Fibromyalgia and the Carnivore Diet

What it feels like

Everything hurts, all the time, and the tests come back normal. You're exhausted but can't sleep, and the brain fog makes it hard to explain to anyone. The people below were told to learn to live with it.

Real people, real stories (N=1)

Our thesis

Our thesis: We think fibromyalgia pain is often amplified by inflammation and blood sugar swings from the modern diet, and that a simple meat-based diet may turn the volume down for some people. This is understudied for carnivore: we know of no controlled trial of a carnivore diet for fibromyalgia. The study cited here is a small pilot of a ketogenic diet in women with obesity.

The bet

• A directional shift. The stories above come from real people, on camera and in their own words. They are anecdotes, but they point the same way, and we think that's worth taking seriously.
• Lower risk with your doctor in the loop. Eating meat, eggs, salt and water for a set trial period is a reversible experiment. Duloxetine, pregabalin, gabapentin and similar drugs shouldn't be stopped suddenly, so any change is a taper with your prescriber. The trial happens with your doctor in the loop, not around them; see the Safety check above for the details.
• Why the research is thin. Randomized trials are built for drugs and are expensive. No one can patent a steak, so the industry has little incentive to fund primal-diet research. A missing trial isn't proof that it works, and it isn't proof that it doesn't.
• The primal lens. The human body was shaped long before refined sugar, seed oils and ultra-processed food existed. We see the modern diet as the uncontrolled experiment, and a meat-based trial as a step back toward the conditions our biology evolved in.

Overview: the condition, holistically

Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition with widespread pain, fatigue, poor sleep and trouble thinking ('fibro fog'). Its cause isn't fully understood; the nervous system seems to amplify pain signals. Commonly discussed contributors include genetics, stress, trauma, poor sleep and other illnesses. Standard care includes exercise, sleep and stress care, and medicines such as duloxetine, milnacipran, pregabalin and amitriptyline.

How carnivore is claimed to help

What advocates say, attributed to them:

• Cut what spikes blood sugar. At 5:38 Dr. Ken Berry suggests people with fibromyalgia try a diet without starchy tubers, sugary drinks and fruit juice.
• Check the diagnosis. At 8:53 Dr. Berry says that in his experience fibromyalgia is often misdiagnosed, most commonly when the real problem is an underactive thyroid.
• Question the coffee. At 13:29 Dr. Paul Saladino asks whether coffee could be "worsening pain syndromes like chronic pain syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia." He frames this as a possibility, not a proven effect.

Doctors and advocates

• Dr. Ken Berry

  Family physician; suggests cutting sugar and starches for fibromyalgia and warns it's often misdiagnosed.

• Dr. Paul Saladino

  MD; speculates that compounds in coffee could worsen pain syndromes such as fibromyalgia.

• Dr. Shawn Baker

  Carnivore advocate and podcast host; hosts Coach Nicki K's fibromyalgia story.

Questions to ask your doctor

Ask: "Have thyroid problems and other causes of my pain been ruled out?" "If I feel better, how would we taper my fibromyalgia medications safely?" Not sure your concerns are being heard? See when to question the advice.

Try it

• Go through the Safety check above with your doctor before you start.
• Don't stop fibromyalgia medications on your own; any change is a taper with your prescriber.
• Eat fatty meat, eggs, salt and water. Cut sugar, starches and seed oils, and consider a coffee break too.
• Plan meals with the KC Meatup calculator, and find KC butchers and clinicians in the directory.
• Rate pain, sleep and energy weekly so you and your doctor can judge a 90-day trial.

Not medical advice

Personal stories, not medical advice. If you take medication (especially for blood sugar, blood pressure or mood), change your diet with your doctor in the loop.

Related conditions

Sources

Research

• Ciaffi J et al. (2023). Efficacy, safety and tolerability of very low-calorie ketogenic diet in obese women with fibromyalgia: a pilot interventional study. Frontiers in Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2023.1219321. 20 women with fibromyalgia and obesity; 18 finished, and most had a clinically meaningful drop in their fibromyalgia impact score. No control group, and not carnivore.
• Eli Lilly and Company. CYMBALTA (duloxetine) prescribing information. DailyMed. https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?setid=2f7d4d67-10c1-4bf4-a7f2-c185fbad64ba. Carries a boxed warning for suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and lists seizures upon treatment discontinuation among postmarketing reports.

Videos (all verified by oEmbed. Timestamps are confirmed against YouTube auto-captions. Quotes are from the auto-captions.)

• Coach Nicki K is relieved of all symptoms of fibromyalgia and inflammation on a carnivore diet, Dr. Shawn Baker Podcast, uploaded 2020-12-21
• Reversing Fibromyalgia Symptoms Through Nutrition: A Success Story, Wick Goes Carnivore, uploaded 2023-10-07
• Fibromyalgia relief from following the Carnivore Diet #fibromyalgia #carnivore #diet #lowcarb, 5th & Overland, uploaded 2023-04-09
• Why Fibromyalgia Meds Disappoint [what helps], KenDBerryMD, uploaded 2020-02-10
• Controversial Thoughts: Coffee doesn't love you back either and it might worsen your fibromyalgia!, Paul Saladino MD, uploaded 2021-01-08