“My husband got to live five more years thanks to keto”

November 13 2017 by , medical review by in Diabetes stories, High blood pressure, Keto, Success stories

Siw wrote to us on Facebook to tell us about how a dietary change helped her husband live longer. Siw’s husband retained a lot of fluid and was in very bad shape when they went to the last resort – keto. Read more about what happened here:

I have a story to tell about how my husband got to live five more years thanks to keto. The first thing I noticed was that his feet started to swell. I didn’t pay much attention to it but noticed that he become increasingly tired. He has always been a large person and quite overweight for a long time, but he continued to swell regardless of what he ate. He tried all kinds of weight-loss methods, but always failed. Of course he suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure and took medication for it. He also had fibrillation.

I read everything I could find on the web about these diseases and came to Annika Dahlqvist’s site and got interested in what diet means for health.

My husband got more and more bloated and at last he could not stay in bed and sleep because he wasn’t able to breathe. He slept in an armchair at night. One morning when I woke up and looked at him, I saw a big puddle below his feet. I asked whether he had peed himself, but he hadn’t. I lifted his leg and got scared when I realized that his skin had ruptured so that sticky fluids hit the floor. He consequently developed major wounds on both of his legs. After instructions from healthcare professionals, I learned to take care of his wounds and did everything I could to make it as good for him as possible.

When they checked his weight three months later he had lost 30 kilos (66 lbs). My husband had become a new person.
I remember that I had read somewhere that the first thing that leaves your body when you go on a ketogenic diet is excessive fluid. I thought that this was the last resort. We immediately started the diet and he really enjoyed it, even though he missed potatoes a lot. But I stood firm. The doctor dissuaded us from going on a keto diet, but I didn’t listen.

I continued to take care of the wounds and after a month they had healed. After three days he could, after being in contact with a doctor, reduce both his diabetes and blood-pressure medications. When they checked his weight three months later he had lost 30 kilos (66 lbs). My husband had become a new person. He could sleep in his bed like a normal person. All the excessive fluid disappeared, he felt great and lived for five more years even though he increased his carb intake. Otherwise I don’t think his heart would have managed the stress from all the excessive fluid in his body.

Later on he got a tumour in his pituitary gland which, because of treatment with waran medication, started bleeding and acute surgery was necessary. Early on he was moved to the regional hospital where the care was miserable and after a while he died from pneumonia.

What I want to highlight with this story is that this diet truly helps with excessive fluid. Think about what would happen if everyone who suffered from bloating and excessive fluid and leg wounds would try this dietary approach, there’s so much suffering that could be alleviated. What if all doctors prescribed this diet instead of diuretics, which are hard on the kidneys.

I need to add that I also lost weight, 9 kilos (20 lbs) in just three months. Thank you for letting me share my story.

Best regards,
Siw

Comment

Thank you for sharing your story, Siw!

Get started

Do you want to try what Siw and her husband have done? Sign up for our free 2-week keto low-carb challenge!

Alternatively, use our free keto low-carb guide, or for maximum simplicity try out our new low-carb meal planner service – it’s free to use for a month.

Keto for beginners

How to lose weight

How to reverse type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes

My low-carb story with Marc Gossange
03:01
After living somewhat of a high-carb life and then living in France for a few years enjoying croissants and freshly baked baguettes, Marc was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
Living low carb with Chris Hannaway
08:19
What does living low carb look like? Chris Hannaway shares his success story, takes us for a spin in the gym and orders food at the local pub.
MEMBERS ONLY
How to help patients reverse type 2 diabetes
27:43
How exactly do you as a doctor help patients reverse their type 2 diabetes?
Living low carb with Yvonne Lane
05:51
Yvonne used to see all those pictures of people who'd lost so much weight, but sometimes didn't really believe they were real.
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
What's it like being a low-carb doctor on TV?
17:40
What’s it like working with patients and giving controversial low-carb advice in front of a TV audience?
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY

Keto

MEMBERS ONLY
All things keto with Keto Connect
16:44
What is it like running the very popular YouTube channel Keto Connect?
MEMBERS ONLY
My success story with Jim Caldwell
02:23
Jim Caldwell has transformed his health and gone from an all-time high at 352 lbs (160 kg) to 170 lbs (77 kg.
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
Diet Doctor Podcast #35 with Ben Bikman, PhD
00:00
Why is insulin so important for us to control and why does a ketogenic diet help so many people? Professor Ben Bikman has studied these questions in his lab for years and he is one of the foremost authorities on the subject.
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
Diet Doctor Podcast #31 – Dr. Ken Berry
51:26
Dr. Ken Berry wants us all to be aware that much of what our doctors say may be a lie. Maybe not an outright malicious lie, but much of what “we” believe in medicine can be traced back to word-of-mouth teachings without a scientific basis.
MEMBERS ONLY
My success story with Gillian Szollos
02:55
Gillian had a normal life when she all of a sudden started to get seizures. She suffered terrible side effects from the meds so she started a keto diet.
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY

Support

Do you want to support Diet Doctor and get access to bonus material? Check out our membership.

Share your story

Do you have a success story you want to share on this blog? Send it (photos appreciated) to success@dietdoctor.com, and please let me know if it’s OK to publish your photo and name or if you’d rather remain anonymous. It would also be greatly appreciated if you shared what you eat on a typical day, whether you fast etc. More information:

Share your story!

Name

Provider / Domain

Expiration

Description

ckdc-premium

.dietdoctor.com

1 month

app-banner

.dietdoctor.dev.dietdoctor.com

1 day

This cookie shows whether user closed the App Banner prompt

_gaexp

Google LLC

dietdoctor.com

1 year

Used to determine a user's inclusion in an experiment and the expiry of experiments a user has been included in.

_gaexp

Google LLC

.dietdoctor.com

1 year

Used to determine a user's inclusion in an experiment and the expiry of experiments a user has been included in.

_opt_awcid

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_opt_awmid

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_opt_awgid

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_opt_awkid

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_opt_utmc

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_opt_expid

.dietdoctor.com

25 seconds

gtm_auth

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

gtm_debug

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

gtm_experiment

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

gtm_preview

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress

Hotjar Ltd

.dietdoctor.com

30 minutes

The cookie is set so Hotjar can track the beginning of the user's journey for a total session count. It does not contain any identifiable information.

_ga

Google LLC

.dietdoctor.com

2 years

This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics - which is a significant update to Google's more commonly used analytics service. This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports.

_dc_gtm_UA-3268327-1

.dietdoctor.com

1 minute

This cookie is associated with sites using Google Tag Manager to load other scripts and code into a page. Where it is used it may be regarded as Strictly Necessary as without it, other scripts may not function correctly. The end of the name is a unique number which is also an identifier for an associated Google Analytics account.

_hjFirstSeen

Hotjar Ltd

.dietdoctor.com

30 minutes

The cookie is set so Hotjar can track the beginning of the user's journey for a total session count. It does not contain any identifiable information.

_dc_gtm_UA-22012422-2

.dietdoctor.com

1 minute

AWSELBCORS

Amazon.com Inc.

www.podbean.com

5 minutes

The cookies AWSELB and AWSELBCORS are functionally the same cookies. The latter has an explicit SameSite attribute set because of changes made from Chrome 80 and upwards.

_ga_YMCP8KW9S4

.dietdoctor.com

2 years

_hjIncludedInSessionSample

Hotjar Ltd

www.dietdoctor.com

2 minutes

This cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the data sampling defined by your site's daily session limit

__cf_bm

Cloudflare Inc.

.vimeo.com

30 minutes

This cookie is used to distinguish between humans and bots. This is beneficial for the website, in order to make valid reports on the use of their website.

_gid

Google LLC

.dietdoctor.com

1 day

This cookie is set by Google Analytics. It stores and update a unique value for each page visited and is used to count and track pageviews.

CookieScriptConsent

CookieScript

www.dietdoctor.com

1 year

This cookie is used by Cookie-Script.com service to remember visitor cookie consent preferences. It is necessary for Cookie-Script.com cookie banner to work properly.

__cf_bm

Cloudflare Inc.

.podbean.com

30 minutes

This cookie is used to distinguish between humans and bots. This is beneficial for the website, in order to make valid reports on the use of their website.

_hjIncludedInPageviewSample

Hotjar Ltd

www.dietdoctor.com

2 minutes

This cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the data sampling defined by your site's pageview limit.

_dc_gtm_UA-22012422-1

.dietdoctor.com

1 minute

_gaexp_rc

.dietdoctor.com

25 seconds

Name

Provider / Domain

Expiration

Description

IDE

Google LLC

.doubleclick.net

1 year

This cookie is set by Doubleclick and carries out information about how the end user uses the website and any advertising that the end user may have seen before visiting the said website.

_uetvid

Microsoft Corporation

.dietdoctor.com

1 year

This is a cookie utilised by Microsoft Bing Ads and is a tracking cookie. It allows us to engage with a user that has previously visited our website.

loc

Oracle Corporation

.addthis.com

1 year 1 month

Stores the visitors geolocation to record location of sharer

test_cookie

Google LLC

.doubleclick.net

15 minutes

This cookie is set by DoubleClick (which is owned by Google) to determine if the website visitor's browser supports cookies.

_gcl_au

Google LLC

.dietdoctor.com

3 months

Used by Google AdSense for experimenting with advertisement efficiency across websites using their services

_uetsid

Microsoft Corporation

.dietdoctor.com

1 day

This cookie is used by Bing to determine what ads should be shown that may be relevant to the end user perusing the site.

uvc

Oracle Corporation

.addthis.com

1 year 1 month

Tracks how often a user interacts with AddThis

YSC

Google LLC

.youtube.com

Session

This cookie is set by YouTube to track views of embedded videos.

MUID

Microsoft Corporation

.bing.com

1 year

This cookie is widely used my Microsoft as a unique user identifier. It can be set by embedded microsoft scripts. Widely believed to sync across many different Microsoft domains, allowing user tracking.

_fbp

Meta Platform Inc.

.dietdoctor.com

3 months

Used by Facebook to deliver a series of advertisement products such as real time bidding from third party advertisers

VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE

Google LLC

.youtube.com

6 months

This cookie is set by Youtube to keep track of user preferences for Youtube videos embedded in sites;it can also determine whether the website visitor is using the new or old version of the Youtube interface.

Name

Provider / Domain

Expiration

Description

_ga_7S1SXKKDKN

.dietdoctor.com

2 years

Name

Provider / Domain

Expiration

Description

_hjSession_1945121

.dietdoctor.com

30 minutes

_hjSessionUser_1945121

.dietdoctor.com

1 year

_ga_Y4DLH4EPXM

.dietdoctor.com

2 years

Comment

Get started

More

Type 2 diabetes

Keto

Support

More success stories

Share your story