Strange couple of days

So after my original mail, and advice from people on here, I stopped taking potassium completely and have been focusing on getting my magnesium intake to optimum levels. I've been taking 800mg of Swanson's Albion Chelated Magnesium for a few months now, and whenever I tried to go higher than that previously I found I'd get very loose stools. However, after messaging backwards and forwards with Jackie, I've switched to Swanson's powdered magnesium glycinate, which is not buffered and therefore contains no magnesium oxide. Interestingly, I'm now taking 350mg 3 times a day, so 1050mg a day in total, and my stools have actually been the very opposite of loose. I'm bordering on constipation in fact.

Over the last week my AF had gotten to the point where it was literally 50/50 all day. What I mean by that is that I'd have 5-10 minutes of AF followed by 5-10 minutes of NSR, and that going backwards and forwards all day. In that time I've made the switch to no potassium and using the non-buffered glycinate powder.

So, yesterday I had an appointment to see the cardiologist, to get the results of my MRI, and also to conduct a treadmill test. Strangely, when I woke up in the morning, for the first time in a week, I didn't get AF in the first 10 minutes or so. Even more strangely, I didn't get any all day. Then things got really bizarre, as I got to the hospital, did the treadmill test, where they got my heart rate up into the 180's, and STILL no AF. I then sat down until my heart had calmed down, which is normally a guaranteed time for me to experience some AF, but STILL NOTHING. I couldn't believe it! Yesterday was the first day in at least 3 months (possibly a lot more) where I had absolutely no evident sign of AF all day. I saw the cardiologist, who told me that my MRI scan was normal (they were checking for Myocarditis), and gave me a 24 hour holter monitor to wear. I've now been wearing that for nearly the 24 hours, and apart from a couple of added beats I've not had any AF feelings for yet another day.

So I don't quite know what's going on. Is it because I'm taking more good magnesium and that's starting to take effect, or have I just randomly had a couple of goods days for the first time in months. If it's the former, then that's obviously great, if it's the latter then that's a nightmare as I really could have done without having those good days when all the tests were being done.

Gary,

Time will tell, of course, but I'd bet a lot it is the former and not the latter. With as much afib as you've been having - reversal to complete NSR is pretty unlikely. l'm keeping my fingers crossed for you that it is the mag.

Thats easy enough to find out Gary,

Just stop the magnesium too for a week or two and see if the AFIB comes roaring right back and if it does, then ramp up again to the former level giving it the requisite time you needed before once on the 'right' dose and form for you, and see if it all starts to go quiet again.

I will say that t he nature of this beast can be very random seeming and the outbreaks can go from extremely aggressive to suddenly catching a real break for a period of time and then back again in the long march toward eventual persistent AFIB and without it always being directly attributable to what you might be doing, or not doing, at the moment.

That is the frustrating part, but you do want to rule in or out if there is a more direct causal impact of this particular magnesium dose and form with your recent reprieve.

I know you will be reluctant to experiment too much and risk waking up the dragon again so soon after it seems to have taken a siesta, but without doing deliberate and systematic trial and adjust self testing like this you wont ever know if it was indeed the magnesium or just another random shift back to a quiet space for a while as a natural phase of the ongoing larger progression of the disease. The problem then is that one is liable to make a snap judgment on what is working, or not, and this can keep them locked into a course of action that can postpone better treatment leading to a more truly stable condition longer term.

Its worth sorting this out as directly and systematically as you can and trying not to hold any preconceived assumptions any more than we naturally are prone to do during the process of investigation, in order to remain as true as one can to the scientific principles of being open to what the experience is really telling us rather than what we hope it might be suggesting..

That being said, it is quite possible that your magnesium levels finally got the intracellular boost (seeming like a delayed reaction) that was needed after some added days on a more bioavailable form of Mag, and that could well be a direct agent for your improved degree of unbroken NSR the last couple days.

Let's see how things go the next two weeks, before getting too excited one way of the other and do make a journal of what your doses of magnesium are and any observed changes in how you feel etc.

Keep us posted,
Shannon

Thanks all.

I totally hear what you're saying Shannon, but you're also right in that it is very scary to contemplate coming off the magnesium at the moment to try and force an episode. 2 whole days of peace for me has been absolute bliss, so letting go of that deliberately is a tough call to make. I agree though that it's probably the best thing to do. Just a few more days though....

One quick question for those in the know. I'm now taking powdered magnesium glycinate (this one), and am weighing it out with a set of mg scales. So if I'm measuring out 350mg of the powder is that 350mg of magnesium I'm taking? I'm asking because of my confusion over potassium gluconate, and want to make sure I'm not making the same mistake with the magnesium.

Gary,

From your link, 1 scoop = 5 grams of the product = 400 mg of magnesium. So you can multiply what you weigh by 0.08 (400/5000) to get the amount of magnesium. So 400mg x 0.08 = 32 mg mag.

Why test to prove it is the mag? Your objective is NSR, not a science experiment. If what you are doing is working, keep it up. The longer it continues, the more likely it is the mag, given your situation. I've done the experiment and don't need to repeat...

George

Thanks George. In that case then, I'm actually only consuming 84mg of magnesium a day.

Gary,

George has a good point, as long as the magnesium seems to be what is working no need to find out right now if it really is the key agent in your sudden reduction in activity, NO doubt it is playing a role and makes utterly good sense to use regardless.

You can also get a good idea if it is mostly the magnesium too just by upping the dose some too when, and if, the AFIB returns at the current dose and if an increased dose quiets it again for a good while, the odds are high its a key player for you in any event. Or try to first add in potassium, if your aren't already as noted in The Strategy, and see if that combination with Magnesium restores quiet and perhaps even more robustly. In that way, you don't have to risk losing this quiet time you have been gifted, whatever the most proximal cause.

My main point in all this is, I don't want folks to get too wedded to any one thing or supplement being the main 'answer', such that even when, and if, it stops working they keep on beating the horse with the same whip and expecting a better result.

Magnesium has been a huge help to me, but so has potassium with a solid magnesium base. I also had to learn that taking oral magnesium in any kind of doses that did not cause very loose stools was entirely insufficient for me as confirmed not only by many EXAtest results but by well correlated AFIB symptoms reflecting those test results far better than any Serum Mag tests every came close too.

Magnesium is often a key part of the puzzle for many of us and should be part of everyones protocol, in my view, unless they can't tolerate it for some reason. But its far from the only player in each case, as you know so don't forget the other like potassium, taurine, even ginger if you are primarily vagal and overall trigger avoidance and improving overall health as major components of getting better. And last but not least, don't put off indefinitely a key ablation with the right EP should you still not get excellent control over AFIB by whatever other means you try.

Shannon

So I've just bought a Horiba B-731, and have done a couple of readings today. My reading before lunch was 4.2 mmol/L and 2 hours after a largely tomato based veggie soup lunch it was 4.45. All of which sounds pretty consistent and right to me.

I therefore think my week of going constantly in and out of AF may have been down to excessive potassium, as I've not been taking any potassium supplementation for a week now, and my levels are where they should be, which I assume means that a week ago, when I was taking 3g of potassium gluconate a day, that my levels were probably higher than they should have been. That, coupled with taking the right kind of magnesium, is hopefully contributing to my current run of 3.5 days with no AF.