You can control Afib without becoming a (*shudder*) vegan!
I’ve had Afib I guess for my whole life, though I never noticed it for more than a few seconds until I turned 50. The first time it “got stuck” I remember it going overnight for a while then resolving … the next time it was after a long warm day of tramping around the University of Washington … without getting enough to drink, I remembered.
So for a while after that I treated my condition with iced tea and potato chips. After a while this didn’t work as well and, consulting Dr. Google, I added magnesium daily in a supplement pill. But the big missing mineral in my system turned out not to be magnesium but potassium. (This is why the potato chips worked, sort of.)
Let me pause here and share this doctor’s advice:
It starts 2 or 3 minutes in and his first words of advice are “become a Vegan!”
This is preposterous! Through fine-tuning my supplement regimen over the years I’ve had to make very few changes to my diet; the main dietary change I did make a few years back was to lower carbs to lose weight, nothing to do with Afib.
I also still consume a certain amount of caffeine and a certain amount of sugar, mostly in the form of home-made iced tea. It’s only moderately sweet (for me, anyway; I’ve found extra-sweet tea in the Memphis airport was so sweet I had to pour it out) … I use 5/8 cup of sugar in 1/2 gallon of tea. And I drink about 1/2 gallon of this mixture most days.
Both of these (caffeine and sugar) are supposed to be no-nos for those with A-fib. My current supplement regimen is very effective in keeping my Afib nonexistent or nearly so, so here it is in some detail in hopes it will be beneficial to you and yours in controlling this annoying condition.
First up, a multivitamin/mineral which I’m starting to change out for an almost-equivalent but much cheaper one:
The cheaper alternative:
I had been taking 4 per day of the Biocardiozyme, but have switched and now taking 2 of each (1 each twice per day).
Next, magnesium (magnesium is also present in smaller amounts in the two listed above):
I take 2 of these per day, one in the morning and one after dinner.
Now, for the potassium … some potassium comes in hard-to-swallow tablets, so I usually get Vitamin Shoppe potassium in capsules that are much easier to swallow.
I take 6 or sometimes more of these per day: 2 early a.m., 2 after dinner and 2 at bedtime. And sometimes a couple of extra when I’m having extra sugar or caffeine.
One supplement I’ve added recently is kelp, for the iodine:
I take 2 of these capsules in the morning and 2 in the evening. They’re less than 4 cents apiece.
It turns out that iodine is essential for human health and not just in being useful for controlling Afib. There was bad science in the 20th century falsely implicating iodine in some human health scares. The whole story is in a book called The Iodine Crisis by Lynne Farrow. I highly recommend it.
Other than that it’s the usual suspects:
I take 1 selenium per day, 2 or 4 of the D3’s per day (more about this below) and 2 of the vitamin C / rose hips tabs.
Centrum Silver contains as much as 1 1000 iu D3 in each of its tabs, so I noticed that and cut back my D3s to 1 each twice per day. I read that 4000 iu of D3 per day is plenty …
If I do cut out Biocardiozyme Forte for Centrum Silver completely, I may then also need to add 2 more capsules of potassium as Centrum Silver contains 3X more calcium than Biocardiozyme Forte, and calcium interferes with the absorption of potassium, much to my surprise.
That’s it … this supplement regimen seems not only to control Afib but to generally be good for my health. I’ve had just 1 minor cold in about the last 5 years. And no symptoms of Covid19 if I have contracted it; I certainly haven’t noticed anything … but have been doing pretty good social distancing since my home state of Washington mandated it in March.
Here’s to your health and an enjoyable Memorial Day picnic!
