Heart palpitations on carnivore

(Rob Mills) #5

Will do.

#6

I am into year 6 of carnivore and I never have heart palps anymore, but I did just this last week. Got sicky icky and off food, eating way low. I had to lick salt and drink water and boom they went away.

Never saying this could not be a real medical issue for ya, but undereating and low sodium and dehyrdration could be a key for ya on this one.

How much ya eating in a day? 1 or 2 or 3 meals and how much salt are ya getting? just wondering

(Rob Mills) #7

Not anymore? So in the beginning you did have them? Do you remember how long you had them?

I’ve been eating 3 meals a day. Eggs and bacon for breakfast - put some salt on the eggs. Burger patties for lunch with some salt. Steak for dinner with salt.

I have a 20 oz container and I drink that five times a day which I put 1/4 tsp of salt in each one. I haven’t done the math yet though to determine how much sodium I’m truly getting.

(Edith) #8

I understand you are adding salt to your water, but why are you drinking so much water? Are you thirsty that you need 100 oz of water a day or are you drinking that much because that’s what you think you are supposed to do? If you are not drinking because you are thirsty, you could just be flushing electrolytes from your body.

(Rob Mills) #9

I can probably reduce it to 80 oz without feeling thirsty but anything less I’d be craving water. But wouldn’t adding salt to the water help with that?

I forgot to mention I’ve also been taking magnesium and potassium supplements.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #10

Like Edie, I was going to comment on the quantity of water, but then I noticed you were adding salt, so that quantity is not as likely to disrupt your electrolytes as plain water would be.

The first thing I’d recommend is to examine your sodium intake. Getting that in the right range will help greatly with the other minerals, since the mechanisms that regulate them in the body are all interlinked. Recent studies suggest that we are healthiest when our sodium intake is in the range of 4-6 g a day (perhaps a bit more for keto/carnivore, since elevated insulin slows sodium excretion). In terms of table salt (sodium chloride), that’s 10-15 g/day. But if your food already contains sodium, you don’t need so much added salt. Too little salt leads to lightheadedness, constipation, and headaches; too much, to loose stools. You can use those symptoms as a guide. If salt stops tasting good, then definitely stop eating it; you’ve gotten enough.

If your sodium is in the right range, then you might not need to supplement your potassium and magnesium intake. But if you think you need to do so, there is plenty of information on these forums, and a forum search will turn up lots of helpful posts.

So you might want to start by examining your salt intake, not supplementing potassium and magnesium, and drinking plain water whenever you feel thirsty (not a specific amount, but just drinking to thirst). See if that helps. It will give you a baseline to work from. If you get muscle cramps or other symptoms of low potassium or magnesium, then you can add them back in.

As far as sodium intake goes, the risk curve for bad health effects rises steeply as intake drops below the sweet spot of the curve. It rises much more slowly as intake increases above the sweet spot. The exception is salt-sensitive hypertensives (who are rare), whose risk curve is equally steep on both sides of the sweet spot. In other words, it pays to get the salt right, before worrying about anything else.

(Rob Mills) #11

Wow that’s a lot of salt. I don’t think I’m getting that much. I’m sure there’s some naturally occuring sodium in the meat I eat but even with my supplementing I’m sure I’m not getting that much. I’ll play around with that to see what I can come up with.

What about putting salt in capsules and taking it that way? Maybe that’s harder to determine if you’re exceeding the sweet spot.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #12

Why not start by adding a bit more salt to your food than you might ordinarily, and see what happens. As long as it tastes good, you won’t be getting too much.

(Rob Mills) #13

Ok that sounds reasonable.

(Robin) #14

I have never dealt with palpitations. But since going keto then carnivore, my body craves more salt than I would have naturally consumed. I begin each day and end each night with a fairly large glass of salted water. I’ve grown to appreciate the taste… maybe because my body loves it.
Without it, I have muscle cramps, especially at night.

Speaking as a totally inept layman…. The heart is a muscle, so it makes sense to me that it would let you know when it needs salt.

Again… I can only speak for me.
Well… and my dog.

PS… search for posts from @FrankoBear. He actually stays home and deals with AFib with a regimen that includes salt, I think. He likely has some good advice.

(Rob Mills) #15

What you said makes sense. I’ll search on frankobear. Thanks for the info!

#16

I had some heart palpitations again last night. Interesting to note the episodic relationship to variations in eating plan. I had a few meals out at restaurants and as a dinner guest over the weekend. This means eating slightly off plan in response to social situations and menu availability. Then, when I fast and restart cleaner carnivore, after about 24 hours I get a sequence of increased urination, then increased thirst, then increased water drinking, then urination, and then heart arrhythmia. First as palpitations, and if I try to ignore early jolts, then flip into Afib. I jumped in with my home treatment at palpitations this time and it’s sorted out. The key point here is the dietary variation, possibly some hot summer weather dehydration, as the build up sequence.

Lots of ‘F’ words (temporary tile) Carnivore Zero Carb February 2023
(Robin) #17

Interesting that you can narrow it down to eating off plan. Can you recap your home treatment for palpitations?

I know you have shared before. But it would be great to have it in a thread that is titled heart palpitations.
When yo8 have time… or are so inclined.

(Alec) #18

I’ve been carnivore for 13 months, and never had palpitations. My first reaction to your post was salt. And with the responses you got, that seems to be what everyone thinks.

I eat a lot of salt each day, probably close to the 12-15g suggested above. I eat it morning, afternoon and evening. I drink it (with other electrolytes) and I always have lots of salt on each meal.

I would suggest upping salt intake and see how you go. If it doesn’t fix it relatively quickly (say 2-3 weeks), then I would be visiting the Dr.

#19

I had a few in the beginning but not alot.

I am a super salter. I must have alot of salt in my day. I function best on it. Salt is very individual to each of us. I know when I ‘tried to reduce’ salt I ‘felt it’ and not in a good way.

Key being too while meat has sodium one isn’t actually eating the blood with it as in a natural kill situation ya know. The blood holds the most salt available.

So I would increase salt. I would dump mag and potassium. See if you need them later. One thing we carnivores are advised to do is drop supps til ya know you might need them :slight_smile: Elimination menu right so only way to know if ya need them is not take them and see how ya do. I take nothing. No supps at all since beginning and have done fine off all of them.

wishing you the best

(Edith) #20

Its possible adding salt to the water is helping but is not enough salt like others have mentioned. I have been keto for five years and dabbled in carnivore on and off, and I have had problems with my electrolyte balance almost since day one. Keeping a small amount of carbs has helped. The other thing that I think has helped recently, is cutting back on my fluid intake. I sit at a desk in an office all day and I think I was drinking too much water (and yes, I do salt my water the same as you, about 1/4 teaspoon per 20 ounces). I think it was just my habit to keep my whistle wet and I was drinking more than I needed to. I was a little extra thirsty when I first cut back, but that went away. I think my body was just used to the larger amount of water, but now it has adapted to less.

If you solve the problem, please let us know what you did. This topic comes up every so often.

(Rob Mills) #21

When you first questioned three amount of water I was drinking I was a bit surprised. However, I came around to trying just drinking when I was thirsty which resulted in much less water.

I’m happy to report I haven’t really felt any palpitations in the last five days. Such nice relief.

Not sure this is everyone’s solution but if you’re reading this thread for the first time I suggest trying this out.

Thanks, Virginia!

(Alec) #22

This is an excellent result, and suggests (but doesn’t prove) that the issue was electrolytes being flushed out by the excess water. Stick at it, and please let us know how you go, especially if the issue resurfaces.

(Rob Mills) #23

Yes I agree and will do.

(Edith) #24

Yup. Cutting back on fluid intake is still working for me, so at least for me, it does seem to have been a factor with my electrolyte balance.