Heart rate is crazy high

(Rebecca Vaughan) #62

my blood work came back normal, but upping electrolytes reduced my “keto flu” and dropped my HR a little. Its much better right now.

(JOE FABEETS) #63

Man. That is a tough situation. Is there no way to come to the u.s. to get help?

(Rebecca Vaughan) #64

when i exhaust the options available to me (ketogenic diet, and some other off-label drugs that might help) then i’ll look to going to the US. The keto diet has made life a lot more bearable for many ME sufferers. They are trialling a drug called suramin (originally for sleeping sickness), and if those trials are successful I might have to go the US if I want fast treatment but that will still be at least 5 years. The thing is travel can make me bedridden for days to weeks, and there is always a risk i won’t get back to baseline, we are all in a very tough situation.

(JOE FABEETS) #65

I’m glad keto is helping. I think your proactive attitude is going to give you the edge to come out on top of this thing.

(Rebecca Vaughan) #66

thanks for your supportive words, it always helps to have one’s spirits raised :slight_smile:

(Robert Balerio) #67

I find myself in ketosis a lot due to exercise. For two equivalent long runs, the ketosis run would increase my heart rate by 20bpm but would be more comfortable and feel less stressful on my heart than the equivalent run not in ketosis. Personally, my heart rate is higher in ketosis for simple exercise but I don’t feel any strain even at my max heart rate. In ketosis I can comfortably keep my heart rate at 175-180 exercising for an hour or two. If I do that on normal carbs, I could only last 10-20 minutes before almost passing out.

(Rebecca Vaughan) #68

interesting Robert, due to my health i’m supposed to keep my HR under 109bmp or I’ll crash, but I’m working at 120bpm and not crashing! The HR has gone down now, and i’m working at around 10bpm higher than “normal”.

(Catherine J Carrano) #69

Just read your post. I had to look at who wrote it thought it was me. I am exactly in the same position. My heart rate is very high. I’d like to know more if you find out. I also have ME/CFS no one understands. I am seven days into keto and love it except the heart rate. I go see doc who doesn’t know and I’m going to speak with her.

(Rebecca Vaughan) #70

Hi Catherine,

Expect to feel pretty awful in the first couple of weeks, I’m now on week 6 and I feel much better but if I forget to balance electrolytes i’ll start to feel bad again. I think some of us with ME are also susceptible to POTS, and the keto can exacerbate POTS, so if you don’t normally have POTS symptoms you can experience some. My HR is still high but it’s not as bad as it was. I find taking 2g of Celtic sea salt a day in water really helps (add some lemon juice to mask the taste). Electrolytes are something we are going to have to balance every day for as long as we do the diet, and even if we aren’t on the diet I think us MEEPs need to make sure we take lots of fluids and minerals.

Are you taking magnesium and potassium too?

(Kyle) #71

Hi Rebecca! I too have ME/CFS and started the keto diet back in August with positive effects. However, I found your post and this forum by googling “Keto high resting heart rate.” My heart rate has been steadily increasing since I started the diet. It used to be in the low 50’s and today I hit 70. Like you, though, when I stand up and walk down the hall it jumps to 110. This keto diet has been the only thing that has had a profound effect on my energy and how I feel. I don’t want to give it up but I need to figure out how to regulate this heart rate thing.

I’m supplementing with 99mg of potassium and 120 mg of magnesium glycinate daily. For sodium, I just salt the crap out of all of my meals… Maybe I should start measuring?

As for seeing a specialist here in the US, unfortunately, there really isn’t much they can do other than prescribe anti-virals and give recommendations. I’ve been seeing one since I got sick in 2015. I’ve got my fingers cross for Dr. Ron Davis and his team of brilliants doctors to find some sort of treatment/cure soon.

Anyway, I hope you’re doing well! Just figured I’d chime in, too.

(Rebecca Vaughan) #72

Hi Kyle, thanks for your comment!

My resting heart rate is now 66 which is down 6 from 72 which I’m happy with, before it was 56, which was probably too low seeing as I haven’t been an athlete for 7 years!

My heart rate has normalised much more on standing, and if i haven’t had enough salt it will go up to 110, but sometimes it reads 90, so I’m happy with that too.

I’d recommends you up your electrolytes, you maybe be chronically low in sodium.

The keto 4 neuro fb group recommends 5g of sodium a day! I find that very hard to reach but manage it sometimes and i definitely do better when i’m near that target, (usually its around 3g)

As for magnesium, the RDA is 400 and if you are on keto higher is recommended I use this magnesium malate and take 1 tablet 3x per day.
https://ca.iherb.com/pr/Source-Naturals-Magnesium-Malate-180-Tablets/1444

potassium is controversial, so many people say you need lots other say be careful, I haven’t really noticed much of a difference either way but I take this 1-2x per day (max 800mg)
https://ca.iherb.com/pr/Now-Foods-Potassium-Citrate-Pure-Powder-12-oz-340-g/69741

I have had a fairly good couple of weeks but crashed today. Hoping the keto will help me recover faster. I didn’t fall into the black hole coma sleep so that’s something.

I was kind of hoping id be more normal by now, I’ve gone form 30% functionality to 40% functionality in about a month so i guess that’s good.

(Naomi Brewster) #73

What do you mean here? I’m def not an athlete (walk perhaps 30-40 mins a day and gardening) but my resting heart rate is 56. I wasn’t concerned until you said that - is that too low?

Also I have been upping my salt intake which seems to give me swollen ankles (water retention?). Wasn’t sure if too much or too little salt (it has been really hot here in Melbourne lately).

Thanks.

(Rebecca Vaughan) #74

Naomi do you have ME/CFS? if you do and you are very inactive (which sounds like you are not) 56 might be a bit low, as its unusual to have a very good/low HR when you are very inactive. Because it sounds like you are pretty active your resting hr sounds fine. Average is 60 -100 so there’s a huge scope. and essentially low HR is a good thing.

(William Moore) #76

Great to see improvement. Did you try exogenous ketones? I’m very confident they will help. Try keto os, non caffeinated. I’d also say to ignore that high fats are not recommended with your condition. Those studies are towards glucose burners. You are a fat burner. The more fat you take, the more fat you burn. Thus more ketones. Thus less inflammation and more healing/faster recovery. Improvement is all you should be looking for it and it really looks like you’re achieving it. Go you! Keep it 75/25/5 with a 16 hour fast & 8 hour eating window. Our bodies do amazing these when they aren’t inflamed. MCT oil and coconut oil highly recommended but be very easy on the doses. Maybe half a teaspoon of MCT at most and one teaspoon of coconut. Really curious to see how it’s been the last month

(Lonnie Hedley) #77

Keto OS?

(Rebecca Vaughan) #78

thanks William, I didn’t try exogenous ketones but all the electrolyte imbalance symptoms have finally subsided. I’m noticing improvement after a fast but the fatigue returns after a day or so (day after a fast is usually pretty good), I’m having trouble with pure oils giving me really bad reflux, like to the point it feels like a heart attack, so i’m slowly getting my head around what fats agree with me and what don’t, basically animal fats, olive oil and cheese seem ok, but MCT oil, coconut oil and too much cacao butter are not so good. I do feel like keto is showing me subtle improvements, I’m having to rest/sleep for 2 hours in the afternoon but it’s giving me the ability to focus on my goals much more, and I have more concentrated energy in the mornings now so I’ve been able to add a 5 minute walk to my day and also do some supine exercises for core and upper back strength. I still can’t really leave the house without crashing though, but hopefully in time that will come.

(Bunny) #79

Have you tried drinking mineral water rather than regular filtered water?

Mineral Supplements Help with CFS

(Bunny) #80

Carnosine might help with the reflux besides other dietary tweeks! I am going to try this!


(Jamie Holtzclaw) #81

I’m currently doing keto, I’ve been in ketosis for 2.5 weeks. I have SVT, and I have noticed my resting HR is 66, standing 85, walking 109-115. I had an STV Attack yesterday 160BPM, I quickly put my head between my knees and stopped it. I’ve realized that my addiction to water has caused me to deplete my electrolytes. So I’ve cut back on water, increased salt, 2500mg of potassium and 400mg of magnesium. This is helping but I’m not sure how much of my Celtic salt I should be taking. My BP is low/normal sitting and really low standing. Just wondering if you had any advice. Are you still doing keto, and have your symptoms subsided? I just purchased some of this. https://shop.drberg.com/electrolyte-powder-regular#prettyPhoto

(Rebecca Vaughan) #82

Hi Jamie, I am currently not in ketosis but i am still low carb (around 50g a day) my symptoms cleared up after two months and then I was keto for another 2-3 months, I made sure I had at least 800mg of potassium, 2500mg sodium and 800mg of magnesium a day, and I still do that. Making sure I kept my electrolytes balance helped. I came out of ketosis due to the amount of fat I was eating was giving me really nasty reflux (i can’t seem to win) and now I’m following a slightly less restricted low carb diet, and i’m not piling on the extra fat, so it seems to be working well for me. I probably enter ketosis every so often but am not too worried about it for now. Hope that helps.