I don't normally share personal stuff but this might help someone. Skip to the conclusion if the wall of text defeats you.

About 4 years ago, after the covid debacle, my wife and I drove for two hours to a seaside resort for a holiday. On the way there, I developed tooth pain. I saw a dentist who took an x-ray and told me that I had an abscess and that the infection had been there for a long time. I took antibiotics.

Back home, a few days later, I saw my own dentist. (No waiting times here!) He drilled out the tooth, injected antiseptic, put in a temporary filling and repeated this process every few days for a month before completing the root canal filling, fitting a crown and declaring it fixed.

Thereafter I always had a slight ache but kept convincing myself that it would go away.

Two years later I woke from an afternoon nap (I was 73 then and I had serious backache and sciatica) to find my heart racing. My wife rushed me to the local medical center. They put me in an ambulance and rushed me to the nearest hospital. I was hooked up to a chart recorder, which showed an erratic heartbeat of 160 bpm. I felt OK but apparently this was bad.

I spent 2 days in bed with a drip feeding dextrose into a vein. (This subsequently caused a hematoma - a blockage of the vein - but that's another story.)

Eventually, I was made to hobble down a long corridor (my back was even more painful from 2 days on a hard bed). In a tiny room a guy in a white coat did an ultrasound scan of my chest, grunted and told me that a nurse would give me a prescription for three drugs that I would have to take for life, otherwise I'd have a stroke.

1. Beta blockers to slow my heart (half a pill to be taken if my bpm was more than 70 on waking. It was usually around 70).

2. Statins - no reason given - my cholesterol is a perfectly normal 220.

3. Anticoagulant capsules.

I did some research. Arrhythmia causes blood stagnation in the heart, which can lead to a clot reaching the brain. Scary. After two months of hesitating I started to take the anticoagulant. (I didn't ever take statins. I took a beta blocker twice.)

Six months later, I had a heart stress test where a nurse injects a radioactive dye and then a chemical that makes the heart work hard. This was followed by a scan. It felt unpleasant. I thought I was going to faint. When I collected the results there was no doctor available and it hasn't been mentioned since. I assume that the results showed normal heart function.

When I saw my own private doctor he looked at the results and merely grunted. I told him that I'd started taking the anticoagulant. He informed me that I was supposed to take TWO per day, not one. Darn. They were already costing me 30 Euros a month (after insurance deduction).

I'd been having "funny turns" - momentary dizziness as my heart faltered - nearly every day.

I started to take two capsules per day. I was worried; I'd read about the side effects, one of which was brain aneurism or stroke!

A few weeks later my eyes literally exploded internally and I developed "floaters". My ophthalmologist did an eye examination and determined that the retinas were intact but the gel was detaching. This had caused a release of blood cells and collagen. The result was that my vision was filled with "cobwebs" and a couple of "tadpoles". (It still is.)

I stopped taking the anticoagulants and did more research. My magnesium levels have always been low. I was born just after the war when food rationing prevailed and bread with "dripping" was a meal, with salt if you were lucky. We'd have meat on a Sunday. I was already, by age 70, taking magnesium supplements but maybe not enough. I switched to magnesium Glycinate, twice a day. I did more research and started adding potassium chloride salt to my meals.

As I increased the electrolyte supplements, the arrhythmia decreased but not completely.

I did more research and finally reached the conclusion that I'd been dreading. The root canal tooth had to go.

Two weeks after the extraction the arrhythmia stopped. This morning, on waking, I checked my pulse. It was 57 bpm. It's never been so low.

CONCLUSION

Heart problems such as mine can be caused by infected teeth and/or gums. They can also be caused by a lack of magnesium and/or potassium. And I can tell you that a blood test will tell you nothing.

Also, there's no quick fix. It can take a year or more of supplements to get your bone and muscle stores of minerals up to normal where your body starts to work normally; your immune system actually works. Your migraine attacks and muscle cramps and heart arrhythmia stop. Doctors won't tell you this.

I hope this helps somebody.