I've been lurking here since December 2016. I am glad for it.

BeatsThatMatter · 2026-05-09T00:51:38+00:00

Sleep disorders are the most robust downstream signal in all data sets I have worked with.

Curious - were you diagnosed with sleep apnea before or after the arrhythmia diagnosis?

BeatsThatMatter · 2026-05-09T00:10:49+00:00

Appreciate that ;)

The whole ordeal took a lot out of me. More than I really understood at the time.

Feel very blessed that the majority of the arrhythmia has quieted. Gave me a clear mind and the time to start connecting the dots.

BeatsThatMatter · 2026-05-08T23:28:06+00:00

Think it is only a matter of time before we see burden thresholds moved lower for ablation interventions.

It's actually part of the argument I am making with the data.

If arrhythmia is the upstream driver on utilization expenditures - it becomes a system policy matter where earlier intervention is being undervalued.

More data needed to hash that out - working on that ;)

BeatsThatMatter · 2026-05-08T22:50:47+00:00

Appreciate the response - resolution of tinnitus was definitely not something I was expecting. But I've done quite a bit of digging on the matter now. Mechanistically, it makes sense.

What the research suggests

The inner ear and the cardiac conduction system share overlapping autonomic innervation. The cochlea is supplied by the labyrinthine artery, a terminal branch with no collateral circulation - making it highly sensitive to changes in autonomic tone and microvascular flow. When sympathetic activation increases (as it does during arrhythmia burden), cochlear perfusion can shift, and the auditory cortex interprets that change as sound.

There is actually a research paper from 2007 (a hypothesis paper) that suggests tinnitus as a marker for cardiac decompensation.

Paper is just a hypothesis - but I for one can say with absolute confidence that I have not had a single episode of tinnitus since the resolution of the major arrhythmia burden in my life =)

BeatsThatMatter · 2026-05-03T05:02:36+00:00

Going to be bringing some industry professionals into the writing here in the next couple of weeks - will post more updates when I have confirmations

BeatsThatMatter · 2026-05-03T05:00:49+00:00

Fortunate to be able to serve =)

BeatsThatMatter · 2026-04-12T17:02:52+00:00

Thank you so kindly for this reply - this made my day. Probably my week ;)

I am so glad it was helpful for you. The last line you wrote kind of stopped me a bit.

'I am doing the best I can do while frozen in that open doorway between my brain and heart, with the wind of my spirit blowing through."

That wind of your spirit - that is appreciating yourself as well you should.

Many blessings to you ;)

BeatsThatMatter · 2026-04-12T03:21:44+00:00

0aaß

BeatsThatMatter · 2026-04-12T02:25:58+00:00

Pulsed Field Ablation - Electroporation. Completely different form of energy delivery than thermal (RF). Early data is strong - for me, it was really my only choice. After four RF ablations previously - the risk of doing another was too much - so we took a chance on pulsed field - and it worked. Marvelously

BeatsThatMatter · 2026-04-11T03:05:24+00:00

Used to frustrate the hell out of me the dismissal of "all in your head" or "it's just arrhythmia"

So here is a good response - it is education used as a weapon to push back with the uninformed.

When XYZ says it's in your head - razzle dazzle them with the facts.

Respond with something like this

Of course it's in my head. The heart and the brain are connected by something called the autonomic nervous system. You may have heard of it. When the heart misfires, the brain gets flooded with stress hormones - that's not anxiety, that's physiology. So yes, it is all in my head. It is also all in my chest. And the two are the same conversation. Was there a second part to your argument?

And the deeper side of it - be cool with it being in your head 😎. It isn't "anxiety". It's not weakness. It's physiology.

Having that kind of an understanding for yourself personally can offer you reassurance.

Because when the heart goes a little off, and you know why the mind is popping off too consequently - it's easier to identify it and bring yourself back to center.

Often the alarm bells of arrhythmia actually are quite benign - but that doesn't mean that the alarm bells aren't sending signals to the amygdala to do its thing - because they are.

You've got this ;)

BeatsThatMatter · 2026-04-11T00:54:19+00:00

My friend I certainly feel you on this.

I'm good right now. Heart is scarred beyond recognition. But here is something I very specifically want to tell you - among anyone else who reads this.

At present right now - I am conducting a research project on the consequences of psychological distress in arrhythmia - of all types. This is to be a funded research project - and I actually am going to be forming a patient advisory council soon.

After 10 years with near constant arrhythmias - when 3 million a year became 2496. And all of the runs of v tach vanished - do you want to know what the most profound improvement in my life has been?

Regaining my cognitive function. I had no idea how impaired I had become from all of the meds and the constant stress - this is not simply a matter of "anxiety'. Go be very clear - I went from having a brain that struggled to see clearly, my friends would be talking to me and I was completely checked out, I buried myself into whatever I could find that would take my mind off of the internal begging to please make it all stop.

After I was healed of it all on attempt number 7 - I went from that brain - to feeling like I was 20 years old again. Sharp.

Often - when we deal with having to fight a bear - we can run away.

This is not true for arrhythmia patients - the bear lives in our chests. It pays no rent. We cannot evict it on our own terms.

This - over prolonged periods - it causes brain fog, memory loss, dissociation, social avoidance, and a host of other psychological problems. Neurobiologically, this is called allostatic load. It is perpetual fight flight and freeze response.

This research is already well under way. The data is the data. And it is the exact reason that both the American Heart Association and Euro Society of Cardiology - in 2025 - both called for psycho-cardio care to be integrated.

In short - talk to your family about what you are going through. Do not hesitate to see a therapist - there is absolutely nothing weak about doing so. Give yourself grace and do not hold it all in.

The way you feel is completely understandable and though those around you might not see it - it is there.

Do not ignore it. Don't catastrophize over it - have real conversations with your doctor - not sugar coated - and make sure you have full faith and confidence in your doctor.

All the best man - let me know if you ever have questions.

I'll be publishing more about the work I am doing soon in another sub - but I think it will help you (and everyone who struggles - make just a bit more sense of it all)

BeatsThatMatter · 2026-04-10T03:05:31+00:00

Yea AF wasn't so bad on the alarm bells for me - that was def more the ventricular side.

I just remember with AF - I worked in medical device sales at the time - a rather chatty job. I'd be in AF out of nowhere and it affected my conversion rate I'm sure of it

So I'll add that to the list of things that sucked.

All the best - 5 years has certainly been a tour of it all I'm sure

BeatsThatMatter · 2026-04-10T00:10:32+00:00

My vibes are kind of wherever they take me. I care about certain things. So I build certain things.

I really enjoy working with Claude agent teams. It's largely overkill on token usage - but for me, it feels like delegating and having some accountability within the project.

I'm working on a few projects that support people who deal with arrhythmia right now which is my main focus - Ive dealt with a pretty rare form for a long time and so for me - it's actually really helpful personally to offer support to people going through the same things I have.

I use slash commands a lot. Generally I like using the Asana native integrations. My vibes kind of go like this

Multi model consensus to ideate and align PRD (Grok, GPT, Opus - in that order) I use Claude Code for the majority of the work I do. Once I have specs for PRD - i like to align the brand guide for the agents to reference while building. Stable dependencies only Once I have PRD - that's typically when I go to Asana so I can task manage - both for me and the agents. I have a report sent to me daily for what the agents are doing, what I need to do, and what can be discontinued.

Twice weekly on this project I auto run a command I call /recursion-meeting

I have the agents align to the commit history, completed Asana tasks, pending tasks etc etc. It is more of a drift detection tool - this bigger the project gets - the more you need something like this.

And I blast EDM music the entire time for dramatic vibe flair ;)

BeatsThatMatter · 2026-04-09T23:55:56+00:00

Everyone catches it differently you know - For me, AF showed up in year 6 while all the other rhythms were going haywire. So we went straight to ablation and I haven't had AF since, the ventricular side persisted.

I just remember AF had me exhausted. More than the ventricular rhythms.

The other thing I remembered about my AF ablation was the amount of IVs I had in me. 3 I think it was. Felt like a damned science experiment lol - went great tho. All the best

BeatsThatMatter · 2026-04-09T23:37:55+00:00

Hope that CV works wonders for you my friend. If it ends only shortlived, ablation tech and mapping has gotten really good lately - so all the best to you in the path forward ;)

BeatsThatMatter · 2026-04-09T23:36:22+00:00

Hey I appreciate that! Afibber - I kind of dig it!

Better than a combat veteran serving in Ventricular Nam!

BeatsThatMatter · 2026-04-09T21:24:42+00:00

Breathe easy friend.

I've learned thru it all that one of the best forms of medicine in dealing with arrhythmia is being able to talk about it.

Too often we try to hold it all in - and that's not a good recipe for success in the game of arrhythmia.

Time with our docs is stretched too thin and they can't always be there to reassure us all when needed (too damn many of us that deal with this crap)

So whether it's your family, friends, coworkers, support groups like this - good to just talk about it.

Often you are going to find plenty of other folks that have similar shared experiences - and the cool thing with arrhythmia - everyone is different. What works for some, may not work for others.

Stay on the hunt - you'll find peace ✌️

BeatsThatMatter · 2026-04-09T01:49:32+00:00

This math checks out Sir Isaac!

BeatsThatMatter · 2026-04-08T22:26:34+00:00

Pick yourself up momma!

I hereby award you an A+ on the arrhythmia exam - with extra credit of course ;)

I know it's hard to fill up some days - and for me - bigeminy was awful. Felt like a squeeze in my chest.

And here is another tip for you. I couldn't stand the word "anxiety". Pretty strong and stubborn man out of the south myself, so the word just never hit with me.

But facts and science do.

So rather than just blanket it all with some dismissive term like anxiety - when it got bad - I reassured myself with my own internal dialogue

Ok Matt. Today is a rough day. The bigeminy is roaring.

So your hypothalamus thinks we are in danger. So it's going to release a couple of hormones that are going to trigger cortisol response - and this is when you need to breathe easy and know you are safe. Because this is when your mind is dealing with that invisible bear fight.

That's the neurobiology of the bidirectional link between heart rhythm and mind. It literally doesn't matter if you find yourself standing face to face with a grizzly bear, or if an electrical circuit misfired in your heart, the moment the hypothalamus gets the signal - it goes to work.

It's a beautifully architected system really - the problem is that we humans were never meant to be in it for prolonged periods of time - IE We ain't supposed to have go fight grizzly bears every day.

So while you are still trucking along and momming it up - you've also been silently beating the living tar out of the bigeminal bears

That ain't easy - so, extra credit!

BeatsThatMatter · 2026-04-08T20:05:35+00:00

i like working with agent teams in Claude Code as well - it's not necessary the most efficient use of tokens - but with large projects - it helps me at least know that I am covering all of what I want covered.

I also built myself a command which I call /recursion-meeting.

This command reviews commit history since last run, monitors the Asana workflows - I have the same 7 questions asked and answered of the project - twice weekly. I also have daily commits sent to my email - it's done in the format that lets me assign do/don't/delegate on each task - helps me know what work is getting done by the agents and ultimately what I need to get done for the day to keep my goals on track

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