Magnesium deficiency - cause or worsening AFib

Heart health and blood vessels
1

Anyone here know how much time should elapse between consuming foods rich in Magnesium and food, drink or medication that leaches Magnesium from the body? I gather caffeine is included. 

Magnesium deficiency has my 'little grey cells' investigating (like Poirot!) hoping spinach, chard, pumpkin seeds & almonds, etc, will reduce or elliminate my constant AFib. 

Vitamin D deficiency (blood count was 25 last summer's-end) progressively resolved via supplements and now UV rays of sunlight. Adequate vitD (a hormone, I note) has reduced my (resting) pulse from 132 beats/min (Sep 2016) to 86 now. But it races toward 180 whenever my neck is straightened after being bent forward - example 5 seconds tying shoelace, or 3 minutes handweeding garden. Possibly this relates to a serious prolapse of a neck disc 21 years ago when I was aged mid-30s. I have no answers yet after waiting 6 months to see a neurologist (in UK).

2

Interesting! I was always given extra magnesium (and potassium I think) intravenously during my trips to A&E for AF, after they'd received my blood test results....mmm

3

Anyone here improve AFib by eating extra Magnesium-rich foods? Glad the medics gave you Mg intravenously, Okapis. Wonder if this helped keep you OK.

I'm learning doctors' surgery (serum) blood tests for Magnesium are unhelptul, unlike intracellular test, Red Blood Cell (RBC) Magnesium analysis. Alternatively, experimenting with dietary habits may be helpful indicators.

Online searches on Magnesium deficiency keep leading me to Dr Dean - book and supplements, but also my preferred avenue, foods rich in minerals. Shocked that I seem to be deficient in Magnesium (+ vitamin D) as lifelong high-vegetable diet for me. But then I looked up top Magnesium-stacked foods, & realised I ate way more broccoli, green beans, cabbage + carrots than these Magnesium-rich foods:

- spinach (I avoided 'cos iron absorption nullified by Oxalic Acid in spinach) but it seems much can be avoided by steaming separately from other veg (the water of which I drink, for max nutrition)

- chard + kale (I now aim to grow these, as well as eat them)

- pumpkin seeds (avoided due to bits sticking in my ever-swollen tonsils, but now eating them with gusto)

- yogurt (the one Magnesium-rich thing I've long eaten, though moderately - Onken natural)

- almonds (on my shopping list now! Hope my tonsils shrink; nut fragments cause asthma-like cough)

- black beans (until now I was too lazy to meal-plan an soak overnight)

- avocados (rare treat always made me sparkle;  now I know why)

Brings me back to coffee. When diagnosed by a cardiologist as having "very fast ventricular rate AFib up to 181" + "and no pauses", I'd already given up caffeine 3 months prior. Now I've reintroduced moderate coffee-drinking (3 cups daily) as it appears not to affect my AFIb (and I've never had high blood pressure). Coffee is my sole painkiller. (No meds, after horrors of Diclofenac for several months at the start of my AFib 21 years ago.) I drink only water otherwise. Zero alcohol. Online searches imply caffeine, being a diuretic, causes the kidneys to expel Magnesium, among other things. Anyone have an opinion on how long to allow between consuming coffee and Magnesium-rich foods, for maximum nutrition, please?

4

I try to take Magnesium everyday in conjunction with B6, & Vit C.  I have no clue If it is tranquilizing my A-Fib.

I try to believe it is helping me I cannot be certain.  

5

Kingjerry42 - hope the Magnesium, etc, does indeed help improve your AFib. Wonder if you also consume suitable amount of Potassium, under your doctor's guidance? I'm learning from frank61666 (on another thread) importance of both these vital electrolytes.

Today I start experimenting by consuming more of these Potassium-rich foods: potatoes, sweet potatoes, bananas, tomato sauce (without added salt or sugar), orange juice, tuna (fresh, frozen or tinned, but not in brine), yoghurt and fat-free milk - as listed by Blood Pressure UK website. For me, this will mainly be a banana daily. Eating these used to magnify my palpitations. Not in the past week, presumably because I have started eating pumpkin seeds daily, for Magnesium...?

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Liz:

             RE: POTASSIUM & MAGNESIUM

Yes I am familiar with the potassium too.  3 to 4X a week I do stationary bicyling for 45 minutes each time.   After the exercise I take all my pills including potassium with the magnesium and always hope they will mitigate or tranquilize my A-Fib.  I will lose potassium with the workout.

I have discovered that when my A-Fib is. chaotic I can take a prescribed LORAZEPAM (0.5) mg and it will relax the muscles of my heart very well and stop the chaos in my heart.

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Kingjerry42 - helpful knowing a prescribed LORAZEPAM relaxes the heart muscles, for you. I'll make a note, in case my AFib doesn't dissipate by adding more Magnesium-rich + Potassium-rich foods to my daily eating.

Helpful, also, to be reminded by you that exertion creates a greater need for Potassium. For months, I've been doing 15-20 very short bursts (1 minute) of carrying a heavy item against my abdomen (can't hold at arms' length due to upper-spine prolapse). This immediately brings on palpitations. Sadly, my British cardiologist's team failed to download data from my 24-hour Holter recording, so I don't know if that was when my Heart Rate reached 181. But, in order to reduce stress, I have to get the items shifted away from my old home, which is likely to change ownership rather soon, alas. I gather stress-reduction is good for coping with AFib.

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Thank You Very Much for your Reply info.  Very informative.

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Mentioned this in another post but for me, reading up about how each of us has their own "balance" between salt / magnesium and potassium, it takes a while to dial it in. 

For me, it was understanding that you can't tackle one without considering the others.  All of them need to be in balance as all three play their own part when it comes to controlling the pathways / strength of electricity near the heart. 

Best thing I do is in morning its 1 banana and then 4-5 cups of spinach thats been wilted in a pan with garlic and lemon juice.  Maybe add in a cup of black beans.  Boom!  That is the "PVC Heart Special" breakfast right there. 

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Thanks robert05325. O/H and I now enjoying kale almost daily with evening meal. Thinking is this avoids oxalic acid present in spinach, thereby depriving body of access to iron within same meal. Wonder what others here think...? To Kingjerry42, hope you're getting on OK, a month on.

11

I have found that spinach has the most to offer in terms of regulating my AFib.  I grab 4-5 cups, toss in a pan with some EVO and minced garlic.  Once it starts to wilt, splash a couple times with some lemon juice and you are good to go.  

This and one less cup of coffee a day is the best I've found once Afib flares up.  

12

Thanks robert05325. 7 days ago, I decided to start taking supposedly heart-rate dropping capsules named in UK as Adizem (Diltiazem hydrochloride) 90 mg every 12 hours. So far no improvement. In fact, feeling palpitations more often, + tinnitus worse. Mild headache. Writing that made me decide to use home finger-pulse reader. It indicates 102, whereas pre-medication it was 82. Wonder why Adizem would make AFib worse?!

Hour ago I ate my usual lunch of 4 handfuls of kale boiled with handful of broccoli, clove of garlic + half a small tin of oily fish + potatoes.

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Having scrolled through everyone's A .F 's problems, I get  the impression that you are all spending a lot of time wondering what to eat regarding vitamin  content. My daily consumption of vital  vitamins ,comes in the form of capsules, Magnesium with Vit D ,which needs Calcium to function better..... Selenium with Zinc. A Probiotic  for gut protection.  An iron tab once a week, and a 3 monthly B 12 injection,, compliments of my G.P 

I eat mostly fish, if it's got a fin ,I will eat it, but will not entertain ,breadcrumbs, batter, or any other coatings . I stopped taking prescription drugs because the side effects from them made me ill .My stats are all now good, and my G.P is happy, so ,that makes two of us ,If I do get super stressed,,,,,, my heart gives me a reminder to 

"Cool it" and slow down. I am a qualified pensioner with the head of a teenager !!!

My motto is ,---If I'm vertical,, I'm O.K. 

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With a CHAD-VS score of 1, I'm much like you except I take 100 mg aspirin every second day for cancer and AF; no calcium supplements because they cause heart problems; no selenium any more because high doses are dangerous (just eat Brazil nuts); yoghurt and sour dough bread for probiotics; kelp powder for iodine; and some vitamin C.  I might take anticoagulants at 70-years-old.  My motto is: prescription drugs are best for pharmaceutical companies. 

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Hi, we  seem to be like minded regarding prescription drugs. Your" alternatives", throw problems for me, as I have Hearty Diverticulitis,,which brings it's own problems, so, it's a lot easier for me to scoff vits and mins,I take probiotics  for gut bugs,, no shopping involved, or watching use by dates..

Keep vertical, and a sense of humour .