Then last night, as usual, I awoke at 3:30 with a fast heartbeat from a nightmare.
The heartbeat in few minutes fragmented itself in true Afib. I got up and first tried to stimulate my vagus system by applying two sponges soaked in cold water on my eyes for a few minutes, with no effect.
Then went to bed and started deep breathing, meanwhile performing alternate nostril breathing (nadi shodana).
I could not believe it, but in 45 minutes I was back in NSR, the fastest ever in my three years of paroxismal atrial fibrillation.
Now my question is: is that possible? Would have I gone back to NSR anyway or was alternate nostril breathing instrumental?
I ask if any of my fellow sufferers have tried the same and with what results.
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mirtilla
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I normally describe it as a "Fight at the OK Corral." This is a classic US western movie/story and if you're not from the US, you probably won't get it; however, the pre-effects are the fish-like-feeling of jumping and flapping in your chest. As soon as I get an idea or forewarning this is about to happen, I realize that I am holding my breath or breathing shallow. I start deep breathing immediately and (lo and behold) the pre-effect Afib vanishes. Mechanically the heart knows how to pump better and faster than what Afib has done to it, so breathe deeply SEVERAL times a day. Just do it. Doesn't matter where you are, just do it. Try to get it to be automatic. After months of breathing deeply, I still catch myself holding my breath! I think this is what Afib does to you and you have to be your heart's advocate and reinstate the native beat by consciously making an effort to BREATHE.
For quite a while now I've been saying that I believe AF could be caused by our not breathing correctly. We become so absorbed in what we're doing our breathing becomes far too shallow.
As soon as I become aware of my heartbeat now I immediately take deep breaths and have been AF free for 4 months. I also wear looser fitting clothing.
I've also had some success with breathing techniques and regularly reduce HR with slow belly breathing.
I recently read that 4,7,8 breathing could help the vagus nerve. At the time I was in AF, so tried a combination of both technques, using 4,7,8 for 2 minutes every 15 mins and slow belly breathing in between. 1.1/2 hours later I did self revert into NSR. Woo-hoo, cracked it!
However, I tried the same for my next AF episode but without success, which I guess means the methods are inconsistent, although my pulse did slow down.
That’s pretty much my experience - I’ve posted about a whole list of stuff that stopped an AF episode but was hard to repeat - worked sometimes and not others and I always self converted eventually anyway. The most consistent was vaso vagal - blowing hard into a syringe or lying prone and then having my legs raised very quickly - I have very low BP which can trigger AF.
I also believe that our lack of proper breathing can also trigger AF and that we need to be far more conscious of our breathing patterns.
The most bizarre conversion was when travelling by car we ran into a really deep pot hole, puncturing the tyre but also warping the wheel and bending the axle. I had been in AF for the previous 2 hours - AF gone in an instant. Unfortunately my husband didn’t see a long term future for this conversion - he said it was too expensive.
I think your 'pothole' experience with the resultant shock confirms you have vagally mediated AF. I believe I am the same and in the early days in A & E (and knowing nothing about AF) the doctor came into my cubicle and said my Flecainide drip wasn't working and 'they were going to have to shock me' - hey presto straight back to normal.
The same happened to me and they said they weren't going to use a general anaesthetic with the cardioversion, just do it! I was back in normal rhythm in minutes!
Just a quick question, have you had a sleep study done? Its just I used to wake from nightmares in AF and it turned out to be sleep apnoea. As you stop breathing the brain panics sometimes it was as if I was being strangled from behind and I'd wake gasping for breath and in fast AF. So much better now with the cpap machine.
Because you can't train yourself not to have sleep apnoea and it's not "giving in" to a CPAP Machine. It is a life threatening condition that has to be taken seriously.
We know when anxious our bodies release hormones (flight or fight response) our hearts beat faster and our breathing quickens and may become shallow, not helpful if you have P-AF. It becomes a vicious circle of stress contributing to P-AF= P-AF causing more stress , so logically slow controlled deep breathing should help to break the circle and counteract what is happening to our bodies during an episode of P-AF .
Controlled breathing during episodes of P-AF should also compliment beta blockers which work by blocking the effect of the hormone adrenaline so out hearts beats more slowly/with less force/ reducing blood pressure/ easing the load on our hearts.
I have to monitor my blood pressure and have found I can actually influence it and bring it down a few points by controlled breathing. My BP is all over the place when I am in AF so keeping calm and using breathing techniques to help control it has to be a good thing .
Yogic breathing is well worth reading up on. There is Alternate nostril, Bastrika and Kaplabati for a few. I practiced them regularly but got out of the habit. This post has made me sit up and think of doing it again.
Breathing fully out and getting rid of the Carbon Dioxide is important. As people tend not to empty their lungs properly and only breath in about a third of the O2 as they should do with empty lungs.
Thank you Mirtilla for raising this aspect. Having altered most lifestyle aspects to good effect, breathing is the last area I need to research more. I think it is very relevant to AF but I would caution anyone against thinking it is the sole cause; my view has always been the reason why most of us get AF is a cocktail of reasons. So we have to work on them all to be safe.
I have mild sleep apnea and although not diagnosed I believe I also have Upper Respiratory.........(sorry forgotten the full term) - this means slightly blocked nose necessitating blowing without a cold. Like others, I have woken up in the night gasping often with a bad dream but I have found nasal strips have helped a lot. Good luck and keep us posted on any developments.
I definitely feel that mindful breathing techniques taught in yoga are definitely helpful. I had a friend whose mother swore by alternate nostril breathing whenever she went into afib. Dr. Andrew Weil in his CD on breathing teaches the 4 7 8 breath. I did try that one on the way to the hospital with my second episode, but it didn’t work. Perhaps I didn’t use it long enough. You said you tried Nadi Shodhana for 45 minutes? That’s quite a length of time. Thanks for the PubMed article!
Yes, I have no doubt that your alternate breathing could stop Afib in its tracks. I am a dual-certified yoga instructor and I’ve read that “breathing is the marriage between the heart and lungs”. There are many complex, physiological things that happen with yogic breathing and while I can’t explain it all, it works. I too have PAF and I know it works...one reason is that it increases your bodies ability to make Nitric oxide. (Google that). books on that... good luck to you and keep breathing!
would agree with all other comments. I definitely find concentrating on my breathing helps. It's good for everyone and Dr Chatterjee talks about how it helps stress (he's on the TV sometimes I think and has written a couple of books on managing stress and does weekly podcasts on different topics related to his '4 pillar plan' )
I also found listening to a normal regular heart beat as well as the belly, slow breathing helped when I had AF episodes. It's called entrainment & very calming.
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thank you for the suggestion, I will certainly try Nadi Shodhana next time I have an episode of P-AF.
Atrial Fibrillation.
Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation
Can 'permanent atrial fibrillation' be a misdiagnosis?
paroxysmal atrial fibrillation converted back to sinus rhythm 
Nocturnal Asphyxia-Atrial Fibrillation
