Food and heart symptoms

[nimzabo]

Hi from Portugal.

 

The other day I was going to open a topic but i started writing and couldn't stop.

Also it's a bit difficult for me to express myself in english as well as i do in portuguese, specially the more tecnichal stuff.

Today is the day.

 

I don't feel all this very often, this is just a list of things I felt over the years:

arrhythmia (in my case usually just a skipped bit); a sense of nausea in the face of heat (hot weather); anxiety or very mild nervoussness that i can locate to the chest (for instance sometimes while driving fast or playing video games); one time after eating clam chowder (and wine and toasts with butter) I could barely walk; I like to to do a little running and for many years now I intercalate periods when I'm able to run with periods where once i had some bad feeling in the chest and i stop running to prevent any problem - the last time was almost a month ago and for the first time I started experiencing a pain in the chest (in the center where the heart is).

Through the years with my doctor i have made all kinds of heart exams and never found a single problem. To me one of the reasons is that I can never schedule the exams fast enough. When I finally am able to do them I feel fine again (and that's what happened this last time). Also, there were ocasions when I refused to do a monitorization of the heart while walking with effort because I was convinced by the way I was feeling I wouldn't complete the test and I could have a serious problem.

 

I also have some kind of brain fog: difficulty to concetrate while reading, I have bad memory (but I also read a thousand books and watched a thousand films so It's not easy to keep track of everyrhing) and sometimes a sense of inflammation in the brain - I feel pressure in the head.

I never did any kind of food allergy test. Through the years I've paying atention to what I eat and the reactions to it and so I try to eat accordingly: I eat mostly organic at main meals, I try not to eat dairy*, much meat, human raised sea food, peanuts**, processed foods, etc.

On the bad side I go a lot to coffee shops and quite often I drink coffee with a cake.

Some foods i can link to the heart symptoms while others with my brain fog. In the case of gluten If i stop eating it for a while my lungs feel a bit better while running.

* dairy affects my brain but strangelly i can eat goat cottage cheese, at least of one brand, that has lactose but I sense no problems with it. On the other hand I tried organic milk and milk without lactose and they still affect me.

**in Spain it was discovered recently that several brands of chocolate used peanut as ingredient but that was not declared in the ingredients list. Chocolate is one thing that if I eat much I start feeling not to well of the heart.

 

I also experience eletro magnetic sensitivity but mild and as I do with food I learned to live with it - I almost never carry my cell phone, I have the wireless at home set to weak signal for instance, etc.. (but this post is about food, please I do not intend to discuss this)

For twice I experienced some acute sensitivity to insecticides: the first time beacuse of a mosquito net in Mozambique in the morning I felt like I had a nail in the heart and some years later after spending a few days in a vacations family house and feeling sick (hard to breathe) my parents told me they had sprayed the house with insecticide a few months before I was there, maybe).

 

There are other things I could mention but I think I said the main. I hope you can give me some kind of help.

To put it simple my first question is in what ways can food give origin to symptoms related to the heart (not related with cholesterol).

The second question is what to do.

[Scott Adams]

Welcome to the forum @nimzabo!

I think the first thing to eliminate would be any chance of you having a real heart issue. I know it's scary, but I think it would be wise for you to go through with the monitoring test you declined. It is possible that your issues could be caused by something like undiagnosed celiac disease, but it's always best to get any possible heart issues thoroughly checked out by an expert. 

Since you still eat gluten, it might make sense for you to get a blood screening for celiac disease. A home test kit is a available for ~$100 from https://www.imaware.health/ in case your doctor doesn't want to do this. Just be sure that you're eating around 2 slices worth of wheat bread daily for 6-8 weeks leading up to the test. 

I was unclear if you've linked any of your symptoms to your diet, but if you can't or don't want to get screened for celiac disease, then you could simply try a gluten-free diet for 2-3 months and see if you notice improvement.

[nimzabo]

Thanks for the reply.

Maybe I didn't explain myself well.

I've done all kind of heart tests including the ones I refused at some point (effort tests).

According to the results over many years I absolutely have no heart problems.

 

I know this is a celiac disease forum but I really don't have and digestive issues to report. Although I might have some sensitivity to gluten I suppose that's not the main problem.

My main problems are the ones I described.

 

One other thing I haven't referred is that I recently made a masters course and my thesis was about the agrochemical giants.

I researched for over three years all kinds of questions relating to gmo's, pesticides, glyphosate above all, and so I question myself if there is some kind of relation about these kind of issues and glyphosate for instance. I know, for instance, studies that show that mice exposed to ultra low doses of glyphosate developed liver and kidney problems. Liver and kidney that are the organs that eliminate toxic substances in the body. https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-015-0056-1 . It's not usual to find studies (from different parts of the world) that show that most people have some kind of glyphosate levels in the body.

Refering to EM sensitivity there is also the idea that a part of the people sensitive to EM fields has also some kind of responsiveness to chemicals. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7139347/ . This leads to hormone disrupters (some are pesticides and some aren't).

All this makes me wonder if there is not some kind of connection between these questions and the problems people have with gluten and food allergies/sensitivity.

Chemicals exposion that might be at the origin of these and other kinds of problems (cronical fatigue syndrome, autism, NAFLD... )

Watch, for instance, the documentary 'Unrest': https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3268850/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

 

But again, my medical doctor has for years been searching for heart problems (at my request). But I'm increasingly inclined to think that the origin of what I call my heart problems lies with food.

What I'm here trying to find help to is to understand if and how is that even possible. I'm sure that in this forum there are people used to help and that know a lot about these issues and might have heard about other cases that resemble mine. What can I say to my doctor to make him realize that the issue is about food (if that is really the case - at this point I think it is). How can I disentangle all this? What exams must I do, because looking for problems in my heart isn't taking me anywhere.

 

 

 

 

[nimzabo]

Before I opened this topic I made a search here at the forum looking for messages with reference to 'heart': https://www.celiac.com/search/?q=heart&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=51 .

Some topics report heart issues but it is not clear the mechanism(s) behind.

Is it possible that a food allergy or some kind of reaction to food could result in a heart attack (while running for instance)?

 

 

[Estes]

I believe my heart issues were deficiencies.  Once I ate better, took supplements, resolved my pancreatic insufficiency issues, my heart issues went away.  Could you be missing or low on any vitamins?  Maybe start by checking D, B, and magnesium.

[Wheatwacked]

Reading through your list of symptoms, they all can be associated with Celiac Disease. Especially more so when the doctors can find nothing. Many have been diagnosed without digestive issues. Fifteen Symptoms that can Make Celiac Disease Hard to Diagnose - Celiac.com

18 hours ago, nimzabo said:

What can I say to my doctor to make him realize that the issue is about food (if that is really the case

Good luck with that. And your English is excellent.  celiac disease is a disease of malabsorption. Step 1 is stop the toxin, step 2 is replenishing the vitamins and minerals that are low. The essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals are best gotten through food.  When it is suggested to increase nutrition intake by taking a vitamin or mineral everyone says "I'll talk to my doctor." These are the same doctors who say there is nothing wrong with you. They cannot write prescriptions for vitamins and minerals and have virtually no education in the subject, yet we defer to them?

I avoid manufactured vitamins A, E and folic acid because they have been connected to cancer. The estimated probability of being diagnosed with prostate cancer over a 10-year period was 9.7%  in the folic acid group and 3.3%  in the placebo group...In conclusion, this clinical trial provides evidence that daily supplementation with 1 mg of folic acid was associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer. Folic Acid and Risk of Prostate Cancer: Results From a Randomized Clinical Trial. 

Vitamin E and the Risk of Prostate Cancer: Updated Results of The Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT)

 

 

[Estes]

Very interesting about Supplementation.  I was recently diagnosed with EPI which is celiac related.  The drug for that is Creon.  Creon comes with fat soluable supplements as a free add on.  I did not know about the cancer connection.  I will say Creon and the vitamins that come with it make me feel amazing.

[Scott Adams]

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease, rather than an allergy, and certainly a food or other allergy is capable of killing someone, and this is typically called anaphylaxis. I'm not sure about the exact process that leads to death in these cases, but suspect it has to do more with suffocation due to swelling in the throat, but a heart attack may also be possible. But, celiac disease would not cause this, however, there are heart issues related to celiac disease.

Here is the category for research summaries related to celiac disease and heart issues:

https://www.celiac.com/celiac-disease/celiac-disease-amp-related-diseases-and-disorders/heart-failure-and-celiac-disease/

Articles we've done on Roundup/Glyophosate and celiac disease are here:

https://www.celiac.com/search/?&q=roundup&type=cms_records2&quick=1&search_and_or=and&search_in=titles&sortby=relevancy

and this one as well:

 

[Wheatwacked]

Some of your symptoms might be Thiamine malabsorption and deficiency. Could definitely be related to your pancreas enzyme deficiency. Glad those vitamins help. What are they?

"Clinically, thiamin deficiency in humans leads to a variety of abnormalities including neurological and cardiovascular disorders (3, 42, 45). Systemic thiamin deficiency and suboptimal levels represent significant nutritional problems in both developed and developing countries" Pancreatic beta cells and islets take up thiamin

" Thiamine, a water-soluble B vitamin, is a cofactor necessary for carbohydrate metabolism and production of energy. Thiamine is also essential in neurotransmitter synthesis.1 As thiamine has limited tissue storage and a half-life of 10 to 20 days, deficiency may develop within a few weeks but has been described in as little as 3 to 14 days.... Severe thiamine deficiency can cause cognitive impairment (Wernicke's encephalopathy), peripheral neuropathy (“dry beriberi”), or heart failure (cardiac, or “wet beriberi”). Thiamine and Heart Failure

"most foods containing thiamine (as listed above) are restricted on the Paleo diet, and all of them are restricted on the Autoimmune Paleo diet!" The Missing Link to Thyroid Fatigue

 

[nimzabo]

Hi. First I want to thank all your answers.

I haven't yet gone through them exploring all the links but I intend to. All these issues are interesting to me.

 

I don't do it often but from time to time I've taken multivitamins and to be honest I don't feel much of a difference.

Also I think i eat vegetables and fruit in variety and in good amounts. My dinner is usual a soup, beans or chick peas as the main ingredient, and a variety of other vegetables.

And because I recognize some foods to have effect on my health I think the main problem doesn't lie with lack of nutrients, even though some kind of deficiency is always possible (and when it comes to nutrient deficiency glyphosate might have something to do with that too).

 

The other day I made another quick search around the web and found this: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343122614_Cardiovascular_changes_during_peanut-induced_allergic_reactions_in_human_subjects

I downloaded it and took a quick look but it doens't seemed very easy to understand.

 

When describing my brain fog i forgot to include fatigue as one of the problems. When my brain is not well it gets tired much faster. Over the years I learned not to insist in my reading or whatever I'm doing that wastes it. When the brain is tired it can be difficult to remeber something or even to think about whatever I am reading.

Because i associate my brain fog with inflammation there are two things i do about it. One is taking montelukast daily (a pill before bed). It is indicated for the lungs but I use it as away of countering general inflammation. It was prescripted to me by a doctor some years ago when I was having some problems breathing and I use it ever since. I believe it might help with my brain too. It's the only medication I take. There might exist better things to take for the effect (and I'm open to suggestions) but at least I've been doing it for years without any down size that I'm aware about.

The other thing I actively do to counter inflammation is I make some organic tea, usually a mix of herbs, and add some slices of turmeric and ginger (I put both).

[knitty kitty]

@nimzabo,

I'm familiar with thiamine deficiency because I suffered from it and have done much research on it.

Thiamine deficiency is linked to cardiac problems such as you describe.  It's called "Wet Beriberi".  I had heart monitoring and the doctors could not find anything wrong.

Another aspect of Thiamine deficiency is called "sailors' asthma".  I experienced this, too.  It can be triggered by a large intake of carbohydrates causing a drop in thiamine resulting in hypoxia and feels like you can't breathe.

I've located some articles I came across while researching for myself because my doctors were clueless about my deteriorating conditions.  High dose Thiamine has helped me immensely.

Dr. Derrick Lonsdale has done much research into thiamine deficiency and the cascade of health problems that result.

https://www.hormonesmatter.com/allergies-autonomic-response-thiamine/

And...

https://www.hormonesmatter.com/thiamine-heart-function/

And...

https://www.hormonesmatter.com/thiamine-repletion-calcium-management-heart/

And...

https://www.hormonesmatter.com/what-is-thiamine-to-energy-metabolism/

And...

https://www.hormonesmatter.com/hypoxic-heart-thiamine-calcium-regulation/

And...

Hiding in Plain Sight: Modern Thiamine Deficiency

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8533683/

And...

How does thiamine relate to EMF-hypersensitivity and brain cell dysfunction?

https://www.objectivenutrients.com/insights/thiamine-emf-sensitivity/

And...

https://m.facebook.com/eonutrition/posts/696113794457189

I hope this helps.  

High dose Thiamine is the key.  

[nimzabo]

On 5/27/2022 at 7:04 PM, Scott Adams said:

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease, rather than an allergy, and certainly a food or other allergy is capable of killing someone, and this is typically called anaphylaxis. I'm not sure about the exact process that leads to death in these cases, but suspect it has to do more with suffocation due to swelling in the throat, but a heart attack may also be possible. But, celiac disease would not cause this, however, there are heart issues related to celiac disease.

Here is the category for research summaries related to celiac disease and heart issues:

https://www.celiac.com/celiac-disease/celiac-disease-amp-related-diseases-and-disorders/heart-failure-and-celiac-disease/

Articles we've done on Roundup/Glyophosate and celiac disease are here:

https://www.celiac.com/search/?&q=roundup&type=cms_records2&quick=1&search_and_or=and&search_in=titles&sortby=relevancy

and this one as well:

 

I'm sharing this: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/09/weedkiller-glyphosate-cdc-study-urine-samples

[knitty kitty]

@nimzabo,

I thought you might be interested in these articles....

Seems your medicine might be causing side effects...

https://medlineplus.gov/druginfo/meds/a600014.html

And...

Asthma Medication’s Horrific Side Effects: Montelukast, Depression and Psychosis

https://www.hormonesmatter.com/asthma-medications-horrific-side-effects-montelukast-depression-psychosis/

And....glyphosate and celiac...

Glyphosate, pathways to modern diseases II: Celiac sprue and gluten intolerance

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3945755/

And... glyphosate messes up mitochondria which need more Thiamine....

Hiding in Plain Sight: Modern Thiamine Deficiency

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8533683/

And...

Thiamine Deficiency Disease with Dr. Chandler Marrs, MS, MA, PhD

https://www.betterhealthguy.com/episode163

 

[Scott Adams]

5 hours ago, nimzabo said:

I'm sharing this: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/09/weedkiller-glyphosate-cdc-study-urine-samples

I also saw this article, and it is very interesting. It makes one wonder what it does to the human gut, including our gut microbiome.

[nimzabo]

9 hours ago, Scott Adams said:

I also saw this article, and it is very interesting. It makes one wonder what it does to the human gut, including our gut microbiome.

Not only.

I already knew those kinds of tests. It is common to find a high percentage of people with glyphosate and not only in the US. In Europe too.

 

There's a lot more that can be said. Two things, for instance:

- Because glyphosate is not alone in pesticide formulations, that means that when glyphosate is found other chemicals could probably be found as well. Those other chemicals add to the effects seen when glyphosate is tested alone, and by a lot: http://www.seralini.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Mesnageal.TOX_2013.pdf

- In a test made with mice who took a daily ultra low dose of roundup (corresponding to less than the accepted daily intake for humans), the liver and kidneys got degraded with (long) time: https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-015-0056-1 and https://www.nature.com/articles/srep39328 . The liver and the kidneys are responsible for processing toxic substances and if they get degraded that might reinforce the effect of those substances.

 

Finally to say that, if you remember what I wrote in the beggining of this this topic, I have experienced chemical sensitivity with insecticides and also with food and I question what might be the cause of what I call heart symptoms.

In the light of what i just wrote, all of those could be the consequence of a malfunction for instance of my liver and who knows herbicides containing glyphosate could have had a role in it.

The problem is that nothing of this is certain and there is no way of proving it. One can only speculate.

 

 

 

[nimzabo]

But you are right.

Microbiome is of course something else to consider, as well. Specially because I also complain of brain fog and a sense of low inflammation (in the head and in the lungs).

 

[Blue-Sky]

 According to google glyphosate can aggravate non alcoholic fatty liver disease. If microbiome is causing problems then acacia tree fiber is likely to help with that. A western diet may tend to elevate liver enzymes which can lead to liver problems.  A diet higher in fat can cause nitric oxide stress in the liver. Acacia tree fiber increases antioxidant levels in the liver and decreases nitric oxide stress in the liver when rats are exposed to a toxin.

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Effect-of-Gum-Arabic-on-Liver-Function-And-Enzymes-Babiker-Abbas/4a4947985ba91ae1a4de2ee555492f96ba93f89a

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-99953-y

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6439290/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30453660/

https://draxe.com/nutrition/pectin/

Your symptoms all match with non-classical celiac disease though, which is more common than classical celiac disease.

[Wheatwacked]

38 minutes ago, Blue-Sky said:

According to google glyphosate can aggravate non alcoholic fatty liver disease.

It is estimated that only 10% eat enough Choline, that's beef and eggs mostly. 

   Cleveland Clinic: Choline "A choline supplement can help ensure your body is getting enough choline. Choline is a vital nutrient that helps your liver and brain function correctly. A choline supplement may help reduce your risk of fatty liver disease. Choline deficiency during pregnancy can cause birth defects, so it’s important for pregnant people to get enough choline."

[knitty kitty]

Thiamine deficiency can result in Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease!

High-dose vitamin B1 therapy prevents the development of experimental fatty liver driven by overnutrition

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7988776/

 

[nimzabo]

I think that the glyphosate hypothesis beats all the others.

(and the test was made with glyphosate alone; with other chemicals that usually go with it in formulations the results could be even worse)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32045792/

It's really a nasty stuff and the problem is that the majority of the people take it regularly, not to say daily.

[nimzabo]

The previous link indicates that glyphosate causes inflammation, has influence in microbiota and can decrease villus height.

Two more links I found seem relevant too. The first says that other pesticides can have the same effect and the latter suggest that drinking coffee can have ill effects.

 

Toxicology and Microbiota: How Do Pesticides Influence Gut Microbiota? A Review

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8196593/

What's in Your Coffee? How to Avoid Coffee Toxins and Harmful Pesticides

https://www.hollyroser.com/post/how-to-avoid-toxins-and-harmful-pesticides-in-coffee

[Blue-Sky]

1 hour ago, nimzabo said:

The previous link indicates that glyphosate causes inflammation, has influence in microbiota and can decrease villus height.

I could see why glyphosate may cause problems.

I think there has been mixed results on whether glyphosate is problematic to bacteria. It may depend on if it is consumed with

https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/effects-of-glyphosate-of-the-intestinal-microbiota

There are also a long list of other factors such as diet or diabetes and autoimmune conditions such as IBS, that can cause problems with microbiota.

Something like acacia fiber may help balance this out.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4303825/

[Blue-Sky]

On 7/11/2022 at 12:30 AM, knitty kitty said:

Thiamine deficiency can result in Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease!

High-dose vitamin B1 therapy prevents the development of experimental fatty liver driven by overnutrition

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7988776/

 

Yes, however it may require a high dosage to be effective for fatty liver.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4353231/

Benfotiamine is beneficial for diabetic nerve damage (and also likely for other problems associated with a western diet I think). The amount of thiamine and how it gets absorbed, and how long it says in the blood are important probably. Otherwise I think cells will tend to balance out their thiamine levels at a much lower level even if they are getting "enough" (say twice dv or something like that) from diet.

[knitty kitty]

@Blue-Sky,

Please read this article on thiamine...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8533683/

I read your links.

Then we can discuss why high dose Thiamine is beneficial.

Thanks

[knitty kitty]

@nimzabo,

Thought you would be interested in articles on EMF and Thiamine...

https://www.objectivenutrients.com/insights/thiamine-emf-sensitivity/

And...

https://www.hormonesmatter.com/emf-hypersensitivity-and-thiamine/