Palpitations and Heart Flutters

#1

I’ve been dealing with heart palpitations and heart flutters and increased heart rate at night for about 6 months. I know the worst of the pounding heart is due to hormone abnormalities but that’s been addressed, and what’s left is a flutter during some parts of the day, usually after meals and before bed.

I have a feeling something is partly due to keto, maybe low blood sugar or electrolytes. Pretty sure I’m getting enough sodium because I know what the low sodium feels like, headache and brain fog. Could it be low potassium? I’m hesitant to take extra potassium because I’m prescribed 25mg Losartan which prevents potassium excretion.
Maybe I’m just not adapting that well to keto and it’s low blood sugar induced adrenaline? My heart rate goes up a little and there’s a little anxiety with it.
When I went on vacation to Disney, I broke the diet and don’t recall having these symptoms during that period.

Also, too much caffeine seems to make it worse.
Anyone have any thoughts or experience?

#2

I forgot to add, I did have a blood test done about 3 months ago (2 months into keto) during the time I was having palpitations and all and my sodium was middle range but potassium was low-normal (meaning, if the low limit was 4.0, mine was 4.0). FWIW.

#3

And to further complicate this, I recently tapered slowly off bisoprolol, a beta blocker which I was on for 5 years (blood pressure is better now, but not great). Anxiety makes my blood pressure go up pretty high. If I can sit long enough and breathe deeply or take theanine, taurine and or lemon balm, I can get it down to 120’s over 80. Otherwise it’s around 140/80.

#4

I can’t speak to any medical issues you may have but when I have heart palpitations it’s always one of three things: hydration, electrolytes, and numero uno: caffeine. Since going keto I cannot tolerate any caffeine whatsoever. I used to drink coffee all day, now if I have one cup I have a borderline panic attack. It’s weird but I’ve learned to accept it.

(Mike W.) #5

I just power through it. It helps knowing what’s causing it, but I need my joe. I tried decaf and just couldn’t do it.

(sandra) #6

A glass of salt water fixes this for me, I also now take cream of tarter - not sure if you may have the same issues, I am on no meds :wink:

(sandra) #7

I drink a LOT of coffee but after reading The Salt Fix I add salt after every cup :wink:

(Brooke ) #8

ditto. Caffeine is my nemesis. It also affects my blood pressure. Even caff in chocolate.

#9

So maybe I still need more salt? I supplement with 400mg magnesium glycinate daily too.

#10

Could your iron be low? A few doses of floradix always fix the heart flutter for me.

#11

I doubt it’s iron because I’ve been through that before and had these symptoms when I tested all good on the ferritin and iron Labs.

(Shayne) #12

My doctor put me on an inositol supplement and it has done wonders for my palpitations and chest pain!

(Karen Parrott) #13

I’d stay closely under the care of your regular doc while you sort this all out. Do you see a regular doc and/or cardiologist routinely?

(mike) #14
  • I think you should check out this book, “Atrial Fibrillation: Remineralize Your Heart” by Dr. Carolyn Dean MD ND.

Keep in mind Dr Dean sells products. However I have had atrial fibrillation or heart palpitations most of my life and this was very helpful. I tried her re-mag magnesium product but it did not work for me. Recently I stopped taking magnesium and the palpiatations came on very strong. Started mag again and they went away if mostly gone. Very interesting n=1 experiment for me. I found a mag supplement that was oxide, citrate, and sterate that has worked great. Also keeps me from getting backed up.

#15

Thanks everyone.
To comment on caffeine, I’ve been able to use caffeine most of my life just fine until recently with all this mess. I have to believe it’s not “as of February 24th 2017, I no longer tolerate caffeine.”

I do have a couple doctors including a cardiologist who said I have nothing to worry about after wearing a holter monitor for 7 days.

Took a gram of pink salt and the palpitations/flutters still came on shortly after lunch.

(Sacha Beauregard) #16

Hey!

I had lately been having some worries over very resting high heart rate and palpitations as well, so I’ve tried two things yesterday and today. One of these two things I did lately seems to be helping a lot and I’m betting it’s the electrolytes.

First, as part of my gym visit yesterday, I tried doing some HIIT on the treadmill, since this used to be part of my normal routine and I hadn’t been doing it. This was testing the theory that my cardio tolerance (and heart rate, by extension) went fishin’ since I wasn’t keeping it maintained. Basically anything I did got my chest pounding.

Now, today, on the theory that I’m drastically underestimating the electrolytes I need to take, I’ve been crushing liters of water with generous amounts of half-salt and magnesium citrate, flavoured with Mio, just to help the flavour.

I’ve tested my heart rate moments ago and it’s sitting at 70bpm. Previously it had been higher, like 120. Also, far fewer palpitations. Could be that if I keep this up that they’ll disappear entirely, but we’ll see.

So I’d like to propose to try taking MUCH more electrolytes than the odd extra gram of salt. =D Could be your body is still just replenishing it’s stores of sodium / potassium / magnesium / iodine / I-don’t-know what and that it’ll be able to calm down once it’s got a stockpile?

(Shayne) #17

I’m doing a similar experiment on myself as I’ve been dealing with palpitations as well. I thought I’d had it licked, but it came back this week. Then I remembered that the last two weeks I had been eating an avocado a day… POTASSIUM! So I increased my supplementation again… I use no salt (in addition to my pink salt) and take a lot of potassium per day and it seems to be helping.

(Kel Ta) #18

I had this occur on low carb as well- solved through regular supp with electrolytes- we need magnesium too and that is low in general for most modern humans and esp for low carbers- magnesium and potassium work together- I found that taking a chelated supplement at night worked best rather than taking one mineral alone, plus generous salt throughout day. I tried a lot of different brands but this was the best: https://www.amazon.com/Country-Life-potassium-aspartate-180-Count/dp/B000168HV2/ref=sr_1_sc_2_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1513944154&sr=8-2-spell&keywords=magnesium+pottasium+aspartate

#19

Thanks everyone. I figured out what it was…folate Deficiency. I’ve since added it in and feel so much better. I thought it was my body just not handling keto well but really I was cutting out all the other sources of b vitamins from fortified foods. I was only taking half my multi as well thinking I got plenty from foods but I wasn’t and only made it worse on keto. Lesson learned.

#20

I thought I had this figured out, but I was wrong. I’m starting keto again as of yesterday and something interesting to note. I’ve also stopped all caffeine for now after going to the ER twice this weekend. Since starting keto, 3 times I’ve felt overstimulated (to say the least), have taken a dose of pink salt, and 30 minutes later felt extremely relaxed to the point I could nap. Could this have been coincidental or is my body struggling with electrolyte balance? The odd thing is, at the ER my electrolytes looked fine. I’m seeing a cardiologist tomorrow to rule out everything scary.

Here’s the other dilemma: not sure what to do about potassium intake as I’m prescribed losartan and it can cause potassium overload.