I recently have come across studies on Magnesium deficiency and cardiac arrhythmias. Dear Lynne, thank you for your question. Your father sounds debilitated by the recurrent afib attacks and I hope to provide some insight into his condition. Normally, the sinus node in the right atrium initiates each heartbeat in synchronous fashion. With afib, there is rapid, chaotic electrical activity of the atrium which causes the heart to beat fast and irregularly as the rapid atrial impulses are conducted to the ventricles.
Patients become symptomatic with palpitations, shortness of breath, and fatigue when afib develops.
Infections cause afib by increasing catecholamine levels in the blood which are stress hormones that proliferate to help combat infection. Unless the underlying cause is dealt with, afib can be hard to suppress. With afib, we have two goals. First, we control the heart rate with drugs like lanoxin, beta blockers, or calcium channel blockers to decrease symptoms. Second, we thin the blood to prevent clots from developing in the left atrium where chaotic electrical activity causes blood to stagnate and clot.