You can also consider the main campus of Cleveland Clinic.... Dr. Patrick Tchou is there and is a top EP... to the south a bit in Akron, Ohio... and if Dr. Natale no longer does ablations there, look at Robert Schweikert who left the Clinic when Dr. Natale left. He's an outstanding EP. Both Drs Tchou and Schweikert worked for years with Dr. Natale. Jackieby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Great find, Erling. The evidence stack for the importance of magnesium continues to grow higher. Also nice to see the sodium detrimental effects confirmed once again. Jackieby Jackie - GENERAL HEALTH FORUM
Hi Adrian.... Cheers, indeed! Very good news and you are most deserving after your long struggle with AF. Glad you are enjoying life. There is nothing better than NSR. Best to you, Jackieby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Lisa... Lumbrokinase has been around a long time...it is effective and also more costly than nattokinase. It's mentioned in the Conference Room sessions on nattokinase... #39 and 40. Jackieby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Anneh.... Nattokinase is very safe --does not cause brain bleeds etc...... refer to the two conference room sessions on this topic CR 39 and 40. If your MVP is minor... meaning there is a very small amount of regurgitation, you should be fine using Nattokinase. I had or have a very minor MVP... classified as "trivial" by my cardiologist who said he wasn't even worth documentingby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Hi Tom - As you observe, magnesium is an essential mineral required in over 300 enzymatic reactions throughout the entire body. When you consider that there are ..what? estimates of 70 to 100 trillion cells in the body, that's an mind-boggling amount of 'facilitating' as an ongoing function every second of every day as long as we live. So, of course, in our continual effortsby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Hi Bill - Welcome but sorry about the circumstances that bring you here. The Exatest is a highly important and valuabe diagnostic for all afibbers. We have been discussing the benefits of ExaTest for a number of years. Many of us have had the test and learned that we are low in intracellular magnesium and found imbalances in the ratios of other electrolytes as well. I would definitely recommeby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Nineteen men with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) received 1.95 g per day of an essential fatty acid (EFA) preparation (source not specified) that contained linoleic acid, alpha-linolenic acid, and other fatty acids. After three days, the dose was reduced to 1.3 g per day for several weeks, then to 0.65 g per day. After an unspecified period of time, all patients had a decrease in postvoid resby Jackie - GENERAL HEALTH FORUM
George - you are a good example of the 'not-yet-fully-known ' reason why some afibbers seem unable to store the requisite amounts of magnesium. I have decided that my rapid depletion of Mg is associated with stress. Even though I think I'm not all that stressed, apparently what's working behind the scenes (for me) is just enough to use up a tremendous amount of magnesium.by Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Thanks George - I use PIP post ablation. I sure wish I had been offered it much earlier in my Afib challenge prior to ablation. My instructions are the 25 mg Toprol XL at onset - wait 30 minutes. Take 100 mg flecainide. Wait 1 hour and if needed, take another 100 mg. flecaninide. Most of the time, I've converted within an hour or shortly after 1 hour. I've only needed the seby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Hi Tom - I totally agree with your comments that it's definitely not practical to continue to have cardioversions... if not for the expense, then, the unknowns regarding eventually what it might do to the heart as a result. If you can manage to do the Exatest soon, it should be both very telling and valuable for both your pre-and post-ablation supplement protocols that will help keepby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Maree - I had posted the following response to your dosing question in another thread... Repeating: Maree - you can ramp up your magnesium dose every 4 - 5 days - the tip-off will be loose stools... then back down to the previous tolerable dose. You may also want to consider adding more of the potassium powder. One teaspoon is equal to 540 mg so try for two teaspoons a day. When I wasby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Hello Cynthia~ It's good to see your progress report. I certainly wish you the very best of ongoing success. You've suffered enough with all this. Best to you, Jackieby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Tom - when you are adding up RADS, be sure to include the fluoroscopy exposure during the procedure time as well. Somewhere back back in the archived posts, Hans posted exposure equivalencies.by Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Hi Shannon - thanks for posting this link. This is an excellent illustration of why we need to control blood viscosity. The first question..... "Is your heart pumping sludge?" certainly gets the viewer's attention immediately. At that website, there are a number of other highly informative video clips. Jackieby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Back again, Larry… I’ll respond to your comments interleaved below: Jackie, I believe the misunderstanding that I have had regarding vitamin K antagonist INR ranges and fibrinogen ranges has been cleared, and I now get it. As a non-anticoagulated patient, stroke considerations should not be directed to INR levels, but instead, be focused and directed to fibrinogen and the lowering of its levby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Hi Paul - yes... fingers crossed. B12 deficiency affects the methylation process and everything downstream from there... You may find that if your current dose isn't enough, either add more or get a B12 injection once a week for about 6 weeks or as long as it takes to see results. The other issue with stomach gas, bloating etc comes from too little natural stomach acid. We've diby Jackie - GENERAL HEALTH FORUM
Gary - I took 300 mg flecainide daily for about 4 years along with a large variety of supplements. I did not find any interferences. However, until I finally optimized the intracellular magnesium, I continued to have regular AF even with the flecainide. What we knew back then, compared to now, is light years apart. Focus on the information in The Strategy and CR 72. The key to NSR is mby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
How well controlled is your diabetes? What's your Hemoglobin A1C and fasting insulin? A good start on this project would be for you to do a complete daily log of every bit of food and beverage you consume. If you eat packaged foods, then check the ingredient content on the labels...Write it down and assess by charts what your dietary intake values are by nutrient groups... magnesium, pby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Hello Belinda~... So good of you to share your ablation success and experiences with us. I'm sure that all the heroics you did up to the decision to have ablation helped position you for a successful outcome. At long last, may you enjoy your life in blissful NSR! My best to you, Jackieby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Hi Larry - On the blood viscosity topic, you won’t find a correlation between your Nattokinase therapy and INR or PT which makes it difficult if doctors only want to see the INR level. Nattokinase works on lowering fibrin levels and is measured by the fibrinogen level – your level of 252 is under the recommended 300 mg/dL which is good. Did they also measure ferritin? Since I have a lowby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Maree - you can ramp up your magnesium dose every 4 - 5 days - the tip-off will be loose stools... then back down to the previous tolerable dose. You may also want to consider adding more of the potassium powder. One teaspoon is equal to 540 mg so try for two teaspoons a day. When I was working to stabilize my post-ablation breakthroughs, I used at least 3 teaspoons potassium powder... one wby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Gay - with your education, I find it hard to imagine that you could not discern between a normal, regular pulse and something aberrant. I, too, have formal education for vitals and I've never owned any type of 'gadget' for pulse checking. If for some reason, I have difficulty with the radial pulse, I can always rely on a very light touch on the carotid which is always strong anby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
If these researchers would use basic logic to follow various causes of AF and also connect the dots to depression.... a key factor would be magnesium deficiency... which has an impact on both. Stress depletes magnesium. Magnesium deficiency allows for AF. I guess that's just too simplistic for a study focus to bother to sleuth out the cause of the ailment rather than invent a procedureby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Ben - You're definitely off to a good start. The idea is to reach tissue saturation (and a bowel tolerance level) which should equate to optimizing intracellular magnesium (which is where it works).. but avoiding loose stools or diarrhea. Some individuals are never able to retain enough magnesium and are considered refractory. For variouis reasons, sometimes magnesium is not able to eitheby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Heather - that was about 10 years ago... I believe I took a proteolytic enzyme that contained serrapeptase and it's now is now called Fibrozym... by Naturally Vitamins...(iHerb) it's a nice blend. That dissolved the the hard, knotty vein. If I were taking something today, I'd use one of the stronger ones like Wobenzyme but unfortunately, they are much more costly. I just loby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Hi Heather - since you use RO water... it’s definitely important to add back in minerals so you support your overall mineral requirement. You say you take the citrate form of magnesium… which may be fine to some extent but it’s known that the citrate form does not stay in cells very long. Possibly consider trying the amino acid, chelated form (magnesium glycinate) that has better ‘staying’ powerby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Randy - I definitely wish you an enjoyable ride! Jackie Bill C - I asked for the pads for those who are sensitive to Latex. That made all the difference. Jackieby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM
Paul - you can test for Candida albicans (yeast)... Candida resides naturally in the entire GI tract... but when it becomes too plentiful, then it takes over. and gives symptoms such as you describe. When you eat starchy carb foods or anything with sugar including fruit, that feeds the yeast. Just like the olf-fashioned way of making bread when the starter had to be 'proofed' sugarby Jackie - GENERAL HEALTH FORUM
Welcome, Matthew - Thanks for your detailed status report. Because H.pylori is well known to be a contributor to Afib, a consideration worth mentioning since you are treating for it would be to stick with that program and consider following it with a course of the mastic gum which is the natural treatment for HP. Refer to the report by Sharon Glass in the Conference Room since she was able toby Jackie - AFIBBERS FORUM