The number of patients who have irregular heartbeats is increasing along with every other chronic disease known to man.
While I am not a practicing cardiologist, I did write a book on migraines and epilepsy. So what does a Migraines and Epilepsy book have to do with an irregular heartbeat??
Quite a bit, it turns out.
You see, migraine headaches and seizures are strongly linked to a problem with the ability of the brain cells to generate energy. For those of you who stayed awake in high school biology, I’m talking about ATP formation in the mitochondria…
While it may seem contradictory, too little energy in the brain cells will lead to migraine headaches and seizures. Too little energy leads to brain cells firing before they are supposed to. In other words, it takes energy to keep a brain cell quiet. The energy (ATP) is required to operate pumps in the cell membrane (sodium-potassium pumps) and it takes a LOT of it.
Let’s move to the heart. The heart cells that regulate the rhythm of the heart ALSO require a massive amount of energy to NOT fire. Think of the heart regulating cells as you pushing a boulder up a hill so you can roll it back down. Think of how much energy it would take you to push that boulder up to the top.
What would happen if you at McDonald’s for months on end, sat on the couch and stressed yourself crazy and THEN tried to push that boulder up to the top of the hill? You guessed it—you’d give out somewhere up the hill, but not at the top, and that boulder would roll back down the hill before it was supposed to.
Take this same example back to the heart regulating cells. The heart regulating cells fire and cause the heart to beat. But before the next beat, the regulating cells have to gather a certain level of energy before they can fire again, much like rolling that boulder up the hill.
But, if these cells don’t have the energy needed to roll the boulder up the hill, these cells are going to fire before they are supposed to, causing an irregular heartbeat such as atrial fibrillation. For this reason, anything that beats up the mitochondria (poor quality diets, too many calories, environmental chemicals, emotional stress, etc…) is going to increase the risk of an irregular heartbeat while anything that improves mitochondrial function (fruits, veggies and spices, exercise, mediation, vitamins, low calorie / high quality diet, etc..) is going to support a normal heartbeat.
I have been pushing this concept for several years now and it seems like it’s been slow to catch on, despite the research supporting it. Just in case there are some of you that think that I’m completely out there and rambling just to hear myself type, I present this particular review. In it, the author supports my concept, pushing the envelope by scandalously suggesting that antioxidants that support the mitochondria (vitamin E as mixed tocopherols, CoQ10, NAC, etc…) should be consider standard treatment for patients with irregular heartbeats.
Needless to say, after reading this article, I immediately sent the author flowers.