Diagnosed a few months ago with paroxysmal AF so I'm in the process of trying to identify the triggers. Hopefully some of you with experience can offer comments on these questions.
I seem to experience AF after a eg. a hard day walking or gardening etc. Is exercise a well-known trigger or is this just coincidence?
I've also noticed mild palpitations after my evening meal, when I sit down to relax. Any way to find if this is a vagal trigger?
I feel as if I can forestall an attack with relaxation and steady rhythmic breathing. Has anyone else found this?
Sorry for all the questions - I guess this is old ground for many!
Cheers, Roy
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afspanner
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As my EP told me, looking for triggers is the way to madness Roy. Look hard at your lifestyle. Avoid alcohol, ibuprofen, caffeine, smoking , stress etc is obvious. Many people find that a change to a less meat reliant diet and a move to plant based natural foods help reduce AF burden. BMI of 25 or less has also been shown to help in this way as well. Of course there will always be vegetarian racing snakes with AF as well which just goes to prove what a mongrel condition it is .
Hi. Your point is good - any unwise lifestyle choice will likely contribute to a condition like this, in a similar way to how our immune systems are reduced by bad living. Until I was diagnosed I was running 10k, hillwalking etc. but I've stopped a lot of that stuff because it seems to lead to AF episodes. And alcohol is certainly a trigger for me. It also seems connected with gastro reflux. Rather than become a monk I hope to avoid the worst of it by scaling back on the things that cause the attacks most consistently.
Bobd hits it all on the head so to speak.... you need to start listening to your body and do what's right for it. If large meals give you ectopics have a look at how you can manage that, caffeine constricts your blood vessels makes you urinate and makes your heart more contractile - no brainer to go decaf really. Alcohol- stimulant, stress releases adrenaline and cortisol all have affects on your heart. Cutting out these things won't stop your af but I put my money on it that it will reduce it
You have described some of the features of vagal AF. This below may help
I'm one of those vegetarian racing snakes that BobD is alluding to! I'm 51, was a competitive runner, vegetarian, non-smoker, etc. Like you, I now have paroxysmal AF (diagnosed after I had a mild stroke last October - a warning there). I also have atrial flutter, sinus node dysfunction, who knows what else wrong with my cardiac electrical system. And I don't have any triggers. AF can come on when I'm sitting at home, reading, listening to music, free of worry. It's good if you can identify triggers and then minimise or eliminate that behaviour or risk. But not every AF sufferer has triggers. So it's a question of balance (no one wants to live like a monk). You will be the best judge, I reckon. It's your heart, after all. Relaxation techniques help me, too. Just don't give in to it - some weeks I'm a bit crook (as we say here in Australia), but today I mowed my lawn and had a little jog. Not quite your 10 km but I'm not complaining! Peace.
Looking around the forum, and in particular the thread by jeanjeannie, I conclude that there are some consistent triggers and loads of person specific things, so I guess that each of us must do the process of noticing what helps, and what doesn't.
Alcohol is almost always a cause.
Stress/anxiety
Diet/vagal effects
Exercise or perhaps tiredness after a hard day.
I see that it's important to avoid worrying about this, which is easier said than done, although mindfulness techniques seem to help.
I'll "experiment" a bit and see if there's a lifestyle which minimises this condition. I know that there's no magic bullet to prevent it completely.
AF spanner - I still have some of those and Whitworth. Back to business: I only have AF during hard exercise. I wouldn't know that it was happening unless I'm wearing a good quality heart rate monitor. I avoid all of the things that Bob has listed, my BMI is 25.4, I'm a "flexitarian", my electronically measured body fat is < 7% and except for a short break for a prostate biopsy - I row at least 24 km in total each week on a Concept 2 rowing machine. AF is one of those afflictions that we learn to live with and, there are worse medical conditions to have. Many years ago there was a study of elite Orienteers - Orienteering: hard crosscountry running in forests - and a percentage of them had AF. Back in the day I was an Orienteer but never anywhere near elite status.
Hi, I agree with all the above but also suggest check your breathing, are you snoring or are you doing work that compresses your lungs - pruning a creeper above head height is an absolute nono for me. Also extra stress, physical or mental, is bad, so a regular run is better than a long stretch once a week eg I had an episode on Christmas Eve while family were staying - extra hard work and stress!
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