Afib triggered by cold drinks?

[scienceguy02]

My wife had a partially successful ablation this past December. She has an Afib episode about every six weeks. She had noted that the last two episodes came on immediately while drinking iced drinks. No soda or caffeine involved. Had anyone else experienced this situation?

[BobD Volunteer]

often.

[Tako2009]

Oh yes! Stopped drinking ice cold or iced drinks a while ago as they would often trigger my AF.

[GuernseyGirl72]

I am convinced that drinking a caffeinated Frappe from McDonalds triggered my first event within minutes of starting it. Never again.

[Jay10 in reply to GuernseyGirl72]

I had the same thing in Costa last year in the heat, had a real pain in my head as well!

[Jhcoop55]

Yes, after 30 minutes on my Elliptical machine, I foolishly downed a very cold shake I made. Went immediately into AFIB (after no issues for 18 months following second ablation). Best to have drinks that aren’t so cold or at least drink them slowly.

[secondtry]

Yes, half a bottle of cold ginger beer, never again!

[chenstone18]

Yes definitely cold drinks, beer, ice cream, and even a cold yougart. I too take the chill off before swollowing but best not to in the first instance. I guess it has something to do with the closeness of the stomach to the heart.

[ThinLizzy1]

Alcohol

Stress

Cold drinks

Caffeine

Nothing whatsoever!!!

Are my top five

[Horse57]

Absolutely for me cold drinks triggered my a fib. No more cold drinks for me.

[Hidden]

Your wife might be able to stop the Afib on her own. And it costs nothing to try. Here's how to do it:

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After 9 years of trying different foods and logging EVERYTHING I ate, I found sugar (and to a lesser degree, salt – i.e. dehydration) was triggering my Afib. Doctors don't want to hear this - there is no money in telling patients to eat less sugar. Each person has a different sugar threshold - and it changes as you get older, so you need to count every gram of sugar you eat every day (including natural sugars in fruits, etc.). My tolerance level was 190 grams of sugar per day 8 years ago, 85 grams a year and a half ago, and 60 grams today, so AFIB episodes are more frequent and last longer. If you keep your intake of sugar below your threshold level your AFIB will not happen again (easier said than done of course). It's not the food - it's the sugar (or salt - see below) IN the food that's causing your problems. Try it and you will see - should only take you 1 or 2 months of trial-and-error to find your threshold level. And for the record - ALL sugars are treated the same (honey, refined, agave, natural sugars in fruits, etc.). I successfully triggered AFIB by eating a bunch of plums and peaches one day just to test it out. In addition, I have noticed that moderate exercise (7-mile bike ride or 5-mile hike in the park) often puts my Afib heart back in to normal rhythm a couple hours later. Don’t know why – perhaps you burn off the excess sugars in your blood/muscles or sweat out excess salt??

Also, in addition to sugar, if you are dehydrated - this will trigger AFIB as well. It seems (but I have no proof of this) that a little uptick of salt in your blood is being treated the same as an uptick of sugar - both cause AFIB episodes. (I’m not a doctor – it may be the sugar in your muscles/organs and not in your blood, don’t know). In any case you have to keep hydrated, and not eat too much salt. The root problem is that our bodies are not processing sugar/salt properly and no doctor knows why, but the AFIB seems to be a symptom of this and not the primary problem, but medicine is not advanced enough to know the core reason that causes AFIB at this time. You can have a healthy heart and still have Afib – something inside us is triggering it when we eat too much sugar or get (even a little) dehydrated. Find out the core reason for this and you will be a millionaire and make the cover of Time Magazine! Good luck! - Rick Hyer

[Tobw]

it's 13 years since the first episode which I was aware of and, in all of that time, I've only ever had one start while I was stood up. That was on a very cold morning when I went to take my medication after waking up and immediately felt the icy cold water I drank at the back of my throat. Within no time at all, I was feeling that cold in my chest and I went straight into A Fib - as many on here know, it can be virtually impossible to pin down what initiates an episode, but this was, by a distance, the clearest case I've had.

[scienceguy02 in reply to Tobw]

My wife has narrowed the trigger for her Afib to the cold drinks. Slightly chilled drinks are no problem but iced beverages are on the forbidden list! I gave her a glass of ice water at lunch the other day without thinking about it and she went into immediate Afib. Haven’t heard the end of that yet🙄😂