My PT gave me advice but I'm not sure I fully trust it

There is increasing thought that lymphedema is an inflammatory response disease, and not just structural in nature - always meaning less nodes causes restricted lymphatic flow and swelling. This may account for why some people develop lymphedema and others don't, even in the same circumstances.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5297803/

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-10-inflammation-lymphedema.html

There are some trials going on now that are researching medication that aims at reduction of inflammation to treat lymphedema. Here is a link:

https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2018/10/anti-inflammatory-drug-effective-for-treating-lymphedema-symptoms.html

I was diagnosed with lymphedema during chemo in 2011. My symptoms wax and wane, but have never been well controlled until I adopted an anti-inflammatory diet. I eliminated corn, soy, gluten, sugar, eggs, dairy, and peanuts. These are foods that commonly increase inflammation through sensitivity or allergy, and when I followed this diet there was noticeable reduction in arm swelling and discomfort. I realize that this is a study of one, but I thought it might be useful info.

Gluten no, sodium maybe. Maybe try eating lower sodium and see if it helps.

I am a Lymphedema patient. I have gone to four NLN conferences, six Lighthouse Lymphedema Network Conferences, Congress World of Lymphology Conference and the Harvard Symposium Conference. Many of the doctors and CLTs presenting now say CDT should have a fourth component and that Is diet. So your CLT is getting the message somewhere. They are now realizing LE is an inflammatory condition and can be aggravated by some foods. Several foremost doctors and therapists, some of whom have LE themselves, wrote a book called Lymphedema and Lipedema Nutrition Guide. Dr. Karen Herbst is one of the authors. They also talk about the leaky gut syndrome which may be contributing to swelling.

Many lipedema patients have been getting pain and swelling relief from The Ketogenic Diet. It helps stall the possibility of their lipedema from turning into lipolymphedema. Leslyn Keith, a CLT I think in CA, has done some research on the ketogenic diet with Lymphedema only patients and got good results. She presented her findings at 2016 NLN. Her presentation is on YouTube.

More and more research is going on

Thank you for your post Betty! I just bought this book after becoming a patient at Dr. Herbst's practice. I was diagnosed with lipedema and lymphedema as well as fibromyalgia. I am following the treatment protocols - having a challenge with the diet part more than anything. 

To add to my concerns is the thyroid ultrasound that I got last week (different doctor) showing Hashimoto Thyroiditis. I realize this is a "common" auto-immune disease, but this condition is causing some of my troublesome symptoms, I believe. I'm reading that this condition can be improved with a gluten-free diet (this second doctor said nothing could be done besides a very low dose of T4 synthetic hormone - so that's yet another issue). But as far as dietary guidelines, gluten-free and keto are the directions I must go. I'm a bit confused as to how to meld all this and if I must fully confess, I'm a sugar addict. I like carbs and I like sugar. I need help. Am I the only one who has such trouble with this?

Trying to keep a good attitude - but, crap, it's scary.