Heart Issues

[Steph1]

Since eating gluten the other week, I have been having, I don't know, heart palpitations?  My heart just feels like it starts beating hard and irregular just for maybe a second or two.  This is a completely new symptom and it is freaking me out.  I notice it maybe 10 times per day.  Does anyone else experience this from gluten?

[beth01]

Have you had your thyroid checked? That is usually my first tip off when I am either hypo or hyper thyroid - my heart almost feels like it is beating out of my chest and skips a beat or two. That's usually when I haul my butt to the doctor, get my blood drawn and am told I need to adjust my meds.

[LauraTX]

Those symptoms could range from anxiety, to thyroid issues, to heart issues (improbable)... really any time you feel something totally different and unexpected, if its been a bit, it is probably a good idea to go to the doctor.  If you have something like a thyroid issue, better to treat it early.

[Steph1]

my heart almost feels like it is beating out of my chest and skips a beat or two.

 

This is exactly how it feels.  Last time my thyroid was checked my ths was 3.5.  So I am not on meds, but assuming I will be at some point.  I have a script for a complete blood work up, so I will go tomorrow.  Thanks.

[kenlove]

Have had this for a bunch of years and it was really weird when it first started. I was in non-stop  A fib  to the point where I had to have heart surgery about 6 years ago. After that I was fine for  a number of months then it started again to the point where the noise in my chest would wake me from the popping and gurgling sounds.  Went to another clinic and to make a long story short, went vegan. That was 5 years ago. Now I go into a feb once a month or so if I'm under some stress from deadlines.  Over all feeling 20 years younger.  One of the docs at this  Truenorth clinic in Santa Rosa told me as a celiac, we dont get the micronutrients that help protect blood vessels from the crystaline structure of animal protein molecules.   I did have  the thyroid checked and they told me they wanted to take out the parathyroids -- I didnt want neck surgery and clad I looked for an alternate therapy. Going vegan made sense to try and im very happy i did.

 

Since eating gluten the other week, I have been having, I don't know, heart palpitations?  My heart just feels like it starts beating hard and irregular just for maybe a second or two.  This is a completely new symptom and it is freaking me out.  I notice it maybe 10 times per day.  Does anyone else experience this from gluten?

[Steph1]

That is awesome Ken.  I have been cutting down on meat a lot lately, but have fish a few times a week.

[kenlove]

i dont miss it at all anymore -- only chicago pizza <G>

 

That is awesome Ken.  I have been cutting down on meat a lot lately, but have fish a few times a week.

[GFinDC]

Nope. I didn't have that symptom.  They say B vitamins are important for nerve healing.  Your body needs more vitamins and minerals for the healing process.  So it might help to supplement them.  Might even help that heart symptoms after a while hopefully.

[greenbeanie]

I get this after eating sulfites. It started during my gluten challenge last year and has persisted even though I've been gluten free for a year now. Last time I went to the doctor (for something totally unrelated) the nurse did a routine pulse check and asked if my heart always beat like this. I said no, but I'd eaten a couple pickled olives an hour earlier, and the vinegar was enough to start my heart pounding. The nurse looked at me like I was crazy, but it happens invariably whenever I have anything with even naturally-occurring sulfites.

[kenlove]

always get headaches from sulfites which makes it hard to drink most wine. Never had heart trouble from that.

 

I get this after eating sulfites. It started during my gluten challenge last year and has persisted even though I've been gluten free for a year now. Last time I went to the doctor (for something totally unrelated) the nurse did a routine pulse check and asked if my heart always beat like this. I said no, but I'd eaten a couple pickled olives an hour earlier, and the vinegar was enough to start my heart pounding. The nurse looked at me like I was crazy, but it happens invariably whenever I have anything with even naturally-occurring sulfites.

[KCG91]

For me, reduced heart palpitations was something I noticed after going gluten-free - one of those things I'd shrugged off as normal until it cleared up.

Since going gluten-free the only time I've had them (and I can only describe it as you did, or feeling like there was a basketball riccocheting off my ribcage so badly it has woken me up), after a glutening. No idea why as I now suspect the pre-gluten-free palpitations were due to anaemia and the kind of thing kenlove talked about. I wonder if the glutening ones were linked to anxiety - it was like being woken up by a panic attack. 

[kenlove]

The docs  told me it was 50% diet and 50% genetics and 50% stress.. . I know stress has a lot to do with it.

 

For me, reduced heart palpitations was something I noticed after going gluten-free - one of those things I'd shrugged off as normal until it cleared up.

Since going gluten-free the only time I've had them (and I can only describe it as you did, or feeling like there was a basketball riccocheting off my ribcage so badly it has woken me up), after a glutening. No idea why as I now suspect the pre-gluten-free palpitations were due to anaemia and the kind of thing kenlove talked about. I wonder if the glutening ones were linked to anxiety - it was like being woken up by a panic attack. 

[beth01]

Sorry to point this out to you Ken, but your doctors don't know math either! lol That's a 150%.  That made my day.  There's three different kinds of people in the world, the ones that know math and the ones that don't.

[Steph1]

I get this after eating sulfites. It started during my gluten challenge last year and has persisted even though I've been gluten free for a year now. Last time I went to the doctor (for something totally unrelated) the nurse did a routine pulse check and asked if my heart always beat like this. I said no, but I'd eaten a couple pickled olives an hour earlier, and the vinegar was enough to start my heart pounding. The nurse looked at me like I was crazy, but it happens invariably whenever I have anything with even naturally-occurring sulfites.

Which foods have sulfites?  I tried to look it up before but I wasn't too successful.

[greenbeanie]

Which foods have sulfites? I tried to look it up before but I wasn't too successful.

Here are a couple sources with lists of foods that contain sulfites:

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

The second one is from Canada, and I'm in the U.S., and I'm not sure if the regulations here are the same. I definitely react to foods with naturally-occurring sulfites too, not just processed foods with it added as a preservative. Basically, anything fermented gets me, even some probiotic blends. Many gluten-free flour blends contain potato starch flour or other flours that are bleached with sulfites. This isn't something you can usually tell from the label; my understanding is that they aren't required to label sulfites when they're used in the manufacturing process, rather than being added as an actual ingredient.

Once I realized that sulfites were the problem, it suddenly made sense of a lot of things that had seemed inexplicable before - like why I got sick from mashed potatoes at many restaurants but not at home (sulfites often added to prevent browning), and why I got sick from fruit salad at restaurants but not when I ate the same fruits at home (lemon juice from concentrate sprinkled on to prevent browning). I'm not sure whether xanthan gum contains sulfites, but I have the same reaction when I eat it. Guar gum seems fine in small amounts. I get typical allergy-like symptoms from sulfites too (immediate runny nose, coughing, and itching). The racing heart usually starts within ten minutes and lasts anywhere from a couple hours to a day or two (intermittently).

[across]

I don't have a response like that to gluten, but I used to get a weird heart response to caffeine. Every so often, it felt like my heart would kind of pause and then it felt like it was flopping over in my chest (I know...weird description!). I'd have maybe 8 regular beats and then one weird one like that.

 

My doc told me that caffeine causes irregular heartbeats in some people. She suggested I get off it, and when I did, the problem went away.

[kenlove]

good point. Im always surprised at how many times i see newspaper stories on coffee being good for the heart. Research must be  funded by Hills Brothers (). Ive been off all caffeine for almost 5 years.

I don't have a response like that to gluten, but I used to get a weird heart response to caffeine. Every so often, it felt like my heart would kind of pause and then it felt like it was flopping over in my chest (I know...weird description!). I'd have maybe 8 regular beats and then one weird one like that.

 

My doc told me that caffeine causes irregular heartbeats in some people. She suggested I get off it, and when I did, the problem went away.

[kenlove]

wondered if anyone would catch  that --  I think thats the point they were trying to make. Its not so cut and dry like math

 

Sorry to point this out to you Ken, but your doctors don't know math either! lol That's a 150%.  That made my day.  There's three different kinds of people in the world, the ones that know math and the ones that don't.