Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) Support Group
Atrial fibrillation (AF or afib) is an abnormal heart rhythm (cardiac arrhythmia) which involves the two small, upper heart chambers (the atria). Heart beats in a normal heart begin after electricity generated in the atria by the sinoatrial node spread through the heart and cause contraction of the heart muscle and pumping of blood.
Are you low in Vitamin D? Have you had your levels checked? It's a simple blood test. Mine was very low-- at 13 ng/ml. Normal is between 40-50.
I was pretty shocked since I drink a lot of milk (that's supplemented with Vitamin D)... but they say most people are low. I didn't expect to be THAT low!
My doctor put me on prescription (high levels) of Vitamin D. An interesting thing happened after about three months. I was no longer tired, I was able to get to sleep at night, and I wasn't having any episodes of afib. And... the skipped beats don't happen as often as they did.
I wondered if there was any connection between low levels of Vitamin D and afib. And here's what I found: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/anec.12105/abstract
I would NOT advise taking Vitamin D yourself. High levels can be toxic because it's fat soluble. Find out where you are through a blood test, and get a doctor who knows a bit about nutrition to figure out how much supplementation you need. My GP was able to do this.
BTW.... I had an episode before the Vitamin D supplementation, and I found that taking a bath in epsom salt or even soaking my feet in it, returned my heart rate to normal. Guess the body was soaking up the magnesium.
Anyway.. I hope some of this is helpful to you.
I was pretty shocked since I drink a lot of milk (that's supplemented with Vitamin D)... but they say most people are low. I didn't expect to be THAT low!
My doctor put me on prescription (high levels) of Vitamin D. An interesting thing happened after about three months. I was no longer tired, I was able to get to sleep at night, and I wasn't having any episodes of afib. And... the skipped beats don't happen as often as they did.
I wondered if there was any connection between low levels of Vitamin D and afib. And here's what I found: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/anec.12105/abstract
I would NOT advise taking Vitamin D yourself. High levels can be toxic because it's fat soluble. Find out where you are through a blood test, and get a doctor who knows a bit about nutrition to figure out how much supplementation you need. My GP was able to do this.
BTW.... I had an episode before the Vitamin D supplementation, and I found that taking a bath in epsom salt or even soaking my feet in it, returned my heart rate to normal. Guess the body was soaking up the magnesium.
Anyway.. I hope some of this is helpful to you.
This morning, all of a sudden I was thinking about you and I was wondering how you were since we have not seen anything from you for a long time. I thought I should send you a message to see if you are still alive and kicking :-) Then, bam, I saw your post when I got on the DS site. What a surprise! Now, is this scary or what? hahahahaha Who said Twilight Zone was BS? LOL
Regarding your post, yes, vitamin D is important for a lot of things in the body specially the uptake of calcium, which is an electrolyte.
Also, you should make sure you take vitamin K2 (NOT K1, which is for coagulation of the blood). Vitamin K2 guides the calcium from the blood into the bones. K2 prevents calcium to be deposited on the arteries.
Epsom salt is good source of magnesium and magnesium calms the heart. So, your experience with Epsom salt make total sense.
Good to hear from you, Island. I am glad that you are doing okay and kicking hard :-) Watch out, petey, LOL
Scott
Some very hurtful things were said when I was here last, which is why I left.
Best of health to all.
For me magnesium is a must and it does help keep the heart calm. I too was low on vit D and have been having issues, also thyroid issues, hard to say which or both have been causing my dilemma Hope I am now on the right track.
Take care!
.
Thanks for the post! Im a big believer in vitamin D. My doctor put me on D3-drops about 5 years ago, not really sure how low my level was then but the drops pushed it UP to about 35. Last year I decided to see if I could move it up more by getting sun (natural source!!). At the end of last August I had it tested again and it was up to 55! (Be careful with TOO much sun though, I never stayed out longer than 20 minutes per side and NEVER got burned and made sure when I was out that the elevation of the sun was 50 or higher which means that between September and mid-April NO sunbathing in Switzerland!! :-()
I hate to think how bad my a-fib might have been if my vitamin D levels had been low!!
Take care and hope to hear from you again!!
across the Pond (atp)