My successful dietary method has been simplified; and experiments show how an important aspect works

Greetings All,

On the assumption that some who have previously gained some benefit may be interested, I'm just lobbing into this forum that I have simplified my successful dietary method; have determined by experimentation how an important aspect of it works; and have updated and reactivated my website at carrafibdietinfo.com

The website's recent unavailability was simply due to my heavy commitment to other tasks and activities. But during that period I have definitely clarified how one aspect of my method or protocol works, as follows : by repeated experimentation during which I substituted the potassium content of a given quantity of mushrooms with the equivalent amount of directly-ingested potassium (using supplementary potassium gluconate), I have clearly established that the wonderful effect of the mushrooms is at least primarily due to their very high potassium content. That was one of five likely factors which I previously hypothesised about on the website.

Nevertheless, having learnt of the surprising number of rare and highly beneficial nutrients to be found in mushrooms (which was all previously news to me and seems to be very rarely talked about anywhere), I still eagerly consume them every day. But I'm sure that some people would find a large mushroom intake tricky — so they may be relieved to learn that I've reduced my intake to approx 200gms per day and simply add a little potassium gluconate to achieve the same afib elimination. Most of the rest of my method remains basically intact, although there are a few other changes updated on my website.

So it is easier than ever, but just as successful. If you are a paroxysmal lone afib sufferer, it is definitely worth a try.

Very interesting. I will have to re-read this, a lot of info to digest in a quick read thru.

The calcium affect, I recently, Oct thru early Jan, was popping lots of Tums, extra strength, for a new symptom of seemingly "burping air" from my esophagus region, didn't seem to help. But I did chew many per day during that time frame and wound up with a few afib episodes and even a 3 second pause. I've now stopped the Tums.

I also received my second injection, received the first last April of the osteoporosis semi annual injection of Prolia. Actually received second on Dec 20th and pause occurred on Dec 23rd.

I also started the supplement of Magnesium in October and it actually seemed to help minus the above incidents. Also complicating my medical status is Hashimoto Thyroid which I take the Armour version for both T3 & T4 and have levels of both checked plus TSH at least twice per year.

Thanks Steve for posting this update! I urge others to study Steve's work!!

I've followed Steve's work since he first posted here as SteveCarr rather than SteveCarr1 about 9 years ago. Steve has done an exceptional job of tracking the impact of his various interventions on his afib (and ectopic beat counts). Like Steve, I also used ectopic beat counts as a metric when figuring out my remission protocol 20 years ago. However, I did not pursue it in the same detail that Steve has. I also have found that calcium intake was a large variable for my afib. However, I've supplemented with approximately 4 g/day potassium for many years (put in a liter of water as 2 tsp potassium citrate powder and consumed over the day as a concentrated intake of potassium will be excreted quickly in the urine), yet excess calcium intake is still an issue for me, hence different people may respond differently. My results are not as good as Steve's, however still excellent. I'm a year younger than Steve and afib started for both of us in 2004 about two months apart.

Quote
Qwackertoo
Very interesting. I will have to re-read this, a lot of info to digest in a quick read thru.

The calcium affect, I recently, Oct thru early Jan, was popping lots of Tums, extra strength, for a new symptom of seemingly "burping air" from my esophagus region, didn't seem to help. But I did chew many per day during that time frame and wound up with a few afib episodes and even a 3 second pause. I've now stopped the Tums.

I also received my second injection, received the first last April of the osteoporosis semi annual injection of Prolia. Actually received second on Dec 20th and pause occurred on Dec 23rd.

I also started the supplement of Magnesium in October and it actually seemed to help minus the above incidents. Also complicating my medical status is Hashimoto Thyroid which I take the Armour version for both T3 & T4 and have levels of both checked plus TSH at least twice per year.

Please keep us posted as to your progress!

My bone density T-score of my spine (L2/3/4) went from -1.7 to -3.1 over the last 2 years! My femoral neck score went from -2.2 to -2.3 over the same period.
Have been taking Eutroxsig 50 microgram/day for 3 or 4 years due to my THS going over 6 - with the supplement it's steady at about TSH 2.5. However, some research points to problems with bone loss caused by thyroid medication.
My D3 has been around 120 nmol/l over at least the last 2 years. Have taken no Ca supplement but did take Mg and some other supplements.
Have not had fluoridated water for at least 3 years but i take Flec as PIP (could also be affecting Osteoplasts and/or Osteoplasts?)
Since i'm fairly active and have done quite a bit of heavy physical work during the last 2 years i'm at a loss what caused the bone loss.

I refused the Prolia since it still causes bone embrittlement. This week i began a ONERO program. Also grind up a little bit of egg shell, add a little cider vinegar letting it react for some time and then drink that.

My AF frequency nor length of being in AF has not changed since taking egg shell for the last 4/5 weeks. I also began reducing Eutroxig over the last 2 weeks aiming to stop it in the next 3/4 weeks. Will recheck TSH in about 6 to 8 weeks.

Good to hear from from you Steve.

Whatever happened to the Cranberry protocol?

6 years on the Ca+ reduction protocol (+Vit K2), and acheived about a 75% reduction in actual AFIB episodes, and more importantly went from Persistent AFIB, to Paroxysmal, although part of the success with the conversions back to NSR is due to working on my own conversion protocols utilizing GoergeN's breath-hold conversion techniques.

Edit: Actually my Episodes have been reduced by over 90%, since the last 2 episodes were caused when I got off the Ca+ reduction, and was consuming about an extra 1000mg/day over baseline. If it wasn't for the last two lapses in the following the protocol, I would be in NSR for 4 years straight. My AFIB was much more advanced than Steve's. 3 years of undiagnosed AFIB resulting in Constant AFIB, with Heart Failure, followed by 10 years of Persistent AFIB (48 ECV's), then in 2019, I implemented the CA+ reduction protocol, and only about 4 episodes since, that I converted out on my own.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2025 06:51PM by The Anti-Fib.

Hi GeorgeN,

Thanks for the kind recommendation. Good to hear that things are still working well for you. 

Other paroxysmal lone afibbers could note that both GeorgeN and I share 3 major things which are dramatically important in our excellent AF control. That seems WELL beyond coincidence! What is more, all three make excellent logical sense by simply reflecting the conditions that virtually all humans were in for millions of years. So I would suggest that any paroxysmal lone afibber could give all 3 things a darned good try! (I will come to one thing where George’s and my results differ, and make a suggestion about that, further down).

The three things are:

1) We both strongly restrain our calcium intake! (Less so nowadays, in my case, but still well below the consumption in all wealthy countries). But only to levels which the vast majority of the world’s population still consumes (almost universally with lower levels of osteoporosis) and to levels which were normal, and could not have been exceeded (for millions of years prior to dairy foods becoming common only 1,000 years ago in Europe) without deliberately eating shells, limestone or bone. I’m sure that George’s bone density is not poor, because he monitors everything very carefully, and I know, from testing, that mine certainly isn't.

2) We both keep our blood ("serum") vitamin D levels much higher than most people. In my case I favour a level around that where serum vitamin D naturally plateaus when one has unlimited sun exposure (at summer-sun levels). George told me years ago that he maintains his at an even higher level (please correct if necessary, George). During 99% of human history, humans had lifestyles which resulted in the natural solar-saturation blood (“serum”) levels of vitamin D for all of them. Even in the US, agricultural workers were still 50% of all workers as recently as 150 years ago! So, the sort of levels we are talking about are completely natural. It is also the case that these so-called “high” levels of vitamin D are exactly why restraining calcium consumption is not a problem regarding, for example, osteoporosis : Vit D has many favourable and powerful effects on calcium metabolism and bone building.

3) We both keep our potassium intake high, whether through particular foods, or supplements, or both. Fascinatingly, here again, this is undoubtedly a more “normal”, “natural” situation, for the following reason. In any natural ecosystem and soil system, there is a certain more-or-less fixed amount of potassium per acre or hectare in the soil and in the biomass. As each bit of biomass dies, its potassium returns to the soil. So, in each hectare of natural environment, the total potassium remains very, very steady. Modern farming, however, is more like mining : a magnificent, dense crop (of whatever) is grown, harvested and then carted away. So a huge chunk of the hectare’s potassium is permanently gone! Farmers more or less fix this by applying fertiliser — overwhelmingly consisting of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium ("N, P and K" respectively). But here is the fascinating thing : by far the most expensive, of the standard amounts of N,P&K in all bulk fertilizers, is the potassium! So, automatically, it is always chosen as the one to be in shortest supply, and we can be absolutely confident that all modern crops have been diligently developed over hundreds of years to get as big as possible on the lowest possible amount of potassium!! This is not some evil plot : it is simply an automatic consequence of long-term economics and well-intentioned crop-breeding when one nutrient is much more expensive than all the others! Indeed, it is actually more-or-less a triumph of science and agriculture that so much food can thus be grown to feed the world. But, we can be pretty certain that we are all eating a somewhat potassium-depleted diet!

In other words, a Ca-restrained, high-potassium-intake, high-VitD lifestyle (compared to the standard modern one) is undoubtedly one which all humans are still genetically adapted and attuned to!

The one factor that seems to differ between George and myself is Magnesium. In George’s case adding Mg seems important. In my case, it worsens ectopics and risks AF!

So I would suggest that ANY paroxysmal lone afibber wishing to see if they can emulate George’s or my success, should come at it by doing all 3 of the following at the same time and seeing if there is any improvement :

a) Heavily restrain Ca intake (a short experiment will not contribute to osteoporosis).

b) Raise serum VitD (takes months unless an initial “loading dose” is used).

c) Greatly increase potassium consumption (mushrooms, potatoes, supplements).

Whether there is improvement or not, then try limiting magnesium intake as well (much easier than limiting calcium because there are not too many high-Mg foods).

See if the situation worsens or improves.

Then add a readily bioavailable Mg supplement (George is the expert on which kinds).

See if the situation worsens or improves.

Those two Mg-related steps should fairly quickly show if one is more like George or more like me.

A couple of possibilities are that either there are (at least) two varieties of paroxysmal lone afib, or that George’s need for Mg relates to his keeping his serum VitD above the “solar-saturation” level. But, either way, it doesn’t matter. The only way any other afibber is going to find out whether any of this can help them is by trying the first three things, and then (unless they strike gold with complete success at that stage, which is not impossible) trying high-Mg and lower-Mg.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2025 02:05PM by SteveCarr1.

Hi The Anti-Fib,

Well they do sound like great results! And further confirmation that more afibbers should try this! (Again, much too much coincidence.)

Is additional Mg good or bad for you?

Re cranberries: I still eat them every day, but not in the same quantity. Basically, whenever I have found something that delivers an equal result but is easier, or seems to have other health benefits, I’ve gone down that road (after lots of checking that I’m not veering back to ectopics and afib risk). So far, that was discovering that mushrooms had a more powerful effect than cranberries, and discovering that I could reduce mushroom intake by adding a potassium supplement.

The awful experience with afib, and my escape from it, completely opened my eyes to how much health benefit one can achieve through attention to what one eats (and also exercise). So, ever since, and as I age, I’ve been much more aware of other adverse signs — and determined to prevent those worsening too, if possible. [But I’m not kidding myself: I know that can’t/doesn’t continue forever! I have a mental picture that the dietary window, for optimum health, gradually narrows for all of us, with age!]. But, out of numerous other positive outcomes for me, one example : even when I first started regular blood tests (first arrival of afib), my ferritin level (iron reserves) was never great, although above the minimum. As my diet and blood tests have progressed, it has become apparent that one important factor is total fibre intake: too much reduces iron absorption. My ferritin levels now rising strongly above the minimum is one factor therefore persuading me that my current version of my method is better than my previous versions! I hope that explains my approach and philosophy. [What I’m saying is that, to my knowledge, my current diet (including supplements) is a more suitable one than ever before, and I intend to keep fine-tuning whenever adverse signs appear due to increasing age, to the eventual limit of that approach.]

All the best to everyone; and, who knows, maybe more good-news stories can flow in over time.

I think I will order some Potassium Citrate, bulk powder, today. I might just dip my toes in at first with maybe 1/3 of the dosages mentioned above. Maybe 1/2.

Thanks for all the great information here~!!!!

"Is additional Mg good or bad for you?"

It has been good, early on after my diagnosis 15 years ago, I got about a 50% reduction in AFIB from Mg supplementation. It's never triggered an episode.

I always thought Mag. was so great for you, I have taken Mag. supplements for most of my adult life. I got AF in the late 19 hundreds I always went back into normal sinus rhythm until a few years ago went I went into permanent AF. I believe my Thyroid was too high and stopped me from going into NSR, and I am still in permanent AF. I quit taken Mag. supplement just the last few days because a few hours after taking the supplements I got bad cramps which would last a few hours, also having to go to the bathroom. I am wondering if Mag. supplements are as good as everyone says. I don't know if another brand might be OK.

liz

"Re cranberries: I still eat them every day, but not in the same quantity. Basically, whenever I have found something that delivers an equal result but is easier, or seems to have other health benefits, I’ve gone down that road (after lots of checking that I’m not veering back to ectopics and afib risk). So far, that was discovering that mushrooms had a more powerful effect than cranberries, and discovering that I could reduce mushroom intake by adding a potassium supplement."

I see that Cranberries have 88mg of K+ per cup.
Also Vitamins K1, E, and C. Also Manganese and Copper

Thank you for sharing the results of your many years of meticulous study and effort. I have carefully read your protocol on your website. I am 50 and recently, over the Christmas holidays, began experiencing afib off and on regularly. I have cut out all dairy but butter and cream to decrease my calcium consumption, and have greatly increased my mushroom and other high potassium vegetable consumption, along with supplementing some with potassium gluconate / potassium citrate. Because I live in Canada, I am supplementing Vitamin D 4000-5000 IU per day (plus K2). I have not had my Vit. D levels measured yet. I began these changes about a week ago. My family doctor has me on apixaban while I am waiting to see the cardiologist. An echocardiogram showed the structure of my heart to be normal. Can you please share from your experience with yourself and your father approximately how long it took to begin noticing decreases in afib episodes? Also, for what reasons did you choose potassium gluconate over potassium citrate?

Hi SteveCarr

You may know I am a physician who published a protocol that reflects some of your observations. I support your observations but the difference is my protocol explains the science as to WHY Mg, K, hydration and most importantly ithe need for daily frequent self monitoring EKGs to know when and if one is experiencing AF symptomatically or asymptomatically so u can titrate the need to add hydration or more Mg or K by supplements and or foods fortified with them.. By doing this one can proceed with a regimen that documents one’s progress controlling AF and helps prevent recurrences of AF by titrating all the above as described. View my comments as supportive and not competitive as we all are trying to find answers that are low risk and lowly cost.

Hugging