Greetings from Germany! Dr. Bert, I cannot thank you enough for your excellent books which have helped me understand correct eating habits. I am also loving fasting and have no difficulty with fasting 19+ hours a day. My eating window is approximately 17 -22:00. However I am experiencing a lot of heart palpitations in the evenings. What can I do or take to reduce these heart palpitations. I drink around 2-3 litres of water during my fast & 1-2 cups of black coffee. Heart palpitations are not something I usually have when I am not fasting. Thank you so much and advance for your advice. Dee
Palpitations are fairly common in people who don’t fast, so the first step would be to approach the palpitations as a non-fasting person would. It’s possible that fasting is making your heart more sensitive to caffeine. Caffeine from coffee can make palpitations more likely in non-fasters, so switching to decaffeinated coffee, at least for a few-week trial, would be an option. You may notice improvement the first day, but I would not give up without a trial of decaf of three weeks or more to give the complex connections between your brain, heart and gut a chance to settle down into a caffeine-free pattern. Second, if you’ve been on your fasting schedule for fewer than 3 weeks, a little more time may resolve the problem as your body adjusts for the reason described above. If the palpitations persist, a visit to your doctor is in order to see if there’s an underlying cause.
2 comments
Greetings from Germany! Dr. Bert, I cannot thank you enough for your excellent books which have helped me understand correct eating habits. I am also loving fasting and have no difficulty with fasting 19+ hours a day. My eating window is approximately 17 -22:00. However I am experiencing a lot of heart palpitations in the evenings. What can I do or take to reduce these heart palpitations. I drink around 2-3 litres of water during my fast & 1-2 cups of black coffee. Heart palpitations are not something I usually have when I am not fasting. Thank you so much and advance for your advice. Dee
Palpitations are fairly common in people who don’t fast, so the first step would be to approach the palpitations as a non-fasting person would. It’s possible that fasting is making your heart more sensitive to caffeine. Caffeine from coffee can make palpitations more likely in non-fasters, so switching to decaffeinated coffee, at least for a few-week trial, would be an option. You may notice improvement the first day, but I would not give up without a trial of decaf of three weeks or more to give the complex connections between your brain, heart and gut a chance to settle down into a caffeine-free pattern. Second, if you’ve been on your fasting schedule for fewer than 3 weeks, a little more time may resolve the problem as your body adjusts for the reason described above. If the palpitations persist, a visit to your doctor is in order to see if there’s an underlying cause.