Heart Attack Scare

Thursday last week, my wife took me to the ER and they kept me there for one night. This past Thursday, I went to my doctor for a follow up and she said every thing was okay.

Some of you already knew that I lost a dear friend of mine, due to heart attack on Christmas day last year and in the week that follow at least four people that I knew either had to be taken to the ER, had a triple bypass surgery or recuperating from strokes. Last month I lost another friend and I wrote about taking people to ER or calling 9-1-1 in case someone around you complained about chest pain.

Well, then it was my turn to see whether I did what I preached.

I was attending a local real-estate investors group gathering when I started to feel uncomfortable around the heart area. It was getting worst as the meeting progressed. By the time I got out of the meeting, there was a numbness at the tip of my left pinky finger. I called my wife and she wanted me to stop by the ER right away since it was only 4 or 5 blocks away from the meeting place. I said, that wasn’t a good idea since I don’t want to drive when I came out from ER. I then drove home and let her drove me back to the ER. Of course during a real heart attack this wasn’t a good idea and should NOT be recommended.

I don’t know about other places but in my local hospital, when you come in with a chest pain, they will put you in a wheel chair and take you right away to the ER, hook you up with all the instruments and work on your registration later separately. Every thing went smoothly. We were there around 9PM, and by midnight they got all the results from my blood works, EKG, chest x-ray and you name it!

Your potassium level is very low but we didn’t see any enzyme in your blood showing you have a heart attack, the cardiologist told me. Thanks God and I thought I knew why my potassium was very low. However, they said, “even though your doctors repeatedly mentioned that your risk was low for a heart attack, but with your age, we prefer to keep you until tomorrow to draw your blood again in the morning and making sure that every thing works fine!” Jokingly they added, “but you can go home if you can convince your wife to take you.” Of course she wouldn’t, but she went home and I stayed at the cardiac short stay section for the night.

That night they gave me aspirin earlier when they just started to check my blood pressure etc., and after they found out that my potassium level was low they brought 4 yellow potassium pills and asked me to take them right away.

I mentioned early that when they found that my potassium level was low, I knew exactly what was the reason. Three days before that I was walking my dog in the big spring park in downtown Huntsville when my dog jumped and chased a duck at the edge of the pond. The dog pulled me along with a sudden jolt that was so hard and it really caused the muscle pain all over my upper arms that night. But I did not make any connection with low potassium level with that pain until the cardiologist told me there.

Over the past three years, I have been religiously taken the isotonic supplements** that have helped me a lot with my sinusitis due to seasonal allergy, and later on doctor also found that my cholesterol level had significantly went down. However, early this month, we have a long pollen days and no rain for almost two weeks here in my hometown. Even though the supplement helped me to prevent the sinusitis or infections that came with seasonal allergy, I have to take double to triple dosage of my supplements when I felt the pollen attack (or whatever you call it). As a result of that, my supplement supplies were running low, so for the last few days before that heart attack scare, instead of taken the supplements at least three times a day as I normally did, I only took them in the morning.

My wife was not happy with my recent change of diet following what Dr. Shari Lieberman has taught about low glycemic index Transition Lifestyle System. In the Transition Lifestyle System, we teach people how to modify their life style, eating low glycemic index food and exercise to reduce their fat and get into a better shape. My wife didn’t know about the reduction of my supplement intake and she was thinking that the change of my diet into a low glycemic index food was the reason for all these pains. However, when the cardiologist told me about the low potassium level, I could put the two and two together and I knew exactly that it was related to the reduction of my supplements intake and not because of my low glycemic index diet. I even asked the cardiologist if this had anything to do with my LGI diet and he confirmed no. My wife heard that too. I knew right away that every thing would be okay.

In the morning, they got me on the tread mill for the stress test. I completed all the steps to the end without any pain. Then they put me on what I believe to be an echo stress test where they injected some fluid to my body, let me laid still and get the picture with a special camera. After 20 minutes or so lying on my belly, finally they came to tell me that I could get off and wait for my test result. Some 15 minutes later they sent me home with a congratulatory note. There was no blockage on my arteries and nothing wrong with my heart. Great news as I was expected when they told me that my potassium level was low.

Three days ago I went to see my family doctor for the follow up. I brought with me all the labels of the supplements that I took. There is 93 mg of potassium (bicarbonate) in OPC-3**, 125 mg in ORAC**, 225 mg in Calcium+** and 94 mg in B-Complex** special formula. All these are isotonics. Thus I have consumed more than 1000 mg or 1g or of potassium (bicarbonate) daily in the past two three years. Granted that the HCTZ taken away most of them, but I have never had pain in my musscle since the level is never gone low.

+ What about this 10 mg KCl prescription the cardiologist asking me to take?

- You still need to take it since they are absorbed differently.

+ But both are potassium, right?

- Yeah, and since they are absorbed differently, why don’t you just take it for 1 month, then get off and after 2 weeks come and let us check your potassium level again.

+ Okay, if that is your suggestion.

I don’t mind doing a little experiment to prove that my isotonics are doing okay than what the medical community wanted to admit to date. After all that night while I was in the hospital, they gave me a total of 8 potassium pills (I didn’t ask how many mg of potassium in each), but in the morning when I tried to get up from my bed to go to the restroom for the second time, my leg cramped. Granted, my potassium level was very low that night but where did that 8-pills go that morning?

The cardiologist pointed out that the HCTZ in my high blood pressure medication was the culprit for the low potassium level, but I have been taking this HCTZ for more than one year to reduce the swollen in my legs because of the high blood pressure medication. Why the potassium level only became low when I reduced my isotonic supplements intake?

Today I will stop by the pharmacy and see how much would those KCl pill cost me, then I will get and take them for a month. I hope after 6 weeks my doctor will give me a clearance again. The first time I told her that the OPC-3 have helped me with my allergy she said that was all in my head. However, when she saw my cholesterol level went down from the result they took at the health center in my work place, she told me to come back 3 months later and went thru the so called Berkeley protocol to check my blood. She got excited when the result came back since she said my blood particles looked round and clear. Of course I knew that since I have taken the OPC-3 for almost 3 years and I have watched what can the OPC-3 do to clean up your blood as shown in the Quest for Health video where you can also watch the previous there. Another result that she got from Berkeley protocol was that my homocystine level was ~13.4 while the Berkeley Heart Lab goal was to lower it to <10 and she said I need more folic acid and she would like to give me a B-12 shot. I told her, I don’t need that since I have isotonic B-12 but I didn’t take it very often since I thought I had had enough vitamins. But since she said I need the B-12 so I asked her if she could prescribed the isotonic B-12 for me so I could claim my money back from my health spending account. She was delighted to prescribed me that. Unfortunately I didn’t put that much money in my health spending account and it was gone before I ever used it for my isotonic supplements.

Out of curiosity, I googled the words “the absorption of KCl and Potassium Bicarbonate”, unfortunately the first article I found was from veterinarians. I guess it was for animals. The second article hits me right in my forehead, because the title is: “Comparative effects of potassium chloride and bicarbonate on thiazide-induced reduction in urinary calcium excretion.” From the content, it seems to be related to what I was talking here, but since I don’t have any medical training, I decide to make a copy and will send it to my doctor.

Last Thursday after looking at the cardiologist and health center report, my doctor emphasized one more time that my risk from heart attack is very low. I’m also doing great since I change into low glycemic index and follow the Transition Lifestyle and had lost considerable amount of fat now. She was delighted to see that the difference between my last visit and last Thursday visit was 13 pounds and she encouraged me to keep doing what I was doing. While I was at the ER, I also asked the cardiologist, what would be the side effect of my low glycemic index food and he said, nothing!

Here is a video that I found in youtube concerning the OPC-3 that I mentioned above.

**Disclaimer:

• These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
• This product(s) is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
• Please consult your physician as far as your health is concerned. I’m not a health care professional and I just want to share my personal experience!

Note: This post was one of the posts I removed in October last year. However, since it described my personal experience in coping with my blood pressure and the side effect of the medications, I have simply corrected some typos, updated the disclaimers and reinstalled it today. I also want to acknowledge that I am a Market America Independent Distributor, because I was very impressed with the results of using their supplements that I had also brought to my doctor attention, I could safe money by getting the products with distributor price for my personal use, and also make some profit from my Market America webportal in return. However, you are not obliged to buy it from my portal.

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