Food is the trigger to AF???

[zorro15]

Have had 5 AF events past two years. I take 80ml sotalol 2x a day. Events only come if I eat later in evening and lying down. I have GERD and doc feels food in esophagus is interacting with upper chamber of heart. I am NEW here, anyone relate?? Also drinking cold water or cold shower brings me back to rythm

[Hidden]

In the past food has done it for me. Since taking care of my diet I've been relatively trouble free. The connection/link is the vagal nerve.

[CDreamer in reply to Hidden]

Zorro -just for your information I think Carneuny means vagus nerve - vagal is a term used to describe the response eg:- vagal AF, vagal manoeuvres.

[CDreamer]

Very common trigger. Advice is to eat only a small meal after 6p.m and nothing for at least 3 hours before bed. I found that carbs are the real killer for me - so no puddings, cakes, bread, biscuits or pastries. I need to sit still for at least 20-30 minutes after I eat so have learned to eat slow and always sitting down - never on the go! My husband and I were away over the week-end watching the Modern Pentathalon European Championships and I got really hungry and there was a great looking Pizza guy there making fresh Pizza from only organic produce in wood oven so I took a chance - BIG MISTAKE. Even as I was eating it - standing - I felt my GT protest and my heart rate increase.

Take time to eat slowly or don’t eat at all is now my motto - and never take a PPI!

[Naderz in reply to CDreamer]

Hello! May i ask why never take a PPI ?!!

[CDreamer in reply to Naderz]

Because of the adverse affects - mainly decreasing stomach acid which is essential for a healthy GT. They were never designed for long term use and many doctors seem to prescribe them as a first resort or even a prophylactic, which has been my experience. In other words they make things a whole lot worse as they inhibit absorption.

Specialty professional organizations recommend that people take the lowest effective PPI dose to achieve the desired therapeutic result when used to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease long-term.[16][17][18] In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has advised that no more than three 14-day treatment courses should be used in one year.[19]

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro...

[Bagrat]

The vagus nerve does ( or undoes) so many things) Yes increasing vagal tone, cold drinks crushed ice to swallow, plunging wrists into cold water can stop episodes BUT, for some people they are triggers as well, likes rocker switch!

[zorro15 in reply to Bagrat]

Thanks for your response. It is appreciated

[secondtry]

All very similar to my experience, which then moved to many episodes a month and then onto Flecainide for 5 years to stop it. Agree totally with CDreamer re food and please do lots of research on this forum now rather than later as I have found the advice on lifestyle including supplements very helpful. This way hopefully you will stop it before it really gets going.

[zorro15]

Thank you for your response. It is appreciated

[HiloHairy]

For me it's dinners with a lot of salt. Several Asian cuisines can be a problem for this reason. Supplementing with extra potassium to counteract the sodium can sometimes help.

[Hidden]

You might want to try this:

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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

[zorro15 in reply to Hidden]

Really appreciate you took the time to send me such an informative explanation