Diet taboos for premature heart beats

The core dietary taboos for patients with premature heart beats are essentially to avoid large amounts of food that can stimulate the sympathetic nerves and increase the load on the heart in a short period of time. The four categories that require the most vigilance are high-caffeine foods, high-sodium diets, refined high-sugar foods, and alcohol. The specific taboos should be combined with the type of premature heart beats and whether there are underlying heart disease adjustments. There is no unified standard answer.

Don't tell me, I encountered a fairly typical case a while ago: a 32-year-old Internet programmer. His physical examination showed that he had occasional premature atrial contractions and no structural heart disease. The doctor originally told him that he didn't need to take medicine and just have a regular schedule. As a result, just in time for the project to come online, he drank three glasses of ice cream every day for a week to keep up with the progress. Eventually, he could feel his heart "thumping, thumping," missing beats even while sitting. When he went to the emergency room for an electrocardiogram, he found 15 premature beats per minute. He was forced to take a week of rest before he recovered.

Interestingly, there are actually two different clinical opinions on whether coffee can be drunk. The guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology mention that patients with occasional premature beats who do not have underlying heart disease will not increase the frequency of premature beats if they consume less than 200 mg of caffeine per day (about the amount of a medium cup of regular American coffee). Some people even have no reaction at all after drinking it. ； However, many cardiology clinicians in China, when encountering patients with frequent premature beats, myocarditis, coronary heart disease or cardiomyopathy, will recommend that they completely quit caffeinated foods, including strong tea, energy drinks, and even dark chocolate with high cocoa content, and try to avoid it as much as possible - after all, everyone's myocardial tolerance is far different, so there is no need to step on this uncertain thunder.

Compared with the controversy over whether to drink coffee or not, the pitfalls of high-sodium diets actually attract more people, and many people don't even realize that they eat too much salt. Everyone knows that pickles, sauced meats, and braised vegetables contain a lot of salt, but few people will notice that the sodium content in braised chicken, spicy soup base in takeaways, soda crackers, preserved plums sold in supermarkets, and even many "healthy" salad dressings are frighteningly high. I once had a female patient in her 60s, whose premature beats had been stable for more than half a year. She suddenly started to panic every day for a week. After checking the triggers for a long time, she finally found out that she heard others say that soda crackers are good for the stomach, so she had to eat two bags a day as a snack. The sodium content of one bag accounted for half of the recommended daily amount. If she eats too much, the body will store more water.

There are also refined high sugars that many people ignore, which are also common causes of premature beats. In the summer, many people are greedy for coolness and show off two cups of iced milk tea at one go, or eat half a piece of cream cake at one time for a friend's birthday. Blood sugar spikes in a short time, which directly stimulates sympathetic nerve excitement, which is equivalent to sending several "speed up" instructions to the heart. The originally regular pulse can easily go out of order. Of course, there is a distinction here. As long as the fructose in natural fruits is not excessive, it is basically fine. What needs to be controlled is mainly the additional refined sugars such as sucrose and fructose syrup.

As for alcohol, there is not much controversy. Don’t believe in the saying of “drinking a small amount of red wine to activate blood circulation”. Whether it is white wine, beer or red wine, as long as it contains alcohol, it will directly improve the self-discipline of myocardial cells, which is a pure “negative buff” for people with premature beats. During the Chinese New Year last year, I treated a retired old man. His premature beats had been stable for almost a year. He drank 2 taels of red wine at a relative gathering and was so flustered that he stayed up all night. He went for a 24-hour dynamic electrocardiogram and found that the number of premature beats shot up to 12,000. It took him almost a month to take medication before returning to his previous state.

To be honest, there is really no need to restrict your diet just because you have premature beats. I have seen many patients who, after being diagnosed with premature beats, dare not even touch weak tea or eat vegetables with a slight flavor. As a result, they are malnourished and their immunity is reduced, making premature beats more frequent. If you only have occasional premature beats detected by physical examination and do not have any underlying heart disease, and you occasionally drink a cup of light tea or eat a heavy hot pot to satisfy your cravings, as long as you do not eat vigorously continuously, there will be basically no problem.

Of course, I should also mention: Diet is only one of the factors that induce premature beats. If you frequently feel palpitations or heart skipping, it is most important to go to the hospital to check whether you have structural heart disease. Don't delay regular treatment just by relying on taboos.