coffee

Having a coffee with a friend today, ended up in hospital, they said the coffee had caused my heart to race, which caused the collapse, kept me in all day, bloods X ray all ok, has this happened to anyone else.

6 Comments

thank you Thenotguy

by annie21 - 2015-07-09 02:07:02

No more coffee for me, thanks again
Annie

Looked through your posts

by Theknotguy - 2015-07-09 02:07:33

Thanks for filling out your bio. That was a great help. Looked through your past posts. Didn't see anything about afib. Do you have it?

If you look around the forum you'll see people with arrhythmia can have problems with different kinds of food or drugs. Some of the culprits are chocolate, alcohol, caffeine and nicotine. For some, it's an immediate reaction, others intermittent. I could eat chocolate one time with no problems. Then eat it another time and it would put me into afib. Go figure. You're in England, land of the tea drinkers. Tea can also have caffeine so you have to watch what kind of tea you drink.

Any drug that ends in "ine" is hard to stop taking. Coffee withdrawal gives headaches. Nicotine withdrawal can actually make you sick. The other problem is some of the "ine" drugs can make arrhythmia worse.

I figured out early on that caffeine was making my heart problem worse, so voluntarily stopped drinking it. Won't say I don't eat caffeine in foods, but I usually don't know it. I don't knowingly eat foods with caffeine. And nicotine in any form was out of the question.

Didn't say caffeine withdrawal was easy. I think it was two years before I could have someone walk by with a cup of coffee without me trying to inhale it through my nose. The smell of coffee alerted my mind of the kick I used to get from caffeine and it was really hard to walk away from it.

De-caf coffee is just as bad. There are other "ine" drugs in the decaf blend of coffee. So you really have to give up the whole drink for it to be effective.

You also have to watch out for some aspirin or over the counter pain reliever type drugs. Excedrin, a popular aspirin in the US has caffeine. The caffeine helps the aspirin work better. But as you know, caffeine can cause problems.

So, in answer to your question, yep, have had coffee cause problems. Had to completely give it up. Actually now, I don't miss it. Oh, and one of the things I used to do was drink water with lemon juice in it. The lemon juice helped kill the cravings for coffee.

Hope you can find a solution to your problems quickly.

Caffeine

by Tracey_E - 2015-07-09 05:07:08

Some of us are more sensitive than others! Everyone is different. I can get wide awake on a cup of decaf. My dad once landed in the hospital with all the symptoms of a heart attack, turned out to be caffeine overdose. When I started getting milder but identical symptoms in college, I cut it out completely. Now that I'm on a beta blocker (prevents racing), I can do a small amount (like, one cup of half-caff a day) but any more than that and I'm racing all night.

I do ok on decaf in moderation. The water decaffeinated is better than the chemically processed stuff. I never ever trust a restaurant. Espresso has less caffeine than brewed.

Sudafed is another otc med that has caffeine in it. And chocolate, tho for some reason that's never bothered me.

Here's a pretty good list of how much caffeine is in different drinks. Most brown and yellow sodas have caffeine, while clear and orange do not, however there are some exceptions. Sunkist orange has it, Fanta and Crush do not. Barq's root beer does, other brands do not. I mostly drink water, I know it never has caffeine ;)
http://www.caffeineinformer.com/the-caffeine-database

Caffine Effects

by PJinSC - 2015-07-10 03:07:57

That must have been some kind of powerful double shot espresso latte mocha you were drinking. Hey, wine ends with "ine", doesn't it? Beer does not, so it must be OK.

Just kidding. I used to drink so much coffee in my Navy submarine days (never spilled a drop, even with a heavy roll on), nuclear power training and nuclear power plant control room watch standing that I thought I had a coffee cup grafted to my right hand.

I had always had a very low heart rate and low blood pressure. It wasn't until many years later that I started to have A-fib and tachycardia symptoms and noticed that caffeine was associated with setting off my A-fib and PVCs, my heart would actually stop for a few seconds. I also noticed that red wines were starting to trigger tachycardia. I never was a big soda drinker, because if I did it too long my kidneys would tell me "that's enough".

We all have our threshold. Now I drink one cup of regular coffee in the morning and that is it. White wine in the evening and an occasional sudsy (sigh). Such is life.

Good Luck and Good Life. PJ

thanks Tracey

by annie21 - 2015-07-10 05:07:13

will check out this site, hope all is well with you
Annie

coffee can do that to you

by Acubarry - 2015-07-10 11:07:39

G'day Annie21
I have exactly the same experience when I drink coffee, either fresh or instant. If I have two cups of nescafe instant over 24 hours I'll be in A&E the following evening, and it can take several days for the a-fib attacks to quite down again. This never used to be the case, my sensitivity has increased dramatically over the past five or six years. Now I don't drink coffee at all, not even de-caf! I smoke my pipe, I drink my Burgundy, I drink several litres of tea / chai per day (I am from England) and with no ill effects whatsoever. Which makes me think that it's not the caffeine at all! But there is something in coffee - in any form - that can trigger a-fib attacks in someone who is sensitive to the chemical compounds contained therein. Best thing to do is keep well away from coffee, even coffee flavoured drinks and deserts etc. I still miss my coffee though, it's not a particularly easy substance to quit, but it's just not worth the risk & discomfort of an attack and another damn ECG! All the best, good luck and pass the Tetley's!


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