Hi,

I am new to raw food and i am having a lot of problems and I hope someone out there can give me some advice.

I started raw food, 100% raw two months ago and the first two weeks I felt amazing, better than I ever have felt in my life, so healthy and so happy. My eyes, normally a bit red where whiter than ever.

Then all of a sudden i started having problems with my heart racing, skipping beats, extreme chest pain, feeling dizzy and i was sure i was having a heart attack. One doctor said it was anxiety, another one that it was the altitude (I am living at 4000 meter above the sea, which is also hard for the body).

After a couple of days of feeling horrible i got better and felt excellent again, until one week later the same feeling came back, but less extreme. I went to see a heart specialist and my heart is fine.

One week after that i got constipation followed by two days of diarrhea. I started taking papaya seeds in case i had any parasites in me and two days later i found worm in the toilet. Since then i continued to take papaya seeds and my bowel movements are more regular, stomach feeling fine, but the food comes out undigested, looking exactly like it looked when i ate it, and i feel i am not absorbing any nutrition, everything is just passing through my body. My eyes are also bloodshut and more red than ever and I am always tired.

During the night i also wake up with pain in different parts, sometimes the nose, or the liver or the chest.

I am wondering what is going on with me. Prior to going raw i was vegetarian for 10 years. I have been healthy all my life, and never been like this. i have spent more days sick in bed during these two months than my i have in my whole life prior to going raw.

I am living in bolivia and there are not really any raw fooders here or much information to help me out.

So, I am wondering, what is all this? I dont thing detox will affect your heart? and is this parasite something i already had or did i get it after going raw? How come i felt so great the first two weeks, but have felt miserable and sick ever since?

I think I am doing everything right, greens, green smoothies, fruits, some nuts and seeds but not too much.

I have constant headaches, my ankles and bones hurt and my teeth are almost transparent (they were never really strong, but not this bad)

I would appreciate if you have any idea what I am doing wrong or what is happening to me, because I am considering to leave raw food, although going back to normally food feels very strange.

Thanks,

Liz

I am no doctor, but it sounds alot like hypoglycemia. The body will release epinepherine(adrenaline) to try raise your blood sugar, this can make you panicky/anxiety. Tread with caution as hypoglycemia can be fatal. Something else could be going on also that is affecting your electroylte levels.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]

Liz,

Welcome! I am sorry this is happening to you, and can relate. For many years, on and off, except when 100% raw(I am about 80%-90% nowadays), I had strange symptoms of compromised digestion, especially undigested food in my stools. These problems have almost entirely cleared up, but I cannot say why, exactly. There could be a variety of reasons, as there could have been a variety of undiagnosed causes.

As for your particular problems, I agree with powerlifer. Are you eating enough foods, assessed by volume and by variety, to hit all of your nutrition targets? The heart racing, etc. sounded like tachycardia to me; this can happen temporarily and sporadically from depleted electrolytes. But if you are eating plenty of leafy greens and digesting them, and cardiac tests show heart function is normal, then maybe blood sugar problems do explain your symptoms.

Has your doctor tested you for a widespread parasitic infection, by the way? If you have one of long standing, they could be present in your liver and intestine, and when peristalsis occurs more often, as with a healthy diet, the parasites could be getting agitated and try to migrate. Many of us here fret needlessly, IMO, about parasitic infections as though they were common in as sterile a food system as ours, but Bolivia is a different case. If I were you, I would return to my doctor, and have more complete tests done, including fecal occult blood tests for parasite larvae and eggs. In the meantime, make sure you wash everything you eat well, stay hydrated--coconut water may be beneficial to you--exercise and rest sufficiently. I think adding some healthy foods in a cooked form could be easier for your system for the time being, anything that you think may be contaminated, for instance. Lastly, if possible, please consider juicing or blending your well-washed vegetables and fruits to make those nutrients more bioavailable. I found green smoothies very beneficial when my digestion was "off," because my digestion didn't have to work hard to get the vitamins and minerals.

I wish you speedy healing