Bingeing - palpitations

[Ahumanjellyfish]

I have started hrt. I’m very embarrassed to say I’ve also started bingeing with carbs int he afternoon (I know, not clever but to alleviate stress).

I’ve started getting palpitations at night around 2am, these wake me up from my slumber.

it’s correlated with the increased binged but I also wonder if connected to the hrt/menopause?

any one else experience this? Don’t really want to see the gp! As this is likely self inflicted but a tough habit to crack.

I do this too to get thru work. It's normal. I'm in the same boat in that i have insomnia and palpitations. Last night I only had 2 hours sleep and I'm supposed to be away this weekend. I've been on hrt a few months and it hasn't helped. Good luck..hope you feel better

Hi Booseymum,

sorry to hear you get this too, we’re in a similar boat this weekend.

your palpitations started prior to the hrt by the sounds of it. Do you think yours is related to the menopause? Or the bingeing?

Every day at work in the afternoon I’m hugely bingeing not on non working days tho- so a stress/comfort reaction I think. Frustrating as I actually gong it impossible to stop in the moment work feels seagull and food is lovely and there! It if not there I go and find vast quantities!

sorry to hear you are getting this too. I hope your weekend goes ok (Immsuve you can have an afternoon nap?) . I appreciate you posting, thank you .

Booseysmom not Booseymom 🙈 sorry!

The palpitations are due to blood sugar dropping, your binging on carbs sends the blood sugar level sky high, which then crashes

what level of oestrogen are you on? Are you on gel? Could you increase it a little?

you need to eat protein before anything else I had this, the craving carbs and the palpitations

get some protein powder, switch to nut or soya milk and you’ll notice a difference

Hi

thank you for replying,

im on 50-75 I was unsure if the oestrogen was aggravating things. The bingeing occurs I think when I’m stressed, I impulsively feel awful and grab what I can find (yesterday it started with salted dried B-road beans then led to chocolate spread ice cream and bread !). It’s always triggered by stress/boredom/anxiety but worse than ever. Despite the emotional trigger it’s something I used to do when you get when I had pmt.

yesterday I had a cheese omelette at lunch with loads of veg and some dark chocolate - but still I went on to binge.

interesting about the oestrogen … wonder if upping the dose may help, was worried this may worsen it. Thanks for posting, feeling a bit perplexed at myself.

Palpitations are common in peri anyway BUT it's more likely to be a sugar crash from overloading on carbs as @MzHz says.

How late are you eating?

Ideally, you should have a 12-14 hour fasting window (eg last meal 7pm, breakfast no earlier than 7am.)

And if this is impossible, no food for 2 hours before bed.

Can you find something to do rather than binge? Anything physical- going for a walk? - reading, phoning a friend?

50-75

Which? 50mcg or 75mcg patch?

Jingling spring bells - I had been on 75, but in fear of the palpitations being connected to the oestrogen I reduced to 50… a mistake 🤔

Jingling the bingeing is always on work afternoons. I have poor tolerance of any stress! And carbs provide a massive mood boost and craving. It’s absolutely ridiculous when I reflect but it’s like a drug when in that mode. Non work days aren’t a problem.

Are you working from home were you access the food?
Could you try something like a mindfulness app or meditation?
Huge intakes of sugar are going to make you feel crap and long term (if you gain weight as well) you could be nudging towards pre-diabetes.

Hi jingle - yep working from home. I used to always binge a little when returning from home when I worked “away”. My workload is pretty heavy, so stressed a lot!

I had this carb craving and went to a female health clinic and got the HRT changed so I’m on oestrogen gel and upped from 2 to 4 pumps daily, that helped. I’m also on progesterone for the last 10-14 days of the month and added in some testosterone

all of this needs to happen after blood tests and monitoring, but I’m fairly normal now in terms of cravings

I also did a menopause workshop around diet and this where I learned about protein and blood glucose spikes

have protein at every meal, if you’re hungry have a protein shake (almond milk not oat or cows as they both spike blood sugar) have a handful of nuts - no more - if your peckish.

porridge will spike your blood sugar so you will be starving hungry in a couple of hours so avoid oats and cereals as much as poss

drink lots of water, eat lots of veg and fruit moderately

avoid sunflower oil, use olive. A spoonful of peanut butter will also help if you’re mooching around the kitchen

im still a work in progress but I’m trying to eat the protein as much as poss - even if you have a roast, line your stomach with the meat before the veg and leave the carbs till last.

I paid a lot of money to get to this point and I’m still learning, but if you can start small and do some research you’ll find the right way for you

I’ve not had a single palpitation since adopting this new way of eating

make sure you build muscle too. Helps with so much in terms of hormones and overall health

@MzHz @Ahumanjellyfish If you can afford it, the Zoe app is brilliant at showing you what to eat. It's personalised around a test on your poo, fat metabolism and blood glucose (you get a kit then post back.)

At its very basic level, (to explain it) everyone is supposed to aim for 75 'points' in day for gut /blood glucose health. Foods are scored according to your results and you input your food at every meal into the app, on your phone, and wear a 14 day blood sugar monitor.

Just as a silly example, a pizza and chips might score 25, whereas a piece of salmon and salad might score you 70. Your daily score is an average of what you eat. Something like processed meats might score 20, but lean chicken 80. Most fruit and veg are in the 80+ range.

@MzHz Have you been advised that combining foods can make a difference? For example, adding peanut or almond butter to porridge can 'reduce it' from a carb heavy meal which raises glucose, to something lower. There's a lot of food-combining where what may seem a no-no food is less so when combined with something else.

@JinglingSpringbells no all I was told was that oats spike your blood sugar so to look for something else like chia to provide fibre and protein

But I was told to eat toast with nut butter, so maybe something in that- will look for more info- thanks

That's very simplistic. Was the person you saw a qualified dietitian? Like here? [[https://joinzoe.com/our-science

Oats are a wholegrain and are a healthy option obviously in the right amount and not putting loads of sugar or honey on the porridge.

[[https://joinzoe.com/learn

Yes absolutely qualified, my response was simplistic due the lateness and consumption of Eurovision alcohol 😊

I was saying this as one of the tips I’d been given, not the whole ethos if you know what I mean

Why would you switch milk? Milk is protein.

Thanks for this explanation. Very interesting!

Lactose is a sugar
oats are a carb that spikes sugar
almond isn’t either and doesn’t spike blood sugar

protein but of a different type

Can you just get the carb snacks out of the house? Honestly I don’t eat a lot of sugary carbs, but if they are in the house (birthdays, Christmas) they honestly call to me.

I agree with everyone about protein. About an hour or half an hour before you normally binge, could you eat something protein based. Like some cheese and biscuits, peanut butter, protein bar or chicken sandwich etc. I know it’s still calories, but you kind of need to break this cycle. And these foods aren’t going to give you heart palpitations.

Are you able to do some movement after a binge or high carbs? Walking, dance, walking workouts after carbs allow the carbs into the muscles to do what they are supposed to do. Instead of hanging around in the bloodstream where the body has to deal with them.

I used to get migraines from afternoon office biscuits, my body was telling me something and I listened. I haven’t had a migraine for about 12 years. Your body is telling you something isn’t right, please listen to it.

We need to be careful about labelling all sugar as 'bad' @MzHz

Milk is healthy for most people and the plant substitutes have come under scrutiny lately because the calcium that's added may not be absorbed as much as in the natural product (milk.)

Lactose is a milk sugar, but it's not the same as sucrose or fructose which are usually found in food that's got no protein, or added to refined carbs (in cakes , sweets etc.) Also, some carbs don't spike glucose levels in the same way when they are eaten in combination with protein and fat.

Also, it's not necessarily bad that a carb spikes blood glucose. It's more about how long the spike lasts and also if the carbs are from wholegrains rather than simple, refined added sugar. Oats are healthy, as the fibre in them can reduce cholesterol and helps prevent bowel cancer. Eating no carb is not healthy.

@Ahumanjellyfish @MzHz This is really good article on carbs (and what you can eat ) and what's not so good.

[[https://joinzoe.com/learn/refined-carbs

I’m only looking at this as a menopausal reaction, what used to work in the past now doesn’t so the nutritionist I spoke to suggested a new approach to blood sugar and anything to spike it and putting her ideas into practice made a massive difference to me.

I do eat carbs but differently and in different ways

Confused as almond milk has sugar added...

Pea milk is the most high protein plant milk. But normal milk is high in protein and similar to pea.