Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) Support Group
Atrial fibrillation (AF or afib) is an abnormal heart rhythm (cardiac arrhythmia) which involves the two small, upper heart chambers (the atria). Heart beats in a normal heart begin after electricity generated in the atria by the sinoatrial node spread through the heart and cause contraction of the heart muscle and pumping of blood.
I was diagnosed in 2010 after drinking Red Bull and Vodka after returning home from Afghanistan. I thought I was having a heart attack, my heart was beating around 200 BPM, it was scary. I have been on 360 mg of Diltalizam and Asprin. I havent gone back into full blown A Fib since 2010, however I have palpitations frequently, some days I do not have any, I seem to have them during sex, but will have them anytime. I think I am going to keep a log of what I eat ect to try and map them out. Its annoying and scary. I usually cough to reset them but they scare the crap out of me. Am I the only one that has this happen? What can I do to help prevent them? I am 43 and about 25lbs overweight. Thanks for your help!!
Chad
Chad
Charlene
The palpitations suck for sure and then we worry over if it is going to flip over to AFIB, a vicious cycle because the stress and worry can push us over when we may have not gone over if we remained calm. Tough to do! Great the coughing will reset your palpitations, does not work for me. It would be a good idea to get rid of the extra weigh, eat whole healthy foods and nothing processed, no stimulants and try to walk or something at least every day. Keeping a log can be very helpful to find out what your triggers may be, Good luck!
Sorry you need to join the group no one really wants to be a part of .. but here we are anyway .. I find some peace and lots of answers from our many learned members .. SO GLAD YOU QUIT THE AMIODORONE .. that stuff is toxic .. I have partial eye loss in both of my eyes due to swollen optic nerves - due to 4 months on Amiodorone .. AF is a tough road, but it is treatable .. Enjoy the good days and learn from the not so good days...
Charlene
Holy crap. I thought I was reading a post written by myself 9 years ago. I had my first official afib episode after a night of hard core drinking back in 2006. Then I went almost 3 years before I had another episode and then I started having them about once every YEAR or two. Then in 2014 everything went to hell and I started having them weekly.
At any rate, I'm 43 now and I just had an ablation. You can read my post about it in this forum.
Here would be my advice to you...
Certainly track what you're doing to see if you can identify any obvious triggers. However, I have to warn you, you'll go absolutely crazy doing this as it's unlikely you won't be able to find a specific trigger. Those that do are very fortunate. For me, there were no specific triggers I could identify and I tracked everything over the 9 years I had it.
Aside from that, I would definitely recommend you lose weight. I was well over 25 pounds over weight as well not too long ago. I have since lost 40 pounds and am down to 175 pounds.
You might also want to check to be sure you don't have sleep apnea. There is a strong link between afib and sleep apnea.
Finally, I would cool it on the alcohol. I was a heavy heavy drinker for many years until 2006. After I was diagnosed with afib I still drank heavier than most but not nearly as much as I used to. I would have a nightly cocktail or two. I'd be having one right now if I wasn't recovering from my ablation.
I'd also start looking into some supplements - particularly magnesium.
Finally, if you have another episode, I'd strongly consider having an ablation sooner than later. I know this is controversial but I honestly believe ablations should be a first line treatment for afib. I think the drug approach is a joke and too many people suffer as a result. It should be ablation first then drugs if necessary...not the other way around.
Travis
I am overweight as well, but have lost 20 lbs since being diagnosed with afib, with another 30 to go. I know for sure that alcohol is one of my triggers. To say I was a heavy drinker would be putting it lightly. I'm not sure if the alcohol itself caused my afib via some type of chemical route, or the alcohol caused my brain to send funky signals to my heart, which in turn had it doing the Funky Chicken. Either way, alcohol will never again touch these lips.
If you have a serious/strong enough trigger, it will become apparent without your having to think too much about it. Spending too much time over-analyzing your behavior in an effort to discover some little thing you did that *might* cause afib will just lead to being anxious about afib all the time. And we all know that anxiety begets afib.
I haven't been been on in a while, but I do check in periodically. Well it is a good thing that you haven't had a full blown attack. At my last EP appt, as usual they always run a EKG. Well after the nurse ran the EKG, my doc came in and listened to my chest. Apparently my EKG showed afib. But when he came in to check me I was back in NSR. Ran another EKG, showed NSR. I told him that I didnt even feel the afib. (Now I do have palpitations every now and then.) He told me that a lot of patients will go back and forth with NSR and afib, me being one of them :) He wasnt too concerned. He ordered more tests of course. Anyway, what I do when I have palpitations is I make myself cough. It seems to help me. I avoid caffeinated drinks and alcohol. Meditation helps too. My very first full blown afib was after drinking 2 cups of coffee on a Sunday morning.
Hang in there!!