Bad experience with ginger tea

So, based on the info here and the fact that I've been having minor palps at night for the last 2 weeks or so I thought I'd make some ginger tea.

Bad idea.

I bought organic ginger (from Peru not China), cut it into coin sized sections and boiled for 30 min. I drank it last night at 11:00pm and around 1am all hell broke loose. Stomach rumblings and ectopics like crazy. I took some metoprolol, Ativan and a little potassium which normally helps but it did nothing. I finally slept for about 2 hours but when I woke up the palps were worse.

I have never had daytime ectopics to speak of and today they've been nonstop. I had to go to the dentist and that was hell. I think I've flipped in and out of afib at least 3 times (stopped by valsalva) but its hard to tell.

When I was drinking the tea I noticed it was very "spicy" and burned my throat a little. I should have listened to my body and stopped then. Today the back of my throat is very irritated and sore.

I don't know what to do now, I'm hoping it goes away. I have to say I'm more than a little worked up since I had gotten used to dealing with nighttime ectopics and afib. I don't know how to deal with daytime stuff. I called in sick today but I don't want this to become a trend.

Any advice?

Goes to show, we are all different and we need to listen to our bodies.

Something else worth mentioning is I had a root canal done on Monday. (This was a last resort, I don't like root canals). And I had a temporary crown placed. Not the first time for either so I wonder if they factor in? Still the timing of the ginger seems way too close for it not to be that.

Monty

Monty,

Thank you for sharing your experience with ginger tea. I am sorry it worked out so badly for you and hope you are back to normal now. It sounds like you made a very strong brew as ginger tea would not normally irritate the throat - nevertheless, it obviously did not work as expected. The appearance of daytime ectopics would not be unexpected as most people are adrenergicaly dominant in the morning and the ginger tea would add to this dominance. This is why the ginger tea would be a bad idea for adrenergic, and perhaps mixed, afibbers. Please keep us posted.

Hans

I'm strictly vagal Hans, or at least I have been. Even during the day the ectopics I've been experiencing were when my heart was slowing down. Getting up and moving would stop them. They haven't stopped yet, I think I really irritated my esophagus and by extension my vagal nerve.

Maybe if you're going to do it, a less potent brew at first would be in order. I imagine my experience is atypical.

Monty

I feel your pain Montos. I am pretty sure my second afib/flutter episode from hell was caused by ginger. My Asian wife had made some ginger soup with dark sweet vinegar and sliced chunks of fresh ginger. It's more like a stew that is cooked for a couple of days with pig's feet and the ginger flavor is very concentrated. Needless to say, it is very tasty and loaded with ginger flavor. About an hour after I ate some, I was in full atrial fib and alternating flutter for about 3 hours. Trip to ER but self converted. However, I now very rarely have any bad effects from eating just fresh ginger tea or foods made with fresh ginger.

Ginger contains some sort of stimulant (forget what). Sufficient, that decent ginger intake can cause a named condition: "The Ginger Jitters". So, like caffeine, one would think that any amount is not heading in the right direction for afibbers. I love ginger, and I don't know if any of you have heard of the 100 year old marathon runner (google him) who lives on yoghurt, greens and ginger dahl, but when I heard about the Jitters, it was time to cut right back.

I've not bothered to make "tea." However, when my pulse is a bit jumpy when I start to get prone at night, I take a couple of teaspoons of powdered ginger and chase it with a bit of water. It works as advertised.

Geroge

Monty - Sorry to read your post. It may be the ginger tea but a strong consideration should be given to the release of bacteria into the blood stream as a result of the root canal treatment. That's well known to cause problems and for that reason, often they often prescribe antibiotics. While I don't like using antibiotics, you may need to consider that if your symptoms persist.

My profession was clinical dental hygiene and the aftermath of root canal treatments is not at all uncommon. The dentin portion of the tooth which is the bulk of the structure is just a series of tubes (tubules) actually miles of tubules that are still filled with infection and remain that way for a very long time even if antibiotics take care of the focal infection at the root tip. The surrounding bone and the tooth structure can still harbor infection. The tooth is dead because the nerve and blood supply are removed, but the tubules continue to hold a variety of bugs.

Jackie

PS - I was vagal afib and have used ginger tea for many years... it was never a trigger back then.

Jackie,

I sent you a series of messages back in Jan 2011 when I was having really bad uncontrolled ectopics. I reread my log from that time and I notice the night before that week of hell started I had had a terrible salty meal and GINGER tea. I had forgotten about this. The tea made my throat burn then too, now that I think about it. At the time I had thought it was from all the bad eating post-xmas but now I suspect that ginger tea has a very strong effect on my body.

The last time this lasted almost a week and I had never experianced anything like it again until now. Usually pvcs are rare and if the do happen it's a sign to take some potassium right away. Yesterday they were constant throughout the day and they were coming in clusters, Scary stuff. Last night and this morning were bad too.

I'm not sure where to go from here. I guess I'll just take it easy for a few days.

Monty

Monty, what happens now when you take a glass of K gluconate in water? Does it help with these ectopics?
PeggyM

Ralph,

It sounds to me like the stew could have had quite a bit of free glutamate in it. If so, and if you are sensitive to MSG, that could account for the memorable afib episode.

Hans

Peggy,

I was afraid to try. The potassium gluconate always irritates my GI tract a little so I was cautious. I took 250mg last night before bed and it helped a little I think (I also took ativan 1mg looking for the vasolytic effect).

No daytime palps today, thank god. Hopefully this was just an experiment gone wrong and since I never went into afib for more than 10 seconds I'm going to add yesterday to the near miss rather than episode part of my logbook.

Monty

Monty -– I had forgotten that as well. However, an overriding tip-off is undoubtedly the "overly salty meal" you mention; especially if you are marginally low in either magnesium or potassium. That said, you have had two definite trigger situations that happen coincide with your ginger intake. The recent RCT liberating a large amount of infection into your blood stream is also worth considering. I’ve known many patients who became quite ill after that treatment.

But, there is always the possibility that you have a sensitivity to one of the active components in ginger so avoiding all forms of ginger is probably good practice for you.

Doctors who treat by restoring the meridian system function thereby restoring energy flow in those pathways never fail to mention systemic and organic implications as a result of root-canal treated teeth. The post on Alkalinity, Healing, pH and Voltage - The Inside Story (General Health Forum – April 2012), mentions the consequences of impaired voltage and immune system suppression as a result of RCT.

I hope your heart calms down quickly.
Jackie

Jackie,
Do you mind if I send you an email? I wanted to ask you some questions about dental work and afib as well as some questions about mag and K.

Monty

Montos - Sure. Please do.

Jackie