Automated translation from this dutch blog post
This is going to be a long story and has nothing to do with my work. It’s my personal story and literally close to my heart. I am publishing this because people with tachycardia may benefit from my experience.
In summary: since I started drinking coffee, I have had regular heart palpitations (tachycardia). I needed an ablation (medical procedure), but instead I stopped drinking coffee. Now the heart palpitations have stopped and my heart is back to normal, doing great. Might there be a connection between coffee and tachycardia?
My story
My heart palpitations started when I was a teenager. When I was jumping on the trampoline at school, my heart rate suddenly jumped x2. I felt dizzy, sat down in the changing room and started breathing very slowly to calm my pounding heart. After a few minutes my heart stopped (goodbye world) and then after a very long second it started to go back to its old rhythm. Terrifying.
The GP said: ‘it happens more often, don’t worry, it’s not fatal’. Fine, but no solution and the attacks kept coming. To prevent the palpitations, I did not or hardly any sports for years. Because exertion triggers an attack. Sometimes even very small movements, such as picking something up from the ground, or cycling away from a traffic light.
In the years that followed, I had hundreds of attacks. Sometimes every few days, sometimes every few weeks. The only thing I could do was immediately seek rest, sit down and breathe extremely slowly. Sometimes I almost knocked out. That was also quite exciting for those around me, it feels a bit like having a heart attack.
My heart was examined in the hospital but nothing can be seen when resting. It was not until I was about 40 that an cardiogram could be made during an attack of palpitations. I was immediately allowed to go to the cardiac monitoring unit by ambulance. The cardiologist confirmed: tachycardia, or a heart rhythm disturbance. I believe it is also called ‘atrial fibrillation’. A doctor can explain what that is way better. There is a lot to read about it online.
The pills I was given to stop an attack of palpitations didn’t work at all. My own method (sitting, breathing slowly) did. Incidentally, there are a few other methods to prevent such an attack. Such as holding your hand against your mouth, so that you create pressure on your lungs. And breathing into a paper bag. You still see that sometimes with hyperventilation and in old films.
The cardiologist offered to perform an ‘ablation’. That is a medical procedure in which a whole bunch of cables and instruments are inserted into a vein in your groin. And through that vein to your heart. There they then burn through a few nerves. That procedure does work, but not always and has risks. Sometimes the operation does nothing at all. Or the tachycardia returns and the ablation has to be done again. In addition, there is a small risk of cardiac arrest during the operation. That can then be intervened on immediately, so that will end well. But still, quite scary.
I had a lot to consider. The ablation or accepting my heart problems.
Could it be the coffee?
Then I had an inspiration. Could it be that coffee is the cause of my tachycardia? The stimulating effect of coffee is well known, but could I be hypersensitive to it? Or is it due to the combination of my low blood pressure, stress and coffee? Both the GP and the cardiologist thought that was not possible, unless you drink 30 cups of coffee a day. I usually drank three cups a day, sometimes a little more. But nothing exceptional.
There is only one way to rule out coffee as a cause: cut down on coffee. I went back to one cup of coffee a day. And miraculously: no more attacks! For years. After a while I even dared to go to dance lessons. That used to be a risk, but without coffee that is no problem.
I also put it to the test by drinking two cups of coffee a day. And then that restless feeling in my body and my heart was immediately back. That you feel that your heart is on the verge of racing again. I actually got heart palpitations twice, and severely too. Back to one cup of coffee a day: peace in my body, and no attacks.
Research
I searched online for scientific research on coffee and tachycardia. What I found were old studies that showed that coffee does something to the heart, but nothing serious. I did not find any studie that specifically looked for the connection between atrial fibrillation and coffee consumption.
I am not a scientist, a doctor or a researcher. I am a layman for whom cardiac arrhythmia, tachycardia and atrial fibrillation are the same. I can’t make any scientific statement.
However, I find my experience remarkable. In my case, the connection is actually unmistakable. Could it be that coffee is the cause of tachycardia in more people? If that is true, then certain tachycardia patients could be helped in a very easy way. Even if it is only a small group within the large group of heart patients, they can be relieved of their problem.
I hope it will be investigated. I do not believe that I am the only person on earth who is hypersensitive to coffee. There must be more.
Sceptical
To be a bit paranoid: who benefits from such a study? Scientific research costs money. That money has to come from somewhere. Quitting coffee costs nothing, you can’t sell a treatment or medicine for it. So the pharmaceutical industry has no benefit from research, there is nothing to be gained. In fact, there is a possibility that they will sell fewer pills and treatments.
The coffee trade will also not be happy with negative medical news about their product. I can already see it in the newspaper: ‘research shows: coffee is bad for your heart’. Food for food influencers and health gurus. Of course, there is an immediate backlash. And rightly so, because for the vast majority of coffee drinkers, coffee will not be a problem at all. But ‘nuance’ is not really a word of today.
Paranoia? I don’t know. I do see reason for skepticism. As a child, I always thought that healthcare was there to help people. But then you get older and you notice that money plays a very big role.
Warning
Now a warning, actually against myself. Dear fellow tachycardia patients, be careful. This is my experience and it is quite possible that quitting coffee does not work for you. Or might be dangerous. If you want to investigate whether cutting down or quitting coffee is beneficial for you, do this in consultation with your cardiologist or GP.
And if you get the OK, taper off slowly. If you are hypersensitive to coffee, then quitting in one go is a quite a punch for your heart. Taper off slowly, under supervision. Listen to your body and be sensible. This article is not a miracle story or advice, I am writing this article because I think research should be done on this.
My experience with quitting coffee
I first started cutting down to one cup of coffee a day. That was enough to solve my heart problems. It was only years later that I stopped drinking coffee altogether. Then it really got out of my system and I felt the pressure decrease. Nowadays I drink coffee occasionally because I like it. But never more than one a day.
Was it difficult? A little. The hardest part is changing your habits. Coffee is part of rest and relaxation. A social thing. It is also a personality thing, you are ‘a coffee lover’. Breaking that is difficult, you have to take a step there. But it is not very difficult.
Withdrawal symptoms are mild and very short-lived. What takes a bit longer is the change in bowel movements. But after two or three weeks that is completely normal again. And then you have peace in your body everywhere. That peace is strongest when you stop completely. When you cut down, you still maintain a certain level of tension.
I found quitting smoking much more difficult physically. You really feel that craving, the addiction. With coffee it is there a little bit too, but not nearly as bad. There is also a great alternative: tea.
Tea, theine and caffeine
And that brings me to an interesting point: tea contains theine. And theine is exactly the same substance as caffeine in coffee, it just has a different name because it’s in tea. The amount of theine in a cup of black tea is quite large: about half of a cup of coffee. And I drink a lot more tea these days. So, you might ask, why doesn’t theine also send my heart into overdrive? And that’s a very good question. I can only speculate. Perhaps it’s not the caffeine, but another component of coffee that makes my heart race. Niacin? Potassium? Interesting.
Now what?
I am writing this story because I suspect that there are more people with tachycardia who could benefit from reducing or stopping coffee. I am also looking for people who share my experience. If it turns out that there are more people with this experience, then that is a basis for research. Is there a connection between tachycardia and coffee?
I suspect that there is a connection, only that the group is too small to stand out in statistical research. Suppose that 5% of all 80,000 atrial fibrillation patients in the Netherlands benefit from stopping coffee, then you cannot advise that entire group to stop. Then it does not work for 95%. But still, that 5% is a group of 4000 people who do benefit from it. And perhaps those numbers are much higher. We do not know.
But I do want to know. Therefore, if you have tachycardia / atrial fibrillation and experience with reducing or stopping coffee, let me know. With a comment below or send me an email. You can also refer someone else with a heart rhythm disorder to this blog. Perhaps we can set something in motion with it.
Or do you think it is complete nonsense? That is also interesting. Or maybe I’m unique after all!
Coffee caffeine research tachycardia heart palpitations cardiac ablation