Flax Seed Cereal and Wheat Germ Oil for A-Fib

The organic chemistry lesson is going to become a weekly thing, so look out for that on Mondays. (I want to do it everyday, but I can't spend three hours on one blog post every day)




Today I'm here to talk about flax seeds and cold pressed wheat germ oil.

I'm 23 years old. I'm a young man about to get his bachelor's degree in environmental chemistry. I have atrial fibrillation.

Its a heart condition where the heart muscle's electrical timing gets thrown off and the chambers don't pump in quite the right order. I've only had one major attack, but for about a year before that, and ever since I would occasionally feel one heartbeat every now and then that wasn't right, then my heart would beat normally.

As anyone who has had A-fib can probably tell you, when you have it, it feels like your heart is trying to do a cartwheel inside your chest. It usually isn't painful like a heart attack, but It can be. I've never experienced pain from it.

I took my a-fib attack as a sign from God to stop eating so much crap. I'd known about NT and traditional diets for awhile but was too lazy to do it. I now had a little motivation.

Sine starting a traditional diet I've lost some weight. (I'm 'morbidly obese' which is why I had a-fib in the first place). It has been slow though because I still eat too many carbs. (I love me some rice.)

Well I haven't had an a-fib incident in quite some time, not even a single beat out of step. Its all thanks to proper fat and vitamin consumption. Before this, even though I wasn't in a-fib, I could feel my heart beating in my chest, like I just had a tiny tiny bit of wannabe a-fib. I haven't even had that.

To me flax seeds are a miracle food. About ten minutes after my first bowl of flax cereal my heart was beating perfectly normal. I couldn't even feel it. For a few second I was afraid that it had stopped! I forgot that this was normal and you aren't supposed to feel your heartbeat. I had been taking fish oil for somet ime, and it helped, but nothing knocked out the a-fib like flax.

Flax is high in mediumish chain Omega-3 (N-3) fatty acids. In fact it's oil is mostly Alpha-linoleic acid. It turns out that omega-3 oils fight inflammation, and a-fib is an inflammatory condition.

Omega-3 oils fight inflammation because of eicosanoids. Eicosanoids are chemical messengers made from fats. Omega-3 oils and omega-6 oils both go through the same chemical pathways to become these eicodanoids. Every omega-3 eicosanoid has a corresponding omega-6 eicosanoid. The difference is in their effect on the body. Omega-6 eicosanoids CAUSE inflammation. When you get bit by a mosquito and have a nistamine reaction, these omega-6 eicosanoids are released and cause the bite to swell and get warn and to turn red. Omega-3 eicosanoids have the opposite effects. They reduce inflammation and swelling, and restore things to normal.

You may have seen commercials fo a drug called Singulair that blocks 'leukotrienes.' Leukotrienes are one type of eicosanoid. The omega-6 leukotrienes are largely responsible for the actual effects of the histamine reaction. Instead of popping pills for your allergies, try restoring your fatty acid balance. I know it has helped mine. To do this you can take fish oil or cod liver oil (extra vitamins in cod liver oil), and flax seed oil. I use ground flax seeds and warm water to make an extremely low carb breakfast cereal. It can be a bit slimy due to all the soluble fiber, but I find it quite tasty with a little butter and salt.

The other thing I've added to my diet that has helped is cold pressed wheat germ oil. This is one of natures best sources of vitamin E. Cold pressed palm oil is also high in vitamin E.

Wheat germ oil contains not only all the tocopherols in the proper balance, but the tocotrienols as well, which are almost always forgotten about. I forget who did the study, but many of the early studies that showed vitamin E was good for your heart were done with wheat germ oil. Many vitamin E studies today are done with synthetic vitamin E and even the unnatural and harmful esterified form of vitamin E. Yuck!

I take a spoonful of cold pressed wheat germ oil with my fish oil every day. It tastes strongly of wheat germ, so I was it down with water pretty quick, but its a small price to pay to prevent heart failure, don't you think?