Am I going to have a heart attack my next paddle?

[PonoBill]

I don't, but a friend of mine did. He quit drinking coffee and started chugging a lot of sports drinks and taking supplements. They went away and didn't come back. If you're having them more often then it might be time to try a Holter again.

As I recall he needed to take more Potassium and Magnesium. Of course anything that has to do with your heart isn't anything to mess with, talk to your doctor about dietary changes. My friend passed away, but that was a result of an unrelated issue.

[decagrog]

I don't, but a friend of mine did. He quit drinking coffee and started chugging a lot of sports drinks and taking supplements. They went away and didn't come back. If you're having them more often then it might be time to try a Holter again.

As I recall he needed to take more Potassium and Magnesium. Of course anything that has to do with your heart isn't anything to mess with, talk to your doctor about dietary changes. My friend passed away, but that was a result of an unrelated issue.

Thanks for the reply PonoBill,
 I have a healthy diet with no processed food, low fat, veg, ect (mediterranean, I'm from Italy  ) I'm skinny, don't smoke, don't use any supplement and generally refuse to take medicinals even when I'm sick,  I take just a couple of coffe every week...

I know that anxiety and stress can play a big role in those kind of premature contractions but I'm pretty sure that in my case is not the cause but just a consequence.

Unbalance of  magnesium, calcium and potassium could be a cause, I could try to take some specific integrators but still I doubt it's my case  (feel the extras every days from  4-5 years)

As you suggested the heart it's our engine and we must keep it running and in order 
 I'll take in consideration another holter, my cardiologist suggested me to ask for it in the periods when I feel more extras and then with the holter do some workout like ciclying (not watersport obviously  ) in order to record more of it and have some data to analyze.

[mittenkitten]

Decagrog - have you ever been tested for hyperthyroidism? People with an overactive thyroid often have premature atrial contractions (extrasystoles)...

[supthecreek]

decagrog & anyone else that is interested...

I have none of the expertise that many of you possess... but I have personal experience that may help, or at least be interesting.

I had experienced irregular heartbeat from time to time in my 20's.
The year (1978) I turned 30 I was living Sunset Beach on Oahu's north shore... surfing bigger & bigger waves. Every day was a new challenge of testing my limits. It was my first year at the biggish stuff and I must have been feeling the stress. Funny thing... the stress did not come from being out in big Sunset...that was OK... it was from standing on the beach... wondering what I would do when it got bigger.

Anyway... I ended up with crazy irregular heartbeats. 

I took myself to Queens hospital and was put through the stress test ringer. Lots of fun.
They confirmed lots of irregular beats, but said I had a strong athletic heart, it was not heart disease and it wouldn't kill me. Yea!

But it didn't go away... and it sucked.

They gave me prescriptions for meds to help lessen the irregularities. They didn't.

I kept pushing my bar higher... I got the biggest wave I saw that winter at Sunset. But it didn't stop the freaky beats. They kept going that summer when I was back on Cape Cod. Nothing they gave me helped. It seemed as if I almost never had two "normal" beats in a row. I hated it. I would run as fast as I could to test it. I didn't kill me but it didn't change anything.

On day I just got sick of it and decided to try my own way.

In the early 70's I had been trained in Transcendental Meditation. I had not practiced it for a year or so.

I assumed the lotus position on the floor of my beach shack in the dunes at Coast Guard Beach. I began to meditate.

In 15 miniutes, I had regulated my heartbeat.

I swear on everything Holy to me.... My heart was beating perfectly normal again.... and is to this day.

ONE session of meditation allowed my brain to get out of the way and let my body behave the way it is supposed to. I was the problem... I let my stress (and fear of the irregularities) create a disturbance in my body's natural rhythm. Meditation took ME out of the equation and the problem solved itself.

Anytime I felt stress or anxiety coming on, all I had to do was assume the calm breathing associated with meditation and my anxiety would pass, and my heart would "Relax"

Just knowing that I had that power eventually made anxiety a thing of the past.

We are told that our Heart is an "involuntary muscle"
But my experience showed me that I could "make" it misbehave by allowing stress to gain control... and I could also "Fix" it

It's been 34 years... I still get an irregular beat... once in a blue moon... I just take a calming breath and it is forgotten.

Years later, at Mass General in Boston, I ran into an English Heart Specialist... I related the story to him... He started to smile and said he was in the US to gather information for his new book.... about controlling irregular heartbeat through Meditation

I am NOT nuts after all

Our bodies are capable of amazing things... If we get out of the way and let them work.

[mittenkitten]

supthecreek: That's an AWESOME example of "quantum healing" - basically the belief that the mind can heal the body. This has always been something that fascinated me, and your story is really an outstanding one! Have you ever used meditation for any other form of healing?

[supthecreek]

Hey mittenkitten (love the name!)
The funny thing is, I'm a Velveeta cheese eating, over weight ex-smoker
as conservative as they come... not at ALL holistic or yogi veggie hippie

BUT... I think nature does pretty well all by itself.

I don't look at it as: " the mind can heal the body"
I look at it as " the mind can get in the way of the bodies natural healing capabilities"

The mind can wreak havoc to the body...
stress is probably the best example
worry causes stress
Our bodies constantly send signals to the mind.... something is wrong... pay attention!
But we deny, ignore & delay the body by seeing the warning as inconvenient.

Certainly we all benefit from Modern Medicine and the marvels it brings. But I believe we could do more service to ourselves if we relied on it less and exercised our bodies own abilities.

In some ways we have let the medical community & the western way of life usurp the bodies ability to heal itself.
Examples of what I mean:

Pain: the bodies way of telling us NOT to do something... we medicate the pain sensors so we can continue to damage the body without the annoying discomfort.

Cravings: we look at them ALL as bad... but sometimes when you crave salt... you actually NEED salt.

Animals use scent as a way to determine the health & compatibility of others. We look upon all body odors as bad... and mask them.

All I know is my mind was harming my body by letting worry and stress screw up the signals... all I did was stop it.

Meditation was a very effective way to turn my mind off and let the body regain control.

[decagrog]

thanks for the replies, so in order:

x mittenkitten: yes I've tested with the blood test and there's not thyroid dysfunction, but this is actually a good hint because a lot of people with hyperthyroidism suffer of extrasystoles...also hiatal hernia could be a trigger factor.

x supthecreek : thanks for sharing your experience, very interesting story!

I like the scientific approach but I've no particular prejudices against other form of thinking.
Honestly last year when I was phisically and psychologically overwhelmed by that kind of problems I've tried some breathing exercise from the tummo meditation (read a couple of books about it for the curiosity on how to control the body temp ) but with no luck.

As you said the heart is not a "cold machine" but is deeply influenced  by the emotional expression.

[mittenkitten]

supthecreek - yes I couldn't agree with you more about allowing the body to "do it's job". This is one of the reasons I am against the influenza vaccine - our body does better off creating it's own immunity and fighting it's own battle against the flu than being inoculated with viral and chemical garbage that has in no way, shape, or form been proven effective. Do I feel this way about all vaccines? No not at all. Polio and measles for example were devastating illnesses that killed people. Not that people haven't died from flu, but I think you get my drift.

Same thing with constant exposure to anti-microbial cleaners and soaps. I will use these at work since I am in contact with people who are already sick and immunocompromised, but in my own home they don't exist.

I really have to rein it in here or I'm going to start ranting about the overprescription of antibiotics and basically just about every drug out there.

[hbsteve]

MK--it's okay.  I probably will get my first flu shot when I take up golf.

[mittenkitten]

MK--it's okay.  I probably will get my first flu shot when I take up golf.

Yeah, when I'm six feet under I may consider it... 

[captain twang]

This is a really nce and inspirational thread for me. Thanks folks!


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