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Something Hypokalemia related?

Messages
69
I want to try and be as thorough as possible with this, I'm very concerned that I have something serious going on, but literally cannot get help from Doctors. I have tried demanding help for this, they won't help me.

I've had arrhythmia for about 15 years now, it wasn't an issue before, but after having taken steps in treating myself, with no help from the medical community, it has progressed into what I figure is going to end up being a heart attack. And I have no idea what to do.

I'll explain what's going on, what supplements are involved etc.

I have always had a poor diet, and have never eaten magnesium or potassium rich foods, have always had very high sodium foods. I've cleaned my diet up, and quit drinking 3 months ago.

Anyways, after having tried just about everything to try and kickstart my dopaminergic system, I finally gave in and tried copper. It was amazing, I've always had moderate red-green color blindness, along with difficulty differentiating blues and purples, this immediately went away within about 3 days. Also my depression was substantially alleviated, my motivation also went up quite a bit. But on the first day of supplementing copper, I was urinating every 10 minutes, high amounts, seemed endless. By the third day my urine was very dark, and has remained so for about a month now, copper or no, also very low amounts of urine unless I drink around 8L of water in a day.

I went to the Doctor assuming I had destroyed my kidneys and had kidney failure about 2-3 weeks ago. He said it was impossible to have done it so quickly, I mentioned that I was having a real tough time getting enough potassium to keep my arrhythmia at bay. He ordered a bunch of tests, GSH, potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium etc. But had me do them about 30 minutes after I saw him, I had taken potassium and sodium earlier that day along with magnesium and calcium, not knowing what to do, because I was certain I was about to have a heart attack he said it didn't matter.

Anyways the test results all came back fine, as he said, he wouldn't let me get a copy or look at the results. They also tested for kidney infection/failure etc. He said everything was totally fine, that I was dehydrated, and should avoid all supplements, and stop taking potassium.

Maybe 4 hours into the next day not having potassium, I was basically paralyzed, all my muscles were dead, my heart was going nuts, you can see it beating through my shirt most of the time. I went to the ER and they gave me an EKG, said everything was totally fine, my blood pressure and heart rate were fine they said.

When I got home I was still really messed up, I have found that I can either take potassium or copper, both calm my heart down to the same degree. So I took copper, and within an hour I was totally fine again, as I am every time I take it. But I've read about copper deficiency basically being impossible, so I've been avoiding it and sticking to potassium mostly. The Doctor said to stop taking it, but I am 100% certain if I stop taking potassium I'm going to have a heart attack, I also had a seizure a few nights before going to the ER but they said it was most likely a bad dream, I explained to them that I woke up in the middle of one thinking I was having a nightmare, but my girlfriend was with me and had to wake me up, she was certain I was having a seizure. They won't listen, I pleaded with them.

I know that if I go without potassium for more than a day I'm going to die, but they are telling me to stop taking it, and insisting my heart is fine.

What I know for certain is that if I'm having an episode of fast or heavy heartbeat, or odd heart function, taking copper relieves it within the hour. I also know that drinking about 750mg of Potassium in a 750ml can of Coconut Water does the same thing, but quicker.

I've been supplementing around 500mg of magnesium a day for the past 2 weeks, knowing this helps with hypokalemia, but it doesn't seem to be doing anything, it's as if my body can't hold onto potassium, I have to either take copper, or potassium 3 times a day, the relief never lasts longer than 6 hours. I stick to 1.5G of potassium a day because I'm worried about my kidney function, and why my urine output is still low, why the color is still so dark.

Something else is going on that has to do with molybdenum, I get hives all over when my arrhythmia gets to it's worst, and 300mcg of Molybdenum not only clears the hives and the itchiness, but relieves my arrhythmia a little bit.

I've recently started taking MSM having read about benefits it has on the heart, and again, when I take MSM my arrythmia goes away for a few hours, but I also get hives if I take it without Molybdenum. If I take 150mcg of Molybdenum and MSM, I get no hives, and have relief from my Arrhythmia.

Another thing I noticed with MSM was a very drastic reduction in depression, anxiety and racing thoughts, I feel incredibly calm when I take it, it feels like a veil has been lifted each time. I haven't been able to find any cases where anyone has had drastic cognitive effects from MSM before. I know that I don't eat any foods that are high in sulfur, and never have. I figure there's a deficiency of some sort. Nothing has ever helped my depression nearly as much as MSM, including copper which is second.

Another thing that helps the hives/itchiness and to a moderate degree the arrhythmia, is a combination of resversatol/turmeric & black pepper and bioactive quercetin, 1 capsule of each. I take this morning and night now so that I'm able to sleep, at this point my arrhythmia makes it nearly impossible for me to sleep, all I can hear is my heartbeat, I feel it constantly and it's really wearing me down psychologically, I'm constantly aware of it and always on the edge of my seat waiting for it to stop.


What I want to know, as I can't find any information about any of this, are the following questions.

Why would copper stop my arrhythmia? Why would it cure color blindness that I've had my entire life as well as increase my vision about 5 feet (I have myopia)? Why did it have such a drastic effect on alleviating my depression/lack of motivation all within 3 days?

Why would having taken copper increased my need for potassium so drastically? What does potassium have to do with copper? And why do both work to treat my arrhythmia in the same way?

Why would MSM have had such a pronounced effect on both my heart health and my mental health on first dosing? It didn't take any time, within the first hour my heart was better than it's been in a long time, and my mood was and is still at least 5 fold increased, but only lasts 6 hours around before it starts getting worse again.

And what are these hives? Why are they coming out when I become dehydrated? What sort of link between Molybdenum and potassium is there? Potassium clears the hives, so does Molybdenum. I get the hives from eating any sort of bread or pasta as well, and from peanuts (which I haven't had in about 6 months because of this, I also avoid wheat as much as possible, that means once a week around).

None of this makes sense, and I can't get any answers, I feel like a prisoner in my own body at this point and have had several periods where my heart gets so bad I almost want to die from the fear. I feel like what I've done is irreversible and I can't get help, they told me not to come back to the ER, the Doctor won't see me. I've seen 3 Doctors in the past for my heart issues, but it's never been this bad and they've all said the same thing, that it's in my head. But you can actually see my heart beat outside my shirt when I haven't had potassium, you can see my veins everywhere, my eyes feel like they're being crushed and I have trouble breathing. And when I take it, within about 30 minutes I feel so calm I usually end up going to sleep and having an amazing rest, depending on how long I went without it. And the rests are amazing, I can't sleep unless I have potassium before hand.

I literally have no options, I don't know what to do, wait for a heart attack for them to treat me? Take tons of potassium? Keep taking copper? Stop taking magnesium?

I have tried going off everything, I only made it midway through the next day before I had to go to the ER, I don't see it as an option, I don't want to gamble with having a heart attack.

I have my 23andme results, and all my genes if they're necessary. I don't know if any of them matter or which ones do in this situation.

The two that selfdecode reports as being the highest magnitude that I can see are SOD2 and SIRT1.

For SOD2 I have
rs2758331 (A;A)
rs4880 (G;G)
rs2758339 (C;C)
rs2758346 (T;T)

And SIRT1
rs12778366 (C;C)
 

Mary

Moderator Resource
Messages
17,759
Location
Texas Hill Country
@Thewonders92 - I think it's quite possible that with your history of poor eating habits and drinking, you could have several nutritional deficiencies. But I can't conjecture as to what they might be.

In my experience most doctors have very little knowledge of nutrition. I'd recommend you find someone who is knowledgeable. Integrative and functional medicine doctors in general are much more knowledgeable than regular MDs.

You're aware of the link between potassium and arrhythmia (and it can be due to other causes as well, as you know). FWIW, my potassium was always in the normal range, albeit on the low end. It's a long story, but after I started taking methylfolate I experienced severe fatigue which turned out to be due to my potassium levels tanking. This had happened to me before even starting the methylfolate, only I never knew what it was. Anyways, I started taking potassium and now average about 1000 mg a day in divided doses, plus a glass of low-sodium V8, which has 900 mg potassium. My blood levels haven't gone up, but my symptoms of low potassium have stopped.

I'm not telling you to do what I did, just my experience with potassium. I don't know what to tell you about the copper, if you should take it or not, and that's where I think a doctor knowledgeable in nutrition would be important. I did read that color blindness can be a symptom of color blindness.

Also, under HIPAA regulations, you are entitled to your medical records. Your doctor doesn't have the right to keep them from you, so if you want the your records, I'd mention HIPAA to him.
 

Eastman

Senior Member
Messages
529
@Thewonders92

Taurine is said to help with keeping potassium and magnesium in cells and maintaining the normal functioning of skeletal muscle.

Do you know your vitamin B1/thiamine status? Thiamine deficiency has been associated with fatigue, memory loss, muscle pain, heart problems, enlarged lymph nodes and copper deficiency.

Sulbutiamine, a form of thiamine that is exceptionally well absorbed by the body, has an effect on dopamine receptors but most people develop tolerance quickly to the mood and cognitive effects.
 
Messages
69
@Thewonders92

Taurine is said to help with keeping potassium and magnesium in cells and maintaining the normal functioning of skeletal muscle.

Do you know your vitamin B1/thiamine status? Thiamine deficiency has been associated with fatigue, memory loss, muscle pain, heart problems, enlarged lymph nodes and copper deficiency.

Sulbutiamine, a form of thiamine that is exceptionally well absorbed by the body, has an effect on dopamine receptors but most people develop tolerance quickly to the mood and cognitive effects.

So my Doctor didn't want to do the thiamine test, he already wants me to stop taking supplements in general.

I ordered some sulbutiamine seeing as it was the most bioavailable form. Got here today, I took it and 15 minutes later experienced a rush of euphoria, very strong I would say an 8/10, then got very sleepy in the same way most dopamine agonists make me a very relaxed, calm and peaceful tiredness.

But as far as the heart issues they are gone and I've had no potassium today, usually if I am this dehydrated and sleep as long as I do without potassium I wake up to a pounding heart. I've read sulbutiamine has an effect on dopamine though and dopamine agonists always ease my heart profoundly including amphetamines, I've always noticed physical and mental calm from dopamine agonists.

I have a lot of drd2 polymorphisms and am prone to addiction so I avoid them even if they do eliminate my fatigue, anxiety and depression, as far as I'm aware dopamine is never the answer to depression longterm.

But anyways, so far so good. I'm going to go get some coconut water just incase for later but I haven't gone this long without potassium and felt this good in a while.

I've read that acetylhydyde uses up thiamine quite a bit, I'm figuring that I did burn through a lot treating whatever fungal issues I have, because I am very familiar with how acetylhydyde feels being a former alcoholic, and whenever I would take anti fungal stuff I would get that hungover brain fog feeling which always went away with molydbenum.
 

Eastman

Senior Member
Messages
529
I'm glad that sulbutiamine helped.

Let's hope the improvement persists. Some supplements work great for a while then stop working. Sulbutiamine is notorious for that, particularly with the mood benefits.

If you do continue with supplementation of thiamine or thiamine derivative, remember to watch out for symptoms of refeeding syndrome.
 
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