Heart beat & inflammatory issues

newbies
#1

I had high blood pressure for 5 yrs and a bit overweight (asian female 42 yrs old 158 lbs, 5’1") . I started to have joints/muscle pain since 2nd week of Dec, it was spreading out to my knees and finger joints and did not know what happened to my body. Family doc referred me to specialist and of course I am still on waiting list. In order to help myself out meantime, i researched a bit and started to fast for 5 consecutive days after boxing day. Surprisingly, the joint pain has been reduced, lost lots of water weight too. Right after the 5 days fast, i gradually started Keto diet and said goodbye to my rice and noodle, and sugar.

I was all fine, urine test showing I hv lots of excess ketones in my body and i do feel the signs of being in ketosis. Clear mind, bad breath, not feeling hungry, hving some cramps but all fine after taking suppliments. I am not loosing much weight yet but I am not too worry abt it for now, however my heart beat seems on the fast side (up to 101) and my left arm still has the inflammatory pain.

Could the heart beat and pain are keto diet related ?

(Carl Keller) #2

Hello and welcome Jen.

I can’t honestly say why your arm inflammation has not improved but I believe it will unless there is something structurally wrong with it, if you continue to eat LCHF.

As far as the heartbeat goes, I would not blame keto as much as I would credit this to reducing your carbohydrates. When our diet is heavily carb influenced, we retain sodium a lot better than when we switch to eating low carb, therefore it’s important to increase sodium intake or there’s a lot of health issues that might crop up. It’s also important to increase your water intake as well. I would shoot for 1-2 teaspoons (some say even higher) of sodium per day and maybe 1.5-2 liters of water per day. Some will say drink to thirst, but if you are like me, I often ignore/forget when I am thirsty so need to remind myself to drink.

If you are skittish about increasing salt, I can tell you there’s a lot bad recommendations about salt out there and virtually no honestly interpreted science that shows lower salt leads to a longer life. On the contrary:

Scientific evidence suggests this may be harmfully low for most people. Based on a study of over 100k people across 17 countries, “an estimated sodium intake between 3 g per day and 6 g per day was associated with a lower risk of death and cardiovascular events than either a higher or lower estimated level of sodium intake.” Another study looked at ~275k people and found that between 2,645mg and 4,945mg of sodium per day was the optimal range.

#3

I see… you’ve made a point which seems to be my problem… I am usually busy in office and don’t have time / forgotten to drink plenty of water. I will try to drink more see. If that will improve over time… thanks a lot!

(Full Metal KETO AF) #4

Hi Jen and welcome to the forum. I just last night watched a video that @PaulL posted about salt and it’s relationship with potassium. Potassium will lower your blood pressure and heart rate. Salt will effect your blood pressure much more significantly if you’re eating a high carb diet. That’s where the “salt is bad myth” comes from. The research was done with people eating a standard HCLF or HCHF diet. It has little effect on blood pressure in reality. People who eat carbs and may be deficient in potassium intake will be more affected by sodium because carbs help the body to retain it and water which equals higher blood pressure. As people eating ketogenic food we pass the salt quickly in our urine and we lose water quickly as well hence the need to stay on top of hydration and salt intake. I agree with @CarlKeller about sticking with things, I believe in a little more time your arm will improve. You’re only a few weeks into this and have already experienced significant relief. You got relief from fasting, the inflammation was likely caused by something you were eating which fasting gave your body a chance to purge.

#5

Thanks for the info! Yes I have been watching closely for my sodium intake as well, before I used to stay away from salt but no longer the case.

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #6

Hi and welcome. My overall inflammation is almost completely gone but I injured my elbow while painting and that stubborn thing is taking months to heal. I think it’s probably healing faster than if I was eating carbs and junk, but like @CarlKeller said, it could be an injury and nothing to do with keto.

(Jennifer Alden) #7

Hi! I had to reaping because I am also fairly new. I started keto on 1/1. I am also 5’1 and I started around 157 and am currently 148. I posted to this board a few days ago because i suddenly experienced high heart rate. Mi e was really high so much so that I was on the verge of quitting keto even though I loved that it was helping me lose the lethargic crappy feeling and my skin was better, mood was better. Anyway after a few days of pumping the water I feel much better! So maybe it will pass, I am thinking maybe it was part of fT adapting. My inflammation is also much better. I hope you feel better fast and hang through it!

#8

Thanks @petamarie and @Msspriss for the info, I feel encouraged knowing that I will only be better if I can hang on to the keto diet. I bought a ketone meter and tested it last night, reading is 3.5. Seems a bit high but I guess the body is starting to get adapt to fat intake and use it as energy. Nowadays I am eating just once a day and do not feel hungry between meals, overall feeling great because my blood pressure is very good.