This is going to be very tough but I finally figured out that gluten is a major cause to messing up your vagus nerve and causing heart palpatations.
I have been in denial because how can we live without bread & pasta?
I guess this is where gluten free comes into it but it's not that easy to find and it's expensive but worth it.
I had no choice but to have a Margherita pizza the other day which was not a gluten free base and I felt it the next day, but now I know.
Some of the natural ways to counter a gluten attack is to take Digestive enzymes, I also heard drinking lots of water and even turmeric capsules to reduce the inflammation.
Gluten causes inflammation which is the major reason people are intolerant and I personally blame GMOs & Glyphosate that is found in our bread. Nobody was intolerant to gluten 100 years ago.
People were certainly intolerant to gluten before the 2nd ww.My mother had it and I have had it for 15 years.Still got palps.I have diagnosed Coeliac disease and dermatitis hepertiformis........same family as coeliac but much rarer.I have palps and afib. What I would say is I feel healthy without the gluten.But not an easy diet to follow.
I've been on and off gluten myself, and fortunately, at least in the US , we have many gluten-free bread and pasta choices. Some so good you can hardly tell the difference.
That said, I still haven't had a great gluten-free pizza, but I'm sure someone will make one somewhere, someday 😄
Btw if you eat oatmeal, just make sure that it's stamped gluten-free, because oats are often processed in the same plants as wheat and the wheat gluten transfers.
Monash University in Australia has done a lot of research on gluten-free and low FODMAP foods and have an excellent smart phone app which lists worldwide suppliers of gluten-free and low FoDMAP foods.
Back in the time of the ancient ones, I identified food as the trigger for an AF event. When I consulted a Nutritionist the first thing she did was make me go Gluten free, wheat free and oats free !! And that directive included not touching food with even remote traces of those three in it. I have also followed, and picked bits out of the FODMAPS Diet.
You should be safe with oats now if they were processed in a dedicated plant away from wheat and so certified. Back in the day, just about all oats were contaminated with gluten from co-processing with wheat, therefore probably why your nutritionist told you to stay away from it. In the US, Quaker sells gluten free oats in addition to their regular oatmeal. A few other brands have started doing that as well.
That's not the whole picture, Jim. The gluten in oats is very similar to the gluten in wheat, rye and barley (which are the products excluded to be considered gluten free). When I was first diagnosed coeliac going on 25 years ago oats were considered a 'no no' along with the other three. At some point it was decided that 'most coeliacs can tolerate oats' as long as, as you say, they were processed in a gluten free facility. I was absolutely delighted and immediately started eating GF oats. Unfortunately I found that eating oats regularly does trigger my disease, and I can only tolerate them occasionally. It's annoying because now it seems like the majority of gluten free products are made from oats or include them.
Also, an interesting side note - many GF products such as breads and pasta are also made of rice flour (it's cheap) and there's growing concern that coeliacs are being over exposed to arsenic which is present in rice. The amounts are tolerable when eating rice as rice, but the more concentrated version which is rice flour carries more arsenic and many coeliacs are consuming products made with rice flour on a daily basis for years.
Pommerania78 asked a similar question .... my answer is .... "Well, as I think I said earlier ... my symptoms which I related to triggering AF were ... Burping, intestinal gurgling, diahorrea and massive and painful bloating. The last would beyond doubt trip me into AF.. Clearly, over a few years these 4 disappeared but I cannot put that down to gluten on its own. There was also the influence of stopping oats and wheat ......... and a wide range of other foods. Which finally led me to now not having AF now for 4 years."
Well, as I think I said earlier ... my symptoms which I related to triggering AF were ... Burping, intestinal gurgling, diahorrea and massive and painful bloating. The last would beyond doubt trip me into AF.. Clearly, over a few years these 4 disappeared but I cannot put that down to gluten on its own. There was also the influence of stopping oats and wheat ......... and a wide range of other foods. Which finally led me to now not having AF now for 4 years.
Yes, agreed heal the gut by avoiding gluten for several years. I have found subsequently that limited gluten is then tolerated again but still eliminate 75%+.
Don't buy most supermarket gluten free bread etc as maybe worse as many with bad ingredients. Buy mail order instead, quality bread is expensive but eat less to adjust to your budget, better for you anyway. I have bought from various places, currently in the UK 'the bakery by knife & fork' and Hobbs House bakery.
Hi Tony, are you in the UK? If so, be reassured it’s quite easy these days to find gluten free breads and pasta in the Free From aisle in most supermarkets, and many of them are not bad at all. Not like 20 years ago, when my family first went gluten free, after my young daughter developed a sudden allergy. Eating out is more tricky, and I find I have to research where we’re going in advance to find somewhere that genuinely understands gluten free.
I think coeliac disease has probably always been there in the population, only it wouldn’t have mattered in a prehistoric hunter gatherer societies, before humans first started cultivating and eating grasses (about 4,000BC in the UK).
Great that you've discovered a major trigger for you, even though it's tough without such staple foods at first. It does get easier after a while managing a gf diet, as you discover alternatives.
I've been aware of being gluten intolerant for getting on for 40 years, and I suspect my grandma, born in the late19th century, was likely gluten intolerant too - she had symptoms similar to mine and some other members of the family. Who knows how many people's intolerance went unrecognised? And the connection between coeliac disease and wheat, let alone other forms of intolerance, was only found in the 1940s to early 50s, and there's archaeological evidence of the coeliac gene from 2000 years ago. ("History of Celiac Disease" on the Beyond Celiac website)
Interestingly we're not being fed GM bread here yet, as although the first GM wheat was approved in Argentina in 2020, and is being mixed with other flour there, and not labelled, it's not approved for export yet. (Google for "Organisations around the world warn of GM wheat risks and low yields" on the GMWatch website). Wheat has certainly been highly selectively bred to change its characteristics, and spraying with glyphosate as you mention just before being harvested does mean that unfortunately most wheat products will contain it, unless organic.
As well as the changes in wheat production, there are changes in some of us! My intolerance showed up after a year in which I had 4 courses of antibiotics, which probably wrecked my gut microbiome
I’m still in the process of trying to identify triggers and am currently cutting down on carbs, mostly the starchy type and those include my beloved sweet potatoes! So far so good although as soon as I think I’ve spotted a trend my charming afib kicks in and that’s the end of another experiment!!
I gather that relatively few of us are truly intolerant, and far fewer have a proper allergy, despite the shelves of bloated-priced "free from" goods in the supermarkets.
Bad luck to you, for your diet will now be much more expensive and far more hard going.
What brought you to know your vagus nerve is also somehow responsible? My cardiologist shook his head at me when I suggested such a thing, explaining its unlikeliness and that, if it were involved, I'd be experiencing swings of brady- and tachycardia and, as it innervated so many organs, much else.
Just a comment about your mention of Turmeric Capsules. A few years ago I was taking them as I read they could possibly help with arthritis. When I was diagnosed with AF and put on Apixaban I was asked if I took any supplements and told to stop taking them as they could thin the blood and interfere with anti coagulants. Previous to that, before my AF diagnosis I was told to stop taking turmeric before my knee replacement as turmeric thinned the blood. Just thought you might want to check it out if you are on any blood thinners or the like.
I have just done another food intolerance IGg test so I know that gluten/wheat does not agree with me. Ditto dairy. These tests have come down in price enormously and are far more common than in the past.
Gluten/wheat is a definite trigger for my heart. I have been GF since 2016. It is getting easier to be gluten free. Most US restaurants recognize and have gf options.
Someone mentioned gf pizzas. Against the grain is my favorite. Don’t love any gf bread but if toasted they are tolerable. What I wouldn’t do for a slice of Wonder bread, 😂 GF pastas are getting better too.
I am glad I stopped gluten and will never go back.
My naturopath thinks it is the glyphosate also, but that is on everything now and everything is not a problem for me, so not so sure about that with wheat.
I was diagnosed with coeliac disease 20 years ago, it is genetic condition, a diagnostic test is needed to confirm it. treatment is a gluten free diet. If you eat products with gluten the symptoms can include :- Abdominal pain, Bloating and gas, Cognitive impairment. Constipation. Diarrheoa. Depression and anxiety. Fatigue. Headaches or migraine, re the inability to absorb nutrients/vitamins due to damage of the villi in the small intestine,
I live in the UK and when l was first diagnosed, gluten free foods were limited, terrible and only available through prescription. (NHS). Generally no longer prescribed* due to availability in shops etc. (*this can depend on where you live)
I have seen a massive improvement in the quality and range of gluten free foods available over the years including great pizza - Pizza Express is a good one and they are sold in some supermarkets. The best bread is Waitrose seeded or M & Spencer’s Oaty Bread, unless you make your own from the all the différant g.f. flours you now can buy. One tip is g.f. bread is more palatable if toasted.
What interests me is the fact that there are so many things that can trigger AF, l have been gluten free for twenty years and l do adhere to the diet. However, l had my first AF episode four years ago, so at least l can rule out gluten.
I don’t eat pasta, bread, rice,quinoa, cereal, potatoes or any known -to-me carbs and , touch wood, no paf or palpitations since kicking the habit in October, good steady weight loss too. It’s easy once you’ve kicked the habit and really treat yourself to visually amazing food that tastes wonderful and is doing you good. Good luck and take care 🦊x
It was to lose weight and the lack of palpitations was a welcomed extra with the new diet, we are all different and react differently to gluten/meds/illness etc. it’s a life change I glad I personally discovered and just shared my experience and hope others benefit too. Take care 🦊x
Hi there, I'm sorry I have to disagree. Many people have been eating gluten products all their lives before experiencing any problems. So what changed? I don't think it's as straightforward as cutting out this or cutting out that. We need to find the real scientific reason why people suddenly develop arrhythmia.
Mike, I think a lot of things contribute to arrhythmia, its what's in the food, the ingredients, the TBHQs, the MSG's, the Glyphosate, the GMO's... things that were not there a few decades ago. Also modern living, stress, pharmaceuticals (Here's the controversial part, ready? The jabs) maybe the Wifi radiation, pollution.... They say hereditary too.
So actually it's really difficult to pin one thing down but I think it's a mixture of all the above.
Eliminating stomach gas and bloating essentially eliminated my Afib.
Gluten was one off the major culprits in producing the gas. Even now, I can eat the wrong thing and develop arrhythmia (Afib) that lasts for 12-18 hours.
I believe that gluten allergies could possibly cause arrhythmias as could ANY allergy. However, if someone has been eating gluten foods all their lives without any problems then one day they have an AF episode then it can't be the gluten can it? Something inside that persons body has changed. What?
I have written extensively on this forum about my experience with celiac disease and Afib.
For me, the syndrome was a day or two build up of trapped stomach gas with bloating which led to an irritation of my vagus system and triggered fib.
I mostly eliminated my Afib for over a year by avoiding gluten and gas producing veggies and fruit, avoiding alcohol, exercising and losing 30 pounds. Since regaining 10 lbs, I have had some recurrence. I also take several gas relief, over-the-counter products daily.
You may have to avoid more than just gluten, experience will tell. Look up the fodmap diet for some guidance.
If you are in the U.S., I know some okay-to-very-good, gluten-free products available at grocers.
I do not work for any of the companies that produce them.
For 2 years cardiologists ignored me, and EP's scoffed when I insisted that my Afib was brought on by gas buildup and bloating which moved up into the sternum area and affected the vagus nervous system. I finally sought out a GI who had no interest in a possible connection, either, but I was tested and found to have Celiac (American spelling) disease.
I already had cut out gas-producing veggies and fruits like broccoli, cucumbers and peaches and stopped all alcohol consumption. I also cut out fizzy drinks and high-sugar fruit juices. With the celiac diagnosis came the adventure of avoiding gluten! No more bread and buns and only gluten-free cookies and other baked treats. No battered fish or chicken unless made with special, gluten-free batter. It took a while to learn what foods, preparations, additives, etc to watch for. Some restaurants' gluten-free items were okay and others were not diligent enough in protecting the preparation. There was a lot of "learning the hard way" and still can be. I studied the Fodmap recommendations to see what foods were difficult to digest (brown rice for example).
I also ate smaller meals and avoided eating after about 7:30 p.m., just to reduce the work load on my impaired digestive system. Over 3-4 months I lost 35 lbs. I was able to sharply reduce my BP meds and eliminate some. I started exercising fairly vigorously every evening. I try to drink plenty of water and some low-caffeine tea every day. Taking vigorous breaths at times when I feel unease in my chest, because I tend to forget to breathe often enough, seems to help calm my heart. Lastly I take several antacid-type, over-the-counter products (Pepcid, Gas-X, and Pepto Bismol) as needed.
The goal is simply to eliminate the gas that triggers my Afib. One of the most helpful changes was avoiding constipation.
I have found gluten-free products in stores and learned what foods are naturally gluten free. The internet is helpful for that.
I was able to go from Afib episodes every two weeks to no Afib (except during one short bout with Covid) for 14 months. I have gained back 10 lbs and had several Afib recurrences over the past three months, however. I need to be more careful about keeping meals small.
I know this is a rambling narrative, rather than a clear, concise prescription for dealing with celiac and Afib, but it is a comprehensive overview of what I changed. I do not know which factors are most key to preventing/reducing my Afib, but it centers around gas elimination.
Thank you for your comments. If you think of anything else, please tell me. I will study your comments.
I don’t think it’s quite as straightforward as that. My recollection is that coeliac disease is a potentially serious condition, while non coeliac gluten sensitivity (NCGS), though sharing many of the same symptoms, doesn’t involve damage to the intestinal lining.
I believe there is an association between atrial fibrillation and coeliac disease, but not NCGS.
Hi Tony,I was diagnosed with coeliac disease over 25 years ago following a hospital gut biopsy which discovered the flattened villi. I was losing weight, anaemic, bloated, and had cognitive problems. I had also tried cutting out various foods on the advice of an alternative medical practitioner which had caused me to lose a lot if weight. But my main point is that i did not have any heart problems at all.
The gf diet is hard to keep to and can cause huge difficulties when on holidays abroad, when eating out and shopping for food.
In 2019 i was ill with pneumonia which triggered my af and not my diet. Obviously what you are doing won't harm you, but may make your life a lot harder unnecessarily. Stay well and be happy.
Ummm, coeliac disease certainly has been around longer than that. For example:
"Much later, in 1888, Samuel Gee,16 a physician working at the Children's Hospital on Great Ormond Street in London, provided the first modern clinical description of celiac disease in children, noting that the disorder might occur at any age, and suggested that attention to diet might ultimately lead to a cure."
Speaking as someone who has coeliac disease (diagnosed 25 years ago, undiagnosed but very symptomatic for 20 years prior to that) I'm watching this current anti gluten movement with interest. It might be helpful for you to discover whether it is wheat you have a problem with, rather than gluten, as the gluten in barley and rye is identical to the gluten in wheat and also have to be 100% avoided for coeliacs as well as wheat. If you have no problem with those products then it's likely that you're wheat intolerant, not gluten. Similarly oats (see my comment below to Jim).
I would put forward another possiblity with regards the vagus nerve and reactions. A big hit of processed carbs, such as bread or pasta, can have a similar effect on our system as a big hit of sugar. It metabolises very rapidly and can cause a rapid effect such as raised heart beat, body temp etc. The body doesn't like it. I am 100% gluten free and have been for 25 years but I personally can experience this sudden internal 'whoosh' of the carb/sugar effect and it can and has several times triggered my AFib.
Just a thought.
I wish you well on your GF journey, but please be aware that GF bread, for example, can be a lot less generally healthy than a good wholewheat, stoneground ideally, loaf of bread, which I really miss! GF stuff, generally, is going to be far more 'processed' and also generally contains a lot more sugar, in an attempt to create the texture than gluten helps create.
An interesting thread with some insightful comments. Just a thought but I wonder if the bloating and increased incidence of afib reported by many is associated with the ingestion of white starch rather than gluten. There is a lot of white starch in processed and ultra processed foods,this includes white bread, white rice and pasta. I am not coeliac but I do experience indigestion, heart burn and increased frequency of afib with these foods.For those who are coeliac, you can make bread, cakes and biscuits with lentils, buckwheat, maize flour, gram flour etc. You can add various other grains, fruit, nuts and seeds to enrich the end product.
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Are Ablations the Answer?
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