Heart palpitations after eating
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TL;DR: I get heart palpitations after I eat, which started while I was on keto/calorie-restriction. Wondering what the cause could be, and if anyone else has similar experiences or suggestions.
For several months now I’ve noticed my heartbeat seems much more forceful all the time, to the point of being uncomfortable. I’m almost constantly aware of it pounding in my chest, even when laying down to sleep at night. My pulse is somewhat faster than normal, but not in serious clinical tachycardia range (generally between 80-105 bpm). Symptoms don’t seem to be correlated to pulse though—my heartbeat still feels abnormal regardless. It tends to get a lot worse after I eat, to the point of feeling like heart palpitations. Eating larger meals and foods that are difficult to digest makes it worse. The intensity varies, sometimes hardly noticeable at all, sometimes I get lightheaded and short of breath. Usually continues for 30min-3hrs after a meal. I’ve tried various mainstream and Peaty approaches and I haven’t found a permanent solution yet. I did get an EKG exam from a cardiologist ruling out any serious heart issue, so I suspect it’s probably something related to digestion or endocrine function.
Some things I’ve found so far that help: eating more salt, eating smaller meals, drinking more coffee, and taking Progest-E. My symptoms completely went away for 48 hours once after taking Progest-E with a very salty meal, but they came back and I haven’t been able to replicate it since then. I think water retention could also be an issue, as I’ve noticed I tend to urinate more frequently and pass more solute since this started. T3 and cyproheptadine did not seem to help at all.
This actually all started shortly after an episode of severe insomnia while I was on keto last year, in which I sometimes physically couldn’t get to sleep for over 48 hours. I had also been on an extreme calorie-restricted high-protein diet and heavily using nicotine for some time before then. Obviously now I’m on a more Peat-inspired bioenergetic diet.
What I’m doing so far re: supplementation and dietary changes seems to help, but I’m interested if anyone else has any insights or similar experiences, and any suggestions for other approaches I could look into?
