Media buzz is fluttering around two heart arrhythmia cases connected to mad honey and the effects of a 15-year consumption of only cola.
 
The latter may be the most interesting for U.S. cardiologists since “mad honey poisoning” is typically only seen in the Black Sea region.
 
But both cases underscore the importance of taking detailed medical histories and even dietary intakes for patients with unexplained arrhythmias, said presenting physicians at the European Society of Cardiology’s June conference in Athens, Greece.
 
Dr. Uğur Turk from Central Hospital in Izmir, Turkey, presented the honey-heart case.
 
After eating honey contaminated with grayanotoxin, a father and son began vomiting and feeling dizzy. Surface ECGs later confirmed both also had potentially dangerous heart arrhythmias -- complete atrioventricular (AV) block and atrial flutter with slow ventricular responses. The duo spent four days in the hospital.
 
An article in the August 2007 issue of Emergency Medical Journal notes that two rhododendron species found at specific altitudes and valleys in the Black Sea region are the main sources of the grayanotoxin commonly found in mad honey.
 
And in Monaco, a 31-year-old woman was hospitalized after suffering traumatic syncope. Tests showed a heart arrhythmia and potassium levels that were significantly lower than normal. After taking a medical history, doctors found that the woman had exclusively replaced water with cola beverages since the age of 15. On medical advice, the woman stopped her soda consumption and within a month her potassium levels and heart rhythm returned to a normal range.
 
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