My friend Steve ( ( 67 yrs ) mentioned the other day that his heart rythem goes haywire when eating soft white bread cake’s or pizza base, has anyone a clue why this would happen, and yes I am trying to convince him to seek medical advice, 67 and stubborn lol, anyhow, what would be in the ingredients to cause the problem.
thanks -Col
Yes - see my post on Polyvagal theory earlier today.
Vagal response is part of ANS which controls heart, gut, BP, digestion. Cut out those foods & manage stress can help enormously.
That food is very high on the glycemic index. He may even be hypoglycemic.
Thank you !
In addition to what others have said - specifically, Steve could well be gluten and wheat intolerant or even allergic and this will impact on his cardiac and digestive system via the functioning of the vagus/vagal nerve - an information superhighway between the brain, heart and gut.
Back in the day these foods and many others would cause me to bloat massively and painfully and that would cause me to trip into AF.
Appreciated ta
I suggest it’s all about indigestion which could well affect vagal nerve as others have suggested.
ta appreciated
I totally agree with carneuny below.
Yes interesting, ta
Probably gluten, I understand the commercial breads they put more gluten in! Avoid.... the problem is that the supermarket gluten free breads are full of bad stuff as well so I ended up buying Quinoa bread from what I think is a reputable source google.com/search?client=sa...
I agree with what Carneuny has said. I have been gluten intolerant and followed a gluten free diet since 2012.
There does seem to be a link between AF and gluten in some people. As a start try having gluten free pizza and bread to see if it helps.
For me it's sugar that triggers AF.as well as some excess exercise actually. I've never had a problem with white bread as far as I know, but I guess we are all differant
He eats things with sugar though and no probs ? thanks
I agree with all of the above, and would like to also mention the additives salt / preservatives in store bought bread. Certainly causes me problems. Homemade bread with coconut flour seems to be ok☘️
Point took on board, I will show all these posts to my mate, appreciate the post ta ..
I cant eat more than one slice of bread and have concluded it must be the salt content as that is the case with other foods. I dont have any salt added to my diet and have got used to it.
I believe it is the quality of the food that damages us as much as anything else. For example modern wheat varieties (use ancient organic grown spelt instead), additives to supermarket salt etc etc (use pure sea salt)
I am a 70 year old female and I have been having chest pain if I eat white bread, potatoes, rice, for several years now. Anything basically starch based or carb dense. Taking a nitroglycerin tablet has relieved the problem so far but the doctor has had nothing to say about it. I have had 2 heart caths and now have 3 cardiac stents.
Soft white bread and commercially made cakes etc have rubbish added to them, before cutting out gluten (very fashionable but extremely hard to do properly) he might learn to make his own bread and cakes - give him a Mary Berry book 😀
My GP advised me to cut out sugar, gluten and cow dairy because of the high inflammation that they cause, regardless of gluten intolerance or sensitivity. So I’ve cut out all three (I do still eat some sheep and goat dairy) in addition to cutting out alcohol and coffee. I found it all very helpful.
It might depend on what Steve puts on his bread. Tell Steve to try this:
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After 9 years of trying different foods and logging EVERYTHING I ate, I found sugar (and to a lesser degree, salt – i.e. dehydration) was triggering my Afib. Doctors don't want to hear this - there is no money in telling patients to eat less sugar. Each person has a different sugar threshold - and it changes as you get older, so you need to count every gram of sugar you eat every day (including natural sugars in fruits, etc.). My tolerance level was 190 grams of sugar per day 8 years ago, 85 grams a year and a half ago, and 60 grams today, so AFIB episodes are more frequent and last longer (this is why all doctors agree that afib gets worse as you get older). If you keep your intake of sugar below your threshold level your AFIB will not happen again (easier said than done of course). It's not the food - it's the sugar (or salt - see below) IN the food that's causing your problems. Try it and you will see - should only take you 1 or 2 months of trial-and-error to find your threshold level. And for the record - ALL sugars are treated the same (honey, refined, agave, natural sugars in fruits, etc.). I successfully triggered AFIB by eating a bunch of plums and peaches one day just to test it out. In addition, I have noticed that moderate (afternoon) exercise (7-mile bike ride or 5-mile hike in the park) often puts my Afib heart back in to normal rhythm a couple hours later. Don’t know why – perhaps you burn off the excess sugars in your blood/muscles or sweat out excess salt?? I also found that strenuous exercise does no good – perhaps you make yourself dehydrated??
I'm pretty sure that Afib is caused by a gland(s) - like the Pancreas, Thyroid (sends signals to the heart to increase speed or strength of beat), Adrenal Gland (sends signals to increase heart rate), Sympathetic Nerve (increases heart rate) or Vagus Nerve (decreases heart rate), Hypothalamus Gland or others - or an organ that, in our old age, is not working well anymore and excess sugar or dehydration is causing them to send mixed signals to the heart - for example telling the heart to beat fast and slow at the same time - which causes it to skip beats, etc. I can't prove that (and neither can my doctors), but I have a very strong suspicion that that is the root cause of our Afib problems. I am working on this with a Nutritionist and hope to get some definitive proof in a few months.
Also, in addition to sugar, if you are dehydrated - this will trigger AFIB as well. It seems (but I have no proof of this) that a little uptick of salt in your blood is being treated the same as an uptick of sugar - both cause AFIB episodes. (I’m not a doctor – it may be the sugar in your muscles/organs and not in your blood, don’t know). In any case you have to keep hydrated, and not eat too much salt. The root problem is that our bodies are not processing sugar/salt properly and no doctor knows why, but the AFIB seems to be a symptom of this and not the primary problem, but medicine is not advanced enough to know the core reason that causes AFIB at this time. You can have a healthy heart and still have Afib – something inside us is triggering it when we eat too much sugar or get (even a little) dehydrated. Find out the core reason for this and you will be a millionaire and make the cover of Time Magazine! Good luck! - Rick Hyer
PS – there is a study backing up this data you can view at:
https//cardiab.biomedcentral.com/a...
How much sugar do you need to stop your afib? The answer is about 1/2 of what your daily sugar limit (threshold) is. My sugar threshold is about 80 grams a day right now. So if I go over that (and it's sooooo easy to do) my heart will start to afib. Then if I cut back to about 40-45 grams of sugar for one or two days, then the heart goes back to normal rhythm and stays there until I exceed my daily threshold of sugar again. (moderate exercise will shorten that time frame). I have gone 30 days under my sugar threshold with no afib once just to prove it is the sugar. And I have consumed my daily limit of sugar every day after going into afib and it stayed in afib for a week - just to prove that worked. So - as long as you know what your sugar threshold is you can control it, but that takes several weeks of experimenting to figure out. I use the following WEB site to know how much sugar is in different foods:
fatsecret.com/calories-nutr....
If you find that your sugar threshold is lower than 50 grams a day - it's nearly impossible to eat less than that each day, which will keep you in permanent Afib. If this is the case, try going to a Nutrition Response Tester. I am doing this and she has improved my gland processing such that we have increased my sugar threshold from 48 grams a day to about 75, which is high enough to stay under - and keep afib from happening (unless I indulge in a sweet something – which I do too often). I'm hoping we can get my sugar threshold over 100 grams a day, and if so, that would pretty much stop any afib from happening again (assuming I consume less than 100 grams a day which is not too difficult to do). If I have success in achieving this, I will post it on this forum. If you are on any harsh meds they might be altering your metabolism and something else could be causing your afib. In that case, you will have to really listen to your body and experiment to find out what is triggering your afib. I'm pretty sure it's some gland or secretion in the body that results in sending mixed signals to the heart - not the heart itself. Hope this helps.
I had to go gluten free to stop my heart issues. I’ve been gluten free for 3 years and only have heart arrithymia now if accidentally get wheat. I read labels carefully. I am not celiac just gluten sensitive. I think many with heart issues will say the same. I had an ablation 3 years ago for SVT and still had issues after surgery until my chiropractor suggested going gluten free to see what happened. It all stopped. Once since surgery I had 1 piece of bread and was arithymic for 5 days. I’ll never touch wheat again.
In order to speed up the speed at which wheat products rise, the variety of wheat used was changed so that bread in particular could be produced faster. The 'new wheat' contains much stronger gluten.
Be careful with commercial 'free from' products. Some are gluten free but contain a grand selection of preservatives to make them last longer.
Have a look at Dove's Farm gluten free flour for making cakes or bread, and get baking. Lots of lovely cakes, mince pies and putting weight on!
Thank you for your very helpful post which is much appreciated!
Hello there. My Paroxysmal AF responds to what I eat. If I eat an organic unprocessed diet, I am PAF- free. Having discovered this I have been free of AF for nearly 2 years now.
When I started with AF I was convinced gluten was the cause because it upset my stomach so much. I recorded the foods I had eaten which seem to have caused the AF which were - cakes, white bread - wine - sausages - then I was struck down by a gluten free pizza. I reverted to a simple diet of meat, veg and healthy fats and started to analyse which foods gave me stomach-bloating and heart problems. I couldn’t understand it at all, there seemed no link. There was a link - it just isn’t well known. It all became understandable when I had an AF episode from 2 dried apricots. Normally I buy organic but these apricots were not. It was clear then that I react to Sulphites which are preservatives in an awful lot of foods. There isn’t much info out there about sulphite sensitivity BUT I have had AF for 14 years and can see that I become more sensitive to sulphites year after year and now even very low levels of sulphite can cause a problem. Low levels of sulphites do not have to be on a food label, so this is a difficult problem and I’m learning all the time.
I would recommend for Steve to start on a simple diet - perhaps fodmaps - or just eat meat, veg and healthy fats - and then once you are stable - gradually reintroduce foods keeping a diary at all times. Working with a dietician is ideal.
Incidentally I also was diagnosed with IBS which I no longer have. I now understand that my guts and heart react if I eat even a small amount of sulphite.
If I can be of any help, let me know. All the best to Steve.
76 years old with A F
apixaban and hematuria 
shortness of breath
3% Afib burden and proposed medication
