A ketogenic diet keeps the symptoms away entirely?

[StayingPositiveForever]

I have had HSV2 for close to 2 years now. I have pretty frequent symptoms and know my triggers well so this puts me in an advantageous position in terms of monitoring the virus' behavior. Here are my findings:

 

Everytime my diet is shit, I get a lot of outbreaks. Periods where I eat a lot of sugars, carbs and junk. Also higher emotional stress brings an outbreak without fail during those times. And almost always a large dose of sugar/carb rich alcohol brings an instant outbreak the next day even. I wasn't drinking much before, but since HSV2, I'm almost completely alcohol free.

 

Before the summer, my outbreaks were so frequent almost constantly there was a small blister somewhere. One went away, another popped out. They mostly didn't even break the skin, but that was really frustrating to constantly worry about infecting something else.

 

At the end of April, I went on a ketogenic diet. I ate a lot of nuts in the beginning, and the symptoms were lesser and going away, but still there for a while. Then I don't remember if it went away before or after leaving out the nuts. After that, I was completely without outbreaks for over 2 months. I even had emotional stress, and nothing. This has never happened before. I thought the whole virus might've died. When I went on vacation from work and the diet, I ate some sugars. No outbreaks. I even had a really stressful period, which normally brings an outbreak, but no. Not this time. Even with alcohol, no outbreaks. Then I went back to a shitty diet with a lot of white sugars and carbs, and after 2 weeks, broke out again.

 

Now I'm back on keto since 11th of August. A bit earlier my last outbreak healed. (Or can't know for sure if some things on my face are zits or herpes). So no sugars, lysine/arginine balance in check, and I'm completely outbreak free! In the long run, I can even have cheat days and not fear outbreaks. I reckon if I stay on low carbs for long enough, the whole shit will go into remission permanently. That, or I go to a 2 weeks ozone therapy.

 

Basically what I found out is that sugars are really harmful along with arginine and alcohol. This is my experience (my partner didn't have outbreaks on keto either, so I speak for 2) and it brings a lot of hope! What do you think? 😊

[LightafterDarkness]

Thanks for sharing your story- interesting to see that you may have found a way to keep the virus latent! A couple of questions:

• In between OBs do you experience any 2nd order symptoms like tingling / itching?
• Regarding sugars do you refer to processed sugars or sugars overall (so for example fruit)
• Do you take any medication / vitamins?

[StayingPositiveForever]

2 hours ago, LightafterDarkness said:

Thanks for sharing your story- interesting to see that you may have found a way to keep the virus latent! A couple of questions:

• In between OBs do you experience any 2nd order symptoms like tingling / itching?
• Regarding sugars do you refer to processed sugars or sugars overall (so for example fruit)
• Do you take any medication / vitamins?

• No, absolutely zero symptoms. I rarely, if ever have symptoms without an OB.
• I refer to processed white sugar as found in candy, sweets, the like, but I also eat very little fruit or berries on ketosis. I reckon the white processed sugars are the worst, fruit a little less so and grain carbs like wheat no effect. Just my hypothesis, though.
• Yes. I take 500mg of vitamin-C almost daily and 1g during OB and 3-5 days after it has ended. I also take zinc frequently and omega-3 daily. Used to take oregano oil, but I think it didn't help while eating sugar so I stopped it. Lysine was also part of my supplements but it costs extra when you can just get the same effect by looking after your diet and eating more lysine from food.

Hope this works in the long run as well. I had a really long OB-less period earlier too when I was not eating candy. So guess that processed sugar is the main factor here for me. Not sure if ketones themselves (the substitute for glucose on keto) have anything to do with it but I think an otherwise healthy lower carb diet works too. If you are into experimenting, I can recommend DietDoctor as a source for information and recipes. You don't really need to give up much, but it can cost a bit more if you want to get some rarer ingredients like almond flour (substitute for any flour) or eryhtritol (substitue for sugar). Eating out or bying ready-made is more difficult so you probably need to do more work yourself. I eat a lot of take away salads.

[StayingPositiveForever]

UPDATE!

Since posting this I was on a not completely keto diet for a while. Drank one single beer with a good burger, and boom, OB. Minor, but still. The thing with me is that when I get symptoms, they are very minor, but they usually last for a long period of time. After starting the strict keto again, I had some very very minimal symptoms for 1-2 days and then none whatsoever after that. Think that was after a cheat day and also a super stressful period of breaking up with my partner.

Will have to see again at the 2 week mark. That's usually the longest cycle.

One thing I've also noticed is that the virus is evolving all the time. Whenever I stop taking something or stop following a system that works, it comes back and the remedy doesn't work anymore. At least this happened with the meds. First they worked okay when taken daily, OB free. Then I stopped after 2-3 months and then they didn't work anymore after that. Maybe I could try them again too in the future.

I've still been taking 500mg of vitamin-c every day + zinc. I hope this will put the thing into hiding. I'm trying to be symptom free for 3-6 months before experimenting with other foods again. Anyhow, even if I wouldn't become completely symptom free, the diet is definitely lessening them. Which is nice. And I'm taking better care of my health, which is a blessing in all this. Also meditating, that's a blast and I think helps with this to keep stress levels down.

Cheers and out!

Edited October 6, 2019 by StayingPositiveForever

[StayingPositiveForever]

UPDATE again!

There is a significant difference when eating KETO/non-sugar, no arginine diet. The symptoms are minimal if at all, when in the worst case scenario there is an ourbreak almost constantly. So at least in my case a proper diet helps a ton. Lately I've not been into it much and I got sick with the flu a while back so I went off keto (no OB for a month at that point) and  there have been symptoms again, especially in the Christmas time where my diet was off the walls and stress from other factors were at play. Now it's calming down again and I'm returning to a KETO-ish diet at least if not full KETO. Again trying to keep it away for half a year. Might try the meds again. Or the ozone if that doesn't cost that much.

[avr]

Thanks for sharing! Keto is a healthy diet and I'm not surprised that it helps to control outbreaks. More autophagy and less oxidative stress. Just be careful with those nuts, because they are very high in oxalates, making it too easy to overdose and start accumulating them in your body. And then they cause chronic inflammation which can reactivate the herpes. My outbreaks got much better on a low oxalate diet. Also, don't take so much Vitamin C. Our body can only recycle around 250mg per day and the excess turns into oxalate. Don't fall for all the marketing. Randomised controlled trials have not shown any benefit from high dose Vitamin C supplementation, in fact they have shown potential harm.

[Rathbones]

I too, have been on a ketogenic diet for three months.  I did have one mild outbreak due to taking collagen. The second ingredient in the collagen supplement was Arginine and I think that is what did it. I cut out the collagen and no outbreaks.  I am taking 1000mg of Lysine nightly as well as a calcium/magnesium supplement and an electrolyte powder with vitamin C.  My outbreaks had gotten so bad that there was either one tingling or resolving on my nose area all the time.

Now I am two months free of symptoms.

[Gnarlyboots]

What have your diets been like prior to switching to a ketogenic diet?

I'm just wondering if you've simply switched to a healthier eating pattern and perhaps it's not necessarily ketoisis, that's helping alleviate your symtoms. Thoughts?

I've started a ketogenic diet to try and manage my constant herpes symptoms, but I do worry it's cutting out quite a lot of healthy fruits, vegetables and whole grains I'd normally eat.