Hi All - Newbie here. Question about Metoprolol Beta Blocker

First off, I'm blown away about how comprehensive this site is.. Thank you all for your efforts!

Here's my abridged story. Male, 6'3" athletic, 200 lbs, 56 years old, in good health. However, high "normal" blood sugar fasting level - so still within normal range but want to get it lower. Doc suggested more paleo which I have just started to be more religious about as of last week. My diet prior to that was pretty healthy though - not a lot of processed carbs but definitely some. Exercise regularly (5 x per week - light trail running, mtn biking, gym for weights, occasional yoga).

I had my first afib experience 16 years ago. Drank a metabolic booster at the gym and drank some cold water during my workout. Yikes! Off to the emergency room, drugs, converted on "my own" after 12 hours in hospital. Followed up with a cardiologist here in San Franciso - had echo cardiogram but no underlying heart disease detected.

Then, just last Tuesday at the gym I had my second attack. Had coffee prior to working out - burped a little during workout and it kicked in. Adrenaline dump. Freakied out. Coughed, Vaselva maneuver, prayed to the universe to no avail. Off I went to the hospital. Heart rate up to 140. Spent the night and was electro-controverted about 20 hours later.

So here I am. Emergency room cardiologist, with whom I have no prior experience (don't have one but now I will find a good one) sees me out the door with bet blocker Metoprolol and blood thinner Xarelto. My sense is that I am not in asymptomatic Afib normally. I can't say for sure without more tests performed but I'd be surprised if that were the case. I have had a few instances, say three times, where I can feel an attack coming on in the past 6 months but it hasn't turned into a full blown attack. These last two minutes or less.

Cardiologist wants me to stay on blood thinner for 6 weeks. I guess I'm okay with that given the risk which is actually unknown for now. If I don't have asymptomatic Afib between my known attacks, it would seem that taking drugs in the long run would be more detrimenta if attackes are few and far between. And she wants me on Metoprolol beta blocker. I've read quite a bit about side effects [weight gain, lethargy, depression, erectile dysfunction (can't have that!!) etc] and there is some question as to whether they keep you from having another Afib attack. My resting pulse is 60 bpm without the beta blocker. I really don't want to take this beta blocker but want to be wise too.

I'm hoping that I can curb possibility of more attacks with vigilant clean diet, supplementation and lifestyle changes. I've read of successful accounts here coupled with others that I have read on the net. I know that might be wishful thinking to some people in the standard issue medical world but as I see it, there is no downside to this approach. Obviously if I need to reconsider down the road, I would opt for a different protocol.

Thoughts and insights?

Thanks in advance good people!

Daniel

Daniel,

Welcome. You are likely have vagal triggers (common with those who are fit) <[www.afibbers.org] . A beta blocker (B is contraindicated for those with vagal triggers as in simple terms, you run your heart too slow and the beta blocker will make that worse. If you have a rate > 100 BPM in afib for any period of time, then a BB would make sense DURING THE TIME YOU ARE IN AFIB. For a good review get <[www.amazon.com] written by the retired moderator and founder of this site. It is old, but it is great background reading.

You want to find an good electrophysiologist, not a cardio (those guys specialize in plumbing, not electricity).

You may want to ask for an on-demand (pill in pocket or PIP) med to convert you when you go out of rhythm. A good choice for a vagal afibber is flecainide. The dose is 300 mg for those over 70 kg and 200 mg for those less. <[www.nejm.org]; In my experience, flec usually converts me in 1 to 2 hours. Also with electrolyte supplementation, episodes are few and far between, for me (YMMV).

Lastly, my path to afib, and many who have it whose initial episode occurs when they are under age 60 comes from being chronically fit. A brief version of my story is here: [www.afibbers.org] How much is too much is a question I ask myself continually with respect to exercise and afib.

I would encourage eliminating any vestiges of insulin resistance through diet. If you read Dr. Kraft's work (summarized here: <[www.thefatemperor.com] ), you'll see that 80% of who tested normal on an oral glucose tolerance test had an abnormal insulin response (plus all those who tested abnormally on glucose). Excess insulin is a bad actor and most are not normal, "diabetes in-situ" according to Dr. Kraft. I would say you should at least have a fasting insulin test. You'd like to have it at 5 or less to be really in the clear. If you have any interest, I can elaborate.

Good luck!

George

There are two things you do immediately to help prevent further episodes. Stop the Metabolic boosters and the coffee before a workout.

Sam

Hey George,

Thanks so much for your in depth response. I did some cursory reading of Kraft's work and I find it fascinating and compelling. Hence the strict dietary changes....oddly enough I have also had tinnitus off and on for the past year and a half and it too correlates to high insulin levels as explained in one of the videos on a page that you passed along. I can only presume that since my standard issue fasting blood glucose levels are high "normal" that I would fail the five hour test with flying colors! So the protocol to reverse the trend through diet is in effect though it be wise to get checked in the near future anyway. I do have a great doctor who helped start the Cal Pacific Health and Holistic in SF that I will speak with about getting the five hour test. I presume that you have been tested and have made gains since you first were tested.

I have a copy of Hans' book in hand as well and have the name of a reputable cardio-electrophysiologist that I will see in a month's time.

BTW, how do you keep your electrolyte levels up?

Thanks again - I really appreciate the insights as it can be a lonely wilderness traveling the world of the standard issue medical world. Stumbled across this video by a Stanford trained cardiologist which I found fascinating as well. The prevalence of afib in North America relative to the rest of the world is pretty astounding. Gee, I wonder why?

[www.youtube.com]

Kudos,

Daniel

[www.afibbers.org] Daniel and welcome!

Regarding your glucose testing, what was your Hemoglobin A1C number? And also your fasting Insulin number?

Sounds as if you are becoming or are insulin resistant. If that's the case, the betablocker will only make that worse without a lot of heroics.

Since you are a regular exerciser, what are you doing to ensure that you have the optimal nutrient intracellular stores of magnesium, potassium, CoQ10, carnitine, ribose, taurine, etc.. as you may have read in some of the other posts? If not, as a start, you can check out The Strategy here: [www.afibbers.org]

There are other important considerations as well... such as making sure that you are managing in a preventive way the effects of free radical damage from the intense, regular exercise with appropriate antioxidants. That damage is linked to arrhythmia and other cardiac problems. Making sure that your body has an alkaline tissue pH is also important. Read here: [www.afibbers.org]

And, definitely, as Sam points out... stop those energy drinks that contain caffeine and other stimulants.

Jackie

Hi,

Hemoglobin A1C = 5.6 so close to being pre-diabetic per the medical world but definitely "in-situ" per George's information (Dr Kraft). Regardless, I've changed my diet hardcore! Joel Furhman's book seems really good on the topic, "The end of Diabetes" Interestingly, he is just about to release a book for the heart: [www.amazon.com], So getting the body more alkaline is key. I think my vagus nerve gets tweaked somehow - my spine is in good alignment but I can tell when I burp/reflux or eat too much it can make my ticker on rare occasions flip and on the worst go into Afib.

Yes, I haven't touched a metabolic booster in 16 years. No more java for either (boo hoo).

I got a copy of Han's book and purchased all the supplements recommended in the Strategy.

Thank you!

Daniel

Hi Daniel,
Welcome to this page.
Just a note about beta blockers. I was also prescribed them by the hospital cardio after my first afib episode. No one suggested that I should keep an eye on my pulse, but one day I was feeling particularly weird, so I checked it. It had gone down to 30 bpm. My GP took me off the beta blockers. My pulse rate was low at normal times, so taking them then was not necessary, but it went high (over 200 bpm) during an episode. Eventually, I kept the beta blockers and an anti-arrhythmic drug (propafenone) available for when I had an episode and that was the only time I took them.
Marg

Quote
Daniel
I presume that you have been tested and have made gains since you first were tested.

I've never done the Kraft test. I've gotten into this in a step-wise progression. It took me two years into afib, I had my first episode at 49, to get the message about chronic fitness. My afib progressed rapidly, going from 6-9 hours every couple weeks to a 2 1/2 month episode within two months. During that long episode, I convinced my EP to prescribe PIP flec for me and I would used electrolytes to stay in rhythm. He was going to electro-cardiovert me, but I tried the flec and it converted the 2 1/2 month episode in 20 hours. Save for the next one a month later that also took 20 hours, most have taken 1-2 hours and at most 4. My conversion from the long episode was 11 1/2 years ago. My formula was magnesium to bowel tolerance, which has ranged from 1.5-5.4g/day of mag, a couple grams of potassium/day and 4 g taurine/day. I generally don't take potassium now, but eat a very high K+ diet.

When I finally detrained, I started to gain weight. I'd been fit but stocky since playing college football ~ 200# and 6'0". My weight started creeping up. I purchased a glucometer and started testing myself. I did my own two hour glucose tolerance test. It passed according to standard guidelines - but Kraft wouldn't have passed me.

I started eating a "traditional" (meat and low carb veggies) low carb diet, also sampling blood sugar after meals. This worked and my weight dropped ultimately to around 170# today. Nearly two years ago, I got genetically tested and realized I have an ApoE4 gene. This means I'm at greater risk for heart and Alzheimer's disease (my mother passed with dementia). My second wife also tested and she learned she's a double E4. Even worse. Dr. Steve Gundry in Palm Springs has been testing for this for many years and 30% of his patients have this status. We consult with him remotely, getting blood tests and then go over them on the phone. His tests are very extensive. On his diet, all of our inflammatory markers are stellar as well my A1C is 4.7, my wife is 4.4 and our fasting insulins are 4 and 3 respectively. So yes we have improved dramatically. E4's tend to spike their lipids, but even with that, if we put our results in the MESA risk calculators, we are well below the "put the statins in the water" level of risk, following Gundry's program as modified for E4's.

There is a lot I don't know about chronic illness, but I'd be willing to bet strongly that keeping insulin low and inflammatory markers low also will mitigate a lot of risks.

Cheers,

George



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2016 11:59AM by GeorgeN.

Welcome Flowmaster to sharing your experiences with the rest of us here at this wonderful resource ,,, as you have clearly discovered already.

And I agree George, from all that I've learned too over the last two decades of investigating how best I can stay a step ahead of the beast and improve my overall health as well, it is clear that keeping insulin resistance in check along with doing everything functionally possible to limit systemic inflammation are two of the true key Biggies toward achieving effective life-style risk factor mitigation and practical integrative health care.

While these steps may, or may not, be enough to truly put the AFIB genie back in the bottle for the long term by themselves, they certainly can help achieve that number one goal we all seek for a good number of folks who dedicate themselves to the effort. And at a minimum, making this effort will at least help improve overall health including cardiovascular good health, and typically will impact our AFIB history in a positive way, even for those of us who also need an expert ablation process in addition to adopting these very smart protocols as life-long good habits.

Shannon



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2016 10:13PM by Shannon.

Get your own Cardiologist, and I suggest get off of the Metropolol. Other Beta-blockers don't have as much of the sedative side-effect that is counter to your efforts to remain physically fit. I use Bystolic a special kind of Beta-blocker that has very minimal sedative properties. I can't even tell a difference in my workouts when I take it at 5mg. I get far less Ectopics, and I stay in NSR better.

George,

You mentioned that you didn't do the three hour test. Do you have insulin levels checked? Does the timing make any difference? Also you mention following Gundrys diet. Are you now vegetarian?

Thanks,

Lynn

I concur with Anti-AFIB about the Bystolic. While a given drug will impact different people in different ways, I also found Bystolic even at a low dose of 2.5mg in the past was ideal for lowering a post ablation elevated HR that was mildly uncomfortable down to 60bpm and with little to no other systemic beta-blocker type side effects. Bystolic is more cardio specific in action and can be worth a try for many on Toprol. Although for sure there are some for whom Toprol may work better overall as well. That's what discussing the issue with you doc is all about, and perhaps requesting a trial run with Bystolic if you are feeling too tired and weak during workouts from a 50mg or even 25mg dose of long acting Metoprolol (Toprol-XL).

BY the way Geroge, you can go to Meridian Valley Lab and order the full Dr. Kraft 5 to 6 hour glucose/insulin tolerance test and have the blood draws done at a local
Lab.

You take an initial baseline 7 to 8am fasting glucose and insulin draw as well as Hemoglobin A1c . Then drink 100grams of glucose or a drink a bottle of tree top Apple juice and repeat both test 4 or five more times often the next 4 to 5 hours, repeating every hour after the last blood draw . This will
Really help sort out your real glucose insulin sensitivity status !!

Highly recommended test

Cheers!
Shannon



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/2016 02:07PM by Shannon.

Lynn,

Gundry limits us to 20g/day (a 4 oz serving) of animal protein. Because of our ApoE4 status, this is restricted to shellfish (preferred), white fish or omega3/pastured eggs. So we are not vegan, but close. Gundry has found that animal fat will spike sdLDL (small dense LDL, the most likely to oxidize). Our diet is high fat, mostly from avocados, olive oil and nuts that he allows us (macadamia, pecan, walnut, pistachio, hazelnut). When I ran a days food through a calculator (<cronometer.com ) it was about 60 g protein (with 20 g being animal), and 80-90 g carbs, but 50 g of that was fiber. More details here <[www.afibbers.org] Our food list (which is much stricter than in his book) is here, without the ApoE4 restrictions <[drive.google.com] My wife and I have adiponectin levels >16. In Gundry's view, that means we will react to many lectins in foods. Therefore to keep inflammation levels low (like TNF-alpha), we follow his plan which basically restricts grains, legumes, nightshades and starchy veggies.

Gundry checks our fasting insulin levels (12 hour fast). Mine last two were 3 and 4 and my wife's 4 and 3. The people who've looked hard at the Kraft data say that a fasting insulin of 5 or less puts you in the clear (Gundry says his is 2 and his wife's 1). A primary care doc I know, Jeff Gerber, will check fasting glucose and insulin and at 2 hours after glucose challenge. <[www.facebook.com] He says " the 2hr OGTT (75g challenge) with 1 hr glucose (<155 mg/dl) and 2 hr insulin (<30 uIU/ml)" as cut offs for being OK, without the full 5 hour test. Since our fasting insulin levels are less that 5 and our A1C's are 4.7 and 4.4, respectively, a full test is not needed. All a positive Kraft test tells you (assuming you don't get a flat, Type 1 diabetic, insulin response) is that you should eat a low carb diet. We are already doing that, so testing is unneeded. It is just most people would not eat the way we do without testing. I'm guessing that my 22 hours/day of fasting and my wife's 16 helps with our insulin levels. If you are eating a very low carb or ketogenic diet, you the standard is to eat at least 150 g carbs/day for 3 days prior to the test to exclude physiological insulin resistance <[high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com] .

I have a friend who is a doc outside of the US. She is ApoE 4/4, meaning higher risk for heart and Alz.
"My 23 year old, when I told him about my e4/4 status, said,
"Sooooo.....you have a gene that means you have to live healthy to be healthy. How is that different from everyone else?"
Smart kid.
He's right.
Everybody should be doing what we are doing."

{edit} Here is a link to Catherine Crofts discussing her PhD study analyzing Dr. Kraft's data and how she came up with the 2 hour insulin cut off of <30 uIU/ml - 90% of those with a normal glucose tolerance test with insulin >30 uIU/ml at two hours had an abnormal insulin pattern <[www.thefatemperor.com]

Quote
Catherine Crofts
My final study, and the topic of this presentation, considered whether the hyperinsulinaemia testing process could be simplified. The current testing process requires a fasting blood test, followed by consuming 100g glucose, then further blood tests at 30, 60, 120 and 180 minutes following the glucose load; a process with significant cost and time demands. Using the results of more than 7000 people who had this test performed, I could dichotomise these people into normal or high insulin tolerance patterns. Then, using current clinical stratification, followed by sensitivity and specificity modelling, I developed an algorithm that determines the likelihood that a person is hyperinsulinaemic.
The results show that if a person has an elevated glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) or fasting plasma insulin > 30 μU/mL, hyperinsulinaemia can be assumed. In people with normal glucose tolerance and fasting insulin ≤ 30 μU/mL, a 2-hour plasma insulin level ≥ 30 μU/mL should be considered diagnostic for hyperinsulinaemia (99% sensitivity and 62% specificity). Using a 2-hr insulin cut-off of 50 μU/mL the sensitivity and specificity became 72% and 99% respectively.
In the absence of an elevated HbA1c or fasting plasma insulin, a 2-hour plasma insulin > 30 μU/mL should be used to diagnose hyperinsulinaemia. Although the 62% specificity means that we may erroneously diagnose healthy people, the first line treatment is lifestyle change. This is preferred compared to wrongly concluding people with hyperinsulinaemia are healthy.
A 2-hr, 100g, oral glucose tolerance test with insulin assays should be the preferred test for clinical practice and future research in hyperinsulinaemia related conditions.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/2016 03:42PM by GeorgeN.

George,

Thanks so much for your detailed response. I had posted another thread about my inability to lose weight on an extremely low carb diet, less than 20 grams per day. Ten years ago I would have responded very well to that type of diet and have concluded that insulin resistance must be the culprit. I have started intermittent fasting and my dr. has prescribed metformin to help the process even though my A1c was 5 at last testing if I remember correctly.

I am really desperate to lose weight in hopes of reducing my afib burden. Did the Gundry diet play a role in getting your afib under control?

I began to seriously lower my carbs at the beginning of February and since that time my afib burden has increased. I am guessing that I am freeing up some toxins.

Lynne,

"Did the Gundry diet play a role in getting your afib under control? "

No, I got my afib under control with detraining, magnesium to bowel tolerance, potassium (2g/day) and taurine (4g/day).

While I was a bit overweight, I was extremely fit. It was later that I started worrying about insulin resistance. I had kept the IR relatively in control with exercise. It was when I detrained that I noticed my IR increasing. I addressed this with a low carb diet, testing my serum glucose after meals and tweaking my diet to minimize spiking. Later, I learned of my ApoE4 status and transitioned to Dr. Gundry's diet to minimize inflammation and mitigate my genetic heart and Alzheimer's risks.

Toronto doc, Jason Fung, talks a lot about fasting as well as insulin: <[intensivedietarymanagement.com]

George

Hi George,

Very interesting stuff. I watched one of Jason Fung's insulin response fasting videos and found it fascinating. While you point to supplementation and detraining as part of keeping your afib under control don't you think getting your insulin response under control could have helped as well. The link between diabetics (not that you were one, perhaps in situ, like me) and afib seems to be high. Couple of questions:

A) With regard to the self glucose testing that you did, where does one start to educate oneself around this...when, how, what levels did you seek?

Would you be willing to share a little about your 22 hour fasting protocol. How often and from what hours to what hours.

I might be a little bit of an outlier (I guess we're all outliers to a degree as every afib case is different). My two afib experiences were 16 years apart, one when I was 40 and one a week and half ago, I'm now 56. I felt two others come on in the past three months but staved them off somehow. My afib sessions are pretty intense with high heart rate (150ish) - had to be drug converted after 12 hours the first time and cardioverted after 23 hours this time. So of course now I am both a little paranoid of it happening more as I get older and want to address all that I can naturally to see if that has any effect. On one level, I'm probably lucky in that I have only had two attacks thus far and they were spaced years apart.

I did get my TEE report back. While I haven't been able to review it with a EC yet, from what I can tell, no underlying heart disease - all structure and functioning good, no thickening. However, I do have a moderately enlarged left atrium which correlates both with being athletic and being predisposed to AF. So, chicken and egg question - did the workouts enlarge it first and then AF set in or vice versa. On one level, it doesn't really matter at this point.

1. Normal biventricular size and systolic function.
2. Moderately enlarged LA. No evidence of thrombus or spontaneous contrast
in the LA or in the left atrial appendage. Left atrial appendage emptying
velocity is normal. No evidence of intracardiac or intrapulmonary shunting
by agitated saline contrast study.
3. No significant valvular disease.
4. No pericardial or pleural effusion.
5. Estimated RAP 3 mmHg, RVSP could not be estimated in the absence of a
TR spectral envelope.
6. Grade I plaques in the descending aorta and in the aortic arch.[/i][/i]

Of course, I have only been spinning very mildly at the gym for 20 minutes as I fear that if I get my HR up too high it will kick in. Not a good way to go through life as I'm an avid biker, skier, runner. I'm not against pulling it back at all but I would not consider myself to be overly active at this point anyway. I meet with an EC in about a month - seems like it would be wise to have a stress test done to see what my ticker does on an ECG with increased heart rate. I can feel a funny feeling in my throat start to develop as it gets up there and then I back away quickly. For me ( and I see Jackie has written about this) I think there is some esophageal/vagus nerve thing going on. Obviously, at some point I would consider ablation surgery but not going there presently.

As a quick aside, I did have "23 and me" genetic testing done and I have a lower chance of having AFIB. Go figure.

At any rate, very thankful for the people and their knowledge here. It helps pull me out out of feeling alone and letting my monkey mind run away with all of this.

Cheers,

Daniel

Hi Daniel,

"While you point to supplementation and detraining as part of keeping your afib under control don't you think getting your insulin response under control could have helped as well."

Not for me, I don't think so. My situation responded immediately to supplementation, before I detrained or did anything else. Doesn't mean it wouldn't help other afibbers. I think it would help many with comorbidities. I'm very confident my two levers are 1) a vagal response to too much exercise, specifically chronic cardio and 2) electrolyte issues.

Yesterday, I proved 1). After a 17 month run with no afib, I skied hard Friday and Saturday. I did a fair amount of hiking on skis at >12,000' both days, especially yesterday (I did like 26,000' vertical and 25 miles on skis, mostly on the steep off piste on the Continental Divide). When I dropped in, the snow was very deep. I kept lapping and doing this over and over, both days. After dinner last night, I sat down and notice my pulse seemed high. I felt it and immediately knew it was afib (the after dinner is a common vagal trigger, not for me, but in combination with the exercise). I verified with my AliveCor device. I could tell immediately from the ECG. No "p" wave and irregular beats, plus a rate ~120. I went chewed and swallowed 300 mg of flecainide. I took 325 mg aspirin, then I decided to take about 350 mg of magnesium as Natural Calm magnesium citrate (2 heaping tsp). I'd no sooner done this that I though I'm back in NSR. I checked again with the AliveCor and I was in NSR. It was only 8 minutes between readings. Either I converted by myself, the flec did it, or the mag did it, who knows? My rate was high ~90, which is common after the flec. It decreased as the night wore on and in the morning was 60. I was fine today and rock climbed for 5 1/2 hours, carrying a 50 # pack up the steep approach, gaining 500' in elevation. I ski often (this is day 40 for the season), but I usually forego the hikes, or only do one. The great conditions made me forget that I shouldn't push quite that hard.

"A) With regard to the self glucose testing that you did, where does one start to educate oneself around this...when, how, what levels did you seek?"

80+ year old T1 diabetic, doctor & engineer (he still practices and has a monthly Q&A session) recommends 83 mg/dL for all, before, after & etc. <[www.diabetes-book.com] Read part here: <[www.diabetes-book.com] He's a great resource. Also here: [www.phlaunt.com] I wasn't as strict as Bernstein. I would try to have my serum glucose no more than 100 mg/dL an hour after eating. There are differences in meters. I can query my diabetic friends if you want to get one as to the best price/accuracy combination. I started with a cheap drugstore one and what I was trying to measure was within its measurement error.


"Would you be willing to share a little about your 22 hour fasting protocol. How often and from what hours to what hours.

I normally start eating when I get home 4 or 5 PM and finish by 6 or 7PM. I've been eating this way daily since mid-June, 2015. Prior to that I ate 2x/day with a very modest breakfast. It is a water fast.

"So, chicken and egg question - did the workouts enlarge it first and then AF set in or vice versa."

If you've only had two episodes, separated by 16 years, I'd vote for the exercise. You've not had enough afib to do this.

"As a quick aside, I did have "23 and me" genetic testing done and I have a lower chance of having AFIB. Go figure."

I have something like 24 afib SNPs. There are like 7 "good" 2 "bad" and 11 unknown. As chronic fitness was my entry to afib and my two adult children are both very fit and active, I've tried to look at their SNPs and see what their risk is. Very hard to do. There is a bad that gives me 150% greater chance of afib. It might be the actor??? One kid has it the other doesn't.

George



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/04/2016 05:40AM by GeorgeN.

George,

You are a beast! No wonder you went into afib! Kidding aside, glad you are back in NSR. You must live in Telluride, Leadville, Buena Vista, Crested Butte, Aspen, Basalt....(somewhere up there in them thar mountains). I've spent quite a bit of time up there (lived in Colorado for two winters back in the day) but you sound like the modern day Jeremiah Johnson. Beautiful country.

Thanks for the follow up. I will check out the links, do some research and get my hands on a glucose meter. I was interested in the high incidence of afib in diabetics and wonder what the connection is. I am going to get my blood sugar level down via diet and some sort of intermittent fasting scheme, At the very least it will make me more healthy.

Ran across this in article about the two: [www.sciencedaily.com]

Patients with diabetes were 40 percent more likely to be diagnosed with atrial fibrillation than were people without diabetes.

The risk of atrial fibrillation rose by 3 percent for each additional year that patients had diabetes.

For patients with high blood sugar (glycosylated hemoglobin, also known as HBA1c more than 9 percent), the risk of atrial fibrillation was twice that for people without diabetes.

But patients with well-controlled diabetes (HBA1c 7 percent or less) were about equally likely to have atrial fibrillation as people without diabetes.

In regards to your fasting protocol, if I understand you correctly, you eat one meal a day? And what product do you use to keep your electrolyte levels up?

Thanks again!

Daniel

Daniel.

From a T1 diabetic friend

Quote

Want to know which is the most accurate blood glucose monitor available right now? Me too. It appears to be Bayer's Contour Next. This paper was shared by my friend Joan Parkes, a coauthor of this study (and employed by Bayer at the time). She is also responsible for the industry standard for measuring meter accuracy, called the Parkes Consensus Error Grid. She told me that she and the Bayer employees stayed away from the independent experiment, even though it was funded by Bayer. Why does Dr. Bernstein claim that Abbott's FreeStyle Lite is the most accurate when it comes to the low ranges? This report shows that it's also not terribly accurate on the higher end of blood sugar numbers.

Hopefully this link works: <[lookaside.fbsbx.com]

{edit} a good source for meters/strips for someone paying out of pocket is eBay. Pay attention to expiration dates. Also, more sites for using a glucometer for weight loss <[www.google.com] Lastly, you can also measure ketones through urine, serum or breath. These are interesting as higher levels don't coexist with high insulin levels. This is a whole other topic I can address if people care.}

As to diabetes & afib. I watched Ivor Cummins interview of Dr. Kraft. In it, Kraft mentions calcification in the tissue between the ventricles. He said this was a source of pacing for the vetricles. My electrophysiology isn't that good, but I wondered if there might also be calcification in the atria - hence the diabetes/afib correlation you mention. I may try to get Ivor or Dr. Gerber (who was also there for the interview) to ask Dr. Kraft. Interview is here : <[www.thefatemperor.com]

Ha Ha. Yes I live in the Denver area. I skied Mary Jane (Winter Park) on Friday and Loveland on Saturday, climbing on North Table Mountain in Golden on Sunday.

Cheers,

George



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/04/2016 06:07AM by GeorgeN.

For more on ketosis, Rhonda Patrick interviews Dom D'agostino (both PhD's) on ketosis. I found it very interesting: <[itunes.apple.com] The date is 3/23/2016