Hi everyone- I’ve often seen posts reminding us all of the importance of hydration for us folks with AF in particular. I must admit I think in the past I have been guilty of not drinking enough - water especially. However following fainting after my ablation which I was told was probably due to dehydration, I have been a lot more aware of the need to up my fluid content. I have also read that quite a few of you drink an electrolyte drink to help stay hydrated so have been trying to do this once a day myself. I’ve tried a squeeze of lemon or lime mixed with 1/4 teasp of Himalayan salt & tried a few sachets from companies like Healf & Ancient & Brave which don’t have sugar added but are mightily expensive. Should I be doing this daily? Is there any harm in doing this? Does anyone have any cheap ways of making electrolyte drinks? All ideas welcome.
Can we talk about electrolytes? - Atrial Fibrillati...
Can we talk about electrolytes?
My own feeling is that the important element of rehydration is water, particularly for AF sufferers. The need to replenish lost electrolytes follows severe dehydration, perhaps caused by a bout of diarrhoea. I don't feel there is a need to top them up routinely as they should be found in any normal diet anyway.
I know this doesn't apply to you, but we've seen a few posters on the forum in the past asking about energy drinks for electrolyte replenishment. These products are like poison to many AFibbers as they are packed with the dreaded artificial sweeteners we should avoid at all costs.
Thank you - I think I might stick to water most days with only the occasional electrolyte top up for now.
The usual homemade rehydration recipe circulated in Africa, especially when cholera is prevalent, is sugar and salt mixed into clean pre-boiled water ..I litre of water into which is mixed 3 g of table salt and 25g of sugar.
The recommendation for homemade electrolyte would include a small amount of sugar.
When I was ill with COVID I couldn’t tolerate anything in my stomach for weeks and I was in almost constant AF - probably because I couldn’t keep anything down and was dehydrated and electrolytes out of kilter. I then got my husband to go buy a watermelon and asked him to liquidise it with a little apple juice and coconut water - I sipped that during the day and my system tolerated it and reduced and then stopped AF. Worked when none of the prescribed solutions did as I couldn’t hold on to them.
Watermelon is low calorie, rich in antioxidants and trace minerals including all the electrolytes and best of all is relatively inexpensive. I buy a small one every week and that provides enough liquid (which I also freeze) for a daily drink. Delicious in hot weather with a sprig of mint.
Look it up - I was originally recommended to do this by nutritionist and it’s well tolerated because of neutral Ph. Yes watermelon has natural sugars but it’s added sugars you need to avoid.
I remember buying large watermelons off the back of a locally parked open truck in the Sydney suburbs when I was a young'un ... for an old penny (or perhaps less🤔) per pound weight. Such delicious melons too.🍉 Good times.
Can I ask if you include the pips in your 🍉liquidising recipe? And have you ever tried milk for electrolytes?
Addendum: remember an "old penny" was 240 to the pound in those pre decimalisation days, and it was a lower valued Aussie pound as well. Go figure!
Hi
Totally agree I also read about watermelon. I've lost one and I must find it before it goes bad!
Your adding apple juice is bad because if you read IT IS THE MOST PROCESSED FRUIT JUICE ON THE MARKET.
From the Thai cafe I bought a WATER MELON & GREEN TEA FRUIT JUICE. It came with green balls at the bottom. The straw was so thick that I could suck them up. I'll have to go back and look at board as there was something else. It was 'tide out' so I said. They questioned, they said that I didn't want any ice.
I said well fill it up with green tea or water.
Oh dear.
cherio JOY. 75. (NZ)
Apple juice - not if you press your own apples.
Hi
OK - in the food prcessor. Skimless?
My favourite apple is JAZZ.
Sweet, hard, crisp and fruity.
cherio JOY
No, with an old fashioned apple press. There are quite a few places in rural England you take your apples to have them pressed. You can also buy bespoke pressed apple juice in many shops. You can and I have used a juicer but it’s tedious and difficult to clean. Liquidiser, even a professional grade one which I have, doesn’t really produce apple juice, just liquidised apple.
Hi
What about a meat mincer! Getting them to that stage u are just about there.
I'm in NZ and never heart of anyone who might press.
But I generally eat an apple a day. jAZZ best. Harvesting is at an end but the apples stay fresh over winter. It is usually Spring and Summer before they are harvested again that I see brown.
Some would be bruising.
cheri jOY
This actually sounds delicious & refreshing too. Thank you!
The white part is essential too! I know it isn’t sweet but very good for you when liquified with the red part. Chinese TCM recommends it as well and helps to down regulate overheating during hot weather!
Having read about this previously, I recently bought a watermelon on impulse from my village farmers market. Then quickly realised it was far too heavy for me to safely carry home! I had to stop in the street and call my partner to walk down to meet me and carry it. I felt such a wally, but at least for once I had the sense not to try and ‘power through’, as it would’ve been a sure way to set off my AF😅
Whatever you read about supplementation, and there is an utter mass of misinformation online about this, the body preserves both it electrolyte and water balance perfectly well in health through a process called homeostasis. It has to, or we would have died out as a species. There is such a vast reservoir of fluid available for the body to use if need be in the abdominal cavity, called the "splanchnic bed". Dehydration can occur only unusually or in disease states. Feeling thirsty is what we usually mean by "dehydrated". How odd is that?
Imbalances in electrolytes can also occur, but only in disease states, some of which aren't discoverable easily. Usually the illness causes the electrolyte not to be absorbed properly. Long term PPI drugs given for stomach acid can, rarely, seriously block magnesium uptake, for example. Stopping the PPI is the only solution in this case, no matter now much supplementation is given.
Taking extra or excess electrolytes can stress the kidneys, which, through the homeostatic processes are the organs that remove excess rapidly from the circulation. Unfortunately, some electrolyte supplements, such as potassium, can temporarily by-pass the kidneys and enter the general blood stream and affect the heart muscle adversely causing dangerous arrhythmias. If you take diuretic drugs, for example, this can also cause this as a side effect.
Your case of "dehydration", if it was that and it was only a medical guess, had a proper medical cause related to your ablation drugs and procedure. That will likely have been a one off.
If you feel you are unhealthy and that this might be owing to electrolyte issues, then I would not diagnose yourself or take non-professional advice, myself. I would ask your GP to carry out a blood test to check on electrolyte and vitamin levels (e.g. vitamin D and B12 can be low, occasionally, for example). Use your GP and the blood test as your guide.
Having come from a background in marketing, I sense that the word "electrolyte" has, like many other medical terms (including "dehydration) entered everyday vocabulary at the behest of PR companies and their paymasters. It is a pretty useless word to us, really, and does not add helpfully to our knowledge, but has weakened what it medically means, and has also allowed scurrilous snake-oil sellers to capitalise on our natural health fears.
Steve
Sound advice - thank you!
I am now taking 400 mg of magnesium gylcynate daily and also drink one pressed coconut water which has electrolytes before bed. This seems to have greatly decreased my a fib episodes! And I am happy!
Hi
I'm not sure that I would do it everyday.
But we do wake up dehydrated. Long hous asleep without hydratiom.
I'd have 1/2 cup-1 cup of cocoa (organic) with milk before you go to bed.
I make mine with our A2 milk. Not fatty although homongenised. Just superior. Organic too.
Remember that latest research is you drink more than water but milk, UHT or at home out of the fridge it has so much more replenishing vits and mineral in it.
You can make up your own electrolyte
water
squeeze lemon, lime
pinch salt
1 tspn glucose
you are done. 2 days out of fridge or made up and in fridge for a healthy happy life!
cherio jOY
Good to have some cheaper ideas should I feel the need to have an electrolyte drink. Thank you.
Bit of sugar and bit of salt us the cheapest. I use high 5 zero capsules but only in one of my daily drinks. I think I've had afib triggered by dehydration a couple of times so I am careful about being hydrated plus I'm sporty so need to!
Staying well hydrated is key.When you get abit dehydrated,you heart rate goes up.
I have coconut water which is supposed to be “rich in electrolytes” as well as plenty of water and herbal and green teas.
I have a bit of an electrolyte issue. Electrolyte replacements drinks and tablets (that you throw into your water bottle) used to be my go-to before AFib. It wasn’t an option for me, as I played competitive sports…footie, squash, cycling, and I would sweat out tons of salt during the natural process of the body trying to maintain body temp. In the old days, salt tablets were a thing. With out replacing those electrolytes quickly during and after, your body will protest greatly…massive headaches, dizziness, fainting and rapid 160+HR.
Trust me, this I know from personal experience. During one hot August day we were playing in a charity tournament. Kick off was scheduled for the cool of the early morning, but because of conflicting field schedules,it was delayed until 1:00PM..not ideal. The ref called many welcome water breaks, and I thought I had hydrated enough, but alas, it was too much water and not enough electrolytes. I got half way home when I almost passed out, feeling nauseous, HR spiking. I pulled into a commissionaires shack, collapsed, adn he called an ambulance. Thye showed up, my daughter explained the circumstances, they gave me a mug of warm water with a half a shaker of salt disovled. I went to laying on the floor thinking I was dying, to alert and ready to go in 20 minutes. That is how important electrolytes are. Lesson learned. From there on, I ensured I drank sugar-free PowerAid before and at half time, and plenty of water.
Flash forward to my afib realty 20 years later. I cannot drink any electrolyte replacement drinks, and have to be careful with salt intake as it will trigger an episode faster than you can say COYS!
Coincidentally, had to go to emergency room yesterday because of dizziness, blurry vision, low BP, and exhaustion. I thought I may have had something really serious happening to me.
DRs there did testing and blood work, no heart problem, no evidence of a stroke.
Dr. asked me what I had been doing the last couple of days. I live in a hot, humid environment and had been doing a lot of physical yard work and had been sweating a great deal but drinking plenty of water.
She told me that I had to be careful taking beta-blockers (I'm taking Sotalol 40mg twice daily) and physical labor. She said I had dehydrated myself and water alone will not hydrate me. She advised me to drink no sugar added electrolyte replacement drinks when performing physical laborious work/tasks and some water also.
Within an hour after an IV I was feeling fine again.
So I will be drinking both water and electrolyte replacement drinks from now on see how it goes when I busy outside.
electrolytes and potassium-reducing BP medication was an issue for me. Never considered dehydration as possible cause. Anyone ever heard of “Indepamide” causing lower potassium and sodium level in the body? Both mine dropped severely. Was it Indepamide or something else? Stopping indapamide would increase BP and being on it means I have to add salt to my food which I had always been told to cut down on because it increased BP. So to counteract everything I’m adding salt to my food. This has indeed elevated my sodium and potassium levels slightly but will no doubt have an impact on raising my BP. Would be interested to hear similar experiences.
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