A Few Questions.... - Murrieta,CA

I would trust the cardiologist and stop counting his heartbeats. Anxiety is more likely to cause him problems then some PVCs. Your anti anxiety routine isn't working.

A couple drinks won't hurt him. And that comes from a teetotaler.

It never hurts to ramp up nutrition from food but supplements, you need to ask the doc about. It's a conduction misfiring and magnesium has an effect on it.
While you are at it, ask about CoQ10. It's one of the things even Dr OZ takes.

You both need some stress reduction. You'd be better off finding ways to reduce stress in your home, then finding problems. Find some daily annoyance in your lives that you can eliminate. Find a way you can work a walk into his life. Find a funny sitcom or movie for the night. Laughter is a good medicine. Ask friends over for cards. Keep your anxiety under control.

I think the bulk of this is made up of questions for the doctors. It really sounds like you are trying to diagnose a little too much by counting heartbeats and working with water, magnesium, alcohol and so on, and suggesting Celiac vs. IBS.

Stop with the magnesium supplement - for both of you. There is no basis for giving a single nutrient (vitamin, mineral, trace element, whatever). You can make things worse by doing this. First of all, you don't know where that supplement is made (you can tell from the label who distributes it, but not where it's manufactured). Secondly, nutrients don't work in a vacuum. There is a complex interaction among essential nutrients and they don't work or a person can overdose if these items are taken singly. Even overdoing the water can be a problem - yes dehydration is a problem for many people, but drinking too much can cause health problems too. (Remember the recent death from someone trying to win a radio contest by drinking huge quantities of water?) In addition, any supplement (or prescription) in pill form is of very limited use - absorption levels are very low. There's not much you can do about prescriptions, but there is a lot you can do about those over-the-counter minerals that primarily make huge profits for the companies by convincing people who are "low" in something to just take more and more of it. That's not the way cellular nutrition works, and that's not the way the body absorbs nutrients. So they are just eliminated, which is a waste of your money, or they are stored without being eliminated, which is totally unhealthy.

There is a huge body of research and food science, complete with clinical trials, that supports what I'm telling you. Comprehensive supplementation should be done responsibly and by looking at things like patents (very rare on foods) which prove safety, effectiveness and uniqueness. There is a patented supplement that deals with digestive issues such as IBS - it can be taken by some people with Celiac disease as well. There is another comprehensive supplement that often takes care of these issues even if Celiac disease is present. If you want to explore this, I'm happy to advise you.

Improving his eating is a good idea and I think some nutritional imbalances are probably linked to his situation, as well as to your anxiety. And of course his heart issues are probably increasing your anxiety, which is why you are being hyper vigilant regarding listening to his heart. Making smoothies and general improving nutrition is, of course, always a good idea, but it's almost impossible to get the full range of essential nutrients even that way (which is what the AMA said in 2002).

Happy to give you more info along these lines if you are interested, but in the short run, please don't continue!

Diet is big, but exercise can play a much bigger role in managing the stress and some of his symptoms. I find that when I exercise every day for at least 30 minutes, I sleep better and my digestive issues abate somewhat. I also drink at least 16 oz more water a day when I exercise.

These are really questions for a doctor. The only thing I can say is that drinking enough water every day is really important for general health, and I bought my kids Camelbak 20 oz bottles with the flip top straw and they leave them in their locker and every time they stop by the locker they drink some. This helped them drink at least 20 oz of water before they came home from school where before they would maybe have a 6 oz juicebox with lunch. Since you say he has a sensitive stomach, more water from an easy to drink from bottle may help (for some reason tipping up a cup or bottle made the kids not drink but having the straw stick up and not having to pick up the bottle makes them drink, go figure). My husband's family all have loose stomach sphincter muscles so he often has heart burn not related to his diet but simply because his stomach does not close well at the bottom of the esophagus. But if the doctor's are not concerned (two of them it sounds like) then I would stop worrying. On top of that, he is an adult and he needs to decide how he will handle his health. I know from experience that trying to get my husband to eat differently or have cholesterol checked or any other kind of concern that I express is perceived as nagging and has the opposite effect. Now I just joke that I am about to increase the life insurance because that cheeseburger & fries/cheese pizza/chips & dip/coffeeroll etc etc is surely going to give him a heart attack, and while it does not stop him from eating the junk right at that moment he has started eating better most days.

I agree with Mymission that this is more about stress than anything else. Obviously, eating better and getting enough water is important. But something has to give with his job. It sounds like THAT is where most of his stress comes from.

You mentioned upcoming tests but don't say what they will be. A Holter worn for 24 hours would be very helpful as well as a stress test and a cardio ultrasound.

I'm sorry that I can't give you an answer about a mineral imbalance - that would be interesting to see someone address...