51 yr old male, just started to have heart arrhytmhia

[ofonorow]

Dear Owen Fonorow,

Your name was given to me by the Vitamin C Organization as to maybe assisting me with some questions about my husband's heart.

My husband is 51 years old, has worked out all his life, ate pretty healthy, did drink alcohol though, deals with strong anxiety, and has heart arrhythmia. We want to go the natural route. He just started to see a cardiologist. However, we want to go natural. We think it is more electrical than a blockage. Do you think the cardiac C will help him if it is electrical. He has not been tested to see if there is a
blockage.

Any suggestions or comments? I greatly appreciate your time and assistance.

Thank you so much.

Joyce

In my lay opinion, the Pauling therapy has the best chance of rectifying your husbands condition without surgery or invasive procedures. (Others at our forum are more expert and may differ.)

Start with the following vitamin C/lysine protocol, and when you know your husbands bowel tolerance,
we might recommend particular products,
http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=8026

Vitamin C has been shown in clinical studies to help arrythmias, and I gather your husband isn't already taking any supplements, correct?

Another important supplement for regular heart beat is magnesium (and if he is taking supplements, he should make sure that amount of manganese (a competitor in the heart to magnesium) is less than 2 mg. Take at least 300 mg of a good magnesium.

There are other supplements he should probably consider to cover all bases, as I outline here: http://www.practicingmedicinewithoutalicense.com/protocol/

[ofonorow]

Thank you so much for your response. I placed an order for the Cardia-C and your book. My husband has been taking supplements: magnesium, arginine, l-carnatine and taurine the last two weeks. He thought this would help, but it hasn't so far. I will have him check the amount of maganese in his supplements.

Again, I appreciate your time and knowledge!

Joyce

Apparently magnesium, arginine, carnatine and taurine are poor placebos!? (They simply don't have the placebo effect of vitamin C (and lysine)). Anyway, what I responded:

Those are all good secondardy supplements, after the primary supplements: vitamin C (and lysine).

Let me know how it goes on the Cardio-C.

[ofonorow]

Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me. It seems like my husband's diagnosis happened over night and because of a work project in Singapore, things are being rushed for treatment. We first thought he had simple heart arrhythmia and now find it is more serious atrial fibrillation (actually I don't know if there is a difference or not but his heart beat is irregular at least ever 20 beats).

Anyway, his cardiologist is saying to my husband, to help him go to Singapore, he will do a procedure on Thursday to shock his heart and to check for blockage; if there is a blockage, he will put a stent in. Of course I was under the impression that it was only a test to see if this was blockage or electrical problem, not putting any stents in or giving electrical treatments.

Then today I find out from my husband that he has been taken large doses of DHEA and progesterin (I think that is what it is). He said the average doses of DHEA is 5 mg and he has been 100 to 150 mg and just found out on the web that even at 5 mg some people can get heart palpitations for at least the last 4 months. He said the last time he took the DHEA and proesterin stuff was yesterday. He didn't take any today.

We just got in the Cardio-C. Since Friday or Saturday, he has been taking huge amount of Solgar Vitamin C and Lysine. (like 20 mg of Vitamin C with no diarrhea!) I can't understand why his bowel is tolerating this high level. Anyway, I told him not to go over the Pauling recommendation.

I am horribly upset because common sense tells me to have him quit taking the DHEA (which has doen since today) and wait and see if his heart goes back into rhythm. It doesn't make sense to have his body full of DHEA and adjust/manipulate his heart with his body full of DHEA! Not to mention I did read that there are drug interactions with DHEA and Warafin (blood thinner). I'm horribly afraid that he might have a reaction while undergoing the procedure on Thursday.

So, bottom line, I need as much information as I can get to convince him not to do the procedure. I read that high levels of Vitamin C will help clear out DHEA. I am open to any suggestions or knowledge or experiences about DHEA (whether his heart to return to normal when he discontinues taking it; how long it will take; whether he should do anything else beside the Vit C to reduce the DHEA. and progesterin (I'm not sure if that is the correct name but goes hand in hand with DHEA).

Thank you so much for all your time. I really appreciate it so much.

Unfortunately, we can not provide a recommendation against medical advice. In fact, I suggest that you follow your doctors advice. ( The best we can do is post at our forum for more expert commentary.)

Now it seems unlikely that high dose DHEA would cause Atril Fibrilation. (But Low Vitamin C might) and if you husband can tolerate a high dose vitamin C/lysine without diarrhea - let him take more! Dosage is everything, and the higher the better. (If he takes too much he'll get diarrhea)

One issue of the stent is that it is my understanding that once they are placed - they can not be removed, and the restenois rate (recurrence of the atherosclerotic plaque) is very high! Ask them if they would be willing to use a plain metal (not coated with "medication"), etc.

I forgot to mention the blood thinner the doctor has him taking: Enoxaparin Sodium (Lovenox) 100 mg every 12 hours. Supposedly this is the amount they give you in the hospital after having a heart attack. The pharmacist said his stool will become dark (I guess bleeding in the intestines!) and it is usually only administered in the hospital--she was a little surprised by the prescription.

I had a conversation with my husband since the 1st email. He said he took 50 mg of DHEA on Sunday but hadn't taken any in 2 weeks prior to that. That was news to me. However, except for the last 2 weeks and on Sunday, he was taking it for about 4 months. Do you think the palpitations would have stopped in those 2 weeks? The unknown .

I doubted DHEA has much if anything to do with this. Please monitor our forum.

Thanks for your response. I spoke to the doctor yesterday and he might have gotten upset with me for questioning him and now he has canceled the procedure saying that we should get a second opinion before the procedure. My husband is upset but it is a relief to me. My husband did agree that he did not want a stent, just a shock treatment--relieved about that also.

I was able to get him into another cardiologist who has a background using diet (gluten free). He first puts you on medication and then tries to wean you off. I'll feel better with a second opinion and a little more time. Hopefully he will have some improvement by Tuesday with the Cardio-C.

Thanks again for your responses.

Joyce

I am confused, if it was medically necessary, why would he cancel it?

[ofonorow]

I think the cardiologist started thinking about it and he knew it was more invasive then necessary at this point. I'm very excited about this new cardiologist and so is my husband. My husband actually emailed me a couple of minutes ago and said he feels it was the right thing to do to go to the new cardiologist for a 2nd opinion--he realized that the first one was too invasive too quickly. I'm very thankful for the direction things are going.

Again, I very much appreciate your time and help during this stressful situation. I love to hear opinions from people with knowledge/experience of alternative medicine and work that in with conventional medicine. My motto is try alternative first and then go to conventional (alternative also helps you to know what to look out for with conventional treatments).

Thanks.

Joyce

Very wise, your motto. I've been told this is the general philosophy in Japan - try safer alternative first, before resorting to pharmaceutical medications.