Good morning I’m a male 54 years of age European dissent.. I have atrial fibrillation and SVT plus can get up to 160 O joy ..right now the doctors are treating it with medication they plan on an ablation in January which can’t come soon enough. I’ve been hearing good things about ablation and I’ve also been hearing bad things about ablation. I guess every surgery has its risks. With me my triggers are usually in the afternoon after a meal..I’ve had a fib for a year now and I’ve cut all of my triggers my Coffee alcohol etc., i’ve had a fib for a year now and I’ve cut all of my triggers my episodes last anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 hours and always hit me every 6 to 10 days like clockwork. But now I’m noticing I’m having a fib at night when I lay down I’m fine when I stand up I get PVCs and short burst of a fib. I’ve change my diet and I’ve lost 60 pounds within a year I’m down to 198 and I’m 5feet 10 inches tall.. these PVCs are PACs are a cursor to the upcoming Afib, like my body is warning me it’s coming. I’m off work due to my job classification. I have started exercising and walking and that’s helped a lot planning on that yoga next.. i’ve chosen to eat a Mediterranean diet and lay off the carbs salts extra big-time but I have to eat small meals any large meals will triggers my Afib.. i’m somewhat tolerating my meds I’m just curious about Flecainide.? I supposed to take it twice a day 50 mg as well as the beta blocker metropolo 25 mg. And a blood thinner oh joy.!
One other thing every time I bend down for whatever reason triggers my afib sometimes it doesn’t this doesn’t make any sense to me..but it has change my life I’m not for the better. My EP Is doing echoes map my heart and looking at my left chamber see if there’s any scarring so I’m going through all that will see what the results are if I stay on the meds or I get this ablation. Thanks for listening...
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Apt54
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Hi apt54 I to suffer with AFib and 7 weeks post abalation and I get exactly the same as you when I bend down I feel something not right and it feels AFib going to start but I’m still on metraprole so I guess it stops it happening just awful
Thanks for the quick response Padayn01.. I guess I’m not alone with a fib .. Did ablation worked for you post seven weeks out.? do you notice a big difference.? My A-fib seem to come and goes every 4 to 8 days I’ll be fine thinking everything is back to normal and then bang it just hits me out of the blue specially after I eat a meal i usually eat vegetables or chicken with very little carbs. Sometimes salmon I do take omega-3‘s and vitamin E and vitamin C, I noticed I started taking magnesium and that helped a little but it’s always in the afternoon about 90% of the time. I’m watching all my triggers and I don’t put salt on anything and I do read the labels so hard to figure out you know.
I know exactly where you coming from, for the first 6 weeks I didn’t notice any difference I felt worse than before, but in the last week or so I started taking magnesium and things have settled down and I’m not getting as much skipped beats than I use to, I totally change my diet and lost weight so hopefully that will help, but it take around 3-6 months for the heart to fully heal after an ablation so just trying to improve day by day, plus since my ablation my anxiety got much worse as every little flutter I get I think the ablation hasn’t worked
One more thing I forgot to mention I too have anxiety over this a fib but last year I bought the I watch 4 with the ECG.. because sometimes I was thinking I was in a fibs and they were only Pvcs skipped heartbeats. It has lowered my anxiety levels the watches help me a lot it’s a great tool it has other features you can track your walking you can track your pulse if it’s too high or too low its was worth the money. FYI I believe the prices have come down quite a bit because they introduced the new I watch five Good luck to your speedy recovery God bless.
Picking up on your query about flecainide. Are you taking it.? Ive been on it since 2011 and only one episode of afib in all that time. My dose is now 50mg twice a day. Occasional episodes of regular tachycardia stopped by doing slow breathing exercises.
OK thank you yes the doctor prescribed me 50 mg of flecainde twice a day.. I just hear that it can cause liver damage and a flutter have you been experience any of those episodes.? I’m taking a beta blocker right now of metropolo only 5 mg and 5 mg of Lisinopril ... I just hate taking new medication I was on calcium channel blocker‘s that work pretty good. But every 4 to 7 days I get an episode of tachycardia I have to lay down for about 40 minutes to an hour and it goes away but I’ll give this new drug a try thank you for your input. It’s a fib is really got me down..
I didn't have any episodes after I started it.I was on 100mg twice a day and just warfarin. Beta blockers slowed my heart too much even really low dose. Didn't notice any side effects. Happier once on 50mg.
I know some peoe develop " other arrhythmias but I haven't. No liver probs. Did have slightly raised alk phos but that was after starting apixaban and its normal again now.
Ok 👍 i’ll try it thanks for your input I appreciate your help. I know that beta blockers slow my heart down to, 50 beats a minute to 60 beats a minute. And when I sleep it drops down to 44 beats a minute I know this because I monitor it on my Apple Watch 4..It also lets me know when I’m in a fib. EP tell me when you start flic..you need to take a beta blocker it’s small dosage.. i’ll definitely give it a try ..Thanks for your support
Your Afib is almost exactly like mine was 14 years ago or so. Here is what I found that triggers it. Try it and you might be able to postpone your surgery for 10-15 years, or longer.
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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
Thanks for your advice I totally understand I’ve been seeing a nutrition specialist and I’ve cut back on my sugar and salt. Never like add salt to begin with, I just need to do more walking and exercises I lost 60 pounds in a year and I mostly eat fruits and vegetables with chicken and fish but may need to cut back on my fruits as it contains high levels of natural sugar. My episodes are not that bad not as bad as what I’ve been hearing. Every 6 to 7 days I’ll get an episode at last for 15 minutes to an hour and a half and then it goes away with medication i.e. beta blockers calcium channel blocker .. I get a lot of skipped beats lately and when I test my sugar because I’m pre-diabetic it was at 160 but the weird thing is when I had an episode my blood sugar level was at 98 still can’t figure this out. But some of the time when I do you have an episode with my blood sugar is between 158 to 175. I just need to start being more active you just have that little fear in the back your head when you exercise is this going to trigger my a fib and I don’t wanna go to the hospital. I’ve been there three times already. And all they do is they give you meds or they cardiovert you which I have an experience that yet. But anyways thank you very much for your advice
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