Typically, the heart beats about seventy times a minute, which in turn is 100,800 times every day. Hopefully, it does it without skipping a beat. However, it is well known that approximately ten million Americans suffer from some form of alteration in rhythm of the heartbeat. This can either be skipped beats, slow beats or fast beats. It is also fairly common to have an irregular beat. Most commonly, these are felt as “Palpitations”.

Collectively, abnormalities in the rhythm or rate of heartbeat is referred to as an “Arrhythmia” Luckily, majority of the arrhythmias are benign, however, some are fairly life threatening and are termed as malignant. There is no correlation between how they are perceived (in terms of discomfort) and their significance. They all need to be evaluated to some extent. Some of the most benign arrhythmias can be most troublesome and very difficult to treat. Some such as “Atrial Fibrillation” although are benign by themselves, can lead to a substrate exposing the patient to a high risk of stroke. Therefore, all palpitations need to be carefully evaluated.

Modern medicine has found it very challenging to offer a reasonable treatment for some very common arrhythmias. Sometimes, the treatment is more dangerous than the actual rhythm disturbance. In the past, a very popular medication was found to be very effective in terminating arrhythmias, and quite frequently, the patient as well. 

To this day, there are no ideal anti-arrhythmic agents which combine efficacy without harmful or bothersome side effects. Most commonly, physicians have chosen to treat the life threatening irregularities and generally avoid medications for benign irregularities. This can sometimes expose patients to a very fairly uncomfortable sensation, albeit benign. However recently there has been a lot of natural supplements that have shown potential of being the ideal treatment for some of the benign irregularities. Some of them come close to being the ideal anti-arrhythmic. 

In this article, we will review a couple of the most up and coming supplements. A word of caution, it is ill advised to treat an arrhythmia without having it evaluated by a physician. Not all palpitations are treated the same. With this in mind the first contender is “Fish Oil”. 

Fish oil is a very concentrated source Omega 3 Fatty acid. Fish oil has been found to decrease the number of some types of irregular heart beats. It has recently been found to decrease the likelihood from certain n types of dangerous heart rhythms. In a trial done in 1989, it was found that men with previous heart attacks (heart attacks pre-dispose patients to very malignant forms of arrhythmias) who ate fish twice weekly had a 29% reduction in death. There was no decrease in the number of heart attacks but a definite decrease in deaths from heart attacks. It is felt that the benefit may have been related to control of the arrhythmia. In some studies, a 53% reduction in the risk of sudden death has been noted in patients who have had previous heart attacks. Up until now the benefit was only proven in patients with impaired hearts. However, recently there is evidence suggesting that even in people with normal hearts there is a substantial reduction in the risk of sudden death. The question that remains unanswered is whether or not it is effective in patients with less dangerous arrhythmias such as “Atrial Fibrillation”. It is known that people with atrial fibrillation have lower levels of omega-3 fatty acid. 
Sources of omega-3 fatty acids are fish oils (most concentrated) as well as flaxseed, walnuts and canola oil. However, only 10% is absorbed when flaxseed etc are used. To achieve heart rhythm benefits, at least 1000-2000 mg of fish oil is needed. 

Magnesium, is another supplement which has very beneficial effects. It is also postulated that most arrhythmias have magnesium deficiency as their root cause. The challenge is that there is no way to truly measure levels of magnesium in the heart muscle. Blood levels are a poor indicator. Even when the blood levels are normal, tissue levels can be very depleted. In fact, in a recent study, only 8% of patients had low blood levels of magnesium when in reality 53% tested low at tissue levels. Magnesium is also slowly becoming a very endangered nutritional element. Most common source used to be hard water, but with new water treatment facilities and in-home use of filters converting hard to soft water further eliminates availability of magnesium. A recent World Health Organization study concluded that there is a relationship between hardness of water measured by magnesium and calcium content and the risk of cardiovascular death. Many cardiologists are now routinely recommending to many of their patients to take magnesium supplements. The only side effect known is diarrhea, which can be avoided by spreading the recommended dose of 300-500mg all through the day. Magnesium citrate is possibly the best form of supplementation.

Needless to say there are several other supplements with possible benefits to the heart beat, but Fish Oil and magnesium are the best studied. At present, it is felt that they should be used as adjuncts to what is prescribed by your doctor and not instead of. Also, to keep your heart in rhythm, daily exercise and a non-toxic diet is still your best course of action.

*Disclaimer: The contents are meant for informative, educational purposes only. Formal recommendations can only be made by physicians involved in your care. Please check with your physician before acting on any part of this article.