Vagal A Fib

[Suzie48]

m.youtube.com/watch?v=ivof8...(Not working as expected?)

[Suzie48]

Just in case this hasn't been posted up yet, this is Dr Sanjay Gupta again on vagal a Fib. Another really interesting video.

[Jamila123 in reply to Suzie48]

Very interesting

Since the health professional are still not certain what causes Afib its worth researching all avenues

🌺🌺

[Thomps95]

Wow this describes me in every single detail. Thank you!

now I find flecenaide can organize AF into flutter, which tends to be more persistent than the AF - so I'm getting flutter ablation in march, and then will resume flecenaide - I hope this is the right advice from my EP!

[CDreamer in reply to Thomps95]

That's the bit I found most interesting and was certainly my experience.

My AFl stopped after 2nd ablation which was aborted before AFl could be ablated.

Not had AFl since stopping Flec. Never connected the 2 before in that way.

[Finvola in reply to Thomps95]

Both my EP and cardiologist have told me the same thing Thomps. I don't have vagal AF but Flecainide has organised my signals into short (20 minute) runs of flutter. Oddly enough, when I reduced my Flecainide dose from 200 to 150mg, the episodes came almost daily. Going back up to 200mg has stopped them again - logical or what?

EP says he will ablate for flutter if necessary but in these circumstances, a beta blocker is essential to avoid 1:1 conduction and consequent high heart rate. It was interesting that vagal AF and beta blockers don't mix so presumably vagal AFlutter is very fast.

I hope your ablation is a total success - EP told me 95-98% - and I would be very interested in how you get on.

Best wishes.

[Suzie48]

I can relate to it too, as have found that most of my episodes seem to occur either in the evening, at night or when I wake up. Was putting it down to a lack of distractions causing me to be more aware of my symptoms, which were then getting aggravated as I became anxious. I've also found that getting up and doing housework, or even getting a shower helped. Again I assumed I was distracting myself, but this could have a similar effect as the mild exercise he talked about.

[Alan_G]

The symptoms described very much match what I experience. The comment about beta blockers was interesting and so I've cut my dose of bisoprolol from 2.5 to 1.25 to see if it makes any difference. My resting pulse was sometimes going down as low as 44 and so I'll monitor that as well. I checked with my GP first and he gave me the green light to try it.

[Denise- in reply to Alan_G]

My pulse is around 42 and has been for 3 years, which coincidentally is when af started, will be requesting reduction in bisoprolol as currently taking 5 mgs

[Denise-]

That was so helpful, I truly believe that I have vagal af, will discuss with my cardiologist next month when I have an appointment might even get him to decrease my bisoprolol!

[Alan_G]

When I saw my GP and made reference to the video and 'vagal AF', he did not comment and moved on. I got the impression he didn't acknowledge the condition and didn't want to get into an argument about it. I let it go.

[Hidden in reply to Alan_G]

Or didn't know what you meant

[Thomps95 in reply to Alan_G]

Same blank response with me. Not sure why - I suspect they *are* well aware of the distinction though. I have the impression that some cardiologists don't find the distinction helpful because many people have a mixture of vagal and adrenergic AF triggers - and there is a huge amount of variability in AF triggers such that, in the end, some cardiologists prefer to work by trial and error to identify the very best treatment - rather than classifying a person as one or the other.

Having said that - the symptoms described for vagal AF align to an almost eerie degree. They are *exactly* my situation. So maybe the individual variation is not as high as they think.

[Mercurius in reply to Thomps95]

I have vagal flutter. This means, tha my resting heart rate is between 50-60 bpm. Triggers might be either vagal or adrenergic. It is not a difference, since let say a vagal trigger drops the heart rate, then the regulation restores rate by sympthetic activation. If the sympathetic trigger elevates the heart rate than vagal activation restores the heart rate. The problem is the parallel activity of the two systems.

[Suzie48]

This is all very interesting. I expect that there are different schools of thought and not all cardiologists will agree.

[ultramarine]

I only wish I had this information 5 years ago, not many medics or specialists understand about after eating, and only at night episodes, I had to collect my own numbers on this before Doctors took any notice. Such a terrific person thanks for sending to us Suzie48.

[chris45558]

It all makes sense now. The episodes I have had have all been when I eat a meal.

I have recently lost a lot of weight which has made a massive impact on my AF I get no symptoms and even reduced my medication.

I have been on the 5.2 diet and this has had a real positive result on my health and not just my AF.