Charlotte, Congratulations and continued NSR to you! Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
McHale - what a great story!! Duke - glad you went to meet Dr. N in San Diego and also ran into Shannon! Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
A number of posters here have used Dr. Sanders over the years, with good reports. Here is a search: <by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Bob, A colleague and afibber friend "cured" his afib of 10 years standing when he cured his apena. Initially he used a CPAP machine, but later purchased a mouth appliance online inexpensively and it works, too. He likes it better. I've posted about it here, so you can search for it. If you can't find it, let me know and I'll locate my old post, or ask him. Georby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Jackie, Thanks, I ordered Kensey's books. < and < Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Dr. Prash Sanders at Royal Adelaide Hospital or Dr. Rukshen Weerasooriya at Royal Perth Hospital. They both trained with Pr. Haissaguerre in Bordeaux. <by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Bob, "Is it common for cardios to dismiss their patients so quickly without tests of any kind?" Unfortunately, afib is considered the hemorrhoids of cardiology. vagal/adrenergic see this: < When you are actually in afib, it really doesn't matter how you got there. Your doc is correct, most afib is adrenergic. However most of those people have an underlying cause -by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Craig, Were you anticoagulated with warfarin/coumadin? This rat study shows how rapid the calcification can be with warfarin and also its reversal with vitamin K-2 < "In rats, inactivation of MGP by treatment with the vitamin K antagonist warfarin leads to rapid calcification of the arteries." "Arterial calcification could, however, be reversed by high–vitamin K intake. Afby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Given the gut afib connection, I can see the logic in vomiting causing afib. If he is in very good shape, you might want to inform him of the lone afib/exercise connection. In my opinion, it would be time to moderate exercise and pay attention to electrolytes. If that strategy is going to keep afib in the box, the earlier in the progression you start, the better.by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Charlotte, From your description, it sounds like a communication misunderstanding with Dr. Natale is possibly the issue here. My suggestion is to send what you've written and ask Dr. Natale directly. In writing, there is much less possibility for confusion. In my opinion, your concern deserves a response from Dr. N, not just the nurse educator. I would state that your reason for theby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Tish, Thanks for posting! Looking into this, I came up with this lab that does a thrombosis test, including MTHFR. < I'm wondering if anybody has experience and if it might be appropriate for afibbers. Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Ken, Regarding your medication question, I'd go to the advanced search in the upper right hand corner. Put each in, in turn, and set the search time for at least a year. You can read what people have posted and perhaps PM them with your questions. I recall Murry L from Canada has been on Tikosyn for a couple of years. Good luck! Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Ken, There were a number of posters here several years ago who'd chosen to do the mini maze approach ('07-'09?). Later there was talk about the combo. My impression from reading about their experiences is that it is a much longer and more difficult recovery than an ablation. I'm not sure, but I think Natale may have experimented with the combo, but decided pure ablationby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Ken, Don't know about insurance (you should ask them), but antiarrthythmic drugs don't generally work long term for most, so an ablation initially is a good option. If you are persistent, you are most likely to be a "complex" case. This requires the best team for increased odds of success. Don't know Vanderbuilt's success rate. A mini maze is much more inby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Duke, "But, sometimes I just wonder, if magnesium, taurine, potassium, etc are so important for us and we go out of our way to fill them up every single day, and there are people who would care less about nutrition, let alone supplements and they go on living happily til 90 or 100 without knowing what the word Afib means." When I was first trying to figure out how to deal with thiby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Jackie, One interesting thing about the A1C test - is assumes an average turnover or replacement time for red blood cells. There are data suggesting that some with very low (normal) blood sugar can have somewhat higher A1C values, like in the high 5's. This is because in a low serum glucose environment the cells actually last significantly longer and therefore are exposed to what glucosby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Eating my normal LC fare, my fasting serum glucose usually ranges between 75-85 mg/dl. There is also an argument for those on long term LC diets to periodically spike their insulin to reset hormones like thyroid, leptin & etc. Perhaps one night a week.by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
As to fasting blood sugar. It is really measuring the body's response to the "dawn effect." This is where the liver starts pumping out glycogen (glucose) at around 4AM to the the body ready for the day. This is why you can have a higher fasting blood sugar that when you go to bed. This description is for a normal person, who is not on diabetic meds or insulin. I, and some fby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Your results are very good. My results were much worse. As I recall, with 75 g glucose it was like 180 at 1/2 hour, 140 at one hour and 56 at two. Fasting blood sugar is an interesting question, and can be a poor metric. I'll post more on it later. I'm off to go play on the rocks this morning...by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
83 mg/dl post prandial is Dr. Richard Bernstein's (a T1 diabetic for ~60 years) goal for himself and his diabetic patients (he's been treating them in practice since the early 80's). He also suggests an A1C level ~4.6%. < 100 mg/dl is a goal I set for myself and adhere to most of the time (as a normal). I'm not saying it is usual. You do have to change your lifestyle.by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
John, Read The High Blood Pressure Solution: < He talks about two things: 1) having a ratio of potassium to sodium of 4:1 or better on intake, mostly through food choices (not supplements) and usually through sodium reduction and potassium increase 2) high levels of insulin signal the kidney to conserve sodium and excrete potassium. From my perspective, it is unfortunate that the dietby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Enrique, Pat Chambers, MD, who posted here as PC used it. He is now a Bordeaux ablatee and has not posted in a while, but here is a search on his posts on disopyramide < PC was vagal. Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Wonderful news Heather! Keep up the NSR! Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Alex, I'm guessing rate control is what they are trying to achieve. While digoxin is very contraindicated for a vagal afibber, I'm not sure, in the case you are describing... "Beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, and digoxin (Lanoxin) are the drugs most commonly used for rate control" < If she's 96, does she also have heart failure? Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Joe, I don't know anything about manganese. I have some suggestions for back pain. If interested, PM me. Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Craig, I'm not an ablatee, but have been around here for a long time. Here's my two cents: 1) Higher rates after ablation are normal because of burning around the vagus nerve. In fact, some data suggest higher post ablation rates = better probability of success. This usually does decrease over time. 2) Your fatigue could be a result of the Metroprolol. I'd loop that medby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Welcome, 1) I use magnesium to bowel tolerance (currently ~4g elemental mag in these forms, glycinate, dimag malate, chloride & bicarbonate), 1-9 g of potassium (1 g is really all I need, the rest is for the bicarb), 4 g taurine/day. I also make sure calcium intake is not overdone. A summary is here: < 2) If you mean ablation - go to Natale 3) Depends on what you want. Holtby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
As I'm sure you are aware, afib tends to be a progressive illness. Once you know you've got the predisposition, it is wise to do all you can to halt or minimize that progression. Things like repletion of Mg++ & K+ tend to work much better early in progression. In my case, my first episode came about 10 years ago as a delayed (several days) vagal trigger after a training run atby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Std procedure is to anticoagulate for 3-4 weeks if you are in afib for > 48hours. So you might want to consider electro cardioversion before that window closes. I believe a TEE can substitute for the anti-coagulation. I've used 300 mg flec on-demand for 10 years. There was one time I added another 100 mg after about 12 hours and I converted at about 20 hours. This was the 2nd timby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Sam, As somebody who has taken a lot of mag to bowel tolerance for a long time (currently ~4g/day), I don't find a huge difference between between the forms. Now, I take mag bicarbonate (as Waller Water concentrate), mag chloride (from a solution I make up from MgCl2 crystals and water), dimagnesium malate (the Albion patented form) and mag glycinate. In the past, I've used mag citby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM