Heart or anxiety? I can't tell.

[jon671]

I am 27 years old overweight and have trouble losing weight with low calorie so I am doing a high protein keto diet. This is the only kind of diet I have success losing weight with. I started a month and a half a go and lost 15 pounds. I broil and bbq when I can and sometimes I fry meat. When I started I was 320 pounds I am now down to 305 pounds. I cheated yesterday on thanks giving day and had an episode. Usually the episodes start with a weird feeling in the chest(not pain it's like someone has there hand on my chest and is not putting any pressure.) , next the fear that something is going wrong with my body, sometimes I sweat, my heart starts pounding and it usually lasts about 5-10 minutes and is followed by fatigue.

My muscles ache sometimes in my chest and legs. I have not been doing enough exercise lately to cause this and my sister has "fibromyalgia". I have floaters in my right eye and I feel like my eye sight is not as good as it used to be. I have pain in either my bones or cartlidge especially my chest and back. I get pain if I push areas around my sternum and my back hurts a lot. Sometimes when I turn my upper body sideways I can feel that it hurts in the front area. I get my wife to walk on my back all the time and it helps temporarily.

Another thing I have noticed was I get muscle twitches all over my body. They are not major they are small and spread out.

I had a ekg, blood tests (recently posted it here), and chest xrays a few months ago. All ok except low test, slightly elevated cholesterol, and high blood pressure (could be white coat hypertension I monitor at home and it is usually normal).

Is that kind of diet dangerous? I mean high fat high protein low carb is better than the high fat high gi food diet I usually follow right? I am getting more labs done to make sure the diet isn't effecting cholesterol and kidneys negatively.

What is wrong with me? Is it my heart? I know I need to lose weight, but I can't do it all right away. Will testosterone make me feel better? Should I start taking meds for blood pressure and cholesterol? I read someone saying test will cause cholesterol to drop drastically so can I wait till january when i see Dr. Mariano. Or am I going mental and need an antidepressant?

 

[Philec48]

Any time you have pain or discomfort in the chest it's best to seek medical help without delay. Being a little embarrassed and alive is better than being shy and dead.

Muscle twitches can be an indicator of electrolyte imbalances. You may want to get a comp-metabolic blood test, which will include sodium, chloride, and potassium. Also not a bad idea to test magnesium level.

Magnesium has a calming effect on muscles. I know for me when my heart seems to beat too hard, the magnesium citrate helps. For heart health I also take Co-Q10 and carnitine. Hawthorne Berry has been reported to help support heart health. Ask your doc before adding any supplements.

And lay off the fried meat! High protein can be done without it, unless you enjoy elevated cholesterol. I added niacin (not the flush-free kind as it's useless to help lower LDL), and it brought mine down from 165 to 125. For awhile I took 250mg am and pm, now just 250mg am.

You mentioned eye floaters. I take 40mg per day lutein that includes zeaxanthin, and I still have floaters, but hopefully at least it will help my overall eye health.

Ask your cardiologist about color doplar tests that can assess blood flow in the heart. Also ask about an echo cardiogram to check the thickness of the heart chamber walls and condition of valves.

 

[jon671]

Any time you have pain or discomfort in the chest it's best to seek medical help without delay. Being a little embarrassed and alive is better than being shy and dead.

Muscle twitches can be an indicator of electrolyte imbalances. You may want to get a comp-metabolic blood test, which will include sodium, chloride, and potassium. Also not a bad idea to test magnesium level.

Magnesium has a calming effect on muscles. I know for me when my heart seems to beat too hard, the magnesium citrate helps. For heart health I also take Co-Q10 and carnitine. Hawthorne Berry has been reported to help support heart health. Ask your doc before adding any supplements.

And lay off the fried meat! High protein can be done without it, unless you enjoy elevated cholesterol. I added niacin (not the flush-free kind as it's useless to help lower LDL), and it brought mine down from 165 to 125. For awhile I took 250mg am and pm, now just 250mg am.

You mentioned eye floaters. I take 40mg per day lutein that includes zeaxanthin, and I still have floaters, but hopefully at least it will help my overall eye health.

Ask your cardiologist about color doplar tests that can assess blood flow in the heart. Also ask about an echo cardiogram to check the thickness of the heart chamber walls and condition of valves.

I go in for blood work tomorrow and he is doing a comprehensive metabolic and lipid panel.

My doctor doesn't think I have any heart problems. The pain is more like muscle or cartlidge pain. Everytime I went to the er it was the same it felt like someone put there hand on my chest and were just holding it there not putting any pressure.

I barbeque and broil more often than fry.

I am not seeing a cardiologist. Do I need to see one?

 

[Philec48]

I am not seeing a cardiologist. Do I need to see one?

Second opinions, especially from a specialist can be very valuable sometimes.

It's up to you, but for myself I did not hesitate to see one.

 

[jon671]

With out overdoing it aren't fried foods ok in moderation in a keto diet? I read potassium becomes an issue with low carb and my multi only has 3% daily requirement. I will wait for blood test results and decide from there. Thanks for the advice brother.

 

[Gutterpump]

When you say you cheated, did you have a lot of carbs with this cheat meal/moment?

When I am on a low carb diet, or CKD, I get palpitions and basically feel like ass on my carb up meals. Carbs have a greater effect on your body when you have done without them for so much time... this is worse if you have a meal high in carbs & fat together, since it is extra hard on your body to clear them both from your blood, so it releases an excess amount of insulin.

You might have a heart condition and this spike in carbs during your low carb diet could have caused this episode. High protein and high fat alone are not bad on the heart...it's when you add carbs into this mix. The body can handle and clear fats easily. I just wouldn't be frying your food at every meal and I wouldn't be using trans-fats. If I were you I would mainly be careful of carb spikes during your keto diet, and try to get your fat sources from olive oil, fish oil, extra virgin coconut oil (maybe) and other healthy sources. The reason I am hesitant with the coconut oil is that it's an MCT which burns off similar to sugar in a sense, and instead you want to condition your body to burn longer-chain fatty acids to lose weight.

 

[3djedi]

Sounds like anxiety/panic. Try some lexapro and see if that helps

 

[B5150]

Is that kind of diet dangerous? I mean high fat high protein low carb is better than the high fat high gi food diet I usually follow right? I am getting more labs done to make sure the diet isn't effecting cholesterol and kidneys negatively.

Regardless of the type of macro diet you use you still need to be in a caloric deficit.

What is wrong with me? Is it my heart? I know I need to lose weight, but I can't do it all right away. Will testosterone make me feel better? Should I start taking meds for blood pressure and cholesterol? I read someone saying test will cause cholesterol to drop drastically so can I wait till january when i see Dr. Mariano. Or am I going mental and need an antidepressant?

I would look into a Hiatal Hernia. See a GI.

You don't need testosterone.

Do you have a need for cholestrol meciation or are you hypertensive? Otherwise, no.

 

[jon671]

Heat Miser: I have low testosterone, borderline hypertensive and my total cholesterol is a few points over, though my ratio and health risk % were both ok regardin cholesterol. Even if I am not in a caloric deficit I lose weight as long as I'm in ketosis. Usually I am in a caloric deficit when I'm in ketosis. My appetite goes to the toilet. I'm gonna see a good doc soon. When I do normal diet with a caloric deficit I have trouble losing weight and I get weak, tired... When I'm in ketosis minus induction I feel great.

 

[PPB]

It's real important to eat a lot of non starcy veges with your diet. I never count these as carbs, just eat as many as I like. This may slow weight loss just a little but in the long run you'll be much healthier and more able to sustain a lower carb diet, less likely to drop it. Remeber you don't actually have to be in ketosis to lose weight but keeping your insulin from excess surges works on it's own to get rid of fat.

Berries, especially rasberries are great and low in carbs. You can have them with greek yogurt which is lower in carbs than other yogurts. Use stevia to sweeten. Extremes are not good for the body. Balance is best but I do believe in lower carb diets. Keeping blood sugar in healthy low- medium ranges stops accelerated aging. Including these sorts of foods and looking at your weight loss as a long term approach should not cause such a state of pain and anxiety from cheating because you may be less likely to do so.

Your episodes sound very much like a panic attacks. I have a friend who experiences terrible panic attacks when her blood sugar spikes. She has had to learn to keep it from roller coastering. These anxiety attacks feel like the real thing, like you could actually be dying so I am not belittling what you feel. They ended her in the emergency room mulitple times. It's scary. Check adrenals.