I am anxious to see what you all think about what causes heart symptoms for us. I have heard it is Babs while other say Lyme or some sort of vitamin/magnesium deficiency.
I am about to go out of my mind with this heart stuff. I have had this a year now and it is only getting worse instead of better. I had a sudden onset when I got sick and tachycardia was one of the symptoms.
I have had two full cardiac workups including two 24-hour halter monitors, 2 echos, and a stress test. A few days ago I just went through yet another echo and halter and I am waiting on the results. I am also going to have a heart CAT scan in June. In the past nothing was ever found other than tachycardia. I was always in sinus rhythm. I have had more EKGs than I can count as well.
My new LLMD seemed to think I was deficient in magnesium so she insisted on giving me a IM shot of magnesium in her office. It instantly calmed me down and calmed down my heart. As the week went on, my heart got worse and worse and would skip beats and thud. My heart has never done anything like that before. I saw my cardiologist a few days ago and he said absolutely no magnesium shots. He said it can cause the electrical system in your heart to have problems and cause pauses, skipped beats, etc. My blood serum level of magnesium 4 days after the shot was 2.1. Anything over that would be considered high. I do not know what to think. My heart really flipped out taking those shots and has done things it has never done before.
For the past few days the tachycardia and palpitations has been so bad when I stand that I think I am going to hit the floor. You can see my heart pounding through my shirt. There is not much I can do but lay down. The tachycardia and pounding heart is just making me insane. So are the pains around my heart. I cannot take much more of it. The doctors do not have any answers and I never get any relief. Beta-blockers did not help me much when I tried them.
I have not been on Mepron for about 2 months now because I was waiting to get in to see my new doctor. My heart was not this bad on Mepron.
What causes all this heart craziness? I live each day in fear and really cannot stand it much longer. The anxiety is just too much. I do not want to die at 30 years old because of my heart. I just feel like my heart is going to just stop or I will get a heart block or something. When my heart acts up like this, I can do nothing but stay in bed. I am just wondering how to get it to stop and what causes these cardiac symptoms. I am sick of living in fear over this and countless trips to the ER.
Thank you
-------------------- Lyme, Babesia Microti, possible Bart. Posts: 173 | From A little south of sanity - PA | Registered: Jan 2009
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
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Serum levels may not indicate INTRACELLULAR levels. For many lyme patients, it does not easily get INTO the cell. Serum levels can be very deceptive.
It does not sound like your heart flipped out from the shot as you said it got much better. It seems that when magnesium dropped off, the symptoms got worse again.
How you responded to the shot, the calmness, etc. seems to speak to your body needing it.
What was your calcium level?
If you take calcium, balanced to the magnesium, your serum levels may be fine.
Magnesium helped, right? Magnesium is a huge help for many with heart symptoms and it really helps in other ways.
However, there are other things. Hawthorn Extract can be superb.
Be sure any doctor you see is extremely lyme literate as lyme patients' bodies really are quite different than those of people without lyme. Lyme changes a lot in the way the body works and if a doctor is not educated in all that he may not be able to help.
Can you call your LLMD tomorrow and ask his/her advice about this? Be sure to ask about Hawthorn Extract as that has been tremendously helpful for many cardiac patients, not just those with lyme.
Lymeorsomething
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 16359
posted
Blue, the heart stuff is a little mysterious unfortunately. I get it the other way...bradycardia sometimes...
I feel the lyme may get cozy in and around the area of the heart causing these weird yet hard to solve issues...it's hard to know for sure...
I should add that the heart cat scan should give you some piece of mind as I've heard they're very good for showing any major heart issues such as blockages and so forth....
-------------------- "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong." Posts: 2062 | From CT | Registered: Jul 2008
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
Thank you Keebler. I will ask my LLMD about Hawthorn. I called last Monday about my reaction to the shots and she just said to do them twice a week and nothing more. My cardiologist is enraged over this because she did not do any sort of testing to determine if I am indeed deficient in magnesium. He thinks it was just too much for my heart to handle. I have to say that I felt terrible on it. I even feel horrid on oral magnesium.
My calcium is on the border of being high and my potassium is always about the same each month.
Labs drawn 4 days after mag shot:
Potassium: 4.4 Normal range 3.5-5.3
Calcium: 10.3 Normal range: 8.6-10.3
Magnesium: 2.1 Normal range 1.25-2.1
Since my calcium is so high, what type of oral mag should I be taking? I do not want to add even more calcium.
Thank you so much Keebler.
-------------------- Lyme, Babesia Microti, possible Bart. Posts: 173 | From A little south of sanity - PA | Registered: Jan 2009
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
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Almost EVERY lyme patient is deficient in magnesium. Your cardiologist should know that but most don't.
The lyme spirochete steals magnesium so that our cells don't get what they need. We need to supplement so as to feed our cells.
And then, when lyme is beaten down, we won't have to supplement so much.
Remember that serum blood levels are not the same as intracellular. You need intracellular tests and, even then, symptoms can tell you a lot.
You need to find out if that calcium test was intracellular before you give it too much weight. There are other reasons why calcium would be high, too.
What is your zinc supplement level. That will put it all in better balance, too.
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You can decide to trust your LLMD or trust your cardiologist. But you have to ask if your cardiologist knows everything there is about chronic lyme.
Magnesium: The Underappreciated Mineral of Life Part I - and part II
=======
You can also find some wonderful explanations for how magesiusm helps with so many of our symptoms through the "CFIDS Chronicle" back issues / archives. You can google for that.
Dr. Burrascano's Treatment Guidelines, 16th edition, October, 2008
From a word search of this document, nine mentions of magnesium were found. All of those are included in these excerpts:
. . .
Page 6:
Magnesium deficiency is very often present and quite severe.
Hyperreflexia, muscle twitches, myocardial irritability, poor stamina and recurrent tight muscle spasms are clues to this deficiency.
Magnesium is predominantly an intracellular ion, so blood level testing is of little value.
Oral preparations are acceptable for maintenance, but those with severe deficiencies need additional, parenteral dosing: 1 gram IV or IM at least once a week until neuromuscular irritability has cleared.
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Page 25:
Levofloxacin is generally well tolerated, with almost no stomach upset. Very rarely, it can cause confusion- this is temporary (clears in a few days) and may be relieved by lowering the dose.
There is, however, one side effect that would require it to be stopped- it may cause a painful tendonitis, usually of the largest tendons. If this happens, then the levofloxacin must be stopped or tendon rupture may occur.
It has been suggested that loading the patient with magnesium may prevent this problem, and if the tendons do become affected, parenteral high dose vitamin C (plus parenteral magnesium) may afford rapid relief.
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Page 28 (in the supplement section):
6. MAGNESIUM (required)
Magnesium supplementation is very helpful for the tremors, twitches, cramps, muscle soreness, heart skips and weakness. It may also help in energy level and cognition.
The best source is magnesium L-lactate dehydrate (``Mag-tab SR'', sold by Niche Pharmaceuticals: 1-800-677-0355, and available at Wal-Mart).
DO NOT rely on ``cal-mag'', calcium plus magnesium combination tablets, as they are not well absorbed. Take at least one tablet twice daily.
Higher doses increase the benefit and should be tried, but may cause diarrhea. In some cases, intramuscular or intravenous doses may be necessary.
--
Page 30:
. . .
OTHER OPTIONAL SUPPLEMENTS
VITAMIN D
Surprisingly, most people in America are vitamin D deficient. In the Lyme patient, low vitamin D levels can cause diffuse body aches and cramps that are not responsive to magnesium or calcium supplements.
. . . .
- Entire 37-page document at link above.
===============================
This book is specific to lyme and other chronic stealth infections.
The author discusses the endocrine connection and effects of STRESS on a person with such infections. That stress affect the HEART.
You can read customer reviews and look inside the book at this link to its page at Amazon.
Cheetah.. aren't you taking Toprol? I used to take that and I finally realized it was making me worse. Can you ask your dr to try another med?
I kept feeling SOOOO dizzy with it. The dizziness left when I left the Toprol!!
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96239 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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randibear
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 11290
posted
i got to where when i laid down my heart went crazy...it would race, skip beats (or at least it seemed like it to me), make all kinds of noises, klunks, thuds, you name it.
sometimes my heart rate would go to 153 and i'd panic big time.
the people inthe ER finally got tired of seeing me and said i had panic attacks.
i had so many stress tests they knew me by full name.
heart monitors, you name it.
it all went away pretty much when i went on antibiotics.
-------------------- do not look back when the only course is forward Posts: 12262 | From texas | Registered: Mar 2007
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Ocean
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 3496
posted
So sorry Blue!!
I know that last fall when I was taking a lot of oral Mg, my heart had a lot of skips, it still happens, but last fall, it was almost constantly. Plus I was getting the thing where if I squatted down, I immediately went into tachycardia.
I have not taken any oral mg since Oct 31, I took it, my heart went nuts, went to the ER and told them I was probably just having a panic attack. I did not feel any better after leaving the ER or the next day. It was awful.
I was hoping that the IM Mg was helping you as I thought one famous LLMD said only oral would feed the Lyme.
I wish I had some advice for you.
Randi,
Can you tell me if your heart palps got worse initally on abx?? So far 2 out of 3 times I took the Doxy I had the heart stuff come out.
If I know it will go away I'll start taking it again, it just scares me to death. We are in WI right now at a hotel waiting to see an LLMD for our son tomorrow, so I guess I will write this down and ask him too =)
TuTu, I felt horrid on the Toprol. I was okay for about a week taking only 1/4 of a 25 mg. Then I started to feel worse on them. My cardio has not mentioned any other drug so I will have to get on him about that.
My heart seems to get worse after eating as well. I am not sure if there is a connection there or not.
Also when I wake up from sleeping, it will race big time.
When I am up moving around, the halter monitor shows tachy at around 110-130. The palpitations are insane too.
Ocean you sound a lot like me. In July I could take mag no problem. Now it just makes me feel terrible and my heart goes crazy on it. Seems to have the opposite affect on me for some reason and makes me feel worse.
-------------------- Lyme, Babesia Microti, possible Bart. Posts: 173 | From A little south of sanity - PA | Registered: Jan 2009
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