Liz, I concur. B vitamins go through my system pretty fast. The yellow urine color from B vitamins is "bright" vs "dark" of concentrated urine. I normally don't worry about it unless I'm outside and active. Being hydrated is important for blood viscosity among other reasons, however overhydration can certainly lead to electrolyte depletion. Hyponatremia <by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Alex, My guide is urine color - just a hint of color is my target. My diet is mostly raw leaves and non-starchy veggies with a little bit of wild caught shell or whitefish. As my diet has very little sodium, I add a bit with each meal. Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Liz, In my case, I'm very sure I came to have afib because of chronic endurance exercise. I'm also sure that genetics play a role as not everybody who is chronically fit gets afib, though it certainly raises the odds. Calcium played a role later. After starting my afib career with a 2 1/2 month episode, I had my afib pretty well controlled with my magnesium to bowel tolerance, pby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Shannon, Our best to you and Magdalena. She could not have a better advocate than you to help navigate the system to get the best care. You will both be in our thoughts & prayers. Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Alex, I don't have any competence in this. I have recently dabbled in genome testing and things like SAMe and tyrosine may work for some and not for others. Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Mary, Your EF is normal. "You can have a normal ejection fraction reading and still have heart failure. If the heart muscle has become so thick and stiff that the ventricle holds a smaller-than-usual volume of blood, it might still seem to pump out a normal percentage of the blood that enters it. In reality, though, the total amount of blood pumped isn't enough to meet your bodyby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Ron, I like HIIT. It might not be appropriate for an adrenergic afibber. You can use the HIIT approach on many different types of exercise. Ken, Sounds great! Keep it up! Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Nancy, Here is a list of causes < Common reasons for increased BNP levels include: high blood pressure lung infections, such as pneumonia asthma attacks medications that cause water or sodium retention (such as Actos® and Avandia®, which are commonly prescribed for pre-diabetes and diabetes) abnormal physiological processes that can likewise cause water or sodby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
I have a friend who damaged his rotator cuff with an impact injury skiing. I shared muscle release techniques with him and it has been successful reducing pain and increasing range of motion. These techniques do not fix the underlying injury, but can reduce pain. He has to do 5 or so minutes of "maintenance" every morning, but he feels it is well worth it. No guarantees, but noby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Liz, Here is what the AHA says: < Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
If you have a powder, that is probably OK. I wouldn't take tablets. Since you are ablated, probably not a big deal. As somebody who is not ablated and I need my mag to stay in rhythm, I did take dissolved mag. I also used GoLYTELY successfully. Enjoy!by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Smack, In my opinion, heart rates in the 50's are not a worry. They are pretty common. Magnesium has not changed my resting HR. As you know, I take 4-5g/day. Before I ever supplemented, my resting HR was in the low 50's, where it is today. On my monitor's I can be in the 40's when I sleep. 8-9 years ago, it was even in the high 30's during sleep. I did thinkby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Sam, I'm curious about your response with regard to super slow training. I've found I can push much less weight to get a training effect. My objectives are: - to minimize possibility of injury (the much lower weight required along with no sudden movement helps here) - stay functionally strong and fit with all around and core strength For my workouts, one week I go toby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Hey Alex, What are the units on your HS CRP? mg/dL or mg/L A lot of the "ranges" for what are high are given in mg/dL, however some labs report in mg/L. If that is true in your case, you'd divide by 10 to get mg/dL and you'd be 0.24 and not have a problem. Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Alex, Here is an interview with one proponent, Doug McGuff < He is the author of "Body By Science." You can find more interviews and writing in this search < You can apply this to any strength training. You want continuous movement at the same speed up and down, as slow as you can do it smoothly - I've done as slow as 30 second reps. You'd like the load to bby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Alex, More thoughts. In your shoes, I'd want to know how much of the time I was in afib. If it is 100% or close to that, you are unlikely to significantly modify the amount of time you are in afib without an ablation (my opinion). If not 100%, I'd like to figure out if my afib has vagal or adrenergic triggers. I can tell if I'm in afib using my radial pulse or a stethosby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Alex, "Do I breathe out on the effort..." I would think anything else would increase blood pressure during the exertion and not be useful. I know you are quite fit and eat very well. Personally, I've migrated from heavy weights to super slow to failure training. Most of what I do is body-weight based with both extension and contraction absolutely as slow as possibleby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Many blessings to Duke and all! Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Hi Jim, 'My cardiologist just doesn't really seem to "get it".' One of the first stories I read on this site, over 10 years ago, described afib as “the hemorrhoid of cardiology.” < A lot of cardios don't treat it seriously. If it is possible for you to see Natale in SD, I'd choose that option... Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
No Cryo for Natale. I'm not an ablation expert, but what I've read here is that the really top centers are not using cryo.by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
etjim, When you read a lot here, you'll see that 10-15 is on the tiny end of the scale. People to use have done thousands. Arguably the best guy in the world, Andrea Natale, practices part of his time in San Diego at Scripts. I would strongly suggest you make any effort you can to go see him. Natale gets the most difficult cases, after the other guys have failed. He's in the 8,0by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
McHale, Great news! I almost never go online to their site - are you using "Insights" month by month on the AliveCor site for the analysis? Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Tom, The pause you describe has been described by some others, but not all when the convert. Here are a series of heart rate vs. time graphs that Mark provided and are linked in CR52a (Conference Room) < ( from < ) they show "normal" conversions. Another normal conversion is shown on p 24 of the PDF from CR 52 < Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Colin, I Googled pulse pressure blood viscosity Pulse pressure is the difference between systolic and diastolic. Here is the search: < Here is one result: < It would suggest really no correlation. Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
John, It may be specific to an individual I take ~8 g/day of potassium (2 tsp - one morning & one evening) as food grade potassium bicarbonate powder dissolved in a large glass of water without issue. Doesn't mean it'd work for you. < Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
John, My bad. Try this, it should be more specific. < Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
John, Here is a search on what Shannon has to say about LAA ablations < My impression is that it is very successful with Natale. The issue is what is your LAA emptying velocity 6 months later. This will determine whether you can get off anti-coagulation or if you must either stay on anti-coagulation or go through a procedure like the lariat. Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
"What is the fuel that actually drives the Hearts contractions?" < Also, ketones are a preferred heart fuel, while on a nutritional ketogenic diet. They are about 28% more efficient, from an oxygen standpoint than the other fuels.by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Anti, Here are some links that you may find useful: < < "One other thing is don't forget the sodium. The low salt fad can really backfire when we stop eating processed food, and cook from scratch at home. I had no way of measuring the levels , but found through a phase of my healing that I needed to add salt to a glass of water and drink it to subside the disturbed heartby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM