Hello, my name is Steve. I’ve had liver cirrhosis since mid-Nov. 2017. My body retained massive amounts of fluid (ascites).
After the first few months of suffering while taking the prescription diuretics (pee medication) with no good results, I finally got an appointment for a paracentesis (fluid draining procedure).
The fluid kept coming back, so we scheduled a paracentesis once every week. In total, I had 21 paracentesis procedures done to remove the fluid. It was months and months of once a week. My body was retaining more and more fluid every week (while taking my medications) till it got to the point where I was retaining 20+ lbs of fluid every week.
Excruciating Pain
The whole time this was going on, I was in massive pain and could not eat solid food. I’m 6ft tall and went from 175 lbs down to 132 lbs. The lack of food made me weak, and along with the pain, I could barely move around. If I stood or walked for five minutes or more, my shins would swell, and the pain was so much that it felt like my shin bones were going to snap in half.
If I stood or walked for five minutes or more my shins would swell and the pain was so much that it felt like my shin bones were going to snap in half.
A Chicken Saved Me
I read that protein helps manage water in the body, and also I was feeling very depressed, so I decided to make my grandma’s homemade chicken soup recipe: whole raw chicken, carrots, celery, onions, salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary simmered in a pot of water for 2-3 hours, strained of bones and skin, chicken and vegetables put back in bone broth.
The recipe makes around 8-10 servings, and I ate all of them. It took three days to finish the pot, but by the second day, I was peeing more fluid out than the entire six months of treatment. Overnight I was convinced that protein was the answer.
I immediately bought value packs of pork chops and beef and would just fry them up with butter and chow down. Also, because I was ill, not many things agreed with me, so I naturally switched to drinking more water instead of other beverages.
Fluid Retention Down
By the first full week of eating more of grandma’s chicken soup and frying up cuts of meat, my fluid retention went down from:
10.3L removed, 75mg albumin (7/17/2018) (low average every week)
5.9L removed, 0mg albumin (7/24/2018) (I refused the albumin)
6.7L removed, 50mg albumin (7/31/2018)
0.0L no hospital visit, appointment canceled (8/7/2018)
After the 7/17/2018 paracentesis is when I started eating grandma’s homemade chicken soup and then cuts of meat, I believe my refusal of the albumin may have been why there was a 0.8L gain the following week on 7/31/2018. By 8/7/2018, I had zero fluid retention, and that has been true till today, 9/20/2018.
Reducing Medication
My medications were/are prescribed as follows:
- Furosemide (Lasix) 40mg daily
- Spironolactone (Aldactone) 100mg daily (I took 150mg daily)
- Multivitamin once daily
After the first week of no fluid retention, I reduced the Spironolactone by 50mg. Then I reduced it again to another 50mg. Now I do not take the Spironolactone against my doctor’s orders (who said I would have to take it for the rest of my life), and I have zero fluid retention.
Now I'm on Carnivore and my recovery is improving daily. I can walk again, eat again, and be a normal person again simply because of eating meat.
What’s This ‘Carnivore’ Thing?
I did not know of the Carnivore diet during my chicken soup and meat dietary change. All I knew was that meat was helping me stay out of the hospital, reduce my meds, gain my appetite back, and feel healthy.
I started the Carnivore diet on 9/17/2018 Monday, and I’m feeling great. The reason I want to share this is because I was already a person who didn’t eat bread and pasta, but I loved my fruits and veggies, and I didn’t eat a lot of meat. Broccoli, collard greens, onions, tomatoes, apples, etc., didn’t help me at all.
Only when I started eating large quantities of meat as a comfort food my grandma used to make did I start seeing and feeling the physical recovery. Now I’m on Carnivore, and my recovery is improving daily. I can walk again, eat again, and be a normal person again simply because of eating meat.
Not Advice, But Inspiration
I have not heard from any other persons who have liver cirrhosis who use the Carnivore diet. I can’t recommend people with liver cirrhosis switch to a Carnivore diet, but perhaps my story may help them decide what’s best for them.
I would be more than happy to post updates on my recovery while on the Carnivore diet, and I will post images of the hospital reports on the paracentesis procedures to validate my claims.
Meat has saved my life. I did not switch to the Carnivore diet to lose weight, build muscle, or simply eat bacon and steak all day. I switched to the Carnivore diet because the meat was keeping me out of the hospital and allowed me to be a person again.
I did not switch to the Carnivore diet to lose weight, to build muscle, or to simply eat bacon and steak all day. I switched to the Carnivore diet because meat was keeping me out of the hospital, and allowed me to be a person again.
9 thoughts on “Steve improved his liver cirrhosis on a carnivore diet”
Thank you for posting. Please update us, I would love to know how you are doing. What a great healing journey. I hope you are doing better than ever.
Steve how is your liver doing? Have you reversed the cirrhosis? I would love to hear how things are going as I was diagnosed as having autoimmune hepatitis and cirrhosis. My doctor told me these are irreversible and will kill me and his “solution” was to put me on drugs.
Christal, Can you tell me how you are doing and what you have learned? My sister was just diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis and I want to convince her to use the carnivore diet. Have you tried it for yourself?
I, too, would love to hear from Steve as to how he is doing. I have been following the Carnivore diet for five months. I also was diagnosed with early-stage cirrhosis of the liver due to NAFLD. When my Hepatologist told me to limit my red meat consumption, I swallowed hard and did not tell him of my diet. I feel so good and had hoped to reverse this early-stage diagnosis. Your information gave me hope, but I would sincerely love an update.
Gloria, how are you doing now? I’m curious if after several years carnivore has helped you heal?
Steve, can you tell me how is your cirrhosis liver so far? Any better. Thanks.
Steve
I was just dx last week with cirrhosis after having fatty liver for years. I been doing keto/carnivore for a year so I was really shocked when I got diagnosis. I will continue doing Wht I’m doing praying 🙏 I can take care of this. They are still doing tests so no meds as of yet. I don’t have any symptoms so see where I go from here. Would love to follow your progress Steve. Thank you and God bless
Teresa,
How are you doing now? Have you continued keto, and did it help eventually? Thanks.
Hi Steve, I do hope you are doing well, and I thank you for having posted your experience.
I was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis in 2016, and now I have cirrhosis. I gained a huge amount of weight in a short time, and I started the carnivore diet in February and have lost practically nothing. I am due for some tests, so I’m hoping that there maybe some positive impact made there? I haven’t been able to find any information about cirrhosis and carnivore diet. Perhaps people are wary of saying anything?
Take care