Because of the numerous emails I get from people with confirmed Thomsen's and Becker's MC who have improved on a low-sugar, moderate potassium diet, I feel that it's always worth a trial.

But as I mentioned, once you're on medication for myotonia it's probably not going to have as noticeable an effect, and if the medications cause potassium excretion then following a low potassium diet can even be dangerous. The goal is to keep insulin levels from spiking and from increasing serum potassium too rapidly. Both of these affect chloride channel conductance.

Jan

Type of Myotonia: Thomsen's

Country: USA

Jan:

I agree. It's worth a try! And limiting sugar usually has more positive than negative effects regardless. I have definitely noticed that my concentration is much better when I limit my sugar intake. One reason I might be able to tolerate potassium could be due to the fact that, well, let me put it this way, I have a difficult time keeping hydrated. So I might just excrete it a lot faster than most people.

We really just have to experiment a lot with the aspects of our lifestyle we have control over. Lately I've been experimenting with ways to improve my muscle stamina because I'm starting school again soon and it's really become difficult for me to keep up. I even tried holding ice cubes in my hands after hearing about a hand cooling device which was found to reduce muscle recovery time and increase strength, but no such luck.

Type of Myotonia: Becker

Country: USA