Low Potassium and tachycardia

Its reassuring to know that you are following our discussions,zzappd. I recently found out that the doctor I saw was only a GP with a special interest in heart conditions so I asked my doctor to refer me to an Electrophysiologist who is  mentioned on the Arrhythmia Alliance website. I am a carer to my husband(he has Parkinsons Disease) so its not good for me to be having these attacks. I have gone as long as six months without one so I don't want to take regular medication. I just want something that will slow my heart back down when I have one. Something I am noticing though is that the day before an attack my stomach plays up and I don't think its coincidence. I had one in November and the day before I had been to the doctor over my stomach and I was given an h-pylori test. I woke with an attack at five in the morning and nothing would stop it and after four hours I had to go to A&E.

My first question is to inquire whether your magnisium level is within normal limits. If your magnisium is too low, you will not be able to raise your potassium. The second question is whether your physicians checked your aldosterone level and renin activity level, which is a simple blood test and 24 hour urine. Hyperaldosteronism will cause severe hypokalemia that will not be relieved until the excess aldosterone is eliminated. Just some suggestions.

Can you explain what I do about thse potassium levels? I have had two SVT's within a month and four in three months.

Thank you. I have arranged to see my GP next week for a potassium test.

I only saw a consultant at the end of March despite having SVT's for 5 years. He suggested an Ablation but I have never had ant tests. I have had to go to hospital five times over this period and never once has potassium levels been mentioned.

Thanks for your kind advice.

Thought I'd better add a few things from my experience after seeing all the comments. 

I'm 50 and having been diagnosed with SVT since birth.

When you have any kind of arythmia or tachycardia condition (racing heart, missed beats, palpatations, heart not pumping correctly e.g.top & bottom pump at the same time) I have found taking in natural potassium sources works very well for me (bananas, dried apricots, coconut water - organic sources work best) and the people I know with these conditions.

The val salva maneuver (spelling), coughing and splashing cold water on your face work well to calm the episode.  The potassium ingestion takes it away.  I probably eat 2-3 bananas a day, as well as dried apricots, baked potatoes, avocados and raisins (all good sources of potassium).  Taking potassium pills triggers an episode.  Go figure (maybe because its a synthetic source).

When I was young, laying on my heart side in bed would help an episode.  Now at 50 laying on my heart side causes an episode.  Laying on my opposite side abates it.  I think a neutral position is best.

If I have an episode cooling my body helps a lot.  Heating my body up makes it worse.

Find all your trigger foods/drinks and eliminate those from your diet.  Mine are coffee (caffeine), alcohol, chocolate, any herbs that stimulate e.g. st. john's wort, guarana, ginseng, watch out for cold remedies with ephedrine in them!  Even Coenzyme Q10 is a trigger for me (supposed to be good for your heart).  Unfortunately I've found my list of trigger foods expanding as I age. It was only caffeine when I was young.

Stress affects the heart terribly (does me) and causes episodes of my SVT easily since I was 40.  In my 20s and 30s no problem.  In your early years you stress out when you get an episode and that makes the problem twice as worse.  When you age you know it will pass with time and you know what to do about it.  So you calm down.  You watch your breathing.  This calming helps a lot. 

I have to watch my sleep too.  I have to get a solid 6-8 hours.  Anything shorter and I can guarantee an episode the next day (heart fluttering & racing up to 180bpm).

So how do I cope?  I over-compensate with all the good stuff: I follow a strict routine getting good sleep, I avoid all trigger foods/drinks (gave up cofee & alcohol), I eat loads of veges. & no junk food, I lost loads of weight and I exercise 6 days per week.  It took years to get this way.  Not over night.  But you gotta start...

The result: I now live a "normal" life.  I have minor episodes now only.  No major ones.  In 2000 a major one required defribilation.  That will wake you up - literally :-)

The alternative is to become a victim to your illness and then you have to go down the medical remedy route of beta blockers, catheter ablation surgery and pacemaker.  Give the natural apporach a go first.  Any decent cardiologist will recommend it.

Before I did all this: I was in a pretty dire situation the last 10 years.  There was so much I could no longer do.

For those of you in their 20s and 30s I wish you can start the good habits now.  Follow a life of balance.  No extremes.  You only get one heart and those heart cells are not  replaced.  Make exercise a habit.  Find something you enjoy.  Eat well.  Sleep well.  Avoid stressful jobs and relationships.

But if you do all that you can have your health and still be happy.  I am.  I experimented with all kinds of different things over the years to find out what's best for me.

I have had episodes of palpitation since I was your age nd it seemed to be linked to my menstrual cycle.I have never had any pain or breathlessness and the longest attack I have had was 25 minutes. Am now 57. They have recently become more unpredictable and a good friend suggested I asked for a referral to an electro cardiologist not a cardionlogist to sort it out. I wish this had happened before. You have every right to do this and I would strongly advise it as they were the first people who took it really seriously and made sense of it. I have taken potassioum supplements for ages and am not sure if theu helped or not. I have never takn any medication for this as am a bit of a health junkie. There are goos electro cardiologists at the Royal Brompton hosptial in London. I am seeing Dr Ernst who is very good and she deals with this sort of thinhg all the time and is a specialist in it. 

I have svt and I just turned 21. I went to the hospital with a blood pressure of 78 over 42 and a heart rate over 160. Now I had it bother me before but it took 2 hours to get my heart rate down. They did an eco and found out I have an extra electrical pathway. I used to run cross country and play soccer in high school, but the electrical pathway is something you are born with that just decides to act up. So if you have not found a reason behind this yet tell your doctor you want an eco done in search of an extra electical pathway which can be fixed. I'm also pregnant so I have to wait til after baby arrives to get this small procedure. Anyway hope this can help people.

I have magnesium and potassium supplements to help with this problem and if i miss any doses it acts up. I also take another pill flecanide to control my heart rate. And my blood tests were all normal. It can't be caught without further investigation.

Hi there, I'm a 35 yearold man. I found out about a potassium problem I was having when I turned 31. Well it took me until recently, this year actually to finally find a partial remedy to this problem. I read it from another website and decided to give it a go: V8 Juice. If I feel my potassium level dipping (which usually kicks in a feeling like asthma [can't get a deep breath]) I drop a cup or two of the juice and within a few minutes I'm back to normal. You need the LOW SODIUM stuff though and it costs next to nothing to buy at the grocery store, maybe $5 for a big bottle.

I've tried Potassium Pills and various other things but what really helped is drinking ALOT of Orange Juice and the odd glass of V8. Recently, I've been having frequent urination problems so I have to remind myself to drink more V8, at least a glass per day. This will unfortunately cause a bit of diahrrea but, the pros outweigh the cons. If you don't have either of those available then you need to be taking in lots of coconut water (generally expensive) and eating bananas like nobody's business. Its important to get that hit of potassium each day.