chest pain with LAF

Anyone with LAF experienced chest pains? In particular, a soreness under the sternum that makes it hard to get a deep breath? I've had LAF with several episodes over past 4 years but always reverting on its own. Last Sunday after 2 hours of a 5 hour bike ride (in the heat, which often seems to help bring on AF) started having chest pain that made it difficult to breathe deeply. Next day, saw doc and he did EKG and I was in AF but that didn't surprise me nor that unusual after heavy exercise in heat. I refused the "go to hospital" option except did get some bloodwork which was all normal including cardio enzymes. BTW, I'm 51 y/o male.

The soreness has virtually disappeared after 2 days, but I'm just wondering if others have had the same thing. Since it is a new symptom for me after 4 years of LAF, I'm wondering if it is LAF related or if it is something else. My doctor said LAF can radiate pain and could be the cause. Does it mean another level of progression of the disease or should I just count it as a fluke that day?

I've had mild chest pain from AF attacks for as long as I've had AF. Even after my ablation, I still get twinges every now and then in the left side of my chest and although I'm not in AF it's a gentle reminder that things are still going on in my heart.
My EP and cardiologist were initially concerned but after blood work, ekg's, ultra sound and other tests, they could find nothing wrong and put it down to AF induced and not to worry.
Supplementation, which I got serious with this year, has helped a lot in decreasing the frequency and severity the pain.

Allan, please will you tell us just what you are supplementing with, brand names, name of each compound, dosage, timing? Some suffering newbie is going to want to know how to do what you have done, so give all the details you can, please. We get a lot of posters from New Zealand, surprisingly enough. Who in NZ did your ablation, please, and are you completely satisfied with it?

Me too. I also sometimes get mild chestpain after AF. 25 mg of Diclofenak for 2 days takes care of this problem.

Hi Peggy

For 10 years I suffered from vagal and andrenic AF and right atrial flutter, episodes gradually increasing in frequency and length over time until when I had my ablation I was in either flutter or AF every night or during exercise but always self terminated on rising or resting. Tried various drugs but they did not agree with me at all so I planned the ablation route.
I had a flutter ablation at Auckland hospital in Feb 07, was fine for about 2 months then AF kicked in again.
My AF ablations were done in Bordeaux (2008) because at that time there was no one that I or my cardiologist trusted in New Zealand or that I could get to see in a reasonable time. The first ablation was not successful and I went in for a second 5 days later, the EP (Prof Jais) commented it was a particularly difficult ablation. 3 months later I suffered a reconnection, fortunately I was able to get back to Bordeaux in another 3 months. With this 3rd ablation, they isolated the reconnection and also found 6 focci spots to ablate.
I was pretty much bullet proof after this, could eat and drink what I liked with no effects at all. 18 months later after training one night I found my heart doing double beats ever minute or so. Things kind of went downhill over the next 6 months until one night I was lying on the couch and went into afib for around two minutes.
I changed my diet to a quasi paleo, no bread, sugary items, pastries, takeaways, alcohol, coffee, tea, anything that comes in a jar or packet etc etc (all the good stuff that makes life so easy and enjoyable!) and over the last 6 months have supplemented with daily dosages of:
320mg CO-Q10 (Solgar)
200mg potassium (Solgar) in tablet form
1000mg potassium in carrot juice
1000mg Taurine (Solgar)
1000mg of Mg (Go Healthy)

I've found my Mg tolerance has increased so I'm adding an extra 500mg tablet over a scheduled time until my new bowel tolerance is found. Yes, I also realise my Mg brand is not ideal and am looking at buying everything from Hans to maximise dosage and effect.

Its taken 8 months for it to really have an effect. I'm back training full on (representative level for ice and inline hockey), occasionally I suffer a shortness of breath at the start of any exercise but this goes after a few minutes. I still get the occasional heavy feeling / twinge in my chest and early morning I have the odd beat or two.
I believe the issues I face now are caused by focci points in the heart wall that become active under certain conditions. If things get worse then I accept that another ablation maybe necessary but I have great hope that by then the technology will have improved to a degree that they can better identify these focci spots and ablate them all at the one time.
And for those who don't believe a diet change / supplementation doesn't help, all I can say is stick with it. Its taken 8 months for me to really notice the difference and although I wish I didn't have to take any supplements, I now accept it as a way of life and I'm actually enjoying my salads these days.....

Robert - I'd want to be sure that you can pass a thalium stress test to be sure you have no arterial blockage. In the last couple of years before my ablation, I had a series of long and difficult afib events, some lasting 27 hours only to start again after a 4-hour respite. I never had heart or chest pain in that area. It always pays to be certain.

In looking at your supplement list, I think you are probably still short on potassium. Carrot juice tends to be sweet so you'll be using up quite a bit just to metabolize it. You should try for non-sweet sources like avocado and other leafy greens plus maybe more in supplement form should you have ongoing afib. If your heart remains in NSR consistently, then you may have enough potassium but rather than face yet another ablation, I'd work on the potassium angle.

You may like to have a copy of my Observational Report titled: The Strategy: What Metabolic Cardiology means to Afibbers..... send me an email and I'll send it to you.

Keep up the great work.

Jackie

Hello Allan. i looked up Go magnesium 800 but cannot find just what the 4 Mg compounds are that they boast so about. My bet is that the main one is the poorly absorbed but very cheap oxide form. Good that you already know this is not so good. Better you should get one that contains only the glycinate form.

Good to hear that paleodiet and supplementation are helping you as they have done for so many others. Please keep us posted.

PeggyM

Jackie,

I passed a nuclear stress test with flying colors in 2007 and have only improved weight, cholesterol and triglycerides since then so doubt I have a blockage problem.

I assume your second paragraph remarks were directed at Allan. I'd be interested in your report though and will send you an email. I'm assuming we are to replace the --- with your first name?

What is irritating to me is that this episode happened during exercise and I am (or have been) vagal, not adrenergic. In fact when in AF I could go exercise and get out of it, at least until a couple hours after exercise when it might resume.

At the moment, I had a reasonable day yesterday then went to bed and woke up with AF and high heart rate (140-150). Went for a short bike ride (1 hr) at moderate pace to try to "shake it" like worked in the past but today no luck. In fact, it stayed locked on mid-140s the whole ride except a couple times when I sprinted to see if running the pace up and then relaxing would get it to drop back to SR but no luck. In fact, I felt slightly light-headed and arms and legs a bit tingly (like when they go to sleep) so guess my heart is not pumping very efficiently at all right now. This is all new to me; in past, AF would respond quite differently. So maybe I have passed some kind of threshhold or progressed from vagal to mixed. If it persists, I guess I'll have to go to hospital after all. :-(

I took a 325 mg aspirin just in case...

Robert,

I always get chest pain with my AFIB even if the AFIB only last 30 seconds, it's a pattern for me. PS: heat does me in, if I overheat I have a much, much higher chance of gettin AFIB.

Robert - Okay then - as long as you know you are clear from blockage then your pain is undoubtedly the aftermath of a very difficult heart workout during the AF. We just want to be sure people don't ignore chest pain as 'routine'... as I said, I never had pain but was often light headed and breathless from the lack of good blood flow out of the heart... but all my tests were clear as well. I'll send you the report.

Jackie

Hello again Allan. Here is my email correspondence so far;

"
> Sent: Thursday, 29 July 2010 11:26 p.m.
> To: info@gohealthynz.co.nz
> Subject: Go magnesium
>
> To Whom It May Concern:
> Please will you tell me what the 4 forms of magnesium are
> that you put into
> this medicine? I am particularly interested in
> excluding the very cheap and
> readily available but poorly absorbed oxide form.
> Thank you in advance for
> your reply.
> -Peggy Merrill
>
and the reply;

-- On Mon, 8/2/10, Janeen Howard (GO Healthy NZ) <[email protected]> wrote:

> From: Janeen Howard (GO Healthy NZ) <[email protected]>
> Subject: RE: Go magnesium
> To: "'Peggy M.'" <[email protected]>
> Date: Monday, August 2, 2010, 7:44 PM
> Peggy,
>
> Thank you for your email enquiry.
>
> Forms of Magnesium used in GO Magnesium 800 are as
> follows:-
>
> Magnesium aspartate
> Magnesium amino acid chelate
> Magnesium citrate
> Magnesium oxide
>
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Janeen Howard
> Technical Support Manager
to which i in turn sent this:

"In what proportions, please? Is the biggest part of it composed of the very cheap, but very poorly absorbed oxide form? Also, with what amino scid is it chelated? Aspartate only? Thank you in advance,
PeggyM
-Peggy Merrill