Odd problem with 90% dark chocolate & swimming- heart palpitations

food
(Brian) #21

They’re pretty good, PaulL! :smiley:

(Roxanne Godoy) #22

Thank you. This has helped me calm my anxiety down. I really appreciate it. :slightly_smiling_face:

(Ross) #23

Quick update.
After going carnivore as an N=1 experiment for a few months the heart palpitations started to occur more frequently. Caffeine started to become a trigger for them rather than just dark chocolate.

After more research, looks like the root cause was low magnesium levels!

Apparently this is a known issue in Banting circles in South Africa (where they promote Mg supplementation while on a LCHF diet) but not so much in the US Keto community.

The problem is twofold. Our soils are mostly depleted of Mg due to modern farming and LCHF, esp Carnivore, diets are very low in Mg as a rule. It is almost impossible to get the required amounts from diet alone.

I found a supplement that agrees with me (a powder called “Calm”) which I can take in small does from a water bottle at regular intervals and after a few weeks, the problem disappeared completely. (I gather it takes time to build up in our tissues again).

Mg balances out Ca channels. Ca tells muscles to contract while Mg is the signal to relax. Low mg = cramping.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #24

Leafy green vegetables will help with your magnesium intake, since a magnesium atom is at the center of every molecule of chlorophyll.

(Heather Meyer) #25

I have a heart condition and i am a swimmer…
I started taking 600mg megnesium per day and it totally helped muscle recovery as well as helping out my heart. I swim fasted as well. Prior to swimming i like to take 2 tablets of vitamin B12 for energy and 7000 iui liquid Vitamin D3 30 minutes prior go swim. I find it gives me a great energy boost in the pool. And i dont feel sluggish because i havent eaten.

#26

Research low oxalate greens, as too much spinach can create other problems.

#27

This is very interesting. I tried carnivore to break a stall and started to get heart palpitations and arrhythmia. I had atrial fibrillation about 18 months before.

The initial episode was related to a combination of 4 things, maybe 6, so it was hard to work out a primary cause: BMI obese but not unfit. I was in nutritional ketosis + exercise outside of normal (20km bike ride), usually I surf or swim + dehydration from the bike ride + 1 night of excess alcohol straight after the bike ride + dehydration from the party + cold water “recovery” swim + 2 cups strong black coffee. Note: no chocolate involved.

Research and blood tests revealed the underlying magnesium deficiency. Which left me with “which other factor or combination of factors pulls the trigger on heart arrhythmia?”

Paul’s @PaulL information on methylxanthines feeds in, especially the bronchodilator effects. The methylxanthine medications are also used to increase heart rate in some veterinary cases.

I researched coffee and caffeine in relation to atrial fibrillation, and the general consensus from (caffeine addicted?) scientists in the generally carb fed population is that the caffeine is not linked. However, I wonder, with ketogenic dieters creating our own metabolic niche (as repeatedly shown by Prof Ben Bickman), whether the combination of low glucose, low insulin, some ketones, and magnesium deficiency, may be a different set of circumstances that result in heart arrhythmia when methylxanthines or alcohol, or even cold water plunge is added?

I supplement twice daily magnesium citrate. If I feel a flutter, I add a pulse dose of magnesium aspartate, as that was the medication that resolved 2 other bouts of AF I had. I’m not totally happy with the aspartate. They were interesting hospital visits as I worked with the emergency doctors. Previous visits the emergency department hit you with everything, drips, beta-blockers, all the machines that bing. As I got used to driving myself to hospital emergency, I could direct the doctors better, and we got it down to setting me up on a 12 lead ECG, and taking oral doses of magnesium to watch the AF correct, usually within 2 hours.

Things went well for 18 months + on magnesium supplements with no symptoms. Then I did the carnivore test. My ketosis deepened, I felt great, body fat came off, I maintained magnesium supplements but heart palpitations came back. I have had 2 bouts of AF; one on carnivore and I stopped, one since getting back to keto, but after resuming 95% chocolate eating as part of keto ( plus green leafy vegetables and non sweet fruits). Both the AF episodes eventually responded to oral magnesium doses.

Despite 2 years of magnesium supplementation, added marine foods etc, repeat blood tests show low normal serum magnesium, or as my GP doctor calls it, “ normal”. One rbcMg test in that time confirmed low magnesium and probable Mg deficiency. But I ask him why does my AF problem respond to direct high pulse dose of magnesium? And just as interesting, maybe only to me, is why have I never experienced a laxative effect, even with mega-doses of magnesium while treating atrial fibrillation?

Side note: Coronary artery calcium heart score 2015 = 0, 2019 = 1. That is either a relative risk worsening of 100% while 4 years in nutritional ketosis, or within the white noise of variation in the interpretation of the CT scan ( but it is a computer score counting white pixels).

(Edith) #28

When I was having all my heart palpitations, it seemed like certain foods would set them off, particularly chocolate. Then it progressed to eating in general that would start the palpitations. It seemed to fit with irritation of the vagus nerve.

Then, I really upped my magnesium intake using magnesium glycinate and ReMag to about 900 mg a day. The heart palpitations finally went away, but it actually to some time, about two months. My magnesium stores must have been quite low.

The palpitation reaction to food seems to have abated once I got my magnesium levels back up.
I will admit, I have been afraid to try chocolate. I like being palpitation free.

Something else I’ve noticed: I tried a carnivore trial several months ago and my resting pulse rate dropped by several beats. Lately, I went back to keto and reintroduced some foods I hadn’t eaten for a while including vegetables, coconut oil, coconut milk, and macadamia nuts. My resting pulse rate went back up. Food definitely affects the heart in ways beyond heart disease.

(Bob M) #29

I think I too might have an issue with high percentage chocolates. I notice that I don’t sleep well after eating chocolate within even a few hours of bedtime. I’m not 100% certain (I need to get a food log going), but it seems to be true.