Typically,
the heart beats about seventy times a minute,
which in turn is 100,800 times every day.
Hopefully, it does it without skipping a beat.
However, it is well known that approximately ten
million Americans suffer from some form of
alteration in rhythm of the heartbeat. This can
either be skipped beats, slow beats or fast
beats. It is also fairly common to have an
irregular beat. Most commonly, these are felt as
“Palpitations”.
Collectively, abnormalities in the rhythm or
rate of heartbeat is referred to as an
“Arrhythmia” Luckily, majority of the
arrhythmias are benign, however, some are fairly
life threatening and are termed as malignant.
There is no correlation between how they are
perceived (in terms of discomfort) and their
significance. They all need to be evaluated to
some extent. Some of the most benign arrhythmias
can be most troublesome and very difficult to
treat. Some such as “Atrial Fibrillation”
although are benign by themselves, can lead to a
substrate exposing the patient to a high risk of
stroke. Therefore, all palpitations need to be
carefully evaluated.
Modern medicine has found it very challenging to
offer a reasonable treatment for some very
common arrhythmias. Sometimes, the treatment is
more dangerous than the actual rhythm
disturbance. In the past, a very popular
medication was found to be very effective in
terminating arrhythmias, and quite frequently,
the patient as well.
To this day, there are no ideal anti-arrhythmic
agents which combine efficacy without harmful or
bothersome side effects. Most commonly,
physicians have chosen to treat the life
threatening irregularities and generally avoid
medications for benign irregularities. This can
sometimes expose patients to a very fairly
uncomfortable sensation, albeit benign. However
recently there has been a lot of natural
supplements that have shown potential of being
the ideal treatment for some of the benign
irregularities. Some of them come close to being
the ideal anti-arrhythmic.
In this article, we will review a couple of the
most up and coming supplements. A word of
caution, it is ill advised to treat an
arrhythmia without having it evaluated by a
physician. Not all palpitations are treated the
same. With this in mind the first contender is
“Fish Oil”.
Fish oil is a very concentrated source Omega 3
Fatty acid. Fish oil has been found to decrease
the number of some types of irregular heart
beats. It has recently been found to decrease
the likelihood from certain n types of dangerous
heart rhythms. In a trial done in 1989, it was
found that men with previous heart attacks
(heart attacks pre-dispose patients to very
malignant forms of arrhythmias) who ate fish
twice weekly had a 29% reduction in death. There
was no decrease in the number of heart attacks
but a definite decrease in deaths from heart
attacks. It is felt that the benefit may have
been related to control of the arrhythmia. In
some studies, a 53% reduction in the risk of
sudden death has been noted in patients who have
had previous heart attacks. Up until now the
benefit was only proven in patients with
impaired hearts. However, recently there is
evidence suggesting that even in people with
normal hearts there is a substantial reduction
in the risk of sudden death. The question that
remains unanswered is whether or not it is
effective in patients with less dangerous
arrhythmias such as “Atrial Fibrillation”.
It is known that people with atrial fibrillation
have lower levels of omega-3 fatty acid.
Sources of omega-3 fatty acids are fish oils
(most concentrated) as well as flaxseed, walnuts
and canola oil. However, only 10% is absorbed
when flaxseed etc are used. To achieve heart
rhythm benefits, at least 1000-2000 mg of fish
oil is needed.
Magnesium, is another supplement which has very
beneficial effects. It is also postulated that
most arrhythmias have magnesium deficiency as
their root cause. The challenge is that there is
no way to truly measure levels of magnesium in
the heart muscle. Blood levels are a poor
indicator. Even when the blood levels are
normal, tissue levels can be very depleted. In
fact, in a recent study, only 8% of patients had
low blood levels of magnesium when in reality
53% tested low at tissue levels. Magnesium is
also slowly becoming a very endangered
nutritional element. Most common source used to
be hard water, but with new water treatment
facilities and in-home use of filters converting
hard to soft water further eliminates
availability of magnesium. A recent World Health
Organization study concluded that there is a
relationship between hardness of water measured
by magnesium and calcium content and the risk of
cardiovascular death. Many cardiologists are now
routinely recommending to many of their patients
to take magnesium supplements. The only side
effect known is diarrhea, which can be avoided
by spreading the recommended dose of 300-500mg
all through the day. Magnesium citrate is
possibly the best form of supplementation.
Needless to say there are several other
supplements with possible benefits to the heart
beat, but Fish Oil and magnesium are the best
studied. At present, it is felt that they should
be used as adjuncts to what is prescribed by
your doctor and not instead of. Also, to keep
your heart in rhythm, daily exercise and a
non-toxic diet is still your best course of
action.
*Disclaimer:
The contents are meant for informative,
educational purposes only. Formal
recommendations can only be made by physicians
involved in your care. Please check with your
physician before acting on any part of this
article. |