New to Afib

Good Evening All,

I'm new to Afib. I'm only 31 years old. I'll explain my history and Afib incident
I grew up eating salt like crazy. I remember being 12 years old laying on couch and have heart flutters. I was a kid and didn't think anything of it.


I joined the military @ 17. I remember being in the best shape of my life and still getting random flutters/rapid beats that lasted for the max 5 seconds. Being in a stressful environment overseas I never had anxiety, panic attacks or anything. I entered the construction work field @ 21 and felt great, energy, full of life and ate whatever I wanted. I'm a male 5'10 180 lbs. and have never really had a nutritious diet as long as I can remember. Process foods & fast foods was my diet. At the age of 27, I was put in a supervisory role. Couple of months later I began having crazy Panic attacks that sent me to the hospital various times, accompanied with heart palpitations / flutters. I always felt like something is wrong with me. How can stress or PTSD do this to me? For the last 4 years I have been on and off with anxiety and panic attacks. Breathing techniques have helped a whole lot and I'm pretty anti medicine. My biggest symptoms are Lightheaded all day after 3 hours of waking up, foggy head and horrible memory. Sometimes I cant even talk right, I slurr a bit and my mind and mouth arn't on the same page. Not like a stroke or anything(not that bad). I feel like my nervous system is wacked out. I get knots in my shoulders a lot.
Recently on the day I was suppose to go on vacation to Reno Nevada with my wife on a getaway. I woke up @ 330 AM with my heart pounding. I was actually dreaming and it was pounding in my dream, then I woke up and it really was!. after about 5 minutes it didn't go away and started to worry, but I didn't feel pain or discomfort. I went to the hospital and had an EKG, they were all shocked cause of my age. Doctor said I had affib and the top chambers weren't in sync with the bottom chambers which is why my heart was beating so sporadic and off beat. it was jumping to 170bpm when I stood up and was about 140 resting. After some IV meds it was lowered to 90.
They gave me some pills (beta blockers) and sent me on my way. Told me to see my doctor and follow-up with a Cardiologist. My blood pressure has always been on the lower side. 105-120 over 60-70
I was low on potassium 3.5.. I have been stuck @ 3.5 for the last 4 years of all the times I've had blood work drawn. My sodium was high, I was dehydrated( I drank 2 beers the night before ). My blood Magnesium was in range but on the lower end.
I asked my doctor if I could take the Exatest and called my insurance which they do cover it. He said no and doesn't understand why its important
Doctor:
"I'm not sure why this is important over the macroscopic level we see. the intracellular environment can change as potassium, sugar, proteins and other items are transported in and out. The external fluid environment (interstitial as well as blood) changes as well and with osmosis, plays a part in the intracellular environment. Once we know what it is at that moment, then it can change. Also, different cells have different environments. I'm not sure how I would fix that environment if we see it is not correct? I would also suspect to check the cellular level, you need actual tissue samples, not blood."


Anyways I wanted to introduce myself and say hi to everyone.
Sense my episode I started going to the gym in the morning, cut out salt from my diet, eating more greens, drinking more water and ordered Magnesium's chelated. I still get lightheaded everyday.

my question is, Can stress really cause lightheaded all day everyday even when I'm super happy and cause Afib?


-Chris

Yes.

Let me emphasize that.

YES.

Stress beats the crap out of your adrenal glands by forcing them to make Cortisol (the stress hormone). At some point the poor little things are going to exhaust their ability to make it and start goosing you with adrenaline instead. Whammo! Heart flutter and palpitations.

Your electrolytes are also not in a good place. Definitely supplement and fix that!

And, lastly, welcome to the club nobody wants to join. We're here for you.

Chris,

Welcome and sorry you're here, but this is a great group. You will hear from a lot more knowledgeable folks than me, but I will get the ball rolling.

Re your last question, stress is thought to be a contributing factor in afib. Tough to measure but there is a study showing that yoga can help. Not a trigger for me so can't really contribute much more from my experience.

Re your lightheadedness, from my experience that would mean I was still in afib - do you know if that's the case? Either way you should find a good Electrophysiologist (EP) as they are the cardiologists who specialize in arrhythmias. It sounds like you are symptomatic, in which case you will feel much better if they can get you back in normal sinus rhythm. If you are in NSR and still feeling lightheaded all the time I would get to your doctor and figure out what's going on.

Diet and electrolytes are very important; you are on the right track there and developing good habits will be beneficial for your afib and your general health. Search the forum for "The Strategy" to get started, and you will get a lot more guidance from the group. And you already understand that alcohol dehydrates you - its not good for heart cells and is one of the classic afib triggers to be aware of.

Keep asking questions.

All the best and NSR,

Clay

Hello, Chris, and welcome. I am truly sorry that you have had such a struggle with these symptoms starting with an early age and I appreciate your detailed report.

Overall, yes, stress can give you those symptoms and the fact that your body's balance of the critical minerals (aka electrolytes) is also undoubtedly skewed and deficient, contributes to the symptoms.

I'm pleased to read that you are focusing on improving dietary choices and lifestyle changes. These have a significant impact and on more than just the irregular heartbeat. The Strategy is a good start. Along with that, it's important to use pure water (get a filter if you have municipal water.) And consider making the magnesium bicarbonate water concentrate to help alkalize your tissue pH and give provide you with a highly beneficial form of magnesium. The formula or recipe is in this post: [www.afibbers.org]
Stress depletes magnesium...quickly and big time... so drinking pure water made from this concentrate which we call WW or Waller Water.... helps give you, small additional sources of a unique type of magnesium.

First, I'd like to address the doctor's comments on the usefulness of the ExaTest. He said: "I would also suspect to check the cellular level, you need actual tissue samples, not blood." Well, he's correct with that assumption as the ExaTest is not a blood sample but rather a tissue scraping done with a wooden tongue depressor from under the tongue. You can do it yourself. Easy. But the point is... it does evaluate intracellular levels of magnesium, potassium, sodium, calcium, phosphorous and chloride as well as their functional ratios...plus gives an assessment of the findings and what that means to the body. As I commented in another post, ExaTest was developed for NASA's use on astronauts for reliable, easy, quick assessments.

I realize he won't order it for you but perhaps you can find a holistic doctor such as an Naturopath or holistic Chiropractor in your area who will order it. I had the same problem and asked a holistic Chiropractor if he would just do the paperwork and I'd take care of the rest. He did order the test kit and I did the tissue scrapings, returned them and then retrieved the results from the Chiropractor. He just acted as my 'facilitator'... and included the paperwork as part of one of my treatments.

Well... my point is that your serum potassium at 3.5 is very low. When mine would be measured at anything under 4.0, I'd be in arrhythmia. The high salt diet (sodium) rapidly depletes potassium; plus quite likely, you are also deficient in magnesium which lies at the core problem. You can look up food sources of potassium (K) at this link by Oregon State...[lpi.oregonstate.edu]... and try to take in the daily requirement of 4700 mg. Some people find that using a blender to make a veggie smoothie is an tasty easy way to get some of it. Others find they also need to supplement food sources. The NOW brand of powdered potassium gluconate is both economical and easy to add... iHerb has it here: [au.iherb.com].

Give up alcohol until you are totally stable. Alcohol is not only dehydrating, but it depletes magnesium.

As you start your new program and if you need help, send me a PM. there are many helpful posts and reports that to which I can direct you for further reading and support. Glad to try to help.

Best to you,
Jackie