When Carnivore Is Not Enough: Case Studies of Supplementation 

This is the only channel that discusses the nutritional challenges of a carnivore diet. Well done.

That's me. I haven't healed on carnivore as much as i see others have. I even developed joint pain and other symptoms.I'm so glad i find myself here. Thank you for this.

Great video! 60 year old male, meat based high fat for two years. Experienced massive and rapid health improvements. My only problem for a while ( about a year ) was constipations, yes quite severe a few times. I desided that it must have been the results of my previous 58 of mistreating my gut system. Desided to stick with my diet, make sure to keep up my salt and electrolyte intake and with the help of laxatives at times. Glad I stayed the course and not return to fibers. It took about a year, and now my no2 is daily and perfect. So yes, it's possible to heal even at my age.

As a very ill, 24 year old male with POTS and thiamine deficiency, carnivore made me much worse. I had a very informative consult with Elliot a few weeks back, and he helped me tweak my thiamine dosage as well as my diet and other supplements. Thiamine alone has eliminated my muscle pain and has greatly decreased my anxiety. I still have some other issues I’m working to fix, but I’m feeling much better. Love the videos, keep up the great work!

It`s the most important and comprehensive video in a whole youtube!!! You really save people. Thank you soooo much 🙏

"Plain common" carnivore diet (nose-to-tail'ish + eggs) has helped me so fantastically in ways I couldn't have imagined possible! That said - there are people who are even more unlucky with regards to their bodily system's dysfunction. Each to their own! I'm glad to see this video - it keeps the mind open and helps us all not doing "bear service" to friends and family promoting carnivore as a "be all, end all" solution (like vegans). Keep it up!

I've been carnivore for two years. Feeling good, no regrets. Some minor problems with my tummy but otherwise very pleased. After having seen your RU-vid vids I decided to try the b1, b-complex together with magnesium and potassium. Wow! The tummy problem vanished overnight, but not only that, I have got so much more energy! I'm 56 and I can't remember ever feeling so good. Thank you so much for the info.

You're so right Eilliot. After i went carnivore for about 3 months, i started to get bruises for unknown reasons. Constipation was so bad (7 days) I got pins and needles in my legs and spine. My nails become weaker and other low thyroid symptoms appeared. I didn't have any thyroid issues prior to diet change. After obtaining a dna analysis and further research, i started supplementing selenium, iodine, magnesium, potassium, b complex and vitamin c.... feeling much better now. I am about to start supplement ttfd hopefully it will help with my ADHD symptoms. Keep doing the great work Elliot

I took a B12 yesterday, after listening to this and the immediate result to my tired muscles was dramatic. I can't thank you enough.

I am case 2. I’ve been dragging through life the last two years , this stops now. Thank you Elliot

Lugol's iodine -> necessary. Vitamin C -> necessary (we don't produce it, like most animals do). Magnesium -> necessary. L-Lysine -> necessary. None of these are sufficient in the meat, because the land is not the same land as it was 100 years ago. So cows and other herbivores we eat, feed on a sub-optimal grass and that is a big problem. I agree with you 100%, Elliot!

A much needed video and an important addition to the carnivore conversation. I would love to see more of these case studies. Thank you.

"You're doing the diet wrong." That's what it always comes down to from practitioners who can't (or don't want to) help people who are truly sick. It's a bad sign. Since I see this happening even with much better dietary choices nowadays I tend to think that lots of people are finding these good ideas and it's easier to find practitioners who can recognize that and support and advocate for these better ideas but still incredibly rare to find a practitioner who is a great clinician and truly wise in their reasoning making them able to help those with complex illness or complex imbalance.

I am one of your more recent success stories. I will be a resident physician in a few months diagnosed myself with Barry Barry with your advice, started taking bento timing and my life is changing daily.

Hey Elloit. So I was carnivore about a year and then went back to eating carbs. It was begining of summer and I had an acute pyscosis I broke my leg in a stupid accident which was my a result of being in pyscosis. I was living in mold and stopped drinking alchole believe I was detoxing too fast. I know now that I have been suffering from B1 deficency my whole life. As a young teen I was bulimic. I am 46years old now and as a youth I had mercury fillings. As I understand it mercury will block the receptor sights for cells. I am so excited to order your product. Thank you for your work!

Brilliant young doctor who actually listens to his patients.

You are a godsend! Although I’ve been doing lots of supplements whilst on this diet I haven’t found the right mix yet. Been on this diet with supplements for a year. You are the ONLY person who admits carnivore isn’t enough! I’ve literally felt so alone because I have not experienced anything like all the thousands of others have. “You’re doing the diet wrong” is the only response you get when admitting there’s no significant benefit. In the contrary, debilitating symptoms remain. Thank you so much for addressing this issue! Im binge watching all your vids!

Good video, I think people like Bart Kay who say that no one needs vitamin C on the carnivore diet is harming a lot of people. Also, I think that thiamin deficiency is quite common in people on the carnivore diet who do not eat pork as there is not much thiamin in beef and lamb

I am definitely a fan of proper supplementation. There are certain nutrients that just aren't in our soils and in our environment anymore in sufficient quantities. Boron and iodine are good examples of this. Regardless of the diet some nutrients are lacking. I've also found that before going carnivore, especially if one was a vegetarian or vegan for any length of time, that some nutrients become severely depleted and even though the carnivore diet is the most nutrient dense it may not rectify the deficiencies by diet alone, and then people blame the diet as bad or not hood enough. I've also have found that many people are toxicly high in some minerals coming into a carnivore diet (a good example of this are ex-vegans /ex-vegetarians with very high copper toxicity which creates problems with the proper zinc/copper balances). Its one of the reasons why many ex-vegans can't stand the taste of meat (because of low zinc/toxicly high copper levels) and then blame the meat.

Unfortunately in the world we live in we are exposed to unnatural foods, toxins, chemicals, radiation, etc. and this may call for unnatural means. Your doing great work, l look forward to watching all your presentations

It took me til the last 2 minutes of this video to understand what you were trying to get across, because the idea that supplementation of individual nutrients NEVER occurred in the wild, except for maybe salt-seeking. But i get you. People that have ruined their health by NOT eating a natural wild diet their whole lives may need a different, targeted approach to help deal with the decades of poor eating.

I've been carnivore since 10/12/2019 and I do supplement. I feel like I need to because I have hypothyroidism and lifelong epilepsy. I do a lot of research on both of my issues, take what I believe will help me and it works for me, and I don't mind! It's better than eating the standard diet.

Glad this came in my feed, every person has a nutrient requirement and status that its different depending on their lifestyle(stress, fitness, previous diet, diseases, etc. ).In my case it was b vitamin deficiency due to previous years of eating too much carbs, and overcooking my meats. After supplmenting with b1 and b2 plus a methylated b complex symptoms improved and I feel great now. look up to chris masterjohn to learn about this, and when you do, you realize nutrition is more complex than people like to think, just eating muscle meat is simplistic and misleading.

Elliot, this video of yours is invaluable! I am binge watching your content from time to time, as I am also suffering a bit on pure carnivore. Your content is the most helpful in the carnivore community. What is brilliant about your approach is that you are able to customize your advice to individual needs. And your solutions work so quickly it is absolutely worth a try. I still have chronic fatigue and the new issue on carnivore is rapid hair loss and skin inflammation. Trying out the thiamine and biotin approach of yours this week. If you ever wrote a book or did a series on case studies I would definitely buy it! Good luck to you in your mission.

I would love to see more of this type of video with case studies!

I *must* take vitamin C. I must. I began carnivore without any supplements and that was great for a few months, then I started to get sick again. The autoimmune symptoms were under control, but I was so damn tired. Brain fog. Fibro pain all over. Diarrhea. My gums were the most alarming symptom. I'm pretty religious about oral hygiene and there was nothing I could do to stop the receding and bleeding. After a month of this I began bruising terribly and the tiniest cut would bleed for hours. That's what drove me to try the C. Within DAYS my symptoms lifted. It took about a month or two for the bruises to totally fade, but I wasn't bleeding so bad and had no new bruises. Then I did a trial without C. I changed up my diet to make it more nutrient dense. This time I didn't even make it a month before symptoms appeared. Finally... and this is stupid... I just forgot to take my C. I ran out, forgot to order more and didn't think about it. This was a repeat of the first time. Only when the bruises appeared and my gums began to fall apart did it dawn on me what I'd done. Again, bounced right back. I'm also finding that I do better with thiamine. This one is weird. My mother, children, and myself have tested thiamine deficient many times. (No. This has nothing to do with alcohol. My mother has been a teetotaler her whole life and my children had this problem when they were little.) I blamed thiamine blockers that the kids and I were eating in our diet, but that never really added up. My mom's diet is completely different from ours. I didn't think I'd need it on carnivore and went without for a year. My small fiber neuropathy has been getting steadily worse for all this time. In desperation I tried taking 500mg thiamine twice a day like I used to. And shocker. The neuropathy improved within a couple of days. Adding a GABA pill twice a day to that has improved my neuropathy more than anything else I've tried. It's such a relief to have a break from the static and electric shocks!

Ohhh God , i discover this channel today on your intervew with dr Sandeep Gupta , i m so suprised you re talking on topics others dr dont talk about , am so gratefull, i hope i will get solution here only

13:12 You used 2 words which I've been thinking alot about lately: "demonizing" and "religious". When it comes to food and diet, people are strangely willing to go to war over it. It's completely irrational. I find myself in a defensive position with nearly everyone about it and I'm sick to death of it. _I'm here to learn and try things and see what happens._ *That* is science. Fearing information because it contradicts your previous understanding is what most people hate religion for and yet they end up repeating its worst characteristic anyway. Done with the Food Wars. Thank you for insisting upon this. Sub'd.

I will have to consider this now... I came from a long time in supplement promotion, but carnivore seems to blow everything away across the board. I became against all supplements as worthless.. The only thing i was recommending was ancestral supplements. But I see severe deficiencies could need large doses. I've always been a fan of and have taken high dose c many times.

If someone was born and raised in an ideal environment then, ideally, their likelihood of ever needing supplementation of any kind is probably close to zip but how many people is that nowadays? Almost none, really. I'm talking about someone who's mother was eating a nutrient dense, low toxin diet her whole life, who has a perfect skeletal form and could easily give birth to them the natural way then exposed them to her healthy gut-microbiome on her way out and who breast-fed them for up to 2-3 years then weaned them off slowly on things like pastured organ and muscle meats, fresh out of the udder raw milk, wild-caught seafood and if she ever exposed them to plant-foods outside of unsprayed and organic fruits she used fermented stuff like sourdough bread or sauerkraut and this person just grew up filled to the brim with nutrients, low on toxins and a luckily with a healthy microbiome. That's probably 0.1% of the population nowadays so with such _unnatural_ and depleted people walking around some unnatural solutions are understandably needed. Carnivore and other such dietary interventions should principally be about improving one's health, not being dogmatic like with Veganism. This is not and should never be about ideology.

This channel is a revelation. Thank you for a balanced considered viewpoint

Not surprised that supplements are sometimes needed. Great video and very interesting.

I am relieved to hear you support supplementation for I had never considered doing without them; I just never felt diet alone offered enough nutrition eating carnivorously.

Many of us were on supps for so long to no avail (decades in my case) until we found carnivore and were relieved to be able to just eat for nutrition and dump all the pills. Maybe adding in a few things (like vit D3 where I live -no sun for months) will bring further improvement off our newfound, higher baseline.

I began using a Mineral Broth: 1 TBL spn Nutritional yeast, a pinch of Sea Salt( mineral blend), a couple drops of Garlic oil, 1 oz butter, and 6-8 oz hot water. . . Spices to taste.

Great video Eliott, as always, you give people hope. Keep up the good work.

I'm puzzled to why the Carnivore Diets own "rat pack" (Paul, Bart, Shawn) are so against the use of (carefully selected) nutritional supplementation. Luckily, we also have Elliot ^_^

I just found your channel yesterday! Searched seb dermatitis on keto. I'm so glad ! So clear and concise and I've already shared videos. Tyty

One of your best Elliot , you explained the conversion of food to energy very well.

I have always supplemented no matter what my diet was like. I see it as nutritional insurance. There is a reason that niacin, thiamine, riboflavin, folic acid and iron are widely used to fortify food in the US- because it’s so hard to get. I seem to recall looking up what the RDA for B1 would be in meat and it was two pork chops. That’s just for one b vitamin. I’m a vegan who doesn’t eat grains, so I’m extra restrictive and supplementing works for me. At my age, what a person eats can be just as important as what a person does not eat. Wheat gives me arthritis and other problems so I don’t eat it. But there is some good nutrition there that I’m not getting. But since the benefits don’t outweigh the negatives, I exclude it and supplement instead. I am thankful that I have a solution that works for my body. Thank you for making this video. It’s an important message that everyone needs to hear.

We do need a little extra sometimes. Modern stresses and low quality meat and water take an unnatural toll on us. We need to use unnatural means to fix things sometimes.

I've had various degrees of POTS symptoms all my life but it got a lot worse on keto and even more worse on carnivore. I went Gluten free --> Paleo --> Keto --> Keto-Carnivore to fix my my lifelong struggles with SIBO and candida it carnivore seems to be the best for that, however my POTS became impossible. I couldn't figure out how can this be - I must have Beriberi. Feeling hopeful now!

Thanks! Good insight re not being too dogmatic re any one method or prescribed way of eating. Have to look at what the individual 'story' is telling us. Keep digging!

Amazing info, really loving these videos and finding them so helpful! As someone that’s new to the keto/carnivore world, I do see a lot of bashing on supplements and was starting to feel guilty as I went to my supplement cabinet each day…my question is-with enough time and healing did your patients ween off of the higher doses or be able to stop altogether once they truly fixed the deficiency? Meaning that their carnivore diets could then begin to truly sustain them without daily supplements?

Another great video Elliot! So glad to see this video I was planning on asking you to share some case studies so this is perfect!

I take NAC, Zinc Carnosine, probiotics, and Lion's Mane in order to heal digestive issues.

After 3-4 months on beef, lamb, salt and water I was tested deficient in B1 and folate, what caused a mild folate anemia also. I started to feel heaviness or some kind of pressure in my legs and and I had to be fixing cramps with salt and magnesium.

From the bottom of my heart, *thank you*

Fantastic information. Please do more of the case study videos.

great video! I agree with you. I take black cohost for my hot spells and vit. d3 and magnesium everyday and feel fantastic! third year in keto/carnivore and still loving it!

Thank you very much for this video! Animal products are a great base for the body to build up and repair, but when someone isn't improving then supplements are necessary. Diet dogma is stupid. It's food, not a religion!

Damn, I have almost all the symptoms of all these patients plus some.

Fantastic video as always!

I do carnivore for one month at a time. Constipootion becomes an issue after a week or so. Will take note of case study 3 and load up with B1. I already supp with magnesium.....thanks for the info..

I have severe ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis and adhered to strict carnivore for 6 months but had to stop as I was constantly experiencing hypoglycaemia and developed daily migraines. Done all the tweaks I could find at the time from electrolyte supplementation to digestive aids and followed the guidelines like a robot but could not solve the hypos and the headaches so had to cease the diet, returning to autoimmune paleo, symptoms never resolved during or after with the exception of possibly some eye issues. The only explanation I could come up with is that continuing to take the medications somehow inhibited results, though most people seem to agree the results should come even while still on medications, and to keep them included as long as inflammation is present to preserve joints. Most frustrating was the hypoglycaemia, which never changed despite significant fat intake and being in high level of ketosis. I'd be dropping into unacceptable blood sugar levels only a few hours after eating. I was tracking all of this via glucometer and an endocrinologist only confirmed the problem but found no solution other than adding back some carbs. Would like to try again but now over a year later still haven't found any other way do it?

I’m doing Carnivore and also supplementing to aid in digestion. I feel a lot better than before supplementing

So many thank yous for sharing your knowledge, Elliot. ❤️

AMEN! It drives me nuts when i see people say that no one need supplements. If you run you car into the ground, pop the tires and never change the oil, the car won't magically be fixed because you put gas in the tank! I have been on the Carnivore diet for 7 months. seen a lot of improvements but my eczema has only gotten worse. now I have a terrible rash on my face too. so frustrating...

Great, Great, Great, video! Looking forward to more like it! Thx!

Methinks an intelligently selected paleo diet with avoidance of antinutrients might be better for some.

we need more content! I messaged Matt Blackburn and suggested you for an interview on his podcast.

This is such a good video. Thank you!

Thank you so much for this video! Extremely helpful! Love your channel and I highly recommend it for others!

Irrespective of diets contingency measures aka. supplementations are almost always an enveloping certainty. A very noteworthy video indeed. Unfortunately RU-vid's ranking algorithm always favour sensationalist bottom-lines, punch lines, and fear factors; as opposed to contemplative uploads. Just further note which may or may not relate to Vitamin C. Citric Acid has been suspected to interfere with Ketosis (Lyle McD "Ketogenic Diet, 1998"). Yes, people may quickly refute that Vitamin C and Citric Acid is not the same. However I'd wager food source of Vitamin C from lemons, limes and the like is where most people would resort to for affordable wholefood sources of Vitamin C. Both citric and ascorbic acid would likely exist together anyway on these sources. Whether or not these upsets some individuals on their tribal-like devotion to ketosis however, in my opinion - is a small sacrifice worth paying for nevertheless in the long term.

Very informative video, thanks Elliot!

Also, oxidation stress = cooking too much food. They need to find raw foods to eat and cook them less.

I am 90% carnivore diet and take magnesium every night. I have been taking it for years and didn't change that when I went carnivore. I also add a pinch of salt and potassium to my black coffee and my broth. I was scared of supplementing potassium at first even though I suspected I was having too little but after doing research and reading a lot of testimonials I got less scared and decided to start adding pinchs to my coffee. I used to have a high resting heart rate (+100-110 BPM). Now I'm in the 80-90s. I'm pretty sure it's because of the potassium

Case one sounds like dysbiosis/histamines, other cases sound like malabsorption issues, have you implemented more available nutrients in different food preparations? (raw, cooked, fermented)

I agree. I'm carnivore I need suppliments b vitamins in particular. And iodine.

Probably the best advice ive come across 👌

Not every one is the same . I have to take magnesium and other minerals . And up biotin . I do more ketoe . Thankyou for doing this very helpfull . I cannt do high fat . Gotta stick to just eggs .no extra fat . THANKYOU For doing this . Carnivore is not for every one .

Very informative. Any reason to go with vitC rather than liposomal unbiquinol though?

We are omnivores. I believe we thrive best on mostly carnivore with herbal supplementation. Meat for food, plants for medicine.

Amazing stuff, thanks Elliot

PTL. Vital Information coming out!

Thank you Elliott.

Great stuff, Elliott!

Elliot what B-complex are you recommending? It seems you recommend it to a lot of your patients.

Would you recommend a certain type of B1 for autoimmune patients us over another? I noticed that you gave 2 different forms to different patients in these case studies and am curious why!

when you talk about cutting this or that out...for how long does one cut something out to determine its relevance? I have been carnivore for 5 months and my psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis just continues to get worse. This is very interesting info. Thanks

11:7 The amount of each B vitamin varies significantly across different brands of multi B complex. What was the exact amount of each B vitamin in the particular one that you used? And how high was the dose of vitamin B6? 50mg? 100mg?

In nearly every single case that I have heard of people having issues with the carnivore diet, they have experimented with organ meats. I think people need to remember that there are hundreds of pounds of muscle and fat per pound of an organ. This is what we would naturally find in the wild. I know you mentioned that these people tried some and no organs, but do you think the organs could have still been a potential cause of an issue even after they came off, as their body was now used to a flood of extremely high doses of certain vitamins?

I wonder if those people who enjoyed health improvements only after they started taking supplements would have experienced those same benefits on a healthy omnivore diet + supplements...

I have psoriasis and have been on the carnivore diet for 5 months. The supplements you mentioned in the 4th case. Is that to be taken in liquid or capsule form? Tia

Thank you

I used to have topical steroid withdrawal and eczema on my whole body. While doing the carnivore diet the only place I have eczema left is on behind my legs. It's also quite intense. Should I supplement on with the b vitamins you mentioned for the skin case

my dietary staple is raw grass-fed hamburger. it doesn't taste 'good' and it doesn't taste bad. it is rather bland. it is what my body prefers. it is ok to try something different - i think raw fatty meat is special.

The 'biodiverse food study, in Panama,' states 60 species as the minimum sufficient daily diet..

How are those supplements made? What do they use to extract the nutrients with? Are the nutrients bio-available? Are the nutrients from supplements the same nutrients as the ones found in animal foods, or do they simply share a similar molecular structure, but is something entirely different? All valid questions. The answer to those questions will lead to the depressing fact that 99% of supplements are an absolute scam that isn't only a waste of money, but harmful to the human body.

Hi Elliot, do you use HTMA as a tool? I found it invaluable in treating my autistic son. We initially did well with lots of animal products, they helped gut issues to a degree but the game changer was the HTMA...we discovered he was low in everything he needed to get B12 into his brain. Within days of adding in recommended supplements his anxiety disorder and depression disappeared, tinnitus and fatigue went, far fewer palpitations and lots of other benefits. My son was completely depleted of lithium, low potassium, sodium, magnesium, no bismuth or germanium, low phosphorus...there's absolutely a need to supplement when your so depleted.

Do you expect case 1,2,and 4 to eventually taper off c and b once they've recovered? Secondly: rather than giving the supplemental b vitamins have you attempted to double or triple their liver intake? Just curious if that would've gotten results as well

what was it that made you use two different types of b1 for the different cases?

What about sulbutiamine

Brilliant work! When would you recommend benfothiamine vs TTFD?

I found taking a break from carnivore once in a while benefits my health, I just take one meal off carnivore. Currently aiming for one meal of non-carnivore a month.

Why the high riboflavin dosage in the second case study? And by the way, i am going to start taking around 100mg of b1 (benfothiamine) and 80mg p5p, alongside with 100g liver perday plus heart (to get good amounts of b2 and other b vitamins). What do you think of this protocol?

So maybe those people did not need to change their diets and just supplement? Or did those supplements only work because they were on carnivore?

I do Vit D + K2+ A, E , Iodine, minerals... cannot take C, never have been able to. B vitamins hurt my bladder. I had tremendous oxalate dumping for a year, which is normal on a no oxalate diet.

Just subscribed thank you for yr work

I'd add some plants in before supplements..