food sensitivities

Little_Miss_Kriss · October 2016

I've never had a food sensitivity before, even when my parents were told i was allergic to peas, i still ate them anyway. lol never had any issues there.

i gave up caffeine recently because my heart rate took off like a rocket and makes me feel very uncomfortable.
for the last few weeks i have been going through a down phase in depression so my diet has been less then stellar.
Lets just say if you looked up sweet tooth on urban dictionary you'd probably find my picture plastered there.

my heart rate is pretty high right now, about 95bmp, for just laying in bed..
For anyone familiar with a food sensitivity can i ask, what were your symptoms? did these symptoms only happen to you when you ate a larger quantity of it?

i am going for bloodwork on wednesday, doctor wants to rule out iron deficiency as why i am very very VERY tired all the time, but my heart pounding is leading me to believe i might have a sensitivity to the food ive been eating while depressed and in a down phase.

Sharon009 · October 2016

Ask if you have a vitamin D deficiency. I had all the symptoms you're describing, caffeine in coffee started making my heart race, I was exhausted all the time and I think I was depressed. I do suffer from acid reflux as well and eating processed foods now makes me sick. I went on the BRAT diet and it took about 8 months to straighten out, including taking 5,000 Vitamin D. Sugar is the worst thing you can eat.

elphie754 · October 2016

See your doctor and ask for a referral to a cardiologist. Heart issues are nothing to play with. Playing guessing games as to what is causing it can be deadly.

Sharon009 · October 2016

My apologies, I meant sugar is the worst thing you can eat when depressed and tired. I hope you get a resolution.

MelissaPhippsFeagins · October 2016

Food sensitivities, if you have eliminated caffeine, shouldn't make your heart race. Vitamin D deficiency is a likely culprit and can happen along with anemia. You do need to have any dysrhythmia checked out thoroughly.
I have celiac disease along with a long list of food allergies that led to malnutrition prior to my celiac disease diagnosis and was on a combination of supplements to try to control my anemia and fatigue. Good luck finding a cause.

cityruss · October 2016

Seek medical advice. Not diet and fitness message board advice.

shaumom · October 2016

For food sensitivities...there's typically no heart rate increase, from what I've experienced and read about.

For food ALLERGIES, there can be a heart rate change, or a blood pressure change, due to the substances (mediators) released during a reaction. Also for some chemical sensitivities (like for a caffeine sensitivity) can cause heart rate changes, although unfortunately, the medical community has practically ignored these types of sensitivities until very recently so there aren't even any tests to check for them except for going to the doctor and eating the substance when you are there, recording what happens.

That said, some other things that can cause similar symptoms that I know of are low vitamin B12, vitamin D, or thyroid issues.

However, another thing you might want to explore is something called POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome). This is a condition that most commonly hits young women in their late teens to early thirties. It involves the heart not pumping blood to the places in the body that need it, WHEN they need it. It can be for different reasons - the brain not sending the right signals, the body releasing the wrong hormones, the part of the body determining the right blood volume stopping blood production too soon so there is not quite enough blood volume as there should be, or possibly others.

It often involves a high heart rate periodically (even laying in bed or when you've done almost nothing), fatigue (some with this have a period of the day, often the morning, where they feel it worse), difficulty with very hot or cold temperatures (blood flow helps us regulate our temp), brain fog or dizziness or feeling fuzzy headed, exercise intolerance (blood flow problems mean less oxygen and other things the body needs during exercise), and some folks with it are more prone to fainting, too. There can be some differences of symptoms, and not everyone has all of them, but these are more common

Another quirky aspect of this is that food can impact it as well. Caffeine tends to cause problems. And the gut requires less blood flow to digest protein, and to digest smaller amounts of food, so sweets/carb heavy meals and larger meals can cause problems as well.

POTS is diagnosed by a cardiologist, but you have to find one who is able to do the right tests, like a tilt table test (checks your heart rate change in different positions) AND that knows about it. And they first rule out other causes of these symptoms - like the vitamin issues and thyroid issues.

Unfortunately, this is also somewhat new to the medical scene, so many doctors aren't that knowledgeable about this. It can be tricky to find one that can help test for it. The only reason I've even heard of it is that my daughter was just diagnosed with this two weeks ago and seriously, so much of what you describe we noticed with her. Problems when she had a lot of sweets, a sudden drop in her ability to exercise and move around, high heart rate when lying down - it was frequently between 90-100.

There are some good support groups with information that it might be worth checking out, to see if it sounds like your symptoms match this enough that you want to get it checked out.
http://www.dysautonomiainternational.org/page.php?ID=30

psuLemon · October 2016

shaumom wrote: »

For food sensitivities...there's typically no heart rate increase, from what I've experienced and read about.

For food ALLERGIES, there can be a heart rate change, or a blood pressure change, due to the substances (mediators) released during a reaction. Also for some chemical sensitivities (like for a caffeine sensitivity) can cause heart rate changes, although unfortunately, the medical community has practically ignored these types of sensitivities until very recently so there aren't even any tests to check for them except for going to the doctor and eating the substance when you are there, recording what happens.

That said, some other things that can cause similar symptoms that I know of are low vitamin B12, vitamin D, or thyroid issues.

However, another thing you might want to explore is something called POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome). This is a condition that most commonly hits young women in their late teens to early thirties. It involves the heart not pumping blood to the places in the body that need it, WHEN they need it. It can be for different reasons - the brain not sending the right signals, the body releasing the wrong hormones, the part of the body determining the right blood volume stopping blood production too soon so there is not quite enough blood volume as there should be, or possibly others.

It often involves a high heart rate periodically (even laying in bed or when you've done almost nothing), fatigue (some with this have a period of the day, often the morning, where they feel it worse), difficulty with very hot or cold temperatures (blood flow helps us regulate our temp), brain fog or dizziness or feeling fuzzy headed, exercise intolerance (blood flow problems mean less oxygen and other things the body needs during exercise), and some folks with it are more prone to fainting, too. There can be some differences of symptoms, and not everyone has all of them, but these are more common

Another quirky aspect of this is that food can impact it as well. Caffeine tends to cause problems. And the gut requires less blood flow to digest protein, and to digest smaller amounts of food, so sweets/carb heavy meals and larger meals can cause problems as well.

POTS is diagnosed by a cardiologist, but you have to find one who is able to do the right tests, like a tilt table test (checks your heart rate change in different positions) AND that knows about it. And they first rule out other causes of these symptoms - like the vitamin issues and thyroid issues.

Unfortunately, this is also somewhat new to the medical scene, so many doctors aren't that knowledgeable about this. It can be tricky to find one that can help test for it. The only reason I've even heard of it is that my daughter was just diagnosed with this two weeks ago and seriously, so much of what you describe we noticed with her. Problems when she had a lot of sweets, a sudden drop in her ability to exercise and move around, high heart rate when lying down - it was frequently between 90-100.

There are some good support groups with information that it might be worth checking out, to see if it sounds like your symptoms match this enough that you want to get it checked out.
http://www.dysautonomiainternational.org/page.php?ID=30

Many of the OP's symptoms do closely relate to POTS/Orthostatic Hypertension, but only a tilt table could confirm that. If it would be POTS, there are several factors the come into play depending on the severity of the condition (which there are vast differences from person to person); the most notable dietary issue with POTS is that it requires a diet very high in sodium (like 10,000mg), magnesium and potassium. Since a person has a rapid heart beat, they burn through electrolytes very quickly, so resupply throughout the day is very beneficial. Smaller meals is recommend, like you shaumom recommended, since it would require less blood to breakdown the meals. More variable are intolerances. Some of the research, mainly in the form of patient questionnaire, has shown patients having issues with either gluten or dairy; for my wife it's gluten.

If the OP does have POTS, I would highly recommend a good Electrophysiologist (if one is available), if there isn't a POTS specialist in the area (which this is even more rare).

food sensitivities

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