Dectective work

Hi everyone-

Doing some dectective work. I've had some brief AF runs early in the morning now that are mitiaged by breathing patterns and very gently walking around. I'm keeping a log of when, where, weather, food intake, activity level, mood, etc. Trying to establish a pattern. The past two eps. happened when I was snoozing away and woke to inreasing heart rate and then going into afib. I sleep on my right side.

At the end of October, my cardio gave me the green light to go off the metroprolol tartrate, and have done so very carefully as I know it's a bear to withdraw from. I'm beginning to wonder if some of my symptoms are rebound, despite the careful titration. That drug is notorious for causing rebound problems. Despite the runs of AF, I don't feel like the zombie I was while on that drug, and I don't have the pounding heart and other horrific effects.

Working with the supplements still. Does anyone know how much of the Epsom salts I should use for a foot soak? It's still too cold for baths yet, so I figured a nice foot soak would help deliver the magnesium for now. I shower each morning, so I don't know if there is a form I can use in the shower.

I'm still a rookie at this, so specific measurements are helpful, as with any supplememt suggestions.

On a side note, I had accupuncture treatments done, courtesy of a friend who is a practitioner. Traditional Chinese Medicine is completely different than Western medicine, and she noticed a "traffic jam" of chi in my chest area. Interesting. Chi is the term of the energy that flows through us in TCM.

Had a miserable day yesterday and am hoping for a better day today. Unfortunately, I had to make a new entry in my symptoms diary at 1:45 this morning.

Kittymama, Congratulations for keeping your journal. I don't have bouts of afib -- I just have an irregular hb all the time, but every once in awhile I get "hard" beats, never too rapid. I have kept a journal; but, alas, I have found after many months that nothing seems consistent. I am drinking a cup of coffee (which I have mostly given up) and my heart is calm and quiet; although still irregular.

I know of a few people here who will make sarcastic comments about Chi, however, I truly believe it has a LOT to do with everything. Afib and irregular heartbeats are electrical problems and the electric wires in our body are meridians. In fact, many years ago I had learned about "running your meridians" daily to keep everything in balance and I am going to begin this regimen again. There is a specific heart meridian which runs from each nipple, out to the armpit and down the outside of your arms to the little finger. I believe for true balance doing all of them is preferred. I am going to search "running body meridians" and you might want to do the same. Also, Chakra mudras (positions hands are held in yoga) also have to do with certain body parts, so you might want to look that up. Your accupuncture friend probably knows about both of these things.

Louise

I use to have the early morning fast fluttery heart rate and would wake with my arms and feet numb, but about 12 months ago I started taking ginger before bed and never had the problem since. It has worked for a number of other members on this site as well .
[www.afibbers.org]

I take a 1/2 tsn of clubhouse chinese ginger mixed with milk, or just some grated ginger rood (very cheap at a grocery store) . The fresh grated pulp is spicy and tasty. (I found bulkfood ginger seemed to have some undesireable filler that didn't agree with me, so stay away from that)

I was taking a betablocker but it didn't do much, so i cut the dosage to just 1/2 a 25mg at night.

Do you have a heart monitor to catch the night time activity ?

Larry

Larry, I too have just started drinking fresh ginger tea made from shredded root. I don't have morning flutter, but do wake with cold feet. I haven't seen results yet, but realize that I should probably be taking it closer to bed time. I take Nattokinase and Taurine just before sleeping and I don't know if drinking Ginger tea still constitutes an "empty stomach."

Does anyone know if I can drink tea close to taking my nattokinase & taurine?

Louise

Louise - You may find that taking taurine with food is a better practice than taking it on an empty stomach at bedtime. Liquids typically don't cause a problem at bedtime, but lying down right after drinking ginger tea may be an issue. I drink a lot of ginger root tea, but I don't drink it just before lying down...my own precaution. My last cup is around 8 pm with bed time 10:30 or 11 pm. I do take my NK (enzyme) dose and several other supplements right at bedtime and it does not seem to cause a problem.

Jackie

Thank you, Jackie.

What is your concern about drinking ginger tea before lying down?

I had been taking Jarrow taurine and it was to be taken with food. I switched to NOW brand and it says to take it between meals. I take NK 3 x a day, so I just take them together.

Do you know if there are absorption problems with supps that should be taken on an empty stomach and liquids, like ginger tea?

Louise

Louise - when lying down for a length of time... as in sleeping... my concern is that ginger tea might activate stomach acid which is definitely not what one wants. The literature on taurine... which is not driven by brand names... says that taurine may elevate stomach acid and increase risk of causing ulcers... therefore taking with food is recommended. This comes from The Healing Nutrients Within by Eric Braverman, MD... who also says that if you take it alone, you can use magnesia... in this case, you could probably make the magnesium bicarbonate water (WW) and drink that with the taurine at bedtime...if you can't take it with meals.

But that said... taking supplements with ginger tea would probably only mean enhanced metabolism from whatever increased stomach acid happens to occur.

Jackie


Past posts on taurine's importance with arrhytymia...
Original post - What About Taurine?
[www.afibbers.com]
[www.afibbers.org]
[www.afibbers.org]

Also these:

Taurine, an anti-excitatory amino acid, serves as a central nervous system (CNS) sedative to help alleviate the hyperactivity associated with ADHD. It is most effective at 3,000 mg per day in divided doses between meals

Taurine is the most important and abundant free amino acid in the heart. It modulates the activity of cyclic AMP, which activates important enzymes that contribute to the heart’s contractibility. It also plays a role in calcium’s function of nerve transmission in the heart. Taurine plays a vital role in the adaptive response of the heart to stress. 5

5 Pfeiffer, Carl and Eric Braverman, The Healing Nutrients Within New Caanan Cn. Keats, 1987 pp. 121-124


Medical Hypothesis
Volume 63, Issue 3, Pages 426-433 (2004)

Sub-optimal taurine status may promote platelet hyperaggregability in vegetarians

Mark F McCarty
Received 20 September 2002; accepted 11 November 2002.

Abstract
Although vegan diets typically have a very favorable effect on a range of vascular risk factors, several independent groups have reported that the platelets of vegetarians are more sensitive to pro-aggregatory agonists than are those of omnivores. In light of clear and convincing evidence that platelet function has an important impact on risk for thromboembolic events, it is important to clarify the basis of platelet hyperaggregability in vegetarians. A dietary deficit of long-chain ω-3 fatty acids is not likely to explain this phenomenon, since most omnivore diets do not include enough of these fats to discernibly influence platelet function. A more plausible possibility is that relatively poor taurine status – a function of the facts that plants are devoid of taurine and the human capacity for taurine synthesis is limited – is responsible. Plasma taurine levels are lower, and urinary taurine excretion is substantially lower, in vegetarians than in omnivores. Platelets are rich in taurine, which functions physiologically to dampen the calcium influx evoked by aggregating agonists – thereby down-regulating platelet aggregation. Supplemental intakes of taurine as low as 400 mg daily have been reported to markedly decrease the sensitivity of platelets to aggregating agonists ex vivo. Although the average daily intake of taurine from omnivore diets may be only about 150 mg, it is credible to speculate that a supplemental intake of this magnitude could normalize the platelet function of vegetarians in the long term; in any case, this thesis is readily testable clinically. Taurine is just one of a number of nutrients found almost solely in animal products – “carninutrients” – which are rational candidates for supplementation in vegans.

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[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]
Amino Acids. 2000;19(3-4):509-26. Links

Taurine and neural cell damage.
Saransaari P, Oja SS.
Brain Research Center, Medical School, University of Tampere, Finland. blpisa@uta.fi

The inhibitory amino acid taurine is an osmoregulator and neuromodulator, also exerting neuroprotective actions in neural tissue. We review now the involvement of taurine in neuron-damaging conditions, including hypoxia, hypoglycemia, ischemia, oxidative stress, and the presence of free radicals, metabolic poisons and an excess of ammonia. The brain concentration of taurine is increased in several models of ischemic injury in vivo. Cell-damaging conditions which perturb the oxidative metabolism needed for active transport across cell membranes generally reduce taurine uptake in vitro, immature brain tissue being more tolerant to the lack of oxygen. In ischemia nonsaturable diffusion increases considerably. Both basal and K+-stimulated release of taurine in the hippocampus in vitro is markedly enhanced under cell-damaging conditions, ischemia, free radicals and metabolic poisons being the most potent. Hypoxia, hypoglycemia, ischemia, free radicals and oxidative stress also increase the initial basal release of taurine in cerebellar granule neurons, while the release is only moderately enhanced in hypoxia and ischemia in cerebral cortical astrocytes. The taurine release induced by ischemia is for the most part Ca2+-independent, a Ca2+-dependent mechanism being discernible only in hippocampal slices from developing mice. Moreover, a considerable portion of hippocampal taurine release in ischemia is mediated by the reversal of Na+-dependent transporters. The enhanced release in adults may comprise a swelling-induced component through Cl- channels, which is not discernible in developing mice. Excitotoxic concentrations of glutamate also potentiate taurine release in mouse hippocampal slices. The ability of ionotropic glutamate receptor agonists to evoke taurine release varies under different cell-damaging conditions, the N-methyl-D-aspartate-evoked release being clearly receptor-mediated in ischemia. Neurotoxic ammonia has been shown to provoke taurine release from different brain preparations, indicating that the ammonia-induced release may modify neuronal excitability in hyperammonic conditions. Taurine released simultaneously with an excess of excitatory amino acids in the hippocampus under ischemic and other neuron-damaging conditions may constitute an important protective mechanism against excitotoxicity, counteracting the harmful effects which lead to neuronal death. The release of taurine may prevent excitation from reaching neurotoxic levels.

Thanks Jackie for the excellent summary of abstracts highlighting some of the mechanisms by which taurine can help not only the heart but brain and overall nervous system.


Happy New Year!
Shannon