Infection Presentation: Sudden Onset – Atrial Fibrillation (AFIB), Heart Palpitations, Fatigue, Irritability, Dark Circles Under Around the Eyes and Intermittent Fevers

Sudden Onset – Heart Palpitations, AFIB, Irritability, Fatigue, Weakness…

A 40+ year old woman presented with sudden onset symptoms of heart palpitations, atrial fibrillation, fatigue, irritability, dark circles under her eyes, short term memory loss and intermittent fevers. She had a big rapid pulse reflected in all TCM pulse positions. Big rapid pulses in all positions can reflect the body fighting an infection.

Potential Cause – Dental Procedure

The onset was a week after a dental procedure. Prior to onset the woman had a significant dental procedure and was told if she had any health issues, due to the amount of dental work done, to make sure to call the dentist. I referred the woman to the dentist due to her presenting symptoms after the procedure. The dentist stated there must not be any correlation due to there was no abscess nor pain from the dental work. The Dental hygienist stated during another procedure that bacteria can easily travel from the mouth to other parts of the body from dental work and to watch closely. Her dentist did not refer her to see her PCP nor order blood work in the event of infection.

Treatment

After no such luck with her dentist, I referred her to see her PCP, and treated her at the same time. I recommended the woman take 5 scoops each of INTRA-CELL I and SPIRO-CLEAR I in hot water twice per day, along with therapeutic grade essential oils. I advised 10 drops of clove, 20 drops of oregano, 5 drops of cassia and 10 drops of rosemary mixed in a tablespoon of olive oil twice per day. I also prescribed the Lyme Disease Diet. Even though she did not have Lyme disease, the same diet applies due to the event of a potential infection. This temporary diet is an essential part of the treatment. Without it, treatment many times will be ineffective.

Progress

Within the first day, the woman felt better. She went from having about 30 AFIBs per day, to 2-3. As she continued treatment, her AFIBs declined to 1-2 episodes per day for a week. During the second week, she experienced a total of 2-3 AFIBs with intermittent chest and heart area soreness. During the 3rd week, she experienced no AFIBs but did experience “movements” in her chest and abdomen region. She stated the movements felt like healing adjustments and were not sore. During the 4th week symptoms were minimal.  There may have been slight soreness here and there, but other than that, she felt back to normal. She saw her PCP during the 3rd week. The PCP did a thorough intake and stated her TCM practitioner seemed to be on the right track and to continue doing what she is doing. Her doctor also prescribed a few more herbs and homeopathy.

Slips and Side Affects

The woman stated whenever she cheated on the diet, she experienced symptoms the next day. She ended up being impeccable with the diet during the remainder of her treatment.

Follow Up

After one month, the woman now enjoys not having anymore AFIBs. Her irritability leveled out after week 2. Her energy levels improved after week 2 and fully at week 3. The dark circles under her eyes gradually cleared up during treatment.

Perspectives – TCM

From a TCM perspective, when the body takes a hit from an infection, the body taps into it’s jing essence and consumes the body’s energy. This presented with dark circles under the eyes, weakness and fatigue. It takes time to tonify the kidneys and the adrenals after having a significant health challenge. She was prescribed PROTECT to help protect her adrenals and liver during treatment so that kidney tonification would be easier when the infection is gone. When her treatment is done, she will be prescribed deep kidney tonification herbs. This cannot be done during treatment, as strong tonnification herbs will also tonify the infection.

I suggested the woman continue to take the oils at a lesser dose twice per day. I also suggested to resume with the herbal formulas twice per day for the next 2 months to make sure the infection does not return. Infections commonly have malarial properties and hide in red blood cells. They also have the ability to cyst up, create mucus protective layers, embed themselves deep in tissues and hide in areas of the body such as fascia and nerves where blood and body fluids don’t easily go.

Herbal Formulas Overview

In these formulas, there are Chinese herbs with biochemical properties to help guide the other antimicrobial herbs to hard to reach places, such as capillaries and other hard to reach areas where blood and body fluids have a hard time reaching (luo mai). There are also biochemical properties in herbs in these formulas that have actions known to dissolve protective mucus layers, break open cysts, enter inside red blood cells where hiding intra-cellular pathogens hide. There are also cardio-adaptogenic herbs that help regulate the cardiovascular system and help regulate anxiety. Herbs in these formulas also contain very potent antimicrobial biochemical properties that cover a complete range of all pathogenic categories. The herbs used are 10:1 extract, as their biochemical properties are 10 times stronger than normal raw herb.

Outlook

Pathogens likely caused AFIB and other symptoms in this woman’s body. A Western medical approach would be to address the AFIB with beta blockers and the anxiety with anti anxiety medication. If she chose this route, the infection may have escalated and likely caused more presentations. Infections not always have classic infection presentations. Infections can alter their antigens so the immune system cannot identify them. When this happens, autoimmune presentations may present instead of classic infection presentations. This may have been a time when this occurred. Therefore, infections should always be considered and evaluated differently than just the standard CBC panel. There are other signs, symptoms and pulse presentations that can help one’s awareness discern these presentations more appropriately.

This outlook and treatment not only neutralized this woman’s symptoms, but likely helped her completely regain her health. The common Western medical approach would be to prescribe beta blockers to manage her AFIB while infections persisted and caused further damage leading to further autoimmune presentations such as symptoms of IBS, MS, Crohn’s, Sjogren’s, lupus, vision challenges and so on. Medications do have their place and should be respected. They should not be incorrectly used or overused. Chinese herbs, essential oils and temporary dietary modifications can help people completely regain their health when infectious disease and autoimmune presentations present.

Patrick Lynch L.Ac., D.A.O.M. intern

Pain, Neurological, Lyme Disease and Infectious Disease Specialist

Patrick Lynch, Lyme Disease Specialist