Side effect of ectopics breathing exercise

[Finvola]

I thought this might be of interest to those of us who use Dr Gupta's deep breathing to help stop ectopics. Apologies if it is old hat.

Last week I had a miserable long bout of stubborn ectopics and so did 15 minutes of slow deep breathing. I felt them diminish and stop in the last couple of minutes and then immediately reached for my Kardia to confirm how well I felt.

It was a bit of a 'gunk' to be told I had suspected Afib - what? Calm heart, 69 bpm, p-waves in the trace as far as I could make out and feeling wonderful. The trace itself - one minute in length - looked odd but with a pattern of 5 beats recurring. I think that the longer R-R intervals represent my comfortable exhaling! Another trace a minute or two later was perfectly normal.

I sent the odd trace to Kardia who confirmed Sinus Arrhythmia (harmless) - I assume from my breathing returning to normal. It still was a bit of a shock to see the amber warning of possible AF - so be prepared folks!!

[Barry24]

Hi Finvola,

Well Done, very impressed with your post.

Best Wishes

Barry

[BobD Volunteer]

I have had a lot of false positives from my Kardia Finvola. I just repeat in a couple of minutes and it says normal. Similarly had unclassified on occasions. Since I rarely use mine the % fail rate is pretty sad to be honest. I have always suspect that my horny hands from years of working with metal don't connect too well.

Love the exercise though haven't needed it for a while (don't speak too soon) and usually fall asleep doing it after ten minutes or so. Either that or I get too slow and pass out. ha ha

[Finvola in reply to BobD]

That's the first odd reading I've had - and I can see how it happened. The breathing is great, I agree - I yawn so much the tears are usually rolling down my face.