Re: Dehydration, saltwater, anxiety and adrenals.

Since you don't mention it I have to ask:  did those carbs include wheat or any gluten containing grains?  Some of us here with AF have found that gluten, and more specifically wheat, will trigger adrenal crashes.  But it could be something else, diet is extremely important, I not only read it in Dr. Lam's website but just experienced it during my last major crash which started some time in February or March and culminated with major panic attacks starting on 4/30 and ending about 3 weeks later.  I knew my liver, which has been sluggish and showing elevated enzymes in tests for many years, was very involved during those attacks because I had several digestive disturbance symptoms, and it got to the point that during the first week or so I didn't have much of an appetite most of the day AND was affraid of eating anything. So I made it a rule to have a complete digestive enzyme with all meals that involved 2 or more combinations of foods and saw that whenever I forgot I'd even start having palpitations and ended with diarrhea.  I began eating a lot of salads and laid off saturated fats, fried foods, etc. and maybe that was what helped the attacks to become less frequent.  But then when I'd been free of them for maybe 2 weeks, one Sunday that I didn't have much time for food preparation I ate no veggies and forgot my enzymes and I immediately suffered a setback that shook me up mentally quite a bit, but because I tend to analyze everything carefully I concluded it was the above and became more careful again and have thus avoided any such relapses.

Dr. Lam explains that when we're in a certain stage of AF almost anything can trigger a crash, I just caused a minor one "sans panic attack" by over-exercising.  It's really a very delicate balance and we have to listen very carefully to our bodies and go with our intuition rather than our desires.  Here's the link to his page about Adrenal Crashes and Recovery Cycle, you'll probably be very glad to learn all of that and like me you'll probably wish you'd known all of that long ago.

Oh, it may have been somewhere else that I read that people with AF tend to have a potassium imbalance, so maybe that's why you reacted badly to the salt.  With myself I've found that for years I've had to "juggle" sodium and potassium, there's times when I crave salty foods like you wouldn't believe but even then it would cause my b/p to spike and to have numbness in my arms/wrists when I sleep.  For many years I had a potassium supplement at home but the OTC pills have too little in it so at one time my symptoms became more serious and through a search I pretty much confirmed it was a potassium dip I ordered powdered potassium citrate (from Canada) and potassium bicarbonate.  For the last couple of years I've stuck with the last one because it also helps alkalize and I take 1/8 tsp. mixed with my Vit. C crystals every night, sometimes also during the day.  But yesterday I woke up with really bad brain fog, felt very hungry (low blood sugar) but too queasy to want to eat, the fatigue was worse than usual and even my digestive system seemed to be affected; then I noticed that my heart, which tends to pound when I'm not feeling well, was very slow and I could hardly feel the beats.  I knew that can be a sign of low potassium so I got up and mixed 1/4 tsp. of potassium bicarbonate with  1/8 tsp. citric acid in a little water, drank it and lay down.  After a while the queasiness went away (I'd started to eat an apple earlier and couldn't finish it...) but I felt it was not enough so I repeated the "dosage", this time with Vit. C, and was finally able to get up and eat, then get dressed and go do some shopping.  I took a 3rd dosage after I got home and today I've felt better than yesterday, still pretty fatigued but then, that's been my "daily bread" for quite a while.