I am testing out the below pointers progressively for around a year, it seems to be significantly effective. Resting heart rate reduced from slightly above 120 to around 80. AF as detected by Omron BP machine dropped from all the time to 1/3-1/2 the time. All these were observed after body weight dropped from 72kg to 60kg.
) Reducing bodyweight by at least 10% through exercise and healthy diet
2) Reducing resting heart rate
3) Taking 6-9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day
4) Increasing intake of Omega 3 especially fish oil
5) Practicing relaxation techniques like listening to relaxation musics and meditation
6) Exercise for at least 150mins a week including light walking and some body weight exercises
Written by
redshock11
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Pretty much what is recommended although I would caution "light exercise" as high intensity especially if in AF is not a good idea. Walking is great!
A BMI of less than 25 has been found to be most effective so saying 10% weight loss is not all that helpful as this may be far more than needed or really insignificant when people are grossly overwieght or obese.
Plant based diets do seem to be benicial with a reduction or elimination where possible of meat and processed foods.
That said there are still vegan racing snakes who get AF!
Sorry if I sound pedantic Bob but 10% weight loss is never insignificant even if one is grossly overweight viz 2stones if you are 20 stones and should show in a reduced BP reading at least.
Thanks for all the replies. Fyi there was a very new Australian research research that showed that losing ten percent or more bodyweight can improve or even reverse AF, those that succeeded in doing so also have lesser symptoms, and better outcomes. So we should stay hopeful and do what is necessary and observe if there is any improvement.
Good to hear you have a plan, you are putting it into action and you are getting results. just out of curiousity how does your waist size compare with your height?
The subject is not me. He is my father, 80 years old currently. His waist went from 36 inches in circumference to currently 33 inches. His height is around 1.7m. Initially, his weight loss programme was planned by me to control his newly diagnosed diabetes two years ago, which after a year of modification without drug i have successfully kept his fasting blood glucose and HBA1C levels within normal range with the same lifestyle modification. Bear in mind, his improvements took around a year and happened gradually. The process reminded me of what TCM called tuning. Gradually and progressively, the fat around the waist were the last to be reduced and the most stubborn. Note: I am trained in the science of Food and Nutrition in my degree in Uni.
Hiya redshock11,
Your post and the comments it has generated I have found interesting, as I always do when food, AF, diabetes and nutrition are involved.
I was diagnosed with paroxysmal AF now almost 9 years to the day. Many months after diagnosis I identified the onset of AF with food I'd eaten. Symptoms I experienced were massive, massive and acutely painful bloating, burping, diahorrea and intestinal gurgling. Not all at the same time, not in any particular order, each would play its part when it felt like it. The most common was the bloating .............. OMG ! I can never forget that and the pressure it put within the chest cavity. My GP had tests done to check out IBS and Coeliac Disease and they came back normal.
I then consulted a BANT (here in UK) approved nutritionist and we began a nutritional review programme of my diet and I went down this road. Firstly I eliminated Gluten, wheat and oats and I then took on board the FODMAPS diet. I found this a bit severe and didn't always work for me so I just picked out of it what I felt was good for me.
Over a period of some year or so I kept a food diary and learned to retrain my brain to think food and AF and over a long time eliminated many other food products. However, I must say that if I ate 5 to 7 or 9 fruit and veg a day I would be in permanent occupancy of the bathroom. Indeed even tomato, lettuce, onion and rocket in a salad can give me real problems with my digestive system.
End result of this years long process is that I have had no AF triggered by food since April 2015. And only one AF event in that time caused by another trigger - that was sleeping on my left side.
About a year into this nutrition review I had my regular eyesight check and the optician detected from the state of my eyes that I had a high sugar problem and referred me to my GP. End result was a HBA1C that showed I was borderline prediabetic.
All I did then ( and still do) was cut out all added sugar from my diet ( in addition to all the other exclusions) ...... this put the fear of hell into me as my dad had diabetes and it eventually killed him. Now all these years later I monitor my blood sugar once or twice a year and happily I am around an HBA1C level of 32.
I have not lost weight, according to the healthcare professionals my BMI is low order obese ............ but hell I never set out to loose weight. With the assistance of medication I have a controlled HR of 65 ish and a BP of 124/70 ish and no AF. I do not exercise in the conventional sense, walking or cycling but at the age of 74 I still work driving a bus in the tourist industry which involves lifting/handling passengers luggage not much of it less than 15 kgs .......... I'm no longer trim, taught and terrific, but am quite solid and notwithstanding my medication including warfarin I still pass my medicals each year, one to satisfy DVLA that I am fit to drive a bus and the other that my GP runs to check on kidney and liver functions on account of my medication. Yes, I still booze on, but not as much as I used to
All this is a convoluted way of saying much of your posts i agree with and much more I do not ! Old Grannies sayings come to mind ( and not without some foundation - 'One mans meat is another mans poison'). In my view, with food, nutrition and diet is a very personal and individual thing and taking such sweeping, generalised courses of action are not always good for everybody to follow the same practices. The digestive system is a highly intelligent system and grossly misunderstood by practioners of modern medicine (GP'S) but it varies in all of us. Matter of interest, every now and then I get a craving for sugar and add it to my tea and breakfast cereal .......... my blood pressure then almost instantly jumps from the 124/70 ish up to 150/80 and on occasions to 160/90 ...... I feel crap. It then takes about 5 days to return to the 124/70 figure.
Then of course there is the impact of food/nutrition and diet on the vagal nerve, another very individual and personal feature of AF.
re my earlier inquiry regarding height 1.7m = 68". Waist size 33" so well inside the' waist less than half the height' rule that complements the BMI - as in muscular rugby players that are well outside their BMI are often inside the waist proportion.
In my opinion, it has something to do with fat accumulation outside and in the internal organs. For a diabetic, once the fat directly outside the pancreas is reduced, their blood glucose metabolism will get signifcantly better. I am not sure if the heart can accumulate fat in the same way. If the bulk of the waist is core muscles, it should enhance metabolism rather than the opposite.
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