Firstly, wishing you all a very Happy and healthy New Year and I do hope the celebratory season passes with you all in good health and ready to face the onslaught of 2021.
As my heading implies ... rotten guts has returned. So far at least I have suffered bloating, much burping and rapidly increasing bouts of palpitations ......... BUT ... no AFlut or Afib ....... yet.
Quite odd really, as due to a flukey combination of generous shift rostering and pre booked annual leave I found myself with 18 days off ( from driving buses) over Christmas and New Year. For the first time in years I have led the most low profile Christmas ever and seriously cut back on my drinking (beer/wine/spirits - no! not all at the same time 😃) and grazing. This has given me mega hours to contemplate where my guts issues have come from, always a challenging task. So, the beer I have been drinking is one I have only taken too over the last 8 to 12 weeks and that has now ceased ...... ALL beers are off limits now. My grazing habits are not the issue that beer is but trying to identify a potentially troublesome food/ or ingredient/ or type is, as always, tedious ! I have decided not to even 'play' - just cut out altogether what I regard is the offending food/beverage source.
The one thing I have discovered ( by accident ) is one of the most gut soothing remedies is eating raw sliced radish. It has had a most soothing effect on my gut. So anyway, life is settling down the bloating is lessening ... and its really weird ... when I have the bloat, I have (what appears to be )a throbbing in the upper abdomen, just under the lowest ribs, and I can physically feel the palpitations start from that source, even though they are felt in the chest. Just like the source is sending a throbbing transmission along some imaginary telegraph wires to the heart. Of course it probably is 😮 Again interestingly, as all this progressed my blood pressure shot up from its current average of around 131/70 to an average of 151/85 - Hmmmmm ! Heart rate didn't change to any great degree. Normally around 63 to 67 bpm. Peaked at 73. Weird.
But hey ho, things could be worse ! So, that's the radical step taken, analysing food is much harder given the way ingredients in food exist ... if you see what I mean. Back to work Tuesday.
Happy new year to you too. Sorry about your gastric issues and I so empathise with you, today in particular mine are dreadful. I can identify with your symptoms and feeling in upper abdomen and chest. Of course the good old heart joins in for good measure just not to be outdone.
I really can’t find a solution to the gastric issues and after tons of tests I am left with gaviscon as my only medication plus heart meds of course. Sometimes I think I can’t take the pain much longer and then it will gradually fade for a week or so before it builds back yet again. The chest pain concerns me as it could be cardiac and or gastric but so far no joy on a solution.
Hiya meadfoot,Thanks for your comments. Well I decided to cut out beer and replace it with another fizzy drink. I had a well known brand of gluten free cider. The beer was a standard lager and not gluten free. It seems to have worked - at least very minimal bloating ...... but ........ still massive loads of burping.
I took this approach to simply see what happens by cutting out beer and replacing it with a different drink that was gluten free. I am now convinced that the demons were in the ingredients of the beer. I'm thinking Barley. I seem to recall having beer with hops without side effects. Anyway, more research needed now. But I am feeling much better.
Can't believe how much better I feel. Apart from the symptoms I described in my post my brain feels more alert !
Interesting point you made ... you refer to " build up" - that's what seems to have happened with this beer. When I switched brands there was absolutely no impact at all with this new brand ....... its only after some 8 to 12 weeks that it has built up. Must be a clue there somewhere. For me when I bloated the throbbing started in the abdomen like I said and then palpitations from the chest, that's how I was certain the problem is the bloating.
Thing is with all this, I firmly believe that if your digestive system is polluted ( from whatever cause) that's it - it stays and can be affected by any food or drink with certain ingredients. Not the food per se but what's in it. Actually, I can trace digestive issues starting back over 40 years ago and having had consultations with a Dietician at Sydney Hospital when I lived there and being prescribed a diet by her.
Anyway, I do hope you can soon track the culprit down and that things improve for you.
Thing is there is no guarantee my latest findings are a permanent cure. But Gluten elimination seems to be the go more so in drink than in food which for me is as much gluten free as I can get it.
Hi JohnGood to hear you are alive and kicking. Some beers contain barley, which allegedly becomes gluten free during the brewing process. Others contain wheat and they usually are not GF. I go a lovely shade of red after having a drink, which is something to do with a possible lack of enzymes in the liver. It's all good fun and perhaps a bit of detailed research may be called for.
Hi carneuny Like the name, by the way. We went to Carn Euny a few years ago, on one of our many trips to Cornwall ( in-laws lived in Carbis Bay, son lives in Penryn) to visit someone my husband knew, who lives right next to the site. We haven’t been to Cornwall for a few years as my husband finds driving and walking painful. I miss it.
Anyway, re your gut issues. I gave up drinking lager many years ago after a horrible gut episode. I’m sure my AF (and possibly my mitral valve defect) is linked to food reactions - wheat and other grains. Maybe sugar too. I’ve had irritable bowel for years ever since 2 bad episodes of infectious gastro-enteritis in my 20s. It was a lot better after going on a Candida diet when I was 40 odd, with supplements, for 6 months and then keeping bread, sugar, dairy, fruits, wine to a minimum for years.
Then I got over-confident and gradually ate more of those things, and at first was fine, but over the last few years, the gut episodes increased. I could keep it all at bay by going on a strict diet every year for a couple of weeks, sometimes a month or more.
A couple of years ago I started getting short episodes of AF at night, then a couple of episodes that lasted a day or two, and were accompanied by bloating and diarrhoea. I went straight back on the strict diet for a few days and was ok, but still getting night episodes that lasted a few minutes.
Finally Christmas 2019 - guts playing up and AF that didn’t stop. With visits to friends, Christmas food it was impossible to go in a diet.
After Christmas I went to the doctor and was put on a beta-blocker. In brief, eventual diagnosis November 2020 (Covid stopped hospital tests) severe mitral valve regurgitation. I’m on Apixaban and Nevibolol, but the beta blocker hasn’t done much for the AF. My heartbeat is still pretty rapid, and I’m getting more breathless than I was a few months ago.
My guts have been pretty awful all year, bloating, wind, etc. And getting worse. And things I’ve eaten for years without too many problems have started to disagree, as they did after the gastroenteritis.
I know the sensation you describe. I get a feeling of pressure and even as if my lungs won’t inflate fully, and can feel my heart beating hard but irregularly. I also have tinnitus, and can hear my pulse - that’s horrible!
Your heart rate is good. Mine is around 90 -100 when I’m moving around, 80-90 resting.
It’s difficult to sort out the real culprits. I’m not sure gluten-free bread, pasta etc has helped. It seems to be starchy and fermented things in general. I love wine, in moderate quantities, but wonder if I should give that up! Trouble is, my will power is not what it was when I was younger!
I guess bacteria and yeasts in the gut cause havoc, and maybe can eventually affect your heart, if you are susceptible. My mother had similar digestive issues and eventually tachycardia and a heart attack. Our son has given up beer because he didn’t feel good.
I’ve been offered an operation to repair the valve, but with the awful rise in cases in London, have no idea when that will happen. Meanwhile I curse my lack of will-power, (And my genes and other things!) but the strict diet is beyond me now, it’s so depressing eating a limited boring diet. So I struggle on, trying to limit the damage but still getting uncomfortable bloating. But perhaps you’re right, eliminating gluten completely might eventually mean I could tolerate the other things that set me off.
Hey, what a user name ........ brilliant ! If I had enough of that I wouldn’t be too worried about my guts in the least. Cool ! Lol !! Thank you for your very informative comments ... so many parallels with my own situation.
I chose Carn Euny because when I moved down here from Surrey I passed through the hamlet of Drift on my way to work at Lands End Airport, and of course the sign posts led me to Carn Euny. I have found these neolithic sites quite fascinating ... as indeed there are a number in south Wales, and also in Brittany, although in the latter case I haven’t been there.
Gut issues .... thinking back over my life I can pinpoint the start of digestive issues to my early 30’s. At that time it started with a suspect gall bladder issue which was never fully resolved other than through diet, that is, cutting out offending food. I then began cutting out lettuce and tomato. Various issues have popped up regularly over the years but nothing sinister until my AF had been diagnosed - then it all came together.
I have been added salt free in my diet for 3 decades, at least. My banned cereals are all involve gluten, so, Wheat, Oats and Barley. After I’d been diagnosed with AF I found over many months that every event that I had came after my main meal. Bloating, massive and painful bloating, burping, loud and very antisocial intestinal gurgling and diarrhoea. The Bloating would ( and could still) tip me into AF.
My GP had bloods done for IBS and Coeliac Disease but these came back clear although he still suspected a mild IBS. He offered more tests - I declined and consulted a Nutritionist. Onto a course of Probiotics and a food plan. At this point I went all added sugar free. My only fruit these days is Banana. and don't start me on vegetables. Actually, if I followed the health mantra of " eat 5 to7 fruit and veg a day" I'd be permanently in the bathroom 😥😥
If I eat ordinary bog standard white sliced bread I’m fine - if I go to any type of wholemeal or grain bread I’m straight away in trouble. Dairy is marginal - hard cheeses are fine, soft are rubbish. No yoghurt. Semi skimmed milk is fine, full cream not so.
This over-confidence thing you talk of is so, so correct. That's me you’re talking about there !😮 That's basically how I found this brand of beer which has obviously caused this build up/cumulative effect over 8 to 12 weeks. So, now beer has gone, burping still exists after solid food, bloating has reduced marginally. At least I can tolerate red wine with sips of chilled water and my brain feels more alive and less like being trapped in a 1950’s London smog !
So its now back to the drawing board. Eating smaller meals is also part of the package. Mrs Carn Euny is a great cook but can’t grasp the concept of meal sizes, so there is a lot of food wastage. Yes - I understand will power - or perhaps more likely ’ won’t power’.
🤣🤣
My HR is only good because of Bisoprolol - without that drug it would be very close to yours - which is where it was when AF mugged me originally. Yes - its a depressing feeling eating boring food. So depressing its bad for my mental health !!😂😂 These days I can’t even eat fish and chips now - it’s the batter that’s the problem.
Yes, you are quite right about genetics. My Mum and Dad both died from non cardiac related things but my Dad’s father died from a series of strokes back in 1964 .... I often wonder if these were AF related. I often wonder but haven’t bothered researching, how much was known about AF back in the early 1960’s. Interestingly, another member of my paternal side was diagnosed with AF and his grandfather was my grandfathers brother ! My daughter had AF on both occasions she was pregnant with her two daughters. When she stopped breeding the AF stopped. She is now into Thai Kick boxing !! I wonder how she'll be when she is in her 60's ?
Anyway, day 5 of 2021 tomorrow and the food analysis goes on and on. Hope you’ve found this of interest .... don’t let it all grind you down.
Thanks for your reply and comments. It’s useful to know other people have similar issues. When I mentioned the irritable bowel link to the doc it was as if I hadn’t spoken. But will push it when I see the heart specialist next week. Not that it’ll make any difference, but they should be aware. I started on Bisoprolol, but began to feel a zombie and it didn’t seem to make much difference to my HR at 5mg twice a day. I couldn’t face being on a higher dose. Someone on here recommended Nevibolol and I do feel less rusted up, but again it doesn’t bring the HR down much. I’ve always had a fastish HR and the usual culprit foods drive it up. And large meals! Unfortunately for me I’ve always had a good appetite (euphemism) but don’t put a lot of weight on.
I do take digestive enzymes with main meals, I think they help. My husband is a great burper but I think my bloating is erm... lower down and I don’t burp.
Between the two of us the house could be renamed ‘Windy Nook’ (my mum’s name for our house when my brother and I were kids - Dad being the culprit).
I had a negative coeliac blood test many years ago from a gastroenterologist who told me irritable bowel was all in the head, (!!!) and that very few specialists believed it was linked to food allergies. ( not sure that the concept of food intolerances existed then) At that point I thought rude words about NHS specialists and went to various herbalists/ nutritionists etc. I’ve tried loads of (expensive) probiotics over the years but now it’s difficult finding ones that suit and am currently off them. Maybe I better go back on them.
Anyway, here we are. I just hate how this has turned me into someone who puffs her way round the local park, from an active person that was hill walking a couple of years ago and walking a lot even a year ago.
Ps I love Limoncello, still got half a large bottle in the fridge, from a holiday in Sicily, it keeps well. Home made is the best though! I love Italian food, (except pizza) but all the pasta etc is off limitsWhen friends enthuse about Melenzane parmigiana (aubergines with Parmesan) I just want to cry.
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