hello you lovely people. I’v had full days of annoying ectopics this last few days as you may know with my previous posts.? They calmed away yesterday but we’re back this morning with abit of a vengeance unfortunately. Whilst at work I went to toilet and noticed my urine was a rather strong colour, but I think it usually is anyway because of the multi vitamins I take? so didn’t take too much about it.
Later on i went and looked up darker urine causes and noticed that dehydration amongst other things can be a cause. Even though I wasn’t thirsty or felt the need to have a drink I drank a pint of water then 30 minutes later I drank another pint. Over the next hour my ectopics stopped completely.!! Im now ectopic free and have been since 12.00pm but I don’t know wether it’s the water or if my ectopics have just run their course.??
Written by
Jetcat
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
hi Jetcat - i don’t know much about ectopics I’m afraid but I used to do some training with the fire brigade and they were always talking about need to hydrate. ( obviously cos they’re exposed to massive heat). Basically unless your urine was pale straw colour , you were dehydrated! There was a chart …. Here’s one google.co.uk/search?q=urine...
I know vits can make pee darker - b vits make pee almost fluorescent yellow sometimes!
So… I don’t know much about ectopics but maybe you were dehydrated….
It’s strange isn’t it because since I got diagnosed with afib 10 years ago iv always made sure I drink plenty, (water) to keep hydrated and I thought I have been drinking plenty especially compared to my work colleagues etc.!! They have coffee or fizzy drinks and I match it 2x but with water.
Jetcat, I did a 2 hour walk when the weather was hot and forgot to take water with me, hadn't had an AF episode for 10 months and within 2 hours of getting home Bang it came for 9 hours and it was definitely dehydration that caused it. I always drink on average 2.5ltrs a day except that day. Plenty of fluids is a must to ward off an episode.
Especially as we get older, thirst isn't always a good barometer that we need to drink. On the other hand, over hydration has it's own set of problems.
Using the visual test -- clear or straw color -- has merit, but like you mentioned, certain vitamins and supplements may darken urine.
And then there are the formulas -- drink so much per kg of body weight, etc -- but the guidelines vary.
One thing you might consider are urine PH strips. They should let you know if you're dehydrated or not at any given time.
Personally, when I feel dehydrated, I go for a sports drink like Gatorade, which has plenty of electrolytes. Probably healthier alternatives, but it seems to work.
One of the problems with dehydration is that if you wait till you are thirsty it is usually too late. I had a problem about a month ago at 10 30 in the morning (after tea at breakfast and as I was having a mid morning cuppa) when my BP dropped like a stone and I went over all unecessary as my aunt used to say. A couple of pints of water later and everything returned to normal. We forget sometimes that a person is actually more likely to be de-hydrated in the morning having had a long night of not drinking anything.
One has to be pro-active about making sure one drinks enough water.
I some times get ectopic beats other times I am free of ectopic beats. I keep hydrated. I have noticed I get ectopic beats sometimes when I exercise too quickly at the beginning for example swimming I need to start gradually, the same applies to slowing down. I think this is because Diltiazem restricts the rate so likes a slow start and finish. A UTI cause me to have ectopics too as does a stressful situation sometimes.
Water intake is most important always, but definitely as we age!! When I first experienced AF I learnt quickly a trigger was low fluid intake particularly at night. ( when I avoided drinking because of running to the loo) that was when I had AF.
I now drink much more in the evenings and always drink half a pint before getting up in the morning. For me currently that seems to keep the Af at bay!!
Oh, and if you feel thirsty you are already well dehydrated!!
If you pinch the skin on your finger over the first knuckle. The one nearest to your palm. Release it and see how quickly or slowly your skin takes to relax and get back to normal. It's a good indication if you are dehydrated. Each of us are different and I can't say it should take x seconds. Just do it regularly and you will learn what is normal and what is not normal for you.
I, too, have days like yours, with lots of palpitations. I wish I didn't and they do wax and wain for reasons I can't work out. I have been told the cause might be something I have on top of my occasional AF, called "wide QRS" and "left bundle branch block".
Having noticed dark coloured urine a while back in my first pee of the day, I found out that it was not so very unusual first thing, but, if it occurred later in the day, that it might be a sign I needed to drink more. I read that it would otherwise be of no consequence since, all else being equal, my body would then take a few extra sips from its massive water stores in my (not overly-large...) gut's "splanchnic bed", and all would be well. The cause remains a mystery, but I now ignore my pee first thing in the morning as it is sometimes a little darker then. I put it down to the time of day or the foods I have eaten, having a love of beetroot and rhubarb.
Before I discovered that all was well, however, I found myself regaled by a surprising number of people about the need for "hydration". Even my nurse daughter-in-law informed me that coffee was a potent diuretic, proven, no less, by a trial in her hospital's geriatric ward. But it is not true. Coffee is a very mild diuretic, and, indeed, in a recent study, the urine output of coffee drinkers only matched that of their water-drinking controls. What is true, it seems, is that coffee, even when decaffeinated, contains a mild acid that can find its way through the kidneys to cause mild bladder irritation and urinary frequency in a few sensitive people.
To answer the original question, I often find myself dehydrated, suffering ectopics and passing dark urine after a few hours work, even if I've been drinking what I considered to be adequate amounts of water. I seldom feel thirsty so it can easily happen without me realising.
As recently discussed in another thread, I think sufferers of arrythmia need to drink rather more than the average person. I think the current guidelines for everyone are excessive at 2 litres per day, but feel that this is the kind of quantity we AFibbers and arrythmia sufferers should indeed be aiming at.
I know we are told that coffee, tea and cordials all count to your total intake, along with the water in food, but I know for certain that in my case I must disregard this and drink that quantity of plain water over and above my coffee. (Caffeine can be a trigger for me, but only if I have too much). As for energy drinks, they are loaded with artificial sweeteners and are therefore (again, in my case) to be avoided.
Absolutely common - so many people are suffering dehydration without realising. It’s imperative that one drinks at least a litre of water a day, not coffee or tea. I prefer sparkling water for the minerals but that’s a personal choice. Fill a 1.5L bottle in the morning as a visual reminder to get through it by the end of the day. You’ll find that your thirst returns the more you drink. I’m glad to hear that you’re ectopics stopped.
It's not just how much water we drink that is important. The quality of the water is what's important.
The best water we can take in is the water that is in fruits and vegetables. Just eat the fruit, or take it as a smoothie with a pinch of sea salt added to help with electrolyte replacement.
You can also add chia seeds as they will absorb water and you will get a slow release which means that you can "front load" on a morning without the discomfort and inconvenience of regular trips to the toilet. You can do the same at night to reduce night-time trips to the toilet too.
This is because the water our cells need isn't the H2O that we get from the tap or from bottles, or water that has had all the good stuff removed by filtering just about everything out. The water that's in fruits has been changed in structure by Mother Nature into something that is more like a gel than plain water. It is H3O2 and this is the water our cells need.
Our bodies - including our hearts- are electrical systems and the electricity gets round because water is a good conductor. Not enough of the right type of water means poor connectivity and that's like having a light bulb with a loose connection - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't - and it can be difficult to find where the fault is. Ask any car mechanic and they will tell you that intermittent faults are the hardest to diagnose and repair.
I can strongly recommend a book that will completely change the way you look at water.
Quench by Dana Cohen, MD and Gina Bria.
They have both worked with the pioneering Prof Gerald Pollack who's Ted Talks and books about "The Fourth Phase of Water" are brilliant.
The thing I find interesting about energy drinks is that one sees discarded cans and bottles of the stuff everywhere - pavements, hedgerows, grassed areas, etc etc.
Clearly it doesn't give those using the stuff enough energy to carry it to the next bin.
It is not my heart but my blood pressure, several times in the past six years it has dropped really low and I faint. I have ended up in hospital 4 times. They tell me it is a vesa vega attack, I am scared to go out if it is very hot. Last July was my lst funny turn, funny enough I was on the way back from a check up. The doctor said my blood pressure was ok. Half way home I felt faint my husband had gone to get me water, I sat on a wall, somebody asked if I was ok. A lady gave me some orange juice, I felt better. I had fainted sat on the wall.
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
Crispy Fried Duck........no pancakes
Question about paroxysmal AF- does your heart feel very settled for a few days after an episode of AF has terminated?
PVC’s (ectopics) or AF? 
Well, this is weird!
