Hello Kevin, and welcome. Thanks for sharing your story.
I have several questions which I'll ask later, but wanted to share with you my experience from long ago when the Atkins diet was newly popular here in the US. I and several others thought it sounded healthy and decided to follow that eating plan. There were three of us and one reaction we all experienced was driven by hypoglycemia. Two, had what was similar to a panic attack and I had arrhythmia. We all stopped the diet and two normalized quickly. Many months later that year, I had a second arrhythmia attack and that was the beginning of my saga. Coincidentally, I had changed to a holistic MD who was new to our locale and 'holistic' was virtually unheard of.... so he checked many things that our traditional MDs did not.
Also, coincidentally, he had personal experience with stress-driven hypoglycemia and coached me how to stabilize and maintain glucose levels while treating and normalizing the fluctuations in cortisol surges caused by my stress levels. All of us worked in high-stress jobs, so that began a new approach for all of us to work on adrenal function issues.
I'm just relating this because my first question to you relates to your stress level... or perhaps a pre-diabetic situation where you have big swings in glucose levels. High carb (sugar and starchy) foods... such as potatoes, bread, cake ...as well as alcoholic drinks are typical triggers in those who tend to be hypoglycemic.
It's important not only to have generous servings of protein for each meal, but also to have healthy fat at every meal to help avoid a dip in blood glucose levels.
Most afibbers need to push up the dosing of magnesium to bowel tolerance and maintain just below that level consistently. It can also be useful to supplement with potassium if your daily intake is low. But, also important to reduce sodium intake at the same time...so the potassium can function. It's suggested that the ratio of potassium to sodium be at least 4:1. When a log or diary is kept, most people are shocked to learn how high their sodium intake actually is when every food is calculated for content. Coconut water is excellent for potassium, but the problem is...again... some brands are high in sugar. I found one that had only 3 grams of natural sugar and 440 mg of potassium in 8 oz.
There are precautions you should consider about helping to prevent your blood from being 'thick and sticky' which elevates the risk of adverse clotting when the heart is in arrhythmia for hours at a time. If you haven't read here on that topic, you can start here: [
www.afibbers.org]
Be aware that "biochemical individuality" plays a big role in variability of how people respond to suggestions on natural treatment since none of us are identical in age, health status, dietary habits, stress, exercise, genetics and so on...so our personal testimonies just serve as guidelines for you to consider when sleuthing out your associative triggers.
We are all here to try to help so continue to share and ask questions.
Best to you,
Jackie