Palpitations and Heart Flutters

#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.

#21

Sorry to hear about your recent ER visits. I’ve been dealing with the same kinds of things from time to time. For me a lot of it seems to be electrolyte related but there is no magic bullet so far. Limiting caffeine helps me a lot but it’s not everything. I have a theory that things which work as diuretics have a greater effect but again that’s only a theory. I noticed that I feel that same effects from having a mild wine hangover (2-3 glasses) to drinking a cup of coffee, to me that cannot be a coincidence. It would be great to get a definitive answer on this but until then all we can really do is experiment and compare notes.

#22

Hi everyone. New to Keto, but have been doing low-carb for years. Started a week ago today and have lost three pounds. Doing Keto for general overall health. On day two I started getting heart fluttering and it kept me up much of the night. Now a week later, it remains, but more in the background. I would love to get rid of it. I have no health issues, and it clearly happened when I started Keto. I searched for keto forums for this issue and was happy to find this thread. I will try the extra pink salt that was mentioned and possibly folate and will update if any change. In the mean time, I will be checking here to see if others have succeeded in eliminating this issue. Thanks!

#23

A few more updates, another problem I had was supplementing magnesium! I haven’t taken it in 2 days and feel so much better. It was giving me hypothermia feelings and making it hard to breathe which resulted in another ER visit. I literally couldn’t breathe. Something between a Laryngospasm and bronchospasm. I’m also going to be switching back to synthroid as I’m pretty sure NDT is giving me hyperthyroid symptoms as well. Need to simplify everything.

I recommend if taking folate, build up slowly as you don’t want to induce an overmethylation nightmare like I also did! Probably should make sure you get a good balance of all of them as well.

(Shayne) #24

I think what has helped me the most is adding myo-inositol to my daily supplementation.

I’ve also eliminated dairy and artificial sweeteners. I’m doing an experiment on myself to see if those are part of the issue and it seems that they are for me. I am easing towards an autoimmune protocol variant of keto since being diagnosed with Hashimoto’s.

#25

What is an autoimmune version of keto? I’ve also been diagnosed with sarcoidosis and some believe it is autoimmune so I’d be interested to try that too.

Couple updates: the flutters I had are completely gone. But, the heart pounding is definitely inspired by anxiety. It happens every time negative circular thinking starts. I even made my blood pressure come down 20 points systolic in 5 minutes by belly breathing and prayer. Also feel a lot better coming off the Nature-Throid and back to Synthroid. Still kit completely right though. Lastly, I highly suspect avacado caused my throat to close up this past week a few times, so no more of that.

(Shayne) #26

The Autoimmune Protocol eliminates the most common inflammatory foods from the diet - grains (already gone on keto), beans, dairy, nuts, seeds, eggs, nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplant), and because it’s Paleo, artificial sweeteners are also on the “no” list.

Of these, I’m still eating nuts and chocolate and drinking coffee, but I’m off everything else.

Google will help you find all the details. PaleoMom is the one I started with (don’t listen to what she says about Keto, her info is dated), and Mickey Trescott is the other of my primary sources. I’ve been going through my cookbooks looking for recipes that fit AIP while still being keto.

But mostly I eat meat and a few veggies… the biggest hurdle for me was giving up cheese, but I’ve managed it.

#27

Interesting. I’m already dairy free, but my keto diet is basically meat, coconut oil, butter, macadamias and broccoli. I don’t like any other veggies, except spinach but I always forget to eat it and it goes bad. I’m probably not getting enough veggies and the vitamins in them now that I’m not taking any supplements at all.

(Shayne) #28

I take a LOT of supplements (working with a doctor) because I just can’t get enough of them from diet alone.

He also has me on several anti-inflammatory supplements as well because my inflammation is crazy high - probably due to the autoimmune disorder. My CRP on strict keto was 4.3, so we’re trying to bring that down.

#29

One good thing I have going for me is my CRP is .29.

I’ll be starting supplements again when I get all this under control. I slowly added a bunch of supplements to my regimen and couldn’t tell what was doing what anymore and knew something was giving me problems. 2 weeks off everything now.

(Madge Boldt) #30

Hi GMX,
Apologies for reviving an old thread! I have a long AFIB story that I will save for another post. Short story is that I had AFIB surgically corrected 7 years ago. As of yesterday, it is back (and I am so disappointed). It would have happened eventually no matter what I did, I believe… BUT my doctor mentioned that what might have precipitated AF’s return:

  • I donated blood the day before. Change in blood volume.
  • Caffeine, although I only drink 1 half-caf per day
  • Stress, lack of sleep (I told her both were typical)
  • and surprisingly, ketones. I told the doc I have been on the keto diet since Oct 2017.

Ketones! She said that ketones can excite the heart similarly to caffeine. It makes some sense since we have that clarity and focus in ketosis. But I can’t find anything in the scientific literature to support that. I did a search for “ketosis AND atrial fibrillation” in PubMed and only 6 older articles result, none of them applicable.

Most of the anecdotal evidence online (here and reddit) seem to conclude that it is the thrown off electrolytes that aggravate AF, not ketones. I’ve been pretty stable with no “flu” symptoms, so I think my electrolytes are fine.

Bottom line for me is that WTF I’m back in AF and I thought I was cured. I plan to reach out to the surgeon and whoever ends up being my cardiologist to ask their opinion about ketones and afib. I will start to wean off the half-caf (srsly?) and KCKO