- Aspartame Arrhythmias, Athletes and Sudden Death....
Reports by Doctors Roberts & Blaylock
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- What is Arrhythmia? How Do You Treat It?
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- By Gailon Totheroh
- CBN News Science and Medical Reporter
- April 30, 2008
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- CBNNews.com -- The heart is the one organ that we can
actually feel at work though we tend to take it for granted. At least until
we feel our "ticker" beat a little too fast for no apparent reason.
Perhaps you've experienced a cardiac shake or shimmy that came out of nowhere.
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- Sixteen years ago, internationally respected quantum
chemist Henry Schaefer, Director of the Center for Computational Chemistry
at the University of Georgia, started feeling those bad vibrations. They
became progressively worse.
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- Irregular Heartbeats
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- He had a terrible feeling of exhaustion, "In my
case, the pattern usually went something like: beat, beat, beat-beat-beat
beat. So, you know, too much time between beats and too little time between
beats."
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- Pastor and voluminous author Max Lucado, an avid runner,
became suspicious when running uphill was no longer routine. Then other
symptoms showed up.
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- He remembers being in the middle of a phone call, "My
heart rate jumped up, and I just kind of measured it by my own simple means.
And it was about 140. You talk about disconcerting, and distracting, hard
to focus, fatigue, irregular heartbeats. I felt like I had a Morse code
going on in my chest."
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- Cardiologist John Onufer, who practices at Sentara Heart
Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, says don't panic. It's okay to be a little
"offbeat."
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- It's OK to Be a Little 'Offbeat'
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- He says we can merely bend down and stand up or "cough
or roll over, and we're all going to get a skipped beat. And those are
for the most part benign. We don't want to make everybody a cardiac cripple
over every single skipped beat."
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- Still, those arrhythmias can be very, very serious. Arrhythmias
originating in the lower (ventricular) chambers of the heart can become
deadly -- yet may give few symptoms. There are many kinds and they have
to be carefully diagnosed by a cardiologist.
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- Arrhythmic symptoms can include dizziness, shortness
of breath, lightheadedness, rapid heartbeat, heart palpitations, chest
pain, blackouts, visual problems, and fainting. Some of these are obvious
emergencies, but don't hesitate to seek an ER for yourself or others when
things don't seem right.
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- For the general public, doctors suggest it's good to
be aware that those cardiac disruptions can be readily initiated in a variety
of ways. Some that the average person wouldn't know about are actually
common substances that can bring chaos to the electrical signals stimulating
the heartbeat.
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- Causes of Arrhythmia
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- Those rhythm scramblers include numerous illegal, prescription
and over-the counter drugs; caffeine, alcohol, and tobacco; and car fumes
and industrial air pollution.
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- In addition, few people realize that MSG (monosodium
glutamate) and related flavor enhancers (hydrolyzed grains, autolyzed yeast,
textured soy protein, and many more) can potentially cause deadly heart
arrhythmias.
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- Dr. Russell Blaylock, a brain and nutrition expert, says
there are triggers on the heart activated by these flavor enhancers. That
can initiate serious cardiac electrical problems.
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- Blaylock gives a scenario of an athlete who eats poorly,
is thus low in magnesium, takes excess calcium supplements, has canned
soup laden with MSG and a diet soda with aspartame. The result could be
sudden cardiac death.
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- Yet in most individuals, arrhythmias are nearly impossible
to know the exact cause. With or without an arrhythmia, people should do
the opposite of Blaylock's scenario. That can provide some protection or
help keep an arrhythmia in check.
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- The Heart an Electrical System
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- To understand more, Dr. Onufer says remember the heart
is partly an electrical system -- with the potential for extra sparks,
bad connections, and short circuits, for instance. He explains, "Where
there's one electrical pathway connecting abnormally across another area
and it short circuits on our heart, on itself, and causes a real rapid,
racing heartbeat."
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- Lucado and Schaefer are among the 2 million sufferers
of the most common rhythm problem: atrial fibrillation or A Fib. Atrial
fib's erratic patterns result from a variety of those electrical problems
occurring in the upper chambers of the heart.
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- Treatments for A Fib include drugs that limit the misfiring.
Another common treatment is cardiac ablation. Doctors send a wire through
a blood vessel to the heart to burn out cells that are misfiring.
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- Possible Treatments
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- Schaefer first tried nutritional approaches. He used
magnesium supplements -- which is again very important -- but it didn't
solve his problems.
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- Then Schaefer went for a wide variety of drug combinations,
"And the only one that ever worked was this medicine called amiodarone
-- which is quite a dangerous medicine -- which destroys your body in 17
different ways. But it did work for a while, it lasted a couple of years."
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- In addition to drugs like the amiodarone (Cordarone),
most A Fib patients take Coumadin, a drug that thins the blood. That's
crucial because almost nobody dies of atrial fibrillation itself.
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- Schaefer explains, "You die of a stroke which the
atrial fibrillation brings on. Basically if your heart's beating irregularly,
the blood's not moving around in all the places, clots form, you get a
stroke and you die."
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- Some less serious arrhythmias may only require some Coumadin
(warfarin) and little, if any, other medication. But with amiodarone not
working, Schaefer had to weigh the chances of stroke versus the risk of
death from a heart procedure.
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- "In the business I'm in, university research and
teaching, you know if you have a stroke, it doesn't help you. So I figured
it was worth a try and in the providence of God, I'm still here,"
Schaefer said.
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- That ablation surgery worked well for Schaefer a good
six months, but problems returned so he's back on a smaller and safer dose
of the amiodarone.
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- Healthy Lifestyle
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- For Lucado, his surgery in late 2007 seems to have been
more effective. So far, he's needed no other help but a healthy lifestyle
-- which helps fight arrhythmias and more. Onufer insists, "Exercise
is critical. It's easy to say just about all of us don't get enough exercise,
myself included. Part of that's just how we've engineered it out of our
days."
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- And a good diet goes hand in hand with exercise -- to
get the most out of God's gift of a heart. After all, God is in charge,
Lucado reminds us.
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- "He uses physical challenges to strengthen my character,
to embolden my testimony or even awaken me to the importance of eternity,"
Lucado said.
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- Onufer, the physician who sees the wonders of the heart
every day, insists that the heart is beyond our understanding.
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- Totheroh: Is it in a sense amazing that we don't have
more problems considering how often our hearts beat and the complexity?
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- Onufer: It is the most fantastic -- I guess I'm a little
biased, but it's a spectacular arrangement the way God gave all us mammals
this system and the backups related to it. It's just spectacular.
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- Martini: Here is why athletes are dropping dead, as
well as the public at large:
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- Dr. Russell Blaylock: Athlete Alert:
- http://www.wnho.net/aspartame_msg_scd.htm
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- Dr. H. J. Roberts: Aspartame Inducted Arrhythmias and
Sudden Death: http://www.wnho.net/aspartame_and_arrhythmias.htm
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- Study: Diet Drinks linked to Heart Disease: http://www.wnho.net/heart_disease_links.htm
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- Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum, Founder
- Mission Possible International
- 9270 River Club Parkway
- Duluth, Georgia 30097
- 770 242-599
- www.mpwhi.com, www.dorway.com, www.wnho.net
- Aspartame Toxicity Center, www.holisticmed.com/aspartame
- Aspartame Information List www.mpwhi.com, scroll down
to banners
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- Russell Blaylock, M.D., Excitotoxins: The Taste That
Kills, www.russellblaylockmd.com
- H. J. Roberts, M.D., Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic,
www.sunsentpress.com
- Aspartame Documentary: Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World,
www.soundandfury.tv
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