jtr1962
Flashaholic
Maybe this is the wrong place to ask but for about the last two months my mom has not been feeling too well. She's had the chills, general lack of energy, plus pains in some of her joints. The doctor found some sort of upper respiratory infection and gave her antibiotics a few weeks ago but the symptoms are mostly persisting. I'm leaning towards the idea that perhaps all this is diet related because I've had similar symptoms recently, although not as severe, and I don't have any joint pains (except the carpal tunnel syndrome in my hands which I've had since at least my late 20s).
Some of my mother's medical history includes replacement of both hips and one of her shoulders about five or six years ago. She also has mild osteoporosis and somewhat severe scoliosis. The latter is mostly as a result of having had scarlet fever as a young child. She spent two years in the hospital following her illness after the doctors said she would never walk again. Obviously they were wrong. Even as recently as two years ago, she walked 7 miles round trip to one of her doctor's appointments. She turned 69 about a month ago. She was a light smoker most of her adult life, but quit about 15 years ago. Recent X-rays of her lungs show no long term damage from smoking.
Now here's the problem. Over the last few years we've cut a lot of meat out of our diets. To be sure, we never ate anywhere near the amount of meat most Americans eat. However, after reading about factory farming and antibiotics and the generally unhealthy way most meat is raised, starting perhaps eight or ten years ago we cut back on the amount of meat significantly. I'd say on average we ended up eating some sort of meat perhaps 3 or 4 times a week at dinners, and that was it, whereas before it was nearly every night. More recently (over the last year perhaps), we've been lucky to have meatballs with pasta once a week, perhaps Arby's or Burger King every other week. This latter cut back has been due do to mostly finances. We can barely afford non-meat diets, let alone meat. When we do Burger King, it's the dollar menu. For Arby's it's the 2 for 1 coupons.
While I noticed feeling slightly weaker when we cut back to 3 or 4 times a week, it was nothing debilitating. More recently, I've noticed a sharp drop in energy, to the point where I feel like sleeping 12 hours a day, if not more. In my case I attribute some of the lack of energy to the weather being bad and not being able to cycle as often as I'd like. My energy level drops precipitously when I don't get aerobic exercise at least 3 or 4 times a week. My walking 2 to 4 miles a day just doesn't cut it, although it at least gets my core body temperature up enough so I don't have the chills.
Anyway, is it plausible that my mom's symptoms, which in many ways are similar to but worse to my own, are caused by the recent profound lack of meat in our diets? Could that account for the upper respiratory infection which just won't go away? The balance of our diet appears healthy (pasta, legumes once or twice a week, oatmeal or cold cereal for breakfast, etc.) but I tend to think we're missing out on important trace elements by not eating meat-trace elements which aren't present in vitamin supplements because medical science is still not sure of what they are and the amounts needed.
Some of my mother's medical history includes replacement of both hips and one of her shoulders about five or six years ago. She also has mild osteoporosis and somewhat severe scoliosis. The latter is mostly as a result of having had scarlet fever as a young child. She spent two years in the hospital following her illness after the doctors said she would never walk again. Obviously they were wrong. Even as recently as two years ago, she walked 7 miles round trip to one of her doctor's appointments. She turned 69 about a month ago. She was a light smoker most of her adult life, but quit about 15 years ago. Recent X-rays of her lungs show no long term damage from smoking.
Now here's the problem. Over the last few years we've cut a lot of meat out of our diets. To be sure, we never ate anywhere near the amount of meat most Americans eat. However, after reading about factory farming and antibiotics and the generally unhealthy way most meat is raised, starting perhaps eight or ten years ago we cut back on the amount of meat significantly. I'd say on average we ended up eating some sort of meat perhaps 3 or 4 times a week at dinners, and that was it, whereas before it was nearly every night. More recently (over the last year perhaps), we've been lucky to have meatballs with pasta once a week, perhaps Arby's or Burger King every other week. This latter cut back has been due do to mostly finances. We can barely afford non-meat diets, let alone meat. When we do Burger King, it's the dollar menu. For Arby's it's the 2 for 1 coupons.
While I noticed feeling slightly weaker when we cut back to 3 or 4 times a week, it was nothing debilitating. More recently, I've noticed a sharp drop in energy, to the point where I feel like sleeping 12 hours a day, if not more. In my case I attribute some of the lack of energy to the weather being bad and not being able to cycle as often as I'd like. My energy level drops precipitously when I don't get aerobic exercise at least 3 or 4 times a week. My walking 2 to 4 miles a day just doesn't cut it, although it at least gets my core body temperature up enough so I don't have the chills.
Anyway, is it plausible that my mom's symptoms, which in many ways are similar to but worse to my own, are caused by the recent profound lack of meat in our diets? Could that account for the upper respiratory infection which just won't go away? The balance of our diet appears healthy (pasta, legumes once or twice a week, oatmeal or cold cereal for breakfast, etc.) but I tend to think we're missing out on important trace elements by not eating meat-trace elements which aren't present in vitamin supplements because medical science is still not sure of what they are and the amounts needed.
Have a Lyme Disease test done. 
