of horrific back pain and lots of w/d symptoms would return.  I wish others would try this, especially people who are not recovering after a few years.  Thanks for sharing.  I know this will help people.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

Just a question, did the tinnitus go away because of the diet or before?

hi Jaco

My tinnitus was pretty much all cleared up before I started the diet. If I remember correctly it was mostly gone by about a year off, and I started the diet at a little over 2 yrs off.

Thank you 

Hi GG,

 

I am 1 year clonazepam free this past Oct. 28th! and March 2020 will be 2 years from my start. This was the hardest thing I’ve ever done! I still have the tinnitus and insomnia only sleep 2 to 3 hours. I’ve accepted that this is was it is until it isn’t. At month 10 I developed what feels like sciatica pain in both legs which wakes me up. I’ve gone for massage therapy and it was suggested that I do gentle yoga, which I started in month 11. I’m guessing this is withdrawal also. I have a throat clearing issue which I went to ENT, he did an endoscope and said it was an allergic irritation, gave me antihistamines for 6 weeks, which didn’t work, I  then returned and he said that it must be Gerd, then gave me Pepcid. I also have a runny watery eye issue, given Restasis.

 

Which brings me to your recovery post. I read yesterday and reread today.  Maybe this is withdrawal and maybe some of my issues are food related. I will be looking into your diet.  Thank you for your post, you have given me hope when I was feeling discouraged.

 

Hugs, AC2C

Thank you for sharing.

I know this is important.

So much love

Heather Elizabeth

Greengirl - thanks for the Nourishing meals link!!  It looks wonderful and is just the direction I need to take.  Very appreciated!!

I'm wondering if this is a commercial ad or is it really helping?

I am in a hopeless situation and will try this diet, although I'm sure it's all nonsense.

Hi Arnold, no sir not a commercial ,I’m just another benzo  buddie veteran  who was still suffering badly and desperate for some relief  at over two years out from my last dose of benzo.  This  diet was key to my healing from the disabling muscle pain and stiffness that plagued me throughout my withdrawal. The food lists and and websites I mention in this thread were just tools I used. Just free info that is available to anyone on the web. I didn’t buy anything, don’t sell anything, and am not associated with those sites in any way. 

Best,

GG

 

 

Okay thank you. But I don’t understand how this can help if there are clinical signs of destruction and death of neurons?

Sorry you’ve stumped  me there I can’t answer that.  However I am all for when nothing else is working and you don’t have anything to lose by trying it’s worth a shot. That’s the boat I was in when I stumbled upon this diet. I figured I had nothing to lose  so it was worth committing to eating this way for 30 days. I honestly didn’t have high hopes but then was so pleasantly surprised with how quickly I started getting relief from my muscle symptoms. Healed up,fairly quickly from there after years of suffering  so I’d say however it worked it worked. The why’s and how’s don’t really concern  me. Feeling better is what matters 

Sorry you’ve stumped  me there I can’t answer that.  However I am all for when nothing else is working and you don’t have anything to lose by trying it’s worth a shot. That’s the boat I was in when I stumbled upon this diet. I figured I had nothing to lose  so it was worth committing to eating this way for 30 days. I honestly didn’t have high hopes but then was so pleasantly surprised with how quickly I started getting relief from my muscle symptoms. Healed up,fairly quickly from there after years of suffering  so I’d say however it worked it worked. The why’s and how’s don’t really concern  me. Feeling better is what matters 

 

Thanks again. I believe that it really helped you.

Greengirl,

 

When I kindled myself 2 years ago I got slammed with food reactions and terrible fatigue whenever I ate food all the time. It was not getting better and I always thought it was just withdrawal and a damaged CNS. I took zinc about a month ago and it miraculously cured it and has even been helping with other benzo symptoms. I really do wonder if we get triggered horribly by benzo damage but the issues are actually coming from somewhere else after a while. Like our bodies get thrown into a negative cycle. I have researched a lot of amazing things about zinc recently and how many issues it can cause to be deficient. It even effects gaba/glutamate stuff also BDNF.

 

I've wanted to fix my diet for years but have just found it too hard. Because I already have some gut issues where I don't go to the bathroom much, I get worried about eating lots of rice all the time. So I just eat whatever junk haha. What do youe eat as main meals for vegan? I tried cooking brown rice with veggies 3x a day for about a week but just found it too plain and boring. Plus all the sauces I want to add are toxic.

Shamo

My meals are usually pretty basic. Some combo  of veggie, beans, and greens with rice, potato, sweet potato or whole wheat pasta , and fresh fruit, not necessarily all in the same meal. More potatoes and a veggie than anything else. No toxic store bought sauces, just plain eating. Rice yes but not daily, no reason, just that I really like potatoes, they are filling,  and I rarely tire of having them days on end. Lately Oatmeal for breakfast,  but just as often a bowl of rice and beans or veggie soup. You will see other ideas on what I eat if you read thru the pages on this thread.

You’re right ! Lifestyle changes are always challenging, and believe me I have my  struggles.  But at the point when I changed my diet , I was suffering so  badly, the pain was so debilitating that it was critical that I do SOMETHING to try to mitigate the damage of the withdrawal and the cascade of after effects that for whatever reason were causing me to get worse and worse, , even 2 years from my last benzo. 

I don't see any improvement on a green diet.

Has anyone else tried the green diet for muscle spasms and pain?