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It only took me the first two years of my afib diagnosis to accept this is certainly true for lone afibbers. In Hans' early surveys, the BMI's of lone afibber respondents were much lower than average. I did a survey readers here 8 or so years ago, almost all the men were very active, and tall. Women were predominately so, but it was almost universal for the men, as I recall. My sensby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Researcher, You may know this from hanging around here for a while, but I'd suggest getting a monitor, such as the AliveCor, post haste. If you do have afib, the earlier you catch it the higher the probability that something like The Strategy, as suggested by Shannon has of working. With paroxysmal afib, it can be difficult to catch early on unless you have your own monitor. In my casby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
I didn't realize for a long time that I was waking up at 2-3 am with symptoms of nighttime hypoglycemia. These may have been afib triggers. Not an issue at all since I switched to a low carb high fat moderate protein diet. Before changing my diet, I also was starting to have old man prostate problems. These also disappeared when I changed diet. I was in bed for 8 1/2 hours and while I urby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
A monitor would be good. I typically don't have overt symptoms, but more a "feeling" I'm in afib. A quick check of the radial pulse, usually at the point in front of my ear, will quickly confirm afib. I can name that rhythm in 4 beats or less...by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Nearly 10 years ago, I was taking my blood pressure one morning. This was several days after a high altitude (>14,000') training run. I used a stethoscope and manual cuff. I did this somewhat infrequently as I don't have high BP. My BP was fine, but my pulse sounded very strange. I put on an exercise heart rate monitor and noticed my rate was highly variable. I went to my basemby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
As to Allan's comment, the plans in my state are either HMO's, in which you are limited to a network, EPO's, which are slightly less restrictive than HMO's in that you don't need a "gatekeeper" primary care physician, but still are required to use somebody "in network", and PPO's, which have a "network" but you have the option of goingby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Murray, With Obamacare, preexisting conditions are no longer a factor. As I understand it you have till March 31 to apply this year, else you'll have to wait till next Nov 15. There is a federal exchange and some states have one too. Don't know if Florida is one of those. More info here: < The only questions they ask are name, age, smoker, sex and zip code of residence.by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Randy, The guys at the FreeTheAnimal blog have been playing around with resistant starch for a bit. Quite a few n=1 experiments. In this post, one person shows what happens after consuming resistant starch for a while: < Several points from what I've learned: 1) are the bacteria still living when you consume them? 2) will the bacteria survive the trip through the stomach and smby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Tom, You may wish to investigate vitamin K-2, MK7 form. K-2 works with D-3 to (in layman's terms) tell calcium where to go. A reference is here: < The K-2 MK7 dose is in mcg and most say a minimum of 100 mcg/day. This is important for osteoporosis. The "standard" answer on calcium intake is to balance it with magnesium. I was taking probably 3x as much mag as I did caby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Debbie, A monitor might be useful. I have an AliveCor ECG monitor, a simple device that communicates with an iPhone and records an ECG, which can be analyzed. I also use a Polar H7 Bluetooth heart rate transmitter combined with the HRV Logger app for the iPhone. This combination gives the same heart rate vs. time info that is describe for the Polar S810 & subsequent RS800 heart rate monby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
There is an interesting article on how she got to where she is starting on p2 of this PDF: < She is clearly a gifted person.by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Ralph, As I recall, when Hans had his ablation (2005?), he was still having lots of ectopics and the Bordeaux team gave him (timed release?) potassium tablets, which helped a lot. Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Hi Lisa, I understand your frustration. Perhaps the NP is not schooled in some of the fine points of electrophysiology? In broad terms, being vagal is a trigger from becoming too "slow" from a heart standpoint and beta blockers slow you down more. Have you tried maintaining your BP w/o meds? Jackie and Erling often quote Dr. Moore's book, "The High Blood Pressure Soby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Susan, Welcome and glad you've spoken up with questions. "a runner and spin gym fit person." So you may have picked up that chronic fitness, while maybe good for your heart's plumbing, is not good for its electrical system. Many true "lone afibbers" got there by way of chronic fitness (including me). Not that there is good data on this, but my intuition is tby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Erich, Congratulations on your new addition! You may wish to read this letter by the late Dr. Coumel. He was a French EP who initiated the vagal/adrenergic concept. < Specifically he noted: "The predominance of arrhythmia onset at rest is also a good indication, but the onset of attacks during the period of relaxation that follows exercise or emotional stress is also common.&quoby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Shannon, Great job communicating a very important point! " they are by far the most knowledgable and proactive patients he has" not surprising. I know a number of afibbers who just go to their doc and take whatever is suggested without question. It takes initiative to search out other sources of information and those who are her have taken that initiative. Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
A number of years ago, there was a frequent poster, Gunnar, from Sweeden. Gunnar is a chemist by training and profession. He had worked out a very specific protocol using Cialis to help control his afib. It is in the Conference Room archives <. I'm sure you can also search on Gunnar and Cialis to find posts here. {Edit} I thought the CR session was on cialis, but I didn't rereaby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Doreen, I can empathize - I was in the store today looking longingly at cheeses. About a year ago I discovered that excess calcium in my diet, from dairy, was a source of my then increased afib. I cut out the excess and I'm back to good control. When I was looking at the cheese, I remembered how it felt to have afib triggered by the aftermath of sex and that was enough to make me pass.by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
More details from the team doc. He'd had afib in a game a week before and they "adjusted" (I assume increased) his med. Then the episode from last Monday: <by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Shannon, Obviously the AED thought it was a shockable rhythm and since the shock worked, it was. From my CPR/AED class, Vfib and most Vtach rhythms are shockable. Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Shannon, Here are what is relayed from some of the linked stories above. In the offseason, afib was discovered. They cardioverted him at the Cleavland Clinic and put him on meds, electing to delay an ablation till after this season. The week before, he had a med dosage increase. The episode happened. Dr. Mandrola hypothesized 1:1 flutter from meds, however the treating docs (seeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
"Medically, it's a little difficult for the doctors to pin down precisely what happened, as they were focusing mostly on reacting and only had a small rhythm strip once they attache the AED to go off of. Dr. Dimeff said that strip indicated Peverley's heart was bouncing between two abnormal and extremely dangerous rhythms, ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation."by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
I'm guessing ventricular fibrillation vs. atrial fib. An AED works on "shockable" ventricular rhythms (i.e. NOT flatline like shown on TV). Vfib is very dangerous, but I'm not aware in any general sense that afib leads to vfib. If he had afib, I don't think the two are connected. Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Debbie, The manufacturer is Horiba. This is an agricultural instrument. The periodic paralysis group figured out how to use it for testing serum potassium from saliva. Evidently there is a new model that is easier to use. < I'm guessing you could buy it from a US source and have it shipped, or Google around and see if a Canadian source has one. Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Randy, I have a Bayer Contour. I looked at them 9 ish years ago and it was a good choice for accuracy then. I think there are newer Contours and you need to make sure you get the strips that match the meter. I'd initially bought the local drugstore brand - very inexpensive - however the results were not helpful. I finally found a white paper on this machine and found the error barby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Tom, Thanks for the great report and good luck for continued NSR! Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Had more thoughts on this. Perhaps some of the meds used to treat afib may be responsible for what Dr. Reddy sees. Coumadin/Warfarin as anticogaulation interferes with vitamin K - K1 and its clotting properties is the intended target. The unintended target is K2. A lack of K2 can lead to arterial calcification (and perhaps MI's). Beta blockers, for rate control, have been associateby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Hi Eric, You sound vagal to me. The ginger may be having a two pronged effect - stimulating the adrenergic ANS and quieting your digestion. Long term, you may want to look at gut bacterial health. Things like resistant starch and soil bacteria probiotics. I'm guessing if you can improve your gut bacterial colonies, your digestion will improve. I wonder what your GI would say abouby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM