I was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat just before Christmas, following an ECG at the GP Surgery. The GP organised an echocardiogram that was carried out today. Following the feedback from the scan it identified one or two issues but nothing major.
I am booked into see the GP for the results in 10 days. I am looking to have a private consultation with an EP to get to the bottom of the irregular beats. My heart does not race normally about 70 beats, with some regular beats then it goes a bit Skewiff, followed by more regular beats (I think they are eptopics). Here is my question, I live in Ashby, Leicestershire, is there a consultant you could recommend in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, preferably at Royal Derby Hospital.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Steve
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Steve101
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Hi Steve, not an area I’m familiar with, but if you click on the link below, then click on the reference to “find a specialist” towards the centre of the page. Click on the link within the “Heart Rhythm Specialists” paragraph, then select UK and a country wide list of specialists should appear. The list is by no means exhaustive, nor are they recommendations as any specialist can ask to be added to the list, but at least it will be a start. It’s also useful to google your hospitals of interest and check the credentials of their specialists. If you then google individual specialists, you will find out where they work, both privately and on the NHS.
I know your area - if you are prepared to travel to the Priory hospital Edgbaston which I have done in the past then do take a look at their website & put in "The Birmingham Heart Rhythm Group" I have been under the care of Dr de Bono & Dr Marshall. Both excellent - you will see their specialities under their profiles. They both also work at the QE Birmingham - the cardio dept there is really good. For example after an appointment report is with my gp within days, waiting time last Sept for ablation was just under 2 months (nhs) at each appointment you have ecg/bp etc. If you do book an appointment at Priory try & get early /mid morning appointment to avoid traffic. Cant remember how long it took but well worth it & dont think?? Its much further than Derby?
Just looked at their website for the Birmingham Heart Rhythm Group - very impressed with their expertise. Can you switch over to NHS if you start off with a private consultation?
Yes - in fact the qe is centre of excellence & some of the Priory consultants also work there as you probably seen on their website. They maybe able to refer you to a colleague in Derby. But, its worth the extra time going to Birmingham. Is it much further than going to Derby?
Just to add....you may have to pay for private consultation to actually see the main person! And also any proceedures may be carried out by team member. It is good to be led well though of course. I hope you find someone you feel confident with..and importantly who you can discuss things with. Best wishes
Might be a bit further to go but I saw Dr Sahu privately in Sheffield at Thornbury Private Hospital . He was fantastic and did my ablation which cured my svts last January. He made me feel at ease, I was terrified and feel that you need someone who is understanding which he was. Good Luck, Ursula x
Dr Sandilands at Glenfield Hospital (also has a private practice I believe)
Absolute gent, and will always go the extra mile. I really cannot speak highly enough of him. He did my ablation 2.5 years ago, if I ever had any questions or concerns I sent an email to his secretary and he called me back very quickly and if he thought it was urgent would shuffle his diary to fit me in to his clinic
Glenfield are also using the latest technology for ablation and having great success with it
I would recommend yourself. You can trust yourself to focus on better health and not more profits. Give this a try and see if it helps:
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After 9 years of trying different foods and logging EVERYTHING I ate, I found sugar (and to a lesser degree, salt – i.e. dehydration) was triggering my Afib. Doctors don't want to hear this - there is no money in telling patients to eat less sugar. Each person has a different sugar threshold - and it changes as you get older, so you need to count every gram of sugar you eat every day (including natural sugars in fruits, etc.). My tolerance level was 190 grams of sugar per day 8 years ago, 85 grams a year and a half ago, and 60 grams today, so AFIB episodes are more frequent and last longer (this is why all doctors agree that afib gets worse as you get older). If you keep your intake of sugar below your threshold level your AFIB will not happen again (easier said than done of course). It's not the food - it's the sugar (or salt - see below) IN the food that's causing your problems. Try it and you will see - should only take you 1 or 2 months of trial-and-error to find your threshold level. And for the record - ALL sugars are treated the same (honey, refined, agave, natural sugars in fruits, etc.). I successfully triggered AFIB by eating a bunch of plums and peaches one day just to test it out. In addition, I have noticed that moderate (afternoon) exercise (7-mile bike ride or 5-mile hike in the park) often puts my Afib heart back in to normal rhythm a couple hours later. Don’t know why – perhaps you burn off the excess sugars in your blood/muscles or sweat out excess salt?? I also found that strenuous exercise does no good – perhaps you make yourself dehydrated??
I'm pretty sure that Afib is caused by a gland(s) - like the Pancreas, Thyroid (sends signals to the heart to increase speed or strength of beat), Adrenal Gland (sends signals to increase heart rate), Sympathetic Nerve (increases heart rate) or Vagus Nerve (decreases heart rate), Hypothalamus Gland or others - or an organ that, in our old age, is not working well anymore and excess sugar or dehydration is causing them to send mixed signals to the heart - for example telling the heart to beat fast and slow at the same time - which causes it to skip beats, etc. I can't prove that (and neither can my doctors), but I have a very strong suspicion that that is the root cause of our Afib problems. I am working on this with a Nutritionist and hope to get some definitive proof in a few months.
Also, in addition to sugar, if you are dehydrated - this will trigger AFIB as well. It seems (but I have no proof of this) that a little uptick of salt in your blood is being treated the same as an uptick of sugar - both cause AFIB episodes. (I’m not a doctor – it may be the sugar in your muscles/organs and not in your blood, don’t know). In any case you have to keep hydrated, and not eat too much salt. The root problem is that our bodies are not processing sugar/salt properly and no doctor knows why, but the AFIB seems to be a symptom of this and not the primary problem, but medicine is not advanced enough to know the core reason that causes AFIB at this time. You can have a healthy heart and still have Afib – something inside us is triggering it when we eat too much sugar or get (even a little) dehydrated. Find out the core reason for this and you will be a millionaire and make the cover of Time Magazine! Good luck! - Rick Hyer
PS – there is a study backing up this data you can view at:
How much sugar do you need to stop your afib? The answer is about 1/2 of what your daily sugar limit (threshold) is. My sugar threshold is about 80 grams a day right now. So if I go over that (and it's sooooo easy to do) my heart will start to afib. Then if I cut back to about 40-45 grams of sugar for one or two days, then the heart goes back to normal rhythm and stays there until I exceed my daily threshold of sugar again. (moderate exercise will shorten that time frame). I have gone 30 days under my sugar threshold with no afib once just to prove it is the sugar. And I have consumed my daily limit of sugar every day after going into afib and it stayed in afib for a week - just to prove that worked. So - as long as you know what your sugar threshold is you can control it, but that takes several weeks of experimenting to figure out. I use the following WEB site to know how much sugar is in different foods:
Thank you - very interesting. The fact is that sugar causes inflammation which is a killer. People get obsessed with sacturated fats and cholesterol where the real problem is sugar and inflammation. The fat wouldn’t stick to our arteries unless they were ‘rough’ as a result of inflammation caused by sugar. I am trying to cut down on my sugar intake, in attempt to have a healthier diet with the added benefit that I will lose weight (which I need to do).
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