Garlic & Heart Palpitations

GrannyMayOz

I was going to quietly put this on my own home page rather than 'make a fuss', but if this will help anyone else then it's better to put it in public. (I don't like people who repeatedly whinge about everything, and I was raving on about my blood pressure last Saturday and here I am again this Saturday!)

I had the most dreadful night last night, first woken by my heart fluttering weirdly and beating ‘too small and too fast’ and then every time I got peaceful again it would start up again. If I was breathing really heavily and deeply it was completely fine. Obviously got hardly any sleep, and feel totally shattered and wiped out today, but that’s not the issue here.

I was going through what I’d eaten to see if anything could have caused this and suddenly realised, yes! I’d had quite a lot of garlic on my dinner. And I suddenly remembered that my brother had been taken to hospital once after eating a meal with a lot of garlic in it. I can’t remember what his symptoms were but I’ve a strong feeling it was to do with his heart, it certainly wasn’t gastro. I will try to remember to ask my mother but, in the meantime, if it’s a family thing, then I've told my sons (and via them, my young grandchildren).

A little garlic for flavouring seems fine, but seemingly heavy doses are a very bad idea! I have a vague memory that this happened to me about 15 years ago as well but I’d forgotten until now. I won’t again!

I came the closest I ever have to asking to be taken to the hospital. It was a frightening time, but David was sleeping and I just couldn’t bring myself to disturb him. I probably should have. My death certificate is bound to read ‘died out of not wanting to inconvenience someone and paid the price’ LOL

So it hasn't been a lack of potassium over these last few days making me feel odd, it's been my steadily increasing doses of garlic butter on my meals. I was enjoying it so much too!

So I'm totally wiped out and have 2 granddaughters arriving for the day, and staying until tomorrow noon with plans to play and do sewing and bounce around, and wake ridiculously early tomorrow morning. Give me strength LOL

wabmester

Sounds like an episode of tachycardia. Probably harmless, but worth asking your doctor about it. Garlic is supposedly cardio-protective. It's thought to suppress some types of tachycardia.

FWIW, I suffer occasionally myself. Holding my breath during an episode seems to make it go away. (Mine has been diagnosed as a benign SVT -- harmless.)

GrannyMayOz

Thanks wabmester, I was too afraid to hold my breath but might give it a try if it happens again. I'll be steering clear of garlic for a while that's for sure!

I don't have a 'doctor' but if I don't feel fully well by Monday I'll go to my naturopath and get it checked out. I'm glad to hear that yours is harmless.

It's hard to tell how I feel at the moment because a large percentage of it would just be tiredness.

DittoDan

Hypomagnesemia

Signs and symptoms

Deficiency of magnesium causes weakness, muscle cramps, cardiac arrhythmia, increased irritability of the nervous system with tremors, athetosis, jerking, nystagmus and an extensor plantar reflex. In addition, there may be confusion, disorientation, hallucinations, depression, epileptic fits, hypertension, tachycardia and tetany.

Taken from Wikipedia

Maybe see your doctor about this. He can test you for it. The Ketogenic diet will deplete your magnesium faster than a carb diet.

I hope this helps,

Dan the Man from Michigan

totaloblivia

That's very helpful Dan, thank you

GrannyMayOz

Thank you Dan. I ended up going to the hospital emergency department. They took blood tests and I had an ECG on me for over an hour. The palpitations are from 'undefined' reasons, but I'm still positive it was the garlic because of the similar reaction with my brother all that time ago. However, it is certainly reassuring to now have a clean bill of health. My magnesium reading (they were looking for between .7 and 1.2) was .92 and they tested Na, K, Cl, HCO3, Urea and Creat. All results are happily in the middle of the desired numbers.

"Red cells show slight poikilocytosis. White cell and platelet morphology is unremarkable."

IamUndrCnstruction

I am glad to hear you have a clean bill of health. My heart does all sorts of wonky nonsense and it's quite a frightening feeling. If you feel it was the garlic then chances are it was, as you know how you felt before and after. My body doesn't like a certain medication I was taking, despite the fact I was told there was no way it would cause palpitations. I told them to find something else to give me and lo..I have seen a big decrease in symptoms. I still randomly get them, it's just something that "is" PVC's they call them. Anyway, do feel better and glad you had it checked out!

GrannyMayOz

Thank you IAUC and yes, it is scary isn't it? I've been feeling better through today. A few times when I've hit the wall and felt bad, but they've been brief and further apart thankfully. Just one of those mysteries I guess.

I'm so pleased that you stuck to your guns and got your medics to change that med!

wabmester

Bumping this thread because I just read about heart problems on ketogenic diets due to selenium deficiencies.

This wiki seems informative:
http://fellrnr.com/wiki/Health_Risks_of_the_Ketogenic_Diet

DittoDan

wabmester wrote: »

Bumping this thread because I just read about heart problems on ketogenic diets due to selenium deficiencies.

This wiki seems informative:
http://fellrnr.com/wiki/Health_Risks_of_the_Ketogenic_Diet

Did you notice that the whole article was talking about the Ketogenic diet and children? It rarely said anything about adults. I wonder why it would only referred to children (yes, I know the diet was originally for children with epilepsy.) It seems like they would address adults too?

Dan the Man from Michigan

GrannyMayOz

Hi wabmester That was interesting. I looked up food sources of selenium and I feel that most of us are probably eating enough of the foods that contain it...

Excellent sources of Selenium are bread, fish and brazil nuts. Good sources of Selenium are pork and liver. Other sources of Selenium include milk; eggs; beef; lamb; chicken, baked beans; lentils, red kidney beans or other pulses; green vegetables; bananas; oranges; almonds and peanuts. The Selenium content of food is dependent on the levels of Selenium in the soil in which the food was grown. Animals that eat grains or plants that were grown in Selenium-rich soil have higher levels of Selenium in their muscle.

It's always so hard to pin down deficiencies isn't it? It's a shame we can't press our nose/ print button for a diagnostic sheet *sigh*

GrannyMayOz

I should add to this thread that there's a possibility that this was caused by the coffee I was drinking. We've been drinking Moccona coffee for about a year but my husband had gone up to the stronger one, Level 8, which I didn't like so I purchased a 3.

After visiting the hospital for semi-thorough blood tests and an ECG the day after my 'incident' the doctor thought it was caused by coffee. I didn't. I drink about 5 very weak cups a day as I've been doing for ages. But over the next few days, every time I tried the Moccona 3 my heart would flutter. I waited 12 hours and tried a weak cup of David's Level 8 and I was completely fine. I've been drinking his 8 for the past 5 days with no trouble. So I feel that the Level 3 jar was probably tainted at the point of manufacture with something that shouldn't be in there. I keep googling to see if it's been recalled, but it hasn't.

So, in the usual, frustrating way of life, it *could* have been the garlic, particularly given the family history, or it *could* have been the coffee, or... who knows?

Sugarbeat

Glad you are doing better GrannyMae. I've been awakened by chest pains and it is very scary. I too spent a very long day in the ER only to be told I was fine. I think it was a digestion issue. Maybe just lower the garlic for a time and see what happens. I can eat small amounts of garlic everyday but too big an amount and my stomach is in knots.

GrannyMayOz

Thanks Sugarbeat. I haven't dared to have any garlic since, which is interesting because I kept trying the coffee LOL Actually I think David put a little in brunch yesterday. I heard him mention it from the kitchen and wondered if he did still love me