Food and blood pressure

This is for Katomummy and others with an interest in food/digestive system.

I commented recently that my paroxysmal AF is highly controlled by diet and meds. I added that 3 to 5 times a year I might get an AF hit too. I've also commented that food and bloating can trip me into AF.

BUT NOT ALWAYS AS SIMPLE AS THAT. Rewind to January 2010 ........ start of AF. Initial symptoms were feeling like I was going down with flu. Then within a few hours my BP dropped from 136/80 ish down top 76/50 ..... admitted in a hurry to A & E, the rest is history.

Tuesday evening for my main meal of the day (at about 6.30 pm) I had a meal with meat and veg. The meat was a pork steak, edged with fat but disguised by thick gravy.

Early hours of the morning needed a bathroom experience with diahorrea.

Next day - some 18 hours after the meal my BP went ballistic, flying higher than a rocket ......... the following readings were over a period of 4 days .... now back to normal, which for me is around 131/70........

Sys Dias HR

134 66 63

140 81 72

140 88 64

150 89 63

160 92 58

153 93 54

127 74 62

149 84 60

138 81 61

134 84 55

Hopefully these numbers will come out OK. This time because the HR is well controlled thanks to Mr. Bisoprolol I did not lurch into AF that I'm aware of.

John

[Ppiman]

Sounds a tasty meal. You need the fat to give the chop taste. Very nice. My AF experience is similar to yours and, for now, even less frequent, thank goodness and goodness knows why. I put the heart and food effects down to the mechanical action of the oesophagus and stomach on my heart, rather than anything in the food.

My BP can range as widely as yours, too. I doubt a doctor would see 160/92 as sky high and would likely put it down to some kind of stress reaction. I do dislike it when mine does that and feel good only when it is around the 120-130 / 70-80 region. I find I need to be as relaxed as I can be (not easy) when I take mine, and to take it three times to get a lower consistent reading. Perhaps just the sight of the BP machine affects me, I don't know.

Steve

[Hidden in reply to Ppiman]

Hi Steve,Thanks for your comments. Nice to know I'm not Robinson Crusoe. Must say, on reflection, that all through those few days I did experience mild and continuous bloating. Nothing distressing, just an awareness. In the past when the bloating has been full on and v painful I have lurched into AF. Not this time.

John

[Ppiman in reply to Hidden]

On the topic of food and the heart, I was speaking to someone a while back who doesn't have AF (well, no tests have shown it so far) but they'd had a similar experience to one I have had maybe three times while eating - although not for a few years now. It is a sense of "distancing" from the world and others sitting around the table, even their voices feeling further away. Most odd. It's a deeply unsettling experience that created a deal of anxiety at the time, once bringing me to visit our local walk-in centre where all was well. I think it might related to the stomach pushing the diaphragm high against the heart, but I can't be sure. I was once told that this can happen by a cardiologist and that it can cause the heart to develop ectopic beats (and for some they can trigger AF).

Steve

[Sniggetts]

Hi there,

Thank you this, very interesting. I’ve just bought a bp machine as Gp requesting regular readings, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens regarding meal times .

I’m currently eating very small portions and very slowly which helps a bit. I’m doing all the off fatty foods, sugars too. All helpful for weight loss but a bit of a pain … still researching through the useful & interesting information you passed on.

Hope my Bp behaves itself…. Switching meds this week so hopefully that might help too.

Take care .

[Likethecolorblue in reply to Sniggetts]

I am currently charting my BP readings about 3 times/day (while supine, sitting and standing) because I am extremely dizzy when I stand. I have charted for 3 days now and have a pacemaker for about 5 weeks. It is interested to see that my BP is fluctating quite a bit between the 3 positions. From what I have read, this might be Orthostatic Hypotension. I am sending this info to my Cardiologist today and hopefully my pacemaker can be adjusted. I hope you do not have the dizziness I am experiencing. It seems odd to me that BP is almost always checked while sitting and never do doctors check the three positions. Just a suggestion and hope you are not experiencing what I am. God bless you and hope everthing goes well with you!

[Sniggetts in reply to Likethecolorblue]

Thank you , so far no dizziness unless having a fast run of AF. When I was in the cardiology unit as an in patient, the nurses were doing different postural bp readings of some patient , so definitely very useful information, I guess especially if you have a pacemaker that might need adjusting .

Do take care , best wishes.