Hello! I will try to sum this up briefly, and I’m really just looking for any kind of advice/similar experiences to mine.
I am a very active person, I go to the gym 3-4 times a week, and love hiking/playing musical instruments etc… I went vegetarian almost a year ago, from a diet that consisted of meat in almost every meal. For the first few months I felt great, more active than every before. After a few months into the diet change, I developed some tendon/muscle issues in both my wrists. I figured I had overworked them. The doctor said tendonitis, and I started physical therapy for it. A couple months later, I started developing issues in my ankles and knees. I would start limping randomly and have pain in my knees. Once again, a specialist said tendonitis from overuse. Started physical therapy for that as well… This issues were not resolving quickly at all. 8 months later, I’m still having constant flare ups. These issues have also spread to my hands and shoulders. During the last 6 months, I switched to a mostly vegan diet (almond milk, vegan cheese etc,.). Since this time, my joints/tendons have been cracking/popping a lot. I also developed muscle twitches that happen all over my body, all throughout the day. I get randomly tingling feels in my hands and feet as well. These have been going on for several months now. I was going to the gym less and less because it felt like my muscles were taking so long to recover. What use to be sore for only 48 hours after working out now took almost a week to recover.
A couple little notes before I continue:
- I have never had any type of issues like this in my life before this year (diet change).
- I do not have a deficiency in B vitamins, at least that was what the doctor said my bloodtest showed
- Most the vegan food I was eating was “processed” vegan food
I won’t describe anymore of my issues, I think you get the point. My body has felt like its been falling apart, I feel so vulnerable physically. I went to an arthritis doctor who did a physical exam and some blood tests - no arthritis at all, no inflammation markers/ anemia, most of my vitamin levels were fine (besides D). I went to a neurologist who couldn’t find any physical issue at all, and apparently was not a big fan of veganism. I even got my thyroid and cortisol levels checked. Literally nothing has been able to explain my issues. In a last ditch effort to figure out what was going on, I attributed these issues to my diet change, and started eating meat again 2-3 months ago. I have noticed that my muscles do recover a little quicker after working out now, and my body gets inflamed a little less often, but i’m still having a lot of these issues i’ve described.
Has anyone ever experienced this? I was an extremely health 25 year old, and within 1 year of a diet change, I become a depressed anxious physically weak shell of who I was. The only thing I can think of since my vitamin levels were fine, is that I was not getting adequate protein with a vege/vegan diet, and with my very active lifestyle, my body just could not recover after all my activity, and it just continued to break down more and more. I don’t think I’m suffering from any type of genetic disease, as all these issues have been brought on by physical activity. I’m hoping after a few more months of eating meat again, my body and mind will strengthen back to how it was before. Thanks for listening.