Calcium IV before an ecv?

I thought one with afib should avoid calcium. Am I right or did I misunderstand the advice on this forum?

I woke up yesterday in nsr. Once standing while getting out of bed I went into a 170s hr. This happened before so why would changing positions from supine to standing trigger af?

Sotolol and a Valium quickly converted me. Then last night at 8pm I had fallen asleep on the couch and woke up to 166hr. Same evening doses of sotolol and Valium did nothing. I ended up in the ER because my angina I had experience in December during STV/type 2 MI returned.

Er was empty and dr was willing immediately to ecv me. My BP dropped to 80/50s so he converted me and then gave me an IV of calcium to raise my BP.

This was the absolute worst episode in my life. I was dripping in sweat, so nauseous I was saying I was going to puke and I had angina. They gave me a barf bag and drug for nausea which helped. The Er dr said my heart was struggling with my high hr. Nurse told me afterwards I looked better because before the ecv I did not look good and she thought I was going to faint.

Is it common to give calcium IV?

No, not common, but it is a simple, cheap, and safe way to increase BP.

No woman past the age of menopause should be avoiding calcium. In fact, I don't know where the notion that people with afib should avoid calcium comes from.

Quote
Carey
No, not common, but it is a simple, cheap, and safe way to increase BP.

No woman past the age of menopause should be avoiding calcium. In fact, I don't know where the notion that people with afib should avoid calcium comes from.

Thus the reason I have osteopenia and just broke my front three teeth. I listen to advice from time to time regarding picking water with lower calcium content to calcium supplements increasing the risk of afib. I only drink almond milk without added calcium to cereals without calcium and I don’t supplement because of the concern those who post maybe right in saying calcium is an afib trigger.

On the flip side my oncologist wants me to lower my calcium supplement in vitamins, cereals, almond milk etc because she takes cancer marker tests and also checks my calcium. High calcium levels could be a sign of cancer and she doesn’t want the test masked by calcium supplements. If my labs come back over 9 I have to repeat the test.

Thank you Carey.

Also I was under the impression if one is on a calcium blocker drug they should limit their calcium input. It doesn’t apply to me:

Examples of calcium channel blockers include:
Amlodipine (Norvasc)
Diltiazem (Cardizem, Tiazac, others)
Felodipine.
Isradipine.
Nicardipine.
Nifedipine (Adalat CC, Procardia)
Nisoldipine (Sular)
Verapamil (Calan, Verelan)

There's a book called "Death by Calcium" by Dr. Tom Levy.. There's calcium in just about every food we eat; meat, fish, eggs, beans, nuts, vegetables, greens (except iceberg lettuce and coconut) so I think it'd be hard to be deficient.

I'm torn like you are because I have osteoporosis too. I've read that vitamin D (which we take now due to covid) and Magnesium both facilitate calcium absorption, but that too much Calcium keeps much needed Magnesium from entering the cells. (Dr. Carolyn Dean's book Magnesium Miracle) According to her, too little magnesium in the cells are the basis of almost every heart arrythmia.

It's had to know what to do, as we are all a little different. The heart doctors tell us to avoid fats, and the brain docs say we NEED fats.

Hi Lani - Glad you mentioned Dr. Levy’s book, Death by Calcium (2013)…
It’s an important read for everyone and especially afibbers.

Dr. Levy is a board-certified cardiologist and also has a Juris Doctorate degree

The back cover points out the focus of the content:
Blowing the Whistle on the Toxic Effects of Excess Calcium

He notes: …..“recent scientific studies now provide overwhelming proof that unequivocally conforms what many non-mainstream healthcare practitioners have long known and asserted: The regular intake of dairy and calcium supplementation promotes all known chronic degenerative disease, and it significantly shortens life. All physicians and patients need to know the truth about calcium. Most people already have too much calcium in their tissues, and the incessant trumpeting of the purported health benefits of calcium supplementation and high-dairy diets must finally be exposed as marketing ploys only. The truth about calcium must finally be known. “

Death by Calcium has a chapter titled: Is Calcium Really a Killer? subtitle… Excess Calcium Increased Death Rate from All Diseases.
“As already demonstrated, coronary artery calcium scores have been shown to reliably predict cardiac events and increased risk of death from heart attack. Thse same scores, however, also accurately predict the risk of death from all causes (all-cause mortality. ^{52, 53} As calcium scores rose – starting at undetectable levels of calcium – all cause mortality also increased..⁵⁴

Other subtitles: The Toxicity of Calcium Supplements p.45.
Excess Calcium Promotes Cancer p 39


In 2019, when I posted the Awareness Alert about impact EMF radiation exposure has on Voltage Gated Calcium Channels… the focus was to point out what happens when the EMF radiation exposure affects VGCC function as it related to the ‘flood’ of intracellular calcium and arrhythmia…(and many other health issues) as described by Prof. Martin Pall, PhD researcher who is well known for his published research studies and reports on the topic of electromagnetic radiation risks and damage.

Awareness Alert: Non-thermal EMF Radiation Exposure and Atrial Fibrillation

Focus

This post highlights study findings relating the arrhythmia connection via the voltage sensor signaling effects in each cell aka….Voltage Regulated Calcium Channel (VGCC’s) and that specific impact on the heart’s electrical system.

The biophysical properties of VGCCs and similar channels make them particularly sensitive to low-intensity, non-thermal EMF/EMR exposures. Highly relevant and important to afibbers is the fact that the heart’s pacemaker cells have a very high density of VGCCs and pulsed microwave exposures stimulate VGCC activation4 which connects the dots to Afib, arrhythmias and other related symptoms caused by “influx flooding” of calcium. Sub-optimal intracellular magnesium levels contribute to the problem.

[www.afibbers.org]

Jackie