So this is my views,ideas and opinions on Afib-please do follow your gps advice or get their advice before changing anything.
So like most people here when i got my afib i was terrified, since then i have searched for why this craziness happens...
So AF is when your heart(SA node) doesn't always fire(conduct) properly to the AV node. It has multiple electric impulses firing in the atrium. The symphony is out of whack. We all get taught that the SA node fires electric impulses to AV node etc.....not quite as simplistic, the atrium has multiple firing points which all fire together(in my opinion this is why alot of athletes in their later years get AF because as athletes their hearts make more firing points in the atria in order to pump harder and stronger--later these firing points are not needed and stop or misfire or get blocked perhaps by fatty tissue???). Once they stop firing together we get AF.
Why do they stop firing together?
Perhaps structurally your heart has changed though this would be in the minority.
More importantly your hearts chemical make up has changed.
I was put on an amiodarone drip for 24hrs which worked. I was given amiodarone tablets to take which still remain unopened.
This is how i cured myself-i concluded AF is a conduction issue not a structural issue hence i need to make sure my conductors Calcium,Potassium,Manganese and especially Magnesium are in abundance for my body to use as necessary!
I was getting enough calcium with dairy and manganese as trace.
Interestingly Magnesium is leached out the body when you take certain meds and when you eat anything with sugar in it such as sweets,pastries and colas!!
Also interestingly magnesium helps the absorption of potassium and forces it into the cells.
Hence amiodarone tablets remained untouched and i started on 600-800mg of magnesium a day with 200-400mg of potassium a day. I started to feel great! BUT every now and then a flutter would occur and id be cautious not too move as my heart felt it was ready to start again into craziness. After a week i added b complex one a day and 300mg of B3 as niacin(100mg 3 times). After about two weeks once my tissues caught up with my blood levels i felt normal. Of course i stopped the colas, and cut down on the sweetstuff too.
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Very interesting - we need a lot more information on nutrition, electrolytes and trace minerals and AF symptoms. Because I have chronic fatigue I started following a doctor - Dr Sarah Myhill some years ago and have bought several of her books in which she explains in detail of exactly what happens in the production of energy within the cell and especially heart cells. Since then I have been researching more and now take the following :- COQ10, D-Ribose & L-Cartinine in addition to Nutritional advice on food intake in general.
Unfortunately I can’t take Magnesium orally but I do use a Magnesium oil spray and bathe in sea salts which can also be really helpful.
There is a US cardiologist who specialises in Metabolic Cardiology which may be helpful for you to research.
I have also been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and daily take d-ribose, cell salts, and Dr. Teitelbaum’s energy revitalization system too. I too cannot take magnesium orally but take Hylands magnesium sublingual tablets, soak in Epsom salts and use topical magnesium. All of these things have pushed fibro into remission and if I stay gluten free too I have no longer had heart arrithmias. I did have an ablation in 2016 but still had issues until I went gluten free. There is definitely an energy factor with Afib and arrhythmia I believe and glad I figured it out.
I’m not sure anyone can say for sure what causes Mg & there are at least 4 known antibodies & 4 types of Myasthenia, not just Mg however I do believe that micronutrients or a lack of absorption of them are a major contributing factor. Unfortunately a lot of the Vit B range also cause me problems - no idea why - so I am really careful what I take. I can be affected by 3gms of Mag used as a filler in some supplements.
I saw recently a company start up which can analyse biochemically what you should supplement with. I think supplementation will be the future of medicine but we have a way to go yet & in the meantime it’s trial & error. I keep a symptom/intake diary to track & correlate progress.
No one knows what causes MG? We put men on the moon in 1969-dropped a remote control plane on Mars and transplant hearts and heads we don't know what causes MG.
The mechanics of Mg have been known since the 17thC and it is the best understood autoimmune disease - but no-one can really say what causes Mg anymore than they can say what causes Rheumatoid Arthritis or cancer. It is thought inflammation is the root of many autoimmune conditions but inflammation could come from stress, injury or pathogens or simply the environment. Inflammation causes an immune reaction which sends the immune system into overdrive so antibodies attack the body - eg:- Hay fever = pollen overload.
In Mg antibodies - attack the neurotransmitters & their receivers at the muscle/nerve synapses preventing the message to contract a muscle to be delivered. Myasthenia gravis = extreme muscle weakness, in US it is commonly known as Snowflake disease as like a snowflake, it affects everyone differently and in the UK used to be known as Rag Doll Syndrome because that’s what would happen - your muscles literally stop working if you are standing, walking or whatever - you fall down. In my case first signs are face droop, ptsosis, I cant hold my head up without support, can’t swallow, can’t talk and breathing becomes fast. Uncontrolled in the early days - I couldn’t walk far, climb stairs and would fall over just standing at the kitchen counter - no warning, just hit the floor. It’s very, very weird and quite scary at times.
Mine is now well controlled, thankfully, but before 1970’s about 30% of Myasthenics died as their breathing muscles stopped working. It is suspected there is also a connection between Mg and arrythmias as about 30-40% of us are known to have an arrythmia of some sort.
Unfortunately the human body is a lot more complicated than a remote controlled vehicle, even though that is amazing technology. There was a vaccine being developed which looked a promising cure but that seems to have disappeared from the radar recently.
I believe there are some nutritional deficiencies involved somewhere but I am searching in a very big and dark place with a very small pen light to find them. So I go to the Mitochondria function as one of my big symptoms was chronic fatigue which may or may not be part of Myasthenia - jury is out on that one.
The company I looked at was a US company which seemed to be cutting edge technology at taking a genetic profile amongst other tests which then gave you a complete nutritional needs profile with recommendations of what supplements may help. It was very new and I saw the link in an online health magazine but I didn’t keep the link. I am sure if you looked hard enough you may be able to but as it was US based of no use to me. If I come across it again I will let you know.
Sounds similar to guillian barre...except that tends to be a slow paralysis to lung function and then reduces.
I ask about the genetics because it's popular and extremely jn my opinion worthless. The results do not take into consideration epigenetic and some of the results will say..." your genetics say eating fruit and veg is best" duh.
A greater man then me said " it's the environment that drives the gene not the other way round". Hmmm maybe I said that 😂
Mate I'm in UK.London...don't look for cutting edge technology or latest drug.
You have everything you need you just aren't having the right supplements or not enough of the right stuff.
Sometimes we just need to change the outside of our cells with supplements or the medium they rest in.
Yes, to follow up on CDreamer's comment, I encourage you to read Metabolic Cardiology, by Dr. Stephen Sinatra. He goes into great detail to explain the cell biochemistry and metabolic processes and the roles of magnesium, potassium, CoQ10, D-Ribose, and L-Carnitine, along with suggestions of dosages for AF patients. Here is his website:
Based on your comment, I have a hunch that you would enjoy learning about his research.
I noticed a huge improvement once I started taking the micronutrients, though I had to experiment with the dosages, as I'm very sensitive.
My latest discovery is the recommendation of my homeopath that I try COQH, by Klaire Labs. This is a high quality Ubiquinol supplement. Ubiquinol is the reduced form of CoQ10 and my understanding is that it's more quickly absorbed.
Nice to see Drs looking into the cells for answers and lots of reading for me to do. CoQ10 is a great supplement for the heart.
Let me stress here the use of B3 as Niacin made my heart feel strong again-apparently it gets into the cellular NAD/H process and protects the heart from adrenaline turning into adrenochrome thus saving the heart from damage and fibrillation. Which brings us to the liver-if this is clogged and fatty then it can't protct the rest of the organs especially the heart-in fact release of sludge detoxed blood for expulsion may also make an arrythmia.
I am taking Magnesium Citrate at the moment. At the time it was magnesium glycinate,also had magnesium chloride. Basically i avoid Magnesium Oxide as ingesting rate is poor with MgO2.
Remember oral intake allows for between 10-20%ingesting rate. So some may think taking 800mg a day is too much..in reality we are at best getting 160mg of that.
I also avoided time release Magnesium.
I used magnesium WHY?
Because it rebalances the electrolytes(potassium,calcium and in particular sodium being the main ones) in the heart that are negative and positive and in charge of conduction and regular heart beat. Procainamide works by blocking sodium as does flecainide(which also may cause torsades de pointes--which is a fancy name for a heart rhythm due to lack of magnesium.
I used Niacin WHY? It protects the heart from adrenaline(this is the aim of beta blockers) and Niacin helps clean out adrenochrome(the bad adrenaline in the tissues)
Remember its the livers role to mop up excess adrenaline and therefore a good idea to give your liver a break in order to give your heart a break.
It is...it's also interesting to note that other factors are not investigated by cardios. Such as diaphragm issue, reflux, oesophageal issues, ulcers, vagal nerve issues etc.
But i guess they have more stuff to look at that are more pressing.
The medical world is just so specialised these days that I think we have lost looking at the person wholistically - as a interconnected system - instead of a series of parts bolted together.
Thank you for your encouragement. I think your approach is very commendable. My high profile London Naturopath said he wanted to see my magnesium (Red cell level not GP test) and Coq10 in the upper quartile of the normal range and the latter possibly higher than that. He said he treats most of his AF patients that way and gave me a MG compound ( nutriadvanced.co.uk/megamag... ) and CoQ10. You may be interested to check out the ingredients of the Mg compound which include Taurine. I have been taking these supplements for 5 years and with Flecainide have been AF free.
One quickie question if I may, do you think AF can be caused by too much of one of the conductors? I have always taken a lot of calcium (principally dairy) in my diet and I am now substantially reducing this to avoid a prostate risk.
Howdy. Nice magnesium glycinate is what I initially started myself on. He is right to want to check levels of Mg other than in the blood😀
With regards to calcium...Yes we generally eat too much via dairy we also eat too much sodium...generally.
Yes I do think it is a mismatch of conductors, either we aren't getting enough or one in particular is being leached out the body more or perhaps cells are blocking them from entering.
5years no AF is excellent...perhaps you could work with him and your doc on slowly reducing flecainamide?
Cardiologist says I should stay on the Flecainide, so for now I will do that. If I get myself into full good health, I may consider weaning myself off very slowly, much slower than most medics suggest.
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