Update on My Story (All Good)

First let me just say this is my story and is in no way intended to offer advice. We are all different and how we ended up here varies in many ways. I was a little reluctant to write this but my excitement won out.

With that out of the way I’m happy to report that for the last almost 6 moths I’ve been AFIB free and for the last month my PAC’s have been reduced significantly. Also the horrible fatigue I was experiencing is finally improving. I am off all medications including my Metoprolol & Eliquis.

Earlier this year I was preparing to undergo ablation with Dr. Natale for my Paroxysmal AFIB because of its progression. I was at the point where it was occurring several times a month lasting for days at a time. I was very discouraged because for the last 8 years I’ve been making life style changes in an effort to avoid this consequence.

My story begins about 8 years ago (I was 60 at that time) while laying in bed when my girl friend told me my heart was beating very irregular. So after a trip to the doc it was diagnosed as PAC’s and classified as irregular, irregular – it was pretty wild. However, the doc said these are benign & not to worry. Well being the INTP type this did not sit well so I started my quest to better understand the problem. Of course the first thing that popped up was these can be a precursor to AFIB so I became concerned and wanted to focus on corrective action. I quickly realized the medical field was not going to be much help in treating the problem only the symptoms.

After digesting a lot of information available on the Internet, including this resource, I began making changes. Little did I know the depth of changes to come. Had I known I may have been content to stick with the standard treatment offered by the medical field. Anyway, I stuck with my plan and thought wow I must be making some great headway. But as it is with AFIB it’s a tough cookie to crack. As time clicked on my concern turned into reality & over the years I did develop AFIB despite my efforts.

These efforts include just about everything you read here and elsewhere. The list is just too long to discuss in total here but I’ve made LOT’s of changes. Some of the big ones were eliminating alcohol, coffee and any other diuretic’s, improving diet, exercising, losing weight & of course taking lots of mg. I no longer eat out & prepare all my own food. This is a big one because it includes eliminating possible triggers and the added chemicals – tough to do!. Also, I believe it’s a big mistake to drink RO and/or distilled water. I think it acts like a sponge sucking needed minerals out from you. Think of the Second law of thermodynamics. You need water with an abundance of stuff in it so it moves things in the right direction – from your gut into your body. Unfortunately I consumed RO water for 20 something years & feel it was a contributing factor.

Although diet & exercise are important about 2 years ago I started to realize that another important factor is inflammation. What I didn’t understand was that you don’t necessarily know that your body may be in a constant state of inflammation. This inflammation can be cause by many things including life style, environmental AND your psychological state. After working hard to control the obvious life style & environmental factor where possible, I needed to address the other elephant in the room. Unfortunately my girl friend of 13 years had to go. Since then my state of well being has improved considerably.

Still, as mentioned, I was ready to have ablation done earlier this year to obtain some relief. I know the trend is towards getting ablation done sooner than later but my echo-cardiogram still showed my heart as normal with very good volumes. I just have a thing against the procedure because its only treating a symptom, not the problem, and does have risks. So about the time I was ready to send my paperwork into Dr. Natale I decided to eliminate all wheat/gluten from my diet. This is a known inflammatory and was one of last things left to try even though I didn’t think I had an issue with it.

Wow! Things changed immediately. Of all the things I changed this one had the most profound effect. The AFIB stopped and my body just felt better. I’m not saying this alone stopped my AFIB because as I mentioned it’s all about inflammation. I believe that all my efforts finally summed up to be enough reduction in inflammation to finally have a positive effect. However, eliminating wheat/gluten has had many other positives too.

Although my AFIB did subside I was still left with the PAC’s. They pretty much occur every beat so I get 2 beats, a pause, then two beats. It’s enough that my blood pressure and O2 devices error out. I finally came across an interesting read about vitamin D & mg. This peaked my interest because my last 2 blood tests showed I was low in D even though I was taking 1000 IU daily. So it seems that D consumes/requires mg in order to be metabolized (You’re Probably Taking your Vitamin D Wrong, and it Could be Dangerous & Ineffective). So the light went on and I tripled my mg intake. Things have now improved significantly & most of the time I’m in sinus rhythm. I should point out that over the years I’ve played around varying amount of mg to no avail. I also spent $$$ on all the different supplements which sometimes made things worse. Why it’s different now I don’t know but I’m definitely playing around with these two. I’ll know more when I get a new D test. I should also point out there is other research that agrees with this gals statements.

So I’m finally at a point where I feel good, sleep well and have more energy. Having had PAC’s for so long it feels slightly odd when I’m in normal rhythm that I have to check things are OK. It’s sure nice to see a normal rhythm and a well define p-wave.

Am I done changing – no. I’m the best I’ve ever been in many, many years so I’m not ready to quit. I know, it sounds like a commercial… But I’m a believer that one can have a positive outcome if you’re willing to change, enough. I’m anxious to report back to my cardiologist next month.

Anyway I’m feeling so good that I’m thinking of doing some crazy things. My mind just can’t stop.

Note: Yeah I’m off blood thinners because I’m not having AFIB & my CHA2DS2-VASc score is 1. Some people may disagree with this because of my history but I’m comfortable with it. I can’t say the Metoprolol ever really helped but it did cause very noticeable side effects. So I’m glad to be off that stuff too.

Congratulations. Your journey has been interesting, and longer than my own...so far. It's always a pleasure to read of the successes of others. Doesn't hurt the onlooker's need to be optimistic, either.

Congrats. Every win against AFIB is a win no matter how it comes about.

Hi Rob, Congrats on your success. So good to hear. Just for reference, how much magnesium are you taking a day? What form?

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Cynthia
Just for reference, how much magnesium are you taking a day? What form?

I’m drinking mg bicarbonate. I buy mg hydroxide from Bulk Supplements on Amazon. It’s a powder that I mix with carbonated water to make the mg bicarbonate. I’ve been doing this for several years in 1 liter plastic bottles but just switched over to a Corny Keg & glass swing top bottles – trying to get plastic out of my life.

Anyway, I’m not a chemist so I don’t know if the conversion from mg hydroxide to mg bicarbonate is 1:1 or what? From the Bulk Supplements bag it states 410 mg per 1/3 tsp. I mix 1 tsp per bottle or 16 ounces & drink that per day. So if the conversion is 1:1 then I’m taking 1230 mg per day of mg bicarbonate.

I have my Cardiologist appointment in January & will have blood work done to see where I’m at with D3 (D 25-Hydroxy) & mg (RBC) levels.

For those interested in the bicarbonate, see this post and more down in the same thread.