Success with magnesium citrate and query about apnea and afib

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to share with you all my happy news. It is all because of what I have read on this forum and in the afib reports. Thank you Shannon for this wonderful website and the resources it offers. My life has been transformed. I feel healthier than I have in years.

In 2016, my afib was becoming increasingly more frequent. At one point it was every two weeks and was lasting three days. I was considering ablation surgery and went as far as consulting an electro-cardiac surgeon in Houston.. He was not encouraging and made me feel that what I was considering was doomed to failure. He said he did the procedure for people for whom the condition was impacting their lifestyle and implied that mine was not serious enough. To me it was. I can't function in afib, so short of breath and shaky that I can barely walk across the room sometimes. But I was not in afib when I had my consultation.

At that point I decided that, before trying to see Dr. Natale who might give me a different answer, I decided to start some of the supplements recommended on this forum. I began with magnesium. I bought a carton of Calm powder off Amazon, which is magnesium ciitrate. I know this is not the type of magnesium that is recommended here, but as a vegan I was finding it hard to get the right type of magnesium in a veggie cap, so I went with citrate. I worked up to two spoonfuls a day in water.

My last bout of afib began on December 8, 2016. I have had no afib in eight months. I have had an occasional PVC, but nothing continuous. I am tentatively optimistic and am looking now at other supplements that might help to keep me calm. I have just read about L-Theanine in the current afib report. I have just discovered that TR Supplements have both taurate and l-theanine in veggie caps. So I have ordered them both.

By the way, my cardiologist thinks there might be a link between afib and sleep apnea and he had me do an ambulatory sleep study – I did it at home in my own bed instead of in a sleep lab. I have moderate apnea. My cardiologist is recommending my getting a mouth device to control the apnea. Since my afib has gotten better in the last eight months while not controlling the apnea, I don't see cause and effect here, although controlling the apnea would have other health benefits.

I was wondering if anyone has tried controlling apnea and finding it helped their afib. And if anyone has tried the mouth device rather than the CPAP, which I cannot tolerate because I also have insomnia, which is one of the reasons for trying L-theanine.

Thanks everyone,
Carole



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2016 05:15PM by Carizma22.

Hello Carole - thanks for sharing with us your very positive experience about the magnesium citrate. Most doctors aren't aware of the importance of magnesium and how many patients are deficient in this essential mineral, unfortunately. There are several other supportive nutrients that definitely can help as well. Check the various reports in the link above titled Afib Resources [www.afibbers.org]

As for the connection between arrhythmia and sleep apnea, there is a definite link confirmed by numerous studies. The mouth-piece devices do offer an alternative to the CPAP; and as for insomnia, most likely, once your intracellular levels of magnesium become optimized and stable, you may notice improvement there as well.

You mention L-theanine. Check the recent posts on GABA to use at night as well. Specifically, the PharmaGaba from Natural Factors is a lozenge-type chewable tablet that is useful anytime you need a calming effect. Some think it's better than theanine. I like theanine during the day when I feel stressed or know I'll be put in a stressful situation. At night, I find PharmaGaba to be amazing for relaxing and getting to sleep easily and staying asleep. I just posted a couple links to Murray on this topic...
[doctormurray.com]
[www.altmedrev.com]

I look forward to reading more from you on your progress.

Best to you,
Jackie

Carole, my first step to controlling apnea would be with exercises..

Google Sleep Solutions Orofacial exercises for a list and see what you think.

Sam

Sam,

Is this what you are referring to: <[www.sleepsolutionsnw.com] ?

George

Yes. Thanks; I couldn't get the link clickable.

Sam

I've had afib for 17 years, paroxsymal until June when it finally went persistent. The stupidest thing I've ever done with/about it is not pursuing a sleep study. I've also had obstructive sleep apnea for years and after my third cardioversion back in March scheduled the study. Used a tennis ball between the shoulder blades for a good while a number of years ago until I no longer slept on my back but the third cardioversion only lasted about a month when I went back out of rhythm again -- maybe triggered by the apnea. I'm now using a BI-PAP CPAP machine and am sleeping much better. Always resisted the sleep study telling my family if I wanted to wear a face mask I'd have been a fighter pilot. Dumb! Dumb! Dumb! What's next, rf ablation mid-August. I probably would have reached that point anyway but shouldn't have ignored the apnea.