Wouldn’t you know it but a few days after I posted my update about my battle with PVCs and PACs, I went almost three weeks with nothing but solid NSR. It was awesome! I forgot how nice it was to live a “normal” life where you didn’t have to think or worry about your heart.
But just as quickly as they left, they came roaring back again and have been bugging me a lot in the past week. In fact, the past seven days have been dreadful. Last night they were so bad I swore I was in afib. I took about a dozen AliveCor readings and it was just frequent PVCs and PACs. When I have my bad “outbreaks” like last night, I’m averaging about 8 PVCs and/or PACs per minute.
With all these palpitations I figured it was time to have my magnesium levels tested again. I made an appointment with my naturopathic doctor to have the EXA test done again and scheduled a RBC magnesium blood test to be taken on the same day at an independent testing lab. The last time I had these tests done was over a year ago and my magnesium levels then were really low.
My Magnesium EXA Test Results (and Costs) in 2016
For those of you unfamiliar with the EXA test, it’s considered the most accurate method for testing your magnesium levels. It measures the magnesium at the cellular level where the majority of your magnesium is found.
It’s not a cheap test to have done as you’ll discovery shortly and most insurance plans don’t cover it. It can also be hard to find a doctor that actually administers the test. If you can get past these two hurdles, however, it’s worth having it done at least once if you’re an afibber or someone that suffers from constant PVCs or PACs as magnesium deficiencies can be a contributing factor to arrhythmias.
The EXA test normal reference range for magnesium levels is 34 – 42.
When I had the EXA test done on March 24, 2015 my magnesium levels were a measly 31 – well below the bottom end of the normal range.
This year when I had the test done on May 24, 2016 my magnesium levels were 34.4! According to the test I’m finally in the normal reference range but at the very bottom of it. And while my magnesium levels were up from last year, my other levels such as potassium, calcium, etc. were all down. Here is a look at my actual EXA test results:
(click on the images to see the full-size reports)
Last year when I had my EXA test done it cost $715.25, $684 of it was for the test itself. The remaining amount was for the doctor fees to administer the test. It was all out-of-pocket because my insurance wouldn’t cover it.
This year it was much cheaper and I have no idea why. It was “only” $409.75, with $295 of it for the test itself. The test itself was $389 cheaper this year! $295 still isn’t cheap but that’s a huge price difference from $684!
If you have the test done this year and are quoted anything higher than $295, you might want to call EXA test directly and see if you can get it cheaper. Don’t bother emailing them because they won’t reply. I tried sending them an email to get a price but I never heard back from them.
MY RBC Test Results (and Costs) in 2016
After I left my doctor’s office to have the EXA test done, I drove a couple miles to a local independent testing lab to have a RBC magnesium blood test done.
The RBC test measures the magnesium in your red blood cells. It’s considered to be far more accurate than a standard serum magnesium blood test (which are completely worthless by the way) but not nearly as accurate as the EXA test. The beauty of the RBC test is that it’s a fraction of the cost of the EXA test.
The RBC normal reference range for magnesium levels is 4.2 – 6.8 mg/dL.
When I had the RBC magnesium test done last year on April 29, 2015 my magnesium was at 5.9 mg/dL. I was right in the middle of the normal range.
This year when I had the test done on May 24, 2016 my magnesium was at 5.1 mg/dL. It was down from last year! Here are my actual test results:
(click on the image to see the full-size report)
The costs of the RBC blood test were the same this year as last year – $49. Like last year, I used RequestATest.com. It’s a really slick service. You pay for the test online and then have your blood drawn at a local testing lab that is part of their network. You can see if they have a testing lab in your area here.
So am I Deficient in Magnesium or Not?
I wish I was a smarter guy about all this stuff because these latest test results have me scratching my head. When one is high, the other is lower and vice versa. You would think they would show the same relative results. Meaning, if one showed high levels the other one would too and vice versa. There seems to be an inverse relationship between the EXA test results and the RBC magnesium test results and I have no idea why.
Last year my magnesium levels for the EXA test was 31, indicating I was severely deficient. At roughly the same time last year my RBC test showed my magnesium levels to be at 5.9.
According to Dr. Carolyn Dean, a well-known doctor and expert on magnesium, you want to aim for a minimum level of 6.0 mg/dL on the RBC test. At 5.9, I was just below that level so according to the RBC I was only slightly deficient – yet the EXA test indicated I was well below normal and severely deficient.
This year my EXA test results showed a magnesium level of 34.4, which was higher than last year and at the very bottom of the normal range. My RBC results, however, showed a level of 5.1 – lower than last year.
How can two tests have opposite results? If I go by the EXA results, I’m doing well. If I go by the RBC results, I’m not doing as well. I’m more deficient in magnesium today than I was a year ago according to that test!
Bottom line, I have no clue if I’m deficient or not…lol.
My Magnesium Supplementation for the Past 12 Months
Assuming the EXA test is accurate and I am indeed on the bottom end of the normal reference range, I made some nice gains in the past year. I went from 31 to 34.4 so the question is, how did I do it?
I’ve been using two magnesium supplements exclusively for the past 12 months. I’ve been using ReMag, a liquid magnesium supplement, and Ease, a transdermal magnesium spray.
I have been taking anywhere from 600 – 1,000 mg of magnesium every day for the past 12 months. I would take about 600 mg of ReMag per day and roughly 400 mg of Ease per day. I have no idea which one provided the boost but I’m sure both played a role.
What I think is the most interesting, however, is that despite heavy dosing of magnesium consistently day after day for 12 straight months, I still only managed to boost my levels a few points. This could be a unique challenge to me or it could be the norm. It’s possible if someone else followed this protocol their levels would jump up dramatically more than mine.
What’s awesome about these two products is that I can tolerate these high doses with ease (no pun intended). I have had zero issues with loose stools or diarrhea which I would have if I took large doses of any other kind of magnesium. I continue to take these two products at these high doses today.
Next Steps
At the urging of my good friend and afib mentor, Shannon Dickson, the editor of afibbers.org, I asked my naturopathic doctor about IV magnesium treatments. Shannon strongly believes that I’m likely deficient in magnesium and that I would probably benefit from IV treatments. My naturopathic doctor concurs. Unfortunately, he isn’t allowed to provide these treatments in the state of Minnesota so he referred me to another doctor in the metro area here that can administer them.
I reached out to this doctor earlier this week via email to get more information. Based on the info I gave him he also believes I could benefit from IV magnesium treatments. He charges $79 for an initial consult and $125 per IV treatment.
If you go down the IV treatment route, they typically do one treatment per week until your magnesium levels are optimal. I suppose the amount of time it takes to reach that level varies from person-to-person but I can’t imagine it would be more than 4-6 weeks. I’m looking at $500 – $750 for a 4-6 week treatment plan if I decide to do it.
I meet with him for an initial consult this Tuesday and if I’m comfortable with him and what he has to say, and I get good vibes about the clinic, I’ll move forward with my first treatment that same day. My hope is that these treatments will be effective in dramatically increasing my magnesium levels and as a result will tame my PVCs and PACs. We shall see.
And of course as always, I will be sure to document my entire experience. It should be fun!
Hi I have had afib on and off for the past 7 years. The first time I only had it for 5 months and it left on its own for 4 years then it was back and I had a cardioversion that lasted 3 years.
The last 9 months it has been back and forth, 3 times lasting only a week or two each time. They changed my meds and so far I am out of afib. My calcium was low when they had to change my meds to put me on sotalol for the first time they adjusted it in the hospital for 3 days then I was ok. I am also on blood thinners. I did tell my doctor about magnesium test he gave me blood test and said it was ok.
My question to you is, has your doctor suggested to have an ablation done where they go inside the heart and shock it?
My cardiologist wants me to have it. I am against it. I know many people that had it and Afib still came back. I would rather stick to the meds if they are working then to go through an invasive procedure. What are your thoughts on this issue?
I had hyperparathyroid surgery which is high calcium in the blood, PTH, levels were indicative of the disease, which meant I had a tumor. The tumor was removed but now I am on citracal and magnesium malate daily and Centrum for women.
I do use the magnesium spray when I have muscle pain, which is occasional. How do you feel about the benefits of magnesium malate? The doctor recommended this in particular. Thanks for any advice you may give.
I have had palpitations now and again. It feels like flutters. That is what prompted me to go to the doctor in the beginning and was a symptom of hyperparathyroid. It went away for a short while and now it’s back more often. I did not address it yet with my doctor as I need to recover from this surgery before moving on to another issue. My surgery was in Oct.2016. My ekg showed ok, echo cardiogram was ok, not sure what this is.
Elizabeth:
Magnesium malate is best for fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. The trick with magnesium is to test different forms (and doses) to see what works best for you. The best forms of oral magnesium are those that use Albion/TRAACS, which is a proprietary brand of magnesium that is of the highest quality. If you’re taking magnesium malate, make sure it uses this type of magnesium.
I personally use magnesium chloride (liquid product) as it’s the only form of magnesium I can tolerate in higher doses.
I wish you well!
Travis
I read your statement regarding your experience with EXATest and an RBC TEST. You mentioned that you don’t know why the results from these two tests would be so different. A brief response is that EXATest does not correlate with blood but correlated with soft tissue with epithelial cells which have Mitochondria. I urge you to read a brief presentation at http://www.exatest.com on Mitochondria, I think you will be very interested in the science and you’ll discover a new way to look at the heart and atrial fibrillation. A new key word for you is OXYGEN
Hi Travis,
This sounds interesting, but I do have one question. How does the staff at the IV Magnesium office MEASURE your post IV magnesium?
– Regular blood serum test?
– RBC test?
– EXA test?
I hope it is not just a serum test…
Nord:
The office I visited tested it by the RBC test.
Travis
Travis,
Even if the treatment didn’t work, I think it’s admirable that you continue to explore, learn and share with us, I think many of your blog followers will agree with me that the info on your blog is both useful and inspiring, thank you for sharing your struggles with Afib and PVCs in an honest and objective way, I think I speak for everybody when I say that we appreciate the effort you put in this blog. By all means, press on and keep us posted, best of wishes to you.
Saad
Thanks Saad. I appreciate your kind words. I’m glad you and others find the information useful. That’s why I do this. My hope is that with every post I publish my readers can take away something from them.
God Bless,
Travis
WOW very interesting….I am new to AFIB…just diagnosed 3 weeks ago but probably have had symptoms for years off and on. On propafenone now and that seems to be helping. I just had my RBC test and my results are 4.5 so on the low “normal”. Not sure where to go from here…very confusing especially reading what you posted about your test!
Hey Jim. Welcome to the club – although this is a club you don’t really want to be a member of:( If you have any specific questions about anything feel free to fire away here or contact me privately via my contact page. I’d love to help you out in anyway that I can.
As for the RBC test results…if you buy what Carolyn Dean preaches, she says you want to aim for 6.0 or higher on the RBC. According to her, you are very deficient. It would be interesting to see what your EXA test results are so if you ever have one done, let me us know.
Afibbers in general are magnesium deficient and as a result many of us take larger than normal doses of it every day. But please note, magnesium isn’t a miracle cure. It will not cure your afib. It can certainly help TAME your atrial fibrillation but it will not cure it.
I wish you well!
Travis
I have Afib as well. I have had two episodes each three years apart. Both were brought on by extremely cold water. Once by ingesting, the second by a cold water plunge at a spa. The doctors put me on atenolol and a daily aspirin. I of course have been searching for the cause and stumbled upon your site. The question I have is, is it dangerous for me to supplement with magnesium if I can not get the testing done to decipher deficiency?
Lisa:
There is no danger in taking magnesium. Were you prescribed aspirin strictly because of afib? If so, I’d talk to your doctor about that. Aspirin isn’t recommended for afib these days. Read this article to learn more:
https://www.livingwithatrialfibrillation.com/2508/aspirin-for-atrial-fibrillation/
I wish you well!
Travis
Travis,
Good to hear from you again, thanks for sharing the info about the magnesium tests, I hope things are better with the PVCs after your treatment today.
Saad
Saad:
Thanks for checking in. Well the IV magnesium treatment today was a total bust. I’ll be posting about it soon. It was very interesting to say the least. For the foreseeable future I will be sticking with oral and transdermal magnesium supplementation.
Travis
I wanted to update my comment. I have since published the post. You can read it here: https://www.livingwithatrialfibrillation.com/1888/iv-magnesium-replacement/
Hi Travis – I am very freshly diagnosed with Afib (in the last couple of weeks). I just had my Magnesium RBC test and it came back at 6.1. I am really disappointed as I was hoping I found the reason why.
Can you make any other recommendations? I have had a full set of echo stress tests (everything was normal).
Glen:
Having adequate magnesium levels doesn’t guarantee you’ll be free of afib. While it’s true *some* people can manage their afib quite effectively with strong levels of magnesium, most simply can’t rely on magnesium alone. I know there are “experts” that claim afib can be cured by magnesium alone but don’t believe them!
Do you have afib in your family? How old are you? Do you have other comorbidities such as obesity, high blood pressure, or sleep apnea? Do you drink a lot of alcohol or smoke? The answers to these questions will explain why you still have afib despite solid levels of magnesium.
I wish you well.
Travis
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