What are basic blood test markers?

Hi everyone,

First, thank you very much for everyone's contribution to this forum, the research, and willingness to share. I have been reading for weeks now to help myself in a logical and systematic way.

My first, simple questions:

What are the basic markers for blood testing as I test my supplementation routine?

How often should I test?

Has anyone adjusted their supplements by "feel" in between tests?

I assume I need potassium Exatest for magnesium, calcium, but what else?

Thank you!

Hello, MadMax and Welcome.

What are the supplements in your routine along with dosages?

Are you including any that help reduce the inflammatory factors that contribute to hyperviscosity (or thick, sticky blood)?

How long have you been doing the supplementing and what other steps have you taken (lifestyle habits) to improve overall health...such as lose weight, limit alcohol, avoid food additives, etc. Stats like age, how long you've had AF are also helpful to know.

Many influences affect outcomes so, details...please.

Jackie

Hi Jackie -

Thank you for the response and the welcome.. I agree, many influences affect outcomes and I'm keeping fairly good track of it all. Here's the short story on my condition:

53 year old male, 5-10, 170lbs.

Former elite athlete, competitive masters athlete until 2 years ago, all endurance sports with lifelong weight training.

Paleo diet for most of my life - very little bread, sugar, wheat, artificial ingredients, so not much in the way of inflammation coming from diet. (I don't have a membership card or wear the team uniform though.) Other lifestyle habits include daily meditation, deep breathing exercises (Wim Hof & Brian MaKenzie), cold showers and ocean swimming year-round in New England. No smoking, I drink 1-2 drinks a couple of times a year although I went 8 years without having anything when I was competing. I take digital sabbaths, don't use commercial care products, and well, probably shouldn't get me started on all that.

AF history;

Once in 1991, after eating a frozen-yogurt sundae as big as my head. Converted on my own while they were wiring me up a the ER.

Once in 2014, after arguing during a work meeting and then eating a bowl of fruit-flavored chocolate. (Proceeded to workout and have another meeting during afib, cardioverted successfully that evening at ER).

Once in 2015, during workout at home the morning after a 2-week business trip. NP gave me Metropolol, converted in a few hours. A few days later while over in England, I started getting very tight chest strain, went to their hospital and the doctor encouraged me to not take the Metropolol, which I threw out and that solved the chest pains.

However, the incident in the UK prompted me to research supplementation, and i realized then that ever since I was a little kid, I had felt very heavy "thunks" a couple of times a day. Since I grew up with it, I always thought it was normal - doesn't everyone feel that? I started supplementing with potassium-based food (coconut water, etc.), Vitamin C, B12 and D, plus Theanine to help with cortisol levels. I also redoubled my efforts for stress and lifestyle change, and the thunks went away, and no other incidents of a-fib and for the first time in my life, my heart had no thunks. I packed suitcases of coconut water on my trips to the far east and Russia.

Fast forward to October of 2018, and I had to have open heart surgery for a distended aorta (replaced with a vacuum cleaner tube). I knew someday I'd have the operation and that's why I wasn't allowed to compete as a masters athlete for the last couple of years. The operation went really well, recovery was pretty easy, and the only blip was a little a-fib in the hospital which happens to 40-60% of patients. Went home from Cleveland with flying colors.

Two days home I went back into a-fib and suffered a vestibular stroke. In truth, i was doing too much when I got home. The hospital had not prescribed thinners when I went into a-fib, and my stroke occurred about 30 hours after going into it. The hospital had released me with Potassium levels of 3.6 (which I didn't check, my biggest mistake). I had some a-fib during the stroke, but then converted without interference. Again, the recovery from that went really really well.

So today I am home recovering from both. I'm completely functional, and my heart has no a-fib at all. Obviously there is a lot of inflammation from the procedure and the rebuilding of my brain, so I'm taking it very easy (hard for me) and feel good.

Weirdly, my best friend from 3rd grade had the same surgery, with the same doctor, at the same hospital, 24 hours before me. We have obviously compared notes as we recover, he's fairly similar to me (no other co-morbidity) and so I know that some "heavy beats" or thunking is a result of the surgery and not a-fib or rhythm-related. (Of course, we are so close, maybe my stroke is giving him thunking?)

My only concern is that I'm noticing ectopics now when I'm tired or overextended - I suspect that they are part of my blood thinner side effects as well as a sign of over exertion. Additionally, I'm aware that heavy, repeated concentration on a body part can affect the awareness and possibly neurological feeling in that area - i.e.,, I'm hyper aware of everything in my heart now.

I'm fairly detailed and keep really good records, so everything from sleep, diet, exertion, supplementation and feeling are recorded along with BP, weight, RHR, etc. If I delay my Eliquis 2-4 hours, my heart is calmer - I can then watch my heart rate start to climb after taking it in the morning. Similarly, when I can feel my heart "thudding," maybe from too much exertion, an extra 200mg of magnesium chelate brings it down in about 20 minutes.

Lastly, I've come up with a "basic" plan for my supplementation based on what I've read here and my own experience. I will alter one thing at a time each week or so to test my reaction (first thing is to up my magnesium dose) and take an Exatest plus what my PCP can do to test my levels. I know it's not a peer-reviewed international panel looking at a double-blind anonymously-funded study, but it's as close as I can get at home right now.

Morning:
5 mg Eliquis
2.5 mg Lisinipril
1K Vitamin D
B12
1 g C
500mg Taurine
100 mg Theanine
200 mg Magnesium Glycinate (Albion Chelated)
120 mg Rhodiola
350 mg Potassium Gluconate powder

Midday:
1K Vitamin D
200 mg Mag
1000 mg Fish Oil (734/266)
350 mg Potassium

Night:
1K Vitamin D
1 g Vitamin C
500 mg Taurine
100 mg Theanine
100 Magnesium Gycinate
100 Magnesium Citrate (Natural Calm)
350 mg Potassium powder

My apologies for the long post, I have a tremendous amount of detail and I very much appreciate any insight on what levels I should test going forward.

Have a great weekend.

Hello again, Max... thank you for the tremendous detail. I'm sending you a PM shortly.

Jackie

Thank you Jackie. I responded to your PM last night but it doesn't show up - maybe I have to wait for permissions? Thank you again.

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MadMax
Thank you Jackie. I responded to your PM last night but it doesn't show up - maybe I have to wait for permissions? Thank you again.

Unless you check the box to keep your sent PM's they don't show up in your list.

You sound very healthy. The fitness activities can be a double-edged sword for afib. Good for the plumbing but not so much for the electrical system. In my case, I found that the product of intensity times duration is a trigger for me. So short, high intensity is OK (think HIIT, Tabatas), long moderate intensity is OK, but long high intensity is not OK.

George

Hi George -

I learned the "sent" trick yesterday thank you.

I followed the same path as you, through athletics, and I appreciate your approach to detraining and modification. Very smart.

Right now I'm still recovering from open heart surgery and a stroke (is that healthy?), both of which occurred within a few weeks of each other at the beginning of November. Apparently if you saw me you'd never know, but I am now feeling ectopics if I do too much, and sometimes that's not very much at all.

I figured now is the time to get my supplementation and stress triggers sorted to the best of my ability before anything else. In truth, I've not struggled with a-fib as much as some others, but I'm taking this opportunity to make myself as healthy as possible.

I've not read all 2,000 of your posts, but thank you very much for sharing your story and your efforts. I definitely appreciate it.

Quote
GeorgeN

Thank you Jackie. I responded to your PM last night but it doesn't show up - maybe I have to wait for permissions? Thank you again.

Unless you check the box to keep your sent PM's they don't show up in your list.

You sound very healthy. The fitness activities can be a double-edged sword for afib. Good for the plumbing but not so much for the electrical system. In my case, I found that the product of intensity times duration is a trigger for me. So short, high intensity is OK (think HIIT, Tabatas), long moderate intensity is OK, but long high intensity is not OK.

George