Heart Flutters and Smoothies

[kntway]

Hello!!
I'm a 24 years old female. So almost a year ago, I began adding fruit and spinach smoothies into my diet and exercise. Once I did that I began to notice my heart feeling like it was fluttering in my chest and skipping beats. This went on for a while, I thought it may have been the protein powder I was using in the smoothies, since that was new to my diet. Long story short, it didn't stop.. So after a few trips to my GP I ended up at a cardiologist. Who did an echo and all of that and of course nothing showed up. The fluttering tends to come and goes.. and usually disappeared when I was at the doctors, so he put me on some beta blockers which just made me tired, but sorta helped.. Then one day it stopped fluttering and a month or so after that he took me off the beta-blockers. All along I kept drinking smoothies, up until I moved out of state. To which I ended up moving in with family and all my belongings got put in storage, including my blender. So for the past 6 months I haven't drank a smoothie.. Until Monday. I just moved into a house and decided to break my blender out for a smoothie since it had been so long. Within 30 minutes of drinking the smoothie (strawberries, blueberries, banana, spinach, greek yogurt, almond milk, and flaxseed.) I could feel the fluttering/skipping beats come back for the first time in almost 9 months. It has been non-stop since I drank that one smoothie. I know it sounds crazy that a smoothie could cause my hear to skip beats, but it's the only thing that's changed.. Could it be a weird combo of fruits and vitamins upsetting my heart? Is this something I need to go back to a cardiologist for? I'm just worried they won't know what's going on or how to diagnose it if they can't see it on any of the test.

Any and all help would be appreciated! Thank you!

[ahilltopper]

As a health scientist, I can say that all studies with an n=1 aren't good scientifically.  

It is hard to believe eating one banana could cause an electrolyte imbalance.  Arrythmias can occur in normal health people due to "bad electrical connections", sometimes they are a cause for concern, but not always.

I had at least one documented (holter monitor) episode of very rapid heartbeat and atrial fibrillation and had no symptoms. It is hard for me to believe the event even happened, but my cardiologist showed me the recording. Symptoms and arrythmias don't always appear together. This for me led to further testing, which is my case was important in finding underlying causes.

You might want to discuss wearing a holter monitor (2 days), or 30-day cardiac event monitor with your cardiologist to better understand what is going on.

good luck!

[kntway]

Hi!

Yes.. I've started to play around with the ingredients.. Seems like the bananas were the culprit.. Although I usually eat a banana everyday, I guess mixing it with everything else wasn't helping.

[is_something_wrong]

That's an.. interesting symptom.

Have you checked your electrolytes?

Your smoothie contains quite a lot of calcium and potassium. If that's not the cause, you could try to remove some of the ingredients until you find the offending one.