Paleo and hemorrhoids

[Mike ODonnell]

Interesting with the Grass Fed thing....could this be related to an over abundance of Omega 3s and not enough Omega 6? Do you also take fish oil? Do you only eat Omega 3 eggs? Do you limit your Omega 6s almost to the point they are non existent? You may need to add some nuts in for balance....just putting it out there to try.

[Garrett Smith]

What's with Cordain and Eaton not liking lamb? Do they give justification?

Is it a neolithic animal? (joke...ha)

If you are sensitive to beef for whatever reason, I'd say it is a good option!

[Greg Battaglia]

Ah ha!

Steve, good call!

I added cashews back into my diet last week, no bleeding. Now that you mention it, my grocery store hasn't been selling grass-fed beef lately and I had to resort to the domestic varieties. After realizing that it might be a while before they restock (if ever) their GF meat supply I decided to buy some from another local but far more expensive health food store (Martindale's for those wondering). What do you know, the next day there's blood. There was far less than normal, but it was there nonetheless. I wonder why this might be. I'm thinking the n-3:n-6 theory is probably it. Not only have I been eating GF beef, but also taking high dosage Carlson's fish oil and take cinnamon in my morning tea (green tea) and turmeric and ginger in my tea after dinner (chamomile tea). Combine all this with a sudden increase in raw vegetable fiber (which may temporarily irritate the GI tract until adaptation) and it seems highly likely that too much blood thinning could be the issue.

I'll experiment with this some more and see what happens.

[Gittit Shwartz]

FWIW, I once did a Velocity-type diet with 36 grams of fish oil a day (6 pills with each shake) and no other fat source. That went fine - but when I tried to do it again, several months later, I just...returned all the fish oil I had ingested to the porcelain gods. No blood involved, just lots of oil.
Someone who told me your tissues would reach a point of saturation with omega-3's, so there was no point in repeating a megadosing cycle. I have no idea if this is valid or complete bunk (the man was selling omega-3 enhanced chocolate chews) but it would fit in with my experience.

[Steve Liberati]

Originally Posted by Mike ODonnell

Interesting with the Grass Fed thing....could this be related to an over abundance of Omega 3s and not enough Omega 6? Do you also take fish oil? Do you only eat Omega 3 eggs? Do you limit your Omega 6s almost to the point they are non existent? You may need to add some nuts in for balance....just putting it out there to try.

Could be. Good chance my n-3:n-6 ratio is off-balance, omega-3 intake tipping the scale. Usually eat 4 meals a day when I'm not fasting (2-3x's wk). Always Omega-3 eggs from the local farm in the morning. Wild salmon or grass-fed meat for lunch and some type of grass-fed meat for dinner(with grass-fed O-3 coconut butter used for cooking). Top off the night with CLO (in the winter only) or fish oil.

I'll make the necessary adjustments and report back. Thanks for the suggestions.

[Greg Woods]

Very interesting discussion in that I never associated bleeding episodes with my diet. I always assumed it was the result of ATG squats, but this last month there has been little/no correlation with heavy lifting. Guess it's time to keep track of food consumption.

[Mike ODonnell]

With all the talk about the dangers of Omega 6s...we still need some or a balance of I believe it was Cordain who said it was 2:1 in Paleo times? Don't remember specifically. But excessive bleeding could be a sign of the inability to clot properly, hence the role of Omega 6s...so we all don't bleed to death from a papercut.

[Chris Forbis]

Originally Posted by Mike ODonnell

With all the talk about the dangers of Omega 6s...we still need some or a balance of I believe it was Cordain who said it was 2:1 in Paleo times? Don't remember specifically. But excessive bleeding could be a sign of the inability to clot properly, hence the role of Omega 6s...so we all don't bleed to death from a papercut.

Yeah, let's not forget that omega-6 is classified as an EFA for a reason...

[Joe Hart]

That is one thing that I noticed when I was taking a lot of fish oil and then tossed in some slamon. I did get what felt like hemroids and occasionally bleeding. It seems like when I take fish oil in the morning Mother Nature starts knocking on the door and won't take no for an answer.