Too Much Salt? High HR

(Karlynn Snyder Turner) #1

I’ve been doing fasting off and on since 2016 but I’ve begun again in earnest after struggling with my sugars/stress level all summer. The longest I’ve done so far is 69 hours - largely due to my sodium issues. I have low sodium issues in general (get it from my dad) so I have to salt everything all the time whether I’m fasting, keto, or eating whatever. In the past I end up feeling so crappy from lack of sodium that 69 hours is the longest I’ve been able to go.

Yesterday I started doing a 9 day fast (with broth and coffee) and drank 4 cups of broth yesterday to try to make sure my salt was up - which was about a total of 3g of sodium. Last night my heart rate, which normally sits in the low 60s, ramped up to low 80s and stayed elevated around 69-71 all night (normally around 60). Just before bed I felt like I had a heart palpitation - which don’t normally bother me since I started getting those around 23 due to my PCOS - but this one felt much stronger.

Should I be cutting back on sodium intake or has anyone else had similar issues? Everything else is great - my blood sugars are perfect, my ketones are sitting pretty at 3.3. Also wondering if it could be the caffeine’s fault but I had coffee in the morning and the heart rate stuff didn’t kick in till 9pm.

(Omar) #2

sometimes devices like fitness monitors/watches read 20 points higher.

but if you are using a professional heart rate monitor and the elevation is real, I would say you may want to experement to find what exactly the reason caused it to go up.

In my case salt has no effect of heart rate unless I spend several days inactive.

what elevates my heart pulse rate is chocolate so I avoided it.

#3

Was it 3g of sodium or 3g of salt? I ask because salt (table salt, sea salt, etc) is a little less than half sodium. Two things that seem to make my heart rate climb when fasting are not enough salt and/or not enough water. I seem to work well with 2-3L water and 4-6g sodium in a day if I’m not sweating a ton. Right now I’m experimenting with shorter fasts (36-48 hours) and more sodium.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #4

Dr. Phinney and Professor Volek found the same thing with the ketotic athletes who participated in their studies. If they didn’t keep their salt and water intake up, they would have trouble from the resulting low blood volume, which made their hearts have to work harder. A cup of bone broth half an hour to forty-five minutes before exercise took care of the problem. So it sounds as though your problem is too little sodium, rather than too much.

Several recent studies have shown that we need about 5 grams of sodium a day, which means that current American guidelines are far too low. Five grams of sodium translates to about 2-1/2 teaspoons of table salt (inclusive of the salt already present in food) per day, so you may have to work to keep your salt intake up. The good news is that a healthy level of salt intake helps to regulate potassium, magnesium, and calcium, too.

(Karlynn Snyder Turner) #5

Yeah I have a feeling it was too low of sodium and then I had 3g of sodium all at once. My heart has been fine ever since. No more palpitations or anything similar.

(Karlynn Snyder Turner) #6

It was 3g of sodium but I think you and PaulL are right and my sodium was too low causing the issues. I haven’t had any issues since then and I’ve been keeping my sodium up with Himalayan salt in broth

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #7

I’m really glad you got it sorted. Do keep us updated on how you’re getting on.

(Karlynn Snyder Turner) #8

Ended up stopping fast at day 7 due to looking at my schedule again and making some adjustments due to 3 weeks of travel coming up.

After I started getting bone broth with tons of extra salt, I didn’t have any more heart palpitations. Also added some potassium just in case.

All in all pretty successful! Dropped 10 lbs in 7 days, only one of which has returned at this point. Will be doing another 7 day fast in 2 weeks! And ADF in the meantime.