Fasting with Congestive Heart Failure and Atrial Fibrillation

(Tom Seest) #21

I was going based on symptoms here.

But I had no initial weakness of the heart and never had pain.

(Ethan) #22

My mother has not had any chest pain from any of her four incidents. She had breathlessness from the edema, which could be diagnosed as pneumonia.

Your experience from a terrible ejection fraction to a near-normal one is highly consistent with takustobu cardiomyopathy and matches my mother’s exactly.

(Ethan) #23

Also interesting to me is that her diagnosis was originally heart attack. When that was proven wrong, they went with pneumonia and myocarditis. We believed that diagnosis for a few weeks. I cannot recall when exactly they changed the diagnosis to takustubo cardiomyopathy, but I do recall that the hospital didn’t even understand the condition. They told us there was a 33% chance that her heart wouldn’t recover, a 33% chance she would die, and a 33% chance of near full recovery. At the second attack, they confirmed the shape of the heart itself, which was a total positive for the condition.

(Tom Seest) #24

Yes. I actually had pneumonia first. I didn’t develop Atrial Fibrillation until about three days after I was over the pneumonia, based on my heart rate tracks…But, my blood tests before and after the pneumonia ultimately saved my skin.

Fortunately, I haven’t had edema in any of my extremities, or in the area of my lungs or heart. The poor functioning of the heart was simply due to the constant tachycardia, and the enlarged chambers…This is why I was hopeful I could reverse remodel it.

(Manny Radzky) #25

Hey Tom,

in 2014 I had a wicked lung infection which left me with congestive heart failure. Needed a pacemaker and bypass surgery. My ejection fraction was and still is in the low 20’s. What is really weird is that I am able to lift weights, go jogging and shovel the snow in my driveway as if nothing ever happened. I’ve gone keto in the last 2 years and feel AMAZING. Dropped from 194 to 172 (5’ 9"). I threw away most of the meds as drs only know how to push pills. I want to start fasting. My BNP is 160 and they want to double one of my meds. CRP is .44. A1C - 5.4. Liver and kidney functions perfectly normal.

So any ideas, insights, or suggestions from you would be more than welcome.

Thanks a million

(Tom Seest) #26

What med are they wanting to double and why?

Have you fasted much before? If not, I’d ease into it by skipping one meal, then two. Then, take a break. Then, skipping a day, then two. Just build it up. The BNP should drop with that, unless there are other con founders.

(Manny Radzky) #27

Tom thanks for getting back to me so quickly.

They want to bump my candesartan from 16 to 32. I am only taking 8. They don’t know this.

In 2014, at my worst heart health, my BNP was close 1,000. It’s been closer to 100 lately, but last week it was 160. So it is moving up. They see this as a precautionary measure.

I don’t like pills. I have done one meal a day and I am fat adapted, but I have never done a fast for more than one day.

Thanks for reading

(Tom Seest) #28

Interesting. That does seem to be a little med happy. Changing the dosage like that over just a little bump in the BNP. My experience tells me that any inflammation or stress can increase my BNP levels. But, since they probably don’t order the tests frequently enough; they probably can’t tell that.

Since the first couple of days of a fast will increase stress some, in theory, your BNP will go up then. But, after that, in theory, it will go back down and then some.

I agree with you on the meds. I can’t stand taking them.

I’m hoping to get electro cardioverted next Friday which in theory will put my heart rhythm back to normal. If it doesn’t succeed in the long term, at that point, I’ll probably embark on a strategy of elimination of the meds by replacing them with herbal equivalents. I’m having good success with Hawthorne, Berberine and many of my other supplements, and I think I can either reduce the need for the meds or eliminate them. But, it takes a lot of time, and testing of the combinations.

(Manny Radzky) #29

Tom are you familiar with Dr Steven Sinatra AWESOME FOURSOME for heart health?i take them EVERY DAY. D-robose, carnitine, CoQ10/ubiguinol, and magnesium. They havent really elevated my ejection fraction much, but I find my exercise tolerance has gone through the roof.

I just started taking Hawthorne.

Also very very good is John Berman, he is big on nerve supply. He has douses of videos, some are on heart health.

(Manny Radzky) #30

Sorry that’s Bergman

(Tom Seest) #31

I’ve read all of Dr. Sinatra’s books (literally), and Dr. Jack Wolfson’s book, along with a bunch of other books. I’ve also reviewed some of Dr. Bergman’s videos. I take the Awesome Foursome, but have to watch the D-Ribose levels when I’m fasting because it will make me hungry as it is sugar. Normally though, I will take 5G of D-Ribose per day, 6G of L-Argenine per day, L-Carnitine, COQ10, Magnesium, Taurine, etc. I’ve had differing success with some, and will experiment more with different combinations of it once I get past this cardioversion.

In case you have any interest, I maintain a directory of articles and studies I read on the subject on my OneDrive: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AnnheiLCcfWxgaQqwrRukCYWBoCkeQ

I also participate and contribute to these two groups on Facebook:


But, I’m not convinced that I have all the answers. I just find that I have less questions…

(Manny Radzky) #32

Thanks.

We’ll stay in touch.

Hope all goes well with your cardio version. Let me know how it turns out.

#33

Thank you for the detailed clinical data, excellent! This is remarkable and hopeful. Wishing you the best Tom!

#34

Great to hear you are proactive with your health mate…Fantastic to hear your not just prepared t take pills. Could you give me breakdown of the abbreviated parameters you were testing please.ie. CBC, NMR etc
Well done again mate

#35

Just to add Tom. Why 6 days?

(Tom Seest) #36

If you drill down to the linked spreadsheet in the original post, and then scroll to the right, you’ll come to a section where I logged all the individual blood makers that made up the CBC, NMR, etc…Does that answer the question that you have?

(Tom Seest) #37

Common theory says that the benefits of a fast are maximized at Day 3 of a fast when it comes to Autophagy and other fasting benefits. While it seems to be mostly theory and speculation, I just chose to double the number of days, and measure the impact that way.

(Tom Seest) #38

Incidentally, I’m now at the 31 day mark of not having Atrial Fibrillation with Rapid Ventricular Response any more. My cardiologist reset my heart with an electro cardioversion on 2/27/2018, and I’ve been in normal sinus rhythm with a normal heart rate ever since. On March 12, 2018, I had another round of blood draws done to see how my progress was at the 15th day of being “normal” again. My BNP was measured at 24.3 (well inside the range of normal), and my Pro-BNP was measured at 88 (once again, very normal). My cardiologist called me after getting the numbers, and basically said that I don’t really have heart failure anymore. He says that we’ll confirm all of this in another 2 months with another Trans Thoracic Echocardiogram (TTE). But, for now, my heart is normal.

#39

Cheers for that but excuse my ignorance can you break down the shortened terminologies CBC ( what is the full name ) of the various names of readings and reasons why these are tested please.
did you exercise while in the fasted state. A massive congrats for the results!! Nothing beats a motivator more than a potentially life shortening event !!

#40

Gday Tom. I just re-read my last post and the last bit I meant that was my motivation for joining this forum …there was no inference to anyone else …sorry for any confusion