SOO I just talked to my bother.. he is going to call my mom to get more info.. but here he what he said.. he was taken to hospital not to long ago for same thing.. he is only 20! they told him he had an irregular heart beat.. and suggested he be put on a medication for it. He does not remember much else he does not have insurance so never went and saw dr(gotta low the US ) And about my mom.. she also had the irregular hear beat.. high cholesterol, high blood pressure(my mom is only 45 and about 130lbs 5'7") she is on meds for them all including one for her heart.. so I will call my brother back in a n hour.. he said he will call my mom and get more info.

Someone check this, but my Americanization converter gives:

TC = 242 mg/dl
Trigs = 49
LDL = 144
HDL = 89 looks good to me?

Candice, this has been going on for a long time, it seems that you have congenital condition, not one related to diet at all. I have a heart arrythmia and have had drs scare me to death, telling me to go to the ER everytime it happens. I also have usually low blood pressure, slow heartrate, that over reacts to adrenaline and gets really high. Also dizziness, light-headedness, extreme fatigue afterward. The cardiologist had me wear a holter, put on medication, after a while I learned to live with it and stopped the medication. Don't let the drs frighten you to death, they scared me unforgiveably. I had the same awful experiences with the hospital you had. Hours and hours, hooked up to a machine but they couldn't give me anything until I had a diagnosis. I decided if I was going to die from whatever I had, I'd do it in my jammies in my warm house in my own bed and gave up going to the hospital.

My friends husband, a marine, had a heart attack at age 28. He can laugh about it now, when he was in heart clinic he was the only one that didn't have gray hair.

Relaxing as much possible, telling yourself everything is in control, its going to be all right will make this easier, ask your husband to stop blaming you for indulging in butter. Its not helpful.

so brother talked to my mom..
this is what she was dx as..
Mitral valve prolapse

he said she did not really want to talk about it.. that she was out shopping with her girls.. and was being really quiet or whatnot.. he said he would call my dad and try to get more info.. She told him she never took meds for it.. but my brother knows she did as they were in her room .. found pill bottles(1/2 empty) one time and stated popping them(ya nice I know..) and he said he felt SOO weird after so they googled the rx name and it was a heart med..(she says to him though the has never been on any meds ever in her life.. ya so not ture.. so not sure why she is saying that!) But he can't for the life of him remember what it was called..
Just some info to tell the cardiologist I guess.

I have mitral valve prolapse too. I always keep the pills around just in case, but haven't taken them in years and years. That would be really lucky if that's what you have.

Hi again,

I had another thought about magnesium - all this stress you have had will have depleted your magnesium supplies for definite!!! So, if you weren't low in magnesium before all this (but you probably were, to be honest, because most of us are these days and an LC diet is not that high in Mg unless you make a big effort to eat lots of nuts and seeds), then you most definitely are now, I'm afraid.

Whatever it turns out you have, then a dose of magnesium to boost your supplies would be a very good idea right now, one to restock and, two, to help you withstand the stress of sorting all this business out.

Is it OK for you to order stuff from the USA online??? If you order just a small amount for your own personal use, is it OK to order from there? At any rate, this is the magnesium I have been successfully using for the last couple of years:

http://www.iherb.com/Doctor-s-Best-...lets/16567?at=0

For heart arrhythmias, I would also throw in this:

http://www.iherb.com/Now-Foods-Taur...psules/852?at=0

And this:

http://www.iherb.com/Nature-s-Way-P...sules/2000?at=0

I have tried all these minerals and I do think they have helped with my arrhythmias. They haven't gone away completely, but they are not as bad. I haven't tried the last product, but I was taking potassium for a while, but ran out. I think I will get this one as I feel that the arrhythmias have become more frequent again since I stopped taking the potassium.

If it is legal for you to order from the USA and you haven't used iherb.com before, make sure you use this code ~~~~~~ to get a $5 discount on your first order. But I would check out the customs and import regulations. When I have stuff sent to Germany, the weight of the package mustn't exceed 3lbs and the value mustn't be more than $25. The same weight restrictions apply if I send stuff to the UK, but then I have to check that the value of the order doesn't exceed 18 pounds sterling. I am sure there will be something similar for Canada. But, iherb.com are so much cheaper than the online stores in Germany or the UK, that it is worth it, even with the shipping - and that is only $4 worldwide!!! Most of the German and British online supplement retailers sell American products anyway, but they are often about 4 times as expensive as iherb.com. Just an idea... Magnesium, taurine and potassium are all involved in regulating the heart rhythm, so they would be good to take. But, I'm no expert, just a well-informed layperson, so I won't be in the least bit offended if you don't follow my advice!!!

Oh, and by the way, I also got a heart scare a few years ago, when I was diagnosed with these arrhythmias. But in my case the doc was quite OK and he said, "You don't seem like a nervous type and I'm not going to prescribe you any beta-blockers because they do have side-effects. Now that you know what this feeling is and that you know it's not dangerous and quite normal, really, I'm sure you'll be able to live with it."

In my case, the arrhythmias are in the upper chambers (I think, I was told all this stuff in German and it was about 10 or more years ago) of my heart and apparently that is not such a big deal, so to speak. The doc didn't mention magnesium, of course, or ask anything about my lifestyle, beyond asking me whether I smoked (which I did). I also drank too much at that point and had a stressful life with two small kids, which will have depleted my magnesium supplies, plus having given birth twice and breastfed twice, too. However, all the reading I've done since mentions magnesium in connection with heart health over and over again.

The other thing I had tested recently was homocysteine, which is apparently a better indicator of heart problems than cholesterol. My levels were very good, perhaps because I have been taking a B-50 complex for over a year as part of my programme to recover from adrenal fatigue (nearly there!!!). B6 brings down homocysteine, so that would be another one to put on your shopping list and do some research about, or ask your docs. It is also recommended to help you cope with stress. This is what I have ordered before from iherb.com:

http://www.iherb.com/Now-Foods-B-50...psules/410?at=0

The last time I wanted to order it, they didn't have it, but it worked for me: at least, my homocysteine levels were good at any rate, which put my mind at rest because having had these arrhythmias for a long while does make me concerned about heart health. I gave some to a friend of mine and she said she got funny-tasting burps from them, so she stopped taking them, but they didn't have that effect on me at all.

OK, another humongous post, sorry about this - I am a fast typist and I seem to be able to write a lot in a short time when I get into the swing of things!!!

This book might be of interest:

http://www.amazon.com/Sinatra-Solut...99440521&sr=1-1

This must be yet another update and the one I have is only available in a large-print edition. But it is due out in March 2011 so you might want to make a note of it. It is a really good read and tells you all about which supplements are helpful for heart health.

Take care and take a deep breath as often as you can...

amanda

Did you know that mitral valve prolapse is a typical symptom of magnesium deficiency and that magnesium can help make it less of a problem?

At least, that is what Dr Carolyn Dean says in her book on magnesium, and maybe Mildred Seelig as well in hers, I'm not sure, though, about whether she mentions it.

Just a thought...

amanda

Candice, if it's helpful to you, I have ordered from IHerb - they didn't put a value on the customs declaration - just stated dietary supplements. My order sailed through Customs with no delay and no questions.

Thanks Amanda! I'm not going to try any supliment yet.. I will wait to talk to dr.
It seems when this all started and I was feeling really faint.. people suggested low potassium and I took it and I was soo sick. I felt even worse.. like I was going to pass out, like I could not even hold up my head. it was horrible. so yeah I'm not going to take anything.

Thanks Amanda, I am always getting leg and foot cramps, that go away with mg. I can believe there is a connection. When I was symptomatic taurine was helpful too. I have mild adrenal fatigue, is that connected to mvp/mg/thyroid?

Someone posted this on the gluten free forum today

Here's a nice blog post (not mine!)that may give you some peace of mind on your way of eating.

http://refusetoregain.com/refusetor...14e8689d213970d

F

I will ask on wed.. but my dr and the hospital checked it and said it was fine levels.

Ding ding ding! I thought about this as I was reading more specifically about how your attacks were... MVP!

I had issues around age 30 with heart palpitations, being scared I was having a heart attack, etc. I went to my doc (no insurance, but she worked with me as she could). She did an EKG and found nothing, but when she listened to my heart, she said she heard a little bit of a click. She said that was indicative of mitral valve prolapse, but I'd need an ECG (echocardiogram) to confirm it. She didn't have an ECG machine in house, and there was no way I could afford it elsewhere.

She told me to quit caffeine and nicotine. I told her to pick one, because I wasn't going to do both first. She picked caffeine, and the Dr. Pepper I had in hand when she said it was the last one I ever drank. That was 8 years ago. I immediately stopped all caffeinated soda, all coffee, tea, and for quite some time, all chocolate as well (I got over that quick enough. LOL)

Anyway, I had HORRIBLE headaches and felt worse for like 3 months. I was a bad case because most of my caffeine came from soft drinks, so my blood sugar was spending a lot of time trying to adjust as well, and I'd throw it off with a caffeine free coke or something and now I know I was just starting all over. BUT!!!!!

That being said, quitting caffeine was the best thing I could have done. The palpitations stopped, a lot of my anxiety stopped, my migraines went away (after a rebound period of UGLY)... I felt human for the first time in a long time.

It's not a cure-all, obviously. And MVP has associated issues you have to watch (antibiotics when you have dental work done, for instance), but MVP is a BREEZE to deal with in relation to other heart conditions.

If you read about mitral valve prolapse disorder, you'll likely see a lot of your own other health/mental issues showing up. So regulating MVP, even with something as simple as quitting all caffeine for a while, can make huge improvements in your health in general.

Good luck!

Amanda, interesting re: mag. Googing "mitral valve prolapse magnesium deficiency" pulls up a lot of very legit info.

ex. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3014234