Bananas and palpitations

[JillB13]

I have noticed that after every time I eat a banana, my heart has fairly strong palpitations for 1-2 minutes. It is the oddest thing. Does anyone have any information about this? I have never had a food allergy, but for some reason these episodes happen like clockwork immediately after I eat a banana.

I currently take atenolol 50mg once per day to deal with another minor arrythmia, but this seems much different.

[doglover894]

2 things come to mind.  atenolol increases the postassium in your body, so that might be causing problems.

bananas have tyramine, and that causes papitations.

I'd research these 2 options more.

Best wishes

[itsallwaves]

It happens to me too. Minutes after eating a banana, I feel severe flips and flops (probably PVCs or PACs).  Coconut is another huge trigger for me. The same for tomato juice and salsa. It may not be potassium, though most of the things I listed are high in potassium.

My kidney function is normal, though I have MVP. Perhaps, some hearts are just more sensitive to certain things.  When I mentioned this to my physician, he looked at me like I had three heads.

I now try to avoid these trigger foods. Eventually, a connection may come out of scientific literature. But what burns me is when folks definitively say "nope. you're nuts. No connection", rather than a simple "I just don't know".

[tthh]

I was also hypokylemic (low potassium) and I started taking magnesium which helps in the absorption and retention of potassium.  It worked wonders - I went from a level 2 of potassium to a 4.1 after months of taking tons of potassium!

[Wundergecko]

I also get palps after eating a banana. It is the only firm correlation I've ever been able to make in terms of what may trigger them. Otherwise, they seem pretty random. I don't get them shortly after eating the banana, though, but after half to one hour.

I've found that I can safely eat half of a small banana in one sitting, so that's my limit now. It's concerning to me, though, because I'm thinking about supplementing with magnesium but I'm afraid to mess with mag levels because it may affect potassium levels, and what if it is the potassium in the bananas triggering my palps, so what if the magnesium actually does more harm than good? I pretty much don't know what to do, but I think I'm on the MVPS-connective tissue disorder-low magnesium spectrum, so I should probably be brave and try some.

[sandra528]

Banana has a lot if sugar.  I really feel it's the sugar that affects me.

[starburst39]

I have more frequent heart palpitations when I eat bananas too.  I thought it was a one time thing so several months later, ate a banana and my palpitations were more frequent.  I was curious so I googled, "bananas mek my hear palpitate" and came across this discussion.  I've been to the doctors several years ago and had an eco done, but was told that there was nothing major wrong.  I should go back and mention the banana thing.  I don't get the reaction from any other food or drink that I usually consume.  It's kind of nice to know that I am not the only one with this reaction.

[a_fibphil]

This thread is really old, but I found it because I looked up palpitations and banana's. Why you ask, because I started realizing that everytime I ate a banana I would get a short run of PAC's (palpitations). Nothing major, but I found it interesting that I would get them ten minutes after eating a banana. So Jill you are not crazy.