I am not in as good as shape as you, but my resting heart rate was in the mid 50's now in mid 60's. But Iike you when I exert myself just a little it goes way up. On treadmill this morning it shot to 185 when it should be about 120. It settle back down after about 20 minutes. My ECG is all over the place too. BP is good 110/70. I don't think you did anything to damage your heart, I think it is genetic. I only take asprin
I would research everything first, especially ablation. I cut the caffine, reduced the alcohol and upped the cardio and am planning to live with it as is for a while.

Thanks for the feedback. I can't go up two flights of stairs without hitting 145 bpm. Makes me a little nervous. Since I hike alone mostly, if something happened, it would be a tough spot.

THanks again

I've had Afib for over 2 years. My rate is down to 60 with a lot of meds. I can't have an ablation and wouldn't want one anyhow because many times they have to do it more than once. I sure hope you're seeing a cardiologist and are on Coumadin (Warfarin)because the biggest concern is clots. Good luck.

Hi Mr. KrazyP :-)
Watch your diet, diet, diet. I had the same problem as you are having now. I know what you are saying. This means you go to full afib when you do some exercise. Of course, for me it was hard to excercise when that was happening. Mine was all diet related. After eating certain things (like anything with omega 3, butter, cheese, nuts), I would get my afib 6 to 8 hours later during my exercise or if I would run up the stairs. However, it was very hard for me to correlate it with what I ate before. I used to think the execrcise was the cause of it. But, the exercise for some reason would trigger it if I ate what I mentioned 6 to 8 hour before the exercise. So, watch out.

One more thing, sports drinks (gatorade for example, anything with fortified potassium) give me an irregular heart within 10 to 15 minutes even now. So, watch out taking those stuff.

On another note, abelation might sound great and a cure, but be aware that the procedure involves burning parts of your heart muscle in different places to stop electric signals from traveling. So, after the procedure, your heart will be weaker forever depending on how much they burn. I would think, you as an active person would want to avoid going through that if possible. I know the EPs push for it as a cure. But, watch out, learn about it, and see the statistic about it too.

Try to find the reason for your afib first. Vary your diet, write down everting you eat and do, and the time you get your afib for a week or so. Try to see if there is any correlation.

Meds are not the answer for you either if you are active. They prevent the heart from beating too fast. So, even when you don't have your afib, your heart output is low since the meds do not let it pump hard. It becomes hard to have a good workkout. However, meds may be okay until you find the cause of your afib.

Also, please make sure your blood does not clot during your afib episodes. You can accomplish that by taking aspirin or better nattokinase, which is a fermented soy extract. I always took natto rather than the aspirin. Natto works for sure but aspirin does not works on some people. To make sure you don't get blood clot, ask for a blood Fibrinogen test. That will tell you if your platelets are slippery enough so your blood does not clot too fast. Your Fibrinogen must be no more than 320 to be on the safe side. Insist for this blood test. They will not give it to you on a regular basis. You can bring the number down by taking more natto or aspirin. Good luck with your search. I hope you get to the bottom of your afib the way I did. Not fun getting it when climbing and during your hikes, I have been there, I know :-) Not fun at all !

I forgot to mention, when you are in afib, if you work out, naturally you will get a little bit of chet pain because your heart gets really stressed out. Actually, it is not good for the heart to exercise when in afib, or exercise hard when in afib. I used to do that until I asked a cardialogist. He was the one who told me the above.

Please remember, your heart is not really pumping blood when you are in afib. It is viberating. That was the only good advice I got from the 14 cardialogist and EPs that I went to when I had my afib episodes for 9 months before I found the real cause for it.

So, don't stress your heart when in afib. It is not good for the heart muscle. Food for thought Mr. Krazy.

One more thing, " Propranolol" was the med I took when I used to get my afib during a hike or exercise. One cardialogist gave it to me since it is fast acting and clears within 3 or 4 hours from your body. That worked out very well for me. I took it only when the afib started. Then, within 10 minutes brought my heart rate down. Ask for it. It is a good one compare to other hard core drugs. The nice thing about Propranolol is it does not linger in your body so your heart is not restricted during your next workout/hiking. I would take it during my hikes if the afib would show up.

My wife thought I was crazy going hiking alone. After reading about you, I don't think so :-) There are a few of us out there.

Two years ago I had an ablation at the UW Cardio Center in Seattle. My EP in Bellingham was of no help to me at all. He just shrugged his shoulders and basically dismissed me. The meds had stopped working and I was miserable. He said he would do an ablation, but that he only had about 50% success rate. My son took his PhD in the medical center at the UW and I asked him to find me a doctor that cared. This new EP took nearly two hours with me on my first visit. I feel great and have no limitations in my activities. I am 69 and work out at the gym, walk and ride my bike for long periods of time. I could not do these things when I was in afib almost all the time. The quality of my life is incredibly good. I have no regrets.

By the way, I do not believe that having an ablation weakens your heart. I am not saying that everyone should jump into having an ablation, but the small risk was sure worth the outcome for me.

Hi Jode,
I am so happy that the abelation has worked for you. That is just fantastic. I know living with afib is very hard and can be depressing at times. i was there, I know.

I knew somebody who went through the radio frequency abelation a few years back. After the procdure he had other problems, which were due to the fact that they had to burn so much of his heart muscle to stop the afib. May be he was not so lucky or his EP was not as good as yours.

So, you are an abelation success story that I will pass around. In solving any problem, I always start with the easiest and most obvious causes and solutions. If they don't work, then I go to more difficult solutions.

Now, I know the cause and solution for the afib can be very different among people. Unfortunately, most doctors are not very helpful to find the cause of the afib.

Again, I am absolutely delighted about the outcome of your abelation and your life style now.

I'm so happy your ablation worked well for your Jode. The more I read about ablation stories, the more success I read as well. It seems to be the cure for over 80%. If my afib were worse, it is something I would definitely not hesitate to do. As it is, mine aren't frequent, the last episode was almost 16 months ago. I'm on Rythmol, just reduced to twice a day and my doctor wants to take me off all meds expcept aspirin to see how I do. I enjoy all the posts here, especially the ablations that have a wonderful ending. Healthy beats to you Jode!

Thanks for all the great data. I appreciate you all taking the time.

Especially about the diet. I will have to look into that. I eat a lot of nuts and take omega tabs - and have for a long time. I have had what most people would call a very healthy diet for many years. All my lipids are really good - as are all my other tests.

I had already been taking the aspirin for 10 years since stroke runs in the family (my son had a stroke at 18 - he is as tall as me and even has a bigger, more muscular build). As near as I can tell, height and endurance training are both risk factors. For as long as I can remember, my docs have been telling me my heart is big and slow. Because of this in the past have had lots of tests run. They told me (in the past) that the signal running from the top of of heart to the bottom "takes a long time". No problem, but it got their attention in the past.

Lots of tests done is 02, 03 and stress EKGs and nothing.

I think I have probably had this issue for real for about two years based on all I have been reading. During that time I have exercised really hard 3 times a week (over 300 watts on a spin bike for 10 minutes out of 30). Plus, some really hard hikes and climbs.

I know that ablation is not an end all and may not be recommended for me. I don't have the "events" that others seem to describe. Nothing special happens after I eat and no morning or evening issues. Just a crazy beat that appears to with me all the time - and accelerates when I work out. Drops down to 50-55 when I am resting.

I was interested in talking to other tall endurance athletes. Bill Bradley (the basketball player and Senator) got this.

For the tall athletes, my attempt at an explanation is that the constant workouts together with the heart being larger than normal because of the size of the person enlarges the heart to the point that the electrical signaling is screwed up. Shape matters in electrical wiring and signals in general, so it makes sense that in a larger heart this might develop.

Other large animals - horses for example - especially those bred for speed have the same problem.

The final point is that I am a CEO of a financial and there has been a lot going on in the past two years.

If you continue to get afib, my EP told me that you are re-structuring your heart electrically--so the longer you allow the irregularity to continue, the harder it is to fix. Ablation is reverse remodeling of the electrical structure of the heart. I just had one last week and so far so good. If you are healthy and catch it early you have a good chance of success. The success rates posted are for those who have otherwise unhealthy hearts who are more advanced in age. I am an avid biker, runner, and they said that my heart responded like a textbook case.

I understand from my doctor that ultimately, if left untreated and allowed to beat at high rates irregularly for long periods, it leads to congestive heart failure. At some point, your heart will just get tired and poop out.

Don't give up-- get that rate under control. You shouldn't have a mystery, but a plan so you can control it--don't let it control you!

Finally, check out the number of procedures that your doctor has performed and the number and type of complications. I had my procedure at NYU, and my doctor has done 800 ablations total. You need someone with a lot of experience in atrial fib ablations specifically, not other types.

Good luck!

Krazyp, Have you been to a cardiologist or EP? Have they hooked you up with a holter monitor that records your heart rhythim over 48 hour period? If not you might look into this , it will give you a good idea what your heart is doing. I have had similiar symptons as you described over many years with my doctors telling me everything is normal, until this past year when I started passing out, and I went to a cardiologist and ask them to monitor my heart. They did and found my heart was all over the place up to 185 and down at night while sleeping to 20. I was immediatley taken to the hospital after my doctor read my recording. I was diagnosised with sick sinus syndrome. I had to have a pace maker put in. It is now 1 1/2 years since I had the pace maker put in,and I recently had an ablation done to reduce the atrial fibulation. My heart was enlarged because I waited too long. Also it is good to look into your diet. I have done all that including vitamins, acupuncture and watching my stress level, but none of this will take the place of a good doctor and acturate diagnosis.

Hello Again KrazyP,
Regarding the nuts and fish oil, before my first afib, I used to take fish oil capsules, eat lots of nuts, and having very healthy diet with lots of fruits and vegtables. My lipid panel was great and no high blood pressure. Of course, the fish oil is great for lowering the LDL and triglyceride, and increasing the HDL. None of my tests showed anything out of ordinary except all of a sudden I would go to afib for about 2 hours or so. I saw 14 cardialogist and EPs to find out what was wrong with me. None of them had any answers until by chance I found out the nuts, fish oil, butter and cheese were the problem.

The reason I mention this again is I have come across other people who had afib because of eating those items. The afib stopped when they stopped eating them (specially fish oil). It is really as easy as that. It is hard to believe something like fish oil, which is praised so much in medical community can be the cause of someone's afib.

It is very cheap to try it and see if it stops your afib too. It did for me and some others. But, all those items must be stopped for at least one week or so to see the real results. They have to flush out of your body.

I realize your problem might be totally different. I have come to the conclusion that when you have afib, you have to be very open minded if you want to find the cause of it. Also, I went to 8 naturopathic medical doctors and 3 medical intuatives. Living with afib and taking meds were not good options for me. So, I tried to turn "every stone" before going through a radio frequency abelation.

By the way, all three medical intuatives told me my problem was my digestion and liver. But, I did not believed them at the time because I did not have any problem with my digestion or liver. Later on, what they told me made sense :-) Good luck.

KrazyP,

Are you constantly in a fib or just with exercise?

Your story and mine are nearly identical. I first had it at age 26 (1998) after being awake for about 72 hours - gradually resolved in 1-2 days and I never had it evaluated. Next time was in 2004 - was sick from food poisoning, dehydrated and electrolytes out of whack. Had to be converted with adenosine. Follow-up stress echo/EKG about 6 months later was fine.

Last September, started training for a 1/2 marathon with my wife. Prior to that, I had not been exercising regularly. For the most part, I felt pretty good, and two weeks prior to the race I ran 11 miles feeling great. At the race in December, I felt bad at about mile 3 and never felt great - had to walk part of the last mile or two. Since that time, I never felt great during runs and overall felt run down. Decided to wear a HR monitor during a run and was hitting about 210. My resting HR is 60-70 now, was 40-50 when I was a teen/20s.

Saw the cardiologist yesterday who suspected exercise-induced a fib and he gave me a heart monitor. I went for a run and quickly got the rate to 200 - sent in the transmission and it was a fib.

For me now, it only happens with exercise/exertion (but it seems to happen EVERY time). Past episodes were illness or physical stress related. I'll be seeing an EP soon.

Glad to have found this forum.

I have been a runner and avid mountainbiker most of my life-now 64. I raced bikes through my 50s only to develope afib 3 yrs ago, out for a run and felt dizzy and a trip to the ER I was in AFIB with a heart rate of 156. After a couple years of trying different meds went for a cardiac ablation. I needed a second procedure but now I am drug free and back to running and biking. You may want to talk to your doc about an ablation, for a active person it may be the answer if you cannot find meds that work. Good luck!

afibandfifty: How are you doing? -petey