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Nancy, From what you are describing, it could be something other than afib. Lots of PVC's or PAC's, for example. Might be hard to tell with just a stethoscope, you might need some kind of recording monitor to tell. Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Lisa, Shannon recently posted that if emptying velocities for the LAA were below a certain threshold, clot risk rises dramatically. <; This appears to be an issue with certain extensive ablations. This can be an issue, even in NSR. I'm not aware of what duration the afib needs to be to cause a problem. The standard for electro-conversion without anti-coagulation appears to be 48by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Louise, Many people have found potassium chloride beneficial for their afib. When they drink low sodium V-8 juice, they are essentially drinking juice spiked with potassium chloride. As Jackie notes, some have stomach issues. I've used it for years to season my food. I also take potassium citrate. Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
My experience is that intense activity will cause a lowered resting heart rate, generally after a lag of several days. During this time, I'm at much greater risk for afib. A recent experience was a 13 hour day of activity at continuous high heart rate (mountaineering). My normal resting heart rate is ~54. Several days after this activity, my heart rate was in the high 30's &by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Shannon, Thank you for being so thorough and detailed in your great answers! Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Ralph, See all of Shannon's posts in this thread: <; Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Ralph, Shannon had an incident like you describe. He posted about it in the last few months. From his description, the incident was very ugly. He is probably your best bet for advice here. Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Hi Iatrogenia, I'm not aware of MCT's changing insulin sensitivity. They can help people with insulin sensitivity issues because they fuel the cells through a different pathway. The liver makes ketones from MCT's and ketones are metabolized in the mitochondria, though a completely different mechanism than glucose. It is a mechanism that does not require or have anything to doby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Hi Iatrogenia, Here is a thought - the blood sugar issue is primarily one of feeding the brain. The rest of your body can run on free fatty acids. The other nutrient that can feed the brain is ketone bodies. The body on a very low carb diet (<50 or 60g/day) or in starvation will adapt and then start producing ketones, which are a preferred brain fuel and are metabolized without insulby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Mark, Certainly data artifacts are an issue with heart rate monitors. The can be mitigated to a certain extent with electrode gel as well as remaining still while monitoring. That being said HRM's are still a very useful tool for the afibber. Of course we are interested in the unsmoothed data as that is where our information is. I've had a pattern since the beginning of my afby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
I did not explain myself well in the first post. The point of this is to create a graph of heart rate vs time or cardio tachogram using every heart beat. Most heart rate monitors and phone apps display an average over several to many beats or seconds. This is not useful for our purposes as we are interested in the anomalies. While an ECG, Holter or event monitor provides more information,by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
I've been looking at heart rate monitor apps for the iPhone. All that I've found average the data in some way or another. The best one used the Polar H7 Bluetooth chest strap, but reported data in 1 second increments. This is a pretty fine increment, but can still miss a lot of ectopics. I've been corresponding with Simon at iThlete. IThlete is an iPhone/Android app thatby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Sam, Here is a search for Peggy's The List posts. Unfortunately there can also be posts where the words "the list" happen to occur together, but it works reasonably well. I should note that Peggy's post will be below or after the post she is marking, so you'll have to scroll up to find it: And for my The List posts: Here is an example of a The List post fby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
To access "The List" Click on "Advanced" under the Search button in the upper right part of the page, just below the green bar with the word Phorum in it. In the box under Search Messages, type in The List Click on "all words" right of the box and select "Exact Phrase" instead At the bottom, are the words: Last 30 days Click on these words and youby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
I've always been frustrated about the inability to get a firm price before getting a procedure. If you can get firm quote on an ablation in Bordeaux, there is no reason why you can't get one on a whole range of procedures here in the states. I've had very high deductible insurance for over 25 years so am very aware of the full price of what I get. It is difficult to have competby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Dirk, I recently described my afib experience here: <;. Flec has been very useful for me. It has never failed me for on-demand use to terminate an episode. It also worked 6 or 7 months ago taken in advance to keep me from going out of rhythm. Mandrola's idea is a good one and one that use personally. Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
I have nothing to contribute, but Shannon, I'm horribly impressed you typed the above on your iPhone. WOW! Also thank you from the whole group for enlightening us on this topic!!!! Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Dean's full article is here: This article writes about the research: As I read the research, and knowing what I wrote about both insulin and potassium having an impact on sodium excretion, I wonder if the study participants' diets were on some kind of rotation and this was the cause of the variability in sodium excretion. Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Colin, I used organic ginger powder from my local store. When I first started using it, I'd take a heaping soup spoonful. Later I scaled back to 1/2 teaspoon at most times or if I thought my heart was "jumpy" I'd take 1 tsp. For the most part, my afib has not been digestion related. I was using the ginger for its property to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, rby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Ralph, The first 6 weeks seemed to have a cyclical component in my case. Then, during the last 15 months or so, maybe a bit of one again. For me, when the electrolytes are optimized, there is no cycle. If I had to guess at the reason, I would suggest it is because the AERP (atrial effective refractory time) is lengthened to a point that the AERP shortening effects of ANS activities don'by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
My recollection is that positive outcomes from ablations are positively correlated with increased resting heart rate from ablations. There were canine studies where they had successful ablations by only ablating the vagus nerves. I believe that in most people this increased resting heart rate reduces over time. Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
One of my favorite bloggers on the importance of controlling insulin is Peter Attia, MD. In his Eating Academy blog , he is fond of describing the features of a problem using ordered terms. Here is his definition: Ordered terms – The important features of a problem, in relative order of importance. An example will make this clear: If someone is on a sinking ship in the middle of the oceaby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Jackie, I was referring to: "Extra potassium in the diet causes increased excretion of sodium by the kidney, (25) which in turn leads to a decrease in the amount of sodium in the body and might decrease the release of natriuretic hormone from the brain." (Chapter 15, p269 1993 edition of Moore's The High Blood Solution) and "The work of Dr. Crabbe's group (11)by GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Dean, One thing that is missing from these experiments is that in very low insulin environments (generally < 50 g carbs/day), the kidneys excrete rather than store sodium. Jackie and Erling reference Dr. Moore's book on blood pressure . Moore suggests a diet with a 4:1 K:Na ratio will cause the kidneys to excrete potassium. He also points out that higher levels of insulin will causby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Patty, If your episodes come on after eating and at rest, it sounds like a vagal trigger. Digioxin is specifically contraindicated for vagal afibbers and can make your afib more likely and more frequent. When I was first diagnosed, in 2004, the second cardiologist I went to told me Digioxin was his favorite med. We'd have hour long "discussions" about this. He also did nby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
My recollection is there are data that suggest aspirin is much less effective for stroke prevention than warfarin, with respect to afib. In the article, warfarin was more effective preventing stroke than aspirin, but had more of an issue with bleeding. The heart failure population in the study was likely more prone to bleeding side effects. I also recall that bleeding was more of an issue as aby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Ralph, Why not drink the WW completely away from any digestion (in time)? I drink about 200 ml as concentrate daily, an hour or two after eating. Murray, Good luck making the WW. It really isn't very hard. Georgeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Ron, It is very difficult for most (but not all) people with normal kidneys to get into a mag toxicity situation. Excess mag will exit in the urine in healthy kidneys. There is the case of Dr. Mansmann, who took 20 grams elemental mag for a year to relieve himself of his diabetic neuropathy symptoms. After that he dropped down to 5 grams/day. He had no side effects except loose stools. See soby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
In a 1999 study of many different foods, seafoods in general generated orders of magnitude more TMAO than red meat. Also many veggies and other meats were comparable to red meat. Seeby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM
Monty, I agree with Ron that there is a linkage. PVC's don't start at the same source as PAC's or afib, but is an indication the cells aren't happy. In general, it has to do with the cells' effective refractory period (ERP). Here is a search on our board for articles written by PC (a former prolific poster & MD) on our board: If ERP shortens, PAC's, PVCby GeorgeN - AFIBBERS FORUM