Peyronie's and diet: beyond nutrient quality and food timing

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Gabriel

Hey bros,

As I have the happiness to be back for a little while, and as I became quite a nutrition and fitness nerd after more than 4 years of daily conference/podcast listening completed by thorough alimentary experiments on myself, I just wanted to write you a few words here in order to give my two cents to our research effort in the nutritional field.


As stated in my big fundamental update post here [https://www.peyroniesforum.net/index.php/topic,14622.msg145072.html#msg145072], I've tried pretty much every diet, macro partitioning, nutrient timing, and food addition or restriction under the sun for the past 4 years. Sadly, even though I saw tremendous positive effects on others aspects with some protocols (mainly keto), nothing had really helped with Peyronie's, specifically with regards to the terrible penile pain I was in for so many time.

This changed when I finally heaved myself out of the world of food quality/timing/macro obsession, in order to experiment with a paradigm I thought to be dumb and outdated: energy balance, ie calorie counting. And boy, should I had done that sooner.

With the help of Myfitnesspal, I started experimenting with calorie deficit, surplus and balance, without focusing too much on macros (ie rehabilitating carbs as a normal source of energy) or on food specificity (ie maintaining a diet 90% composed of whole, non-transformed foods, with lots of fruits, vegetables and legumes, but without focusing on "this superfood containing niacine and vitamin B2983424" or "that poison food containing gluten/sugar/satured fat/oxalates/phytates/phucktates"). I also switched from very restrictive IF protocols to 5 meals a day, along with a new rationalizad weightlifting routine.


Very quickly, I realized I had been stuck so far in a never ending, inconscious calorie-restricting scheme, with fasting and its overconsidered benefits as a vehicle for that pattern. In parallel, I realized that what I though to be normal 18/4 or OMAD meals, were actually real binging episodes, with one or two per week ending up doubling or tripling my normal calorie intake for the day, most of the time via a "healthy keto food". On the fitness side of things, I also faced the fact that I actually had not made any real tangible progress in performance or muscle mass all this time, and that I was in a exhausted, nervous wreck state almost all the time, acknowleging that this was due to all the physical demand I placed on my body in a context of calorie shortage.


As soon as I applied a mild but steady calorie surplus, with 5 meals a day, and diminished a little my intensity in the gym, it took no more than 2 to 3 weeks for my chronic penile pain to subside and almost disappear by itself. After a few weeks, I even stopped using Hirudoid cream daily. I could sleep without waking up in the middle of the night with a horribly painful boner; I could have normal sex with my girlfriend without taking an NSAID before and pouring hirudoid on my junk afterwards. To this date, this is still the case, and I now reserve Hirudoid only for the rare moments where my penis is really sore or inflamed, ie mostly after energic sex or masturbation.


And for one year and half of calorie counting now, I have verified this link between energy balance and penile pain multiple times: in a muscle-building perspective, I have alternated between mild, controlled cycles of calories surplus, maintenance and deficit. Each time I'm in surplus or maintenance at a normal body fat (around 15%), I have almost normal painless erections, at night or during sex. Each time I'm in a deficit or maintenance at a low body fat (around 11%), my painful erections tend to come back, and the pain then subsides in a very slow way or does not subside at all.


My strong, although humble and temporary interpretation of this data, is that a key in managing the pain/inflammation aspect of Peyronies Disease is diminishing to a minimum the stress level on the whole body in order to let it repair and fully use its resilience mechanisms, not only in a classic, cliché way ("have good nights and don't stress at work bro"), but checking that your energy input/output balance is indeed in a good position for a sufficient amount of time. This also gives credit to the idea that part of Peyronies Disease is, at least for some, a sort of "wear and tear" injury, where fostering body recovery and resilience is key, and where fasting or carb/calorie restriction can be highly counterproductive.





With all that said, my personal recommandations regarding Peyronie's and diet/lifestyle would be, at this point:

1) Ensure that you eat enough throughout the days and weeks (= food quantity), regardless of your bodyfat percentage, macro partitioning or food timing you choose to adopt, in order to provide your body with a steady income of total energy that it can use to recover in every way.
--> Caveat: if you're really overweight or obese: in that case, a primary goal to reduce inflammation would be to lose weight, and then stabilize to maintenance at around 15% body fat.


2) Ensure that you eat a varied diet made primarily from whole foods (= food quality), so you provide your body with all the nutrients it needs beyond the only "calories in – calories out" parameter, which is paramount but probably not sufficient by itself.
--> Caveat: be sure to identify and avoid foods you have intolerance to, wheter it's from a digestive or an allergic standpoint, and wheter this intolerance is mild or severe, adapting your diet habits accordingly. For instance, for me, the smallest amount of dairy products and many FODMAPs rapidly gives me diarrhea and sometimes even asthma or skin rash. Eggs and caffeine-containing products I can tolerate in small amounts, but quickly mess me up. Many carb sources (wheat, legumes, barley, rye...) I can eat in reasonable amounts, but give me a huge bloat as soon as I increase the quantity. Yet other sources of carbs are totally OK from a digestive and metabolic standpoint (white rice, potatoes and sweet potatoes, most fruits).


3) Ensure that you get enough rest, both physical and psychological (= balancing energy input and output), and that you are not stuck in an permanent out-of-shape trap where you use any kind of metabolic stress (like overexercising or overrestricting calories, especially via fasting) as a supposed weapon of mass destruction to eradicate your Peyronie's.
--> Caveat: This is especially true if, like me, you are a so-called type A personality and are willing to do anything to save your penis and everything you associate to it. If that's your case, realize that, at some point, you need to be honest with yourself and cut the crap: if you actually feel exhausted, if deep down you feel that your body would just like to lie dead and rest for 100 years, if your mind is always seeking for something -even where there is nothing to seek for-, and if your nerves are objectively more susceptible than they should be when you answer to your wife, parents, kids or friends, then, man, it doesn't matter if you do keto or vegan or carnivore or whatever, it isn't a problem of boron level, mycotoxins or omega 328; you should just stop, put yourself at a calorie maintenance or slight surplus, and rest for at least a few weeks. The result could be astonishing.



I hope that helps bros. I could be hyper loquacious about nutrition and fitness and there is much more I could comment on if you like, but I will try to keep this pallatable to everyone :-).

Cheers,

G
- 35 yo, Peyronies Disease with chronic pain, general hourglassing with girth and length loss since 09/01/17.
- Pain almost cured with Hirudoid cream and diet/lifestyle changes (see my topics on this); deformity still here, but partly reduced with traction + VED.

Bananadude

25 y old. Injury during sex 2014 and since then, an upwards bend, 20-35 degrees. Haven't tried more than occasional manual traction. Losing my mind.