Hey I'm new to the group just need some advice please and reassurance really , iv had episodes of paraxysmal atrial fibrillation for 4 years now only picked up twice by paramedics the other episodes have gone unflagged as eased off by the time I was admitted to hospital for investigation so apart from the usual blood tests and xray nothing was followed up, However a recent attack left my gp referring me to a cardiologist and asked for a 24 hour monitor and also advised me I have a heart murmur which wasn't picked up by the hospital last week? Shes prescribed what she called "pill in pocket " ???? Its Bisoprolol ?? She said take 1 tablet at onset of episode and drink cold water ? I'm worried sick about taking beta blockers as I know they will have an adverse effect on my thyroid condition, I'm just petrified incase I get another episode as they seem to be increasing in symptoms and actually getting worse, any advice greatly appreciated... thankyou in advance
Paraxysmal Afib : Hey I'm new to the... - Atrial Fibrillati...
Paraxysmal Afib
I would consider that quite an unusual treatment plan myself but I'm not a cardiologist. Have you been assessed for stroke risk? AF greatly increases the risk of clots forming which may cause stroke and many people have to take anticoagulants to reduce this risk. It may well be that your doctor has aleady assessed your risk using a system known as CHADSVASC but I would ask if I were you.
In order to get the most information about your condition in a short time I recommend that you go to AF Association website and read all you can and then start asking us questions.
Paroxysmal AF can be the devil to treat as we are all different and it is not a condition to which generalisations apply so be prepared for a long journey.
Hi thanks for responding, she did a quick test and said I only scored 1 point so there was no need for blood thinners at this point I'm just confused as I thought beta blockers should be taken on a daily basis not as a "pill in pocket " ? I know there is a 10 week wait for a cardiologist in Cornwall so I'm not expecting to be seen any time soon I just wondered if taken a tablet whilst in afib would work as opposed to taking one every day, thankyou for your advice
I do know of several people who take Biso as a PIP - Pill in Pocket but most would take daily dose.
Bisoprolol will help control heart rate but many people are advised not to take them at all because of other conditions such as asthma but I don’t know about thyroid so do a little research and/or go talk to your Pharmacist as the are often as or more knowledgeable about meds than doctors and look at the Patient Information on the AFA website heartrhythmalliance.org/afa...
Some people also consider booking a private consultation but there can also be a wait time for that in the SW.
Thankyou , will do
Do consider going privately, if you can, for your first appointment at least, no more than £200 max. You'll be seen in days not months it is so worth it for your own piece of mind and then your, chosen cardiologist, (yes chosen) can put you onto the NHS list but you've saved weeks of worry.
Thankyou I'm considering this option
Hello Jodie and welcome to the forum.
I take beta blockers daily but that is because I also take an anti-arrhythmic drug so can't really help with the pill in the pocket approach. Beta blockers do slow the heart, depending on the dose, so that may be your doc's thinking.
One thing I did pick up on though, is your thyroid condition as this can be a cause of AF and I was certainly repeatedly tested for overactive thyroid at the beginning of my AF journey. Has your doc commented on this connection?
I was ;wrongly' and overmedicated at the onset of my Afib./heart journey Later,much later I was asked if I knew I had a heart murmour?I did not.On again to a hole in heart...which was closed surgically when I was 70.... this was.suspected by my GP... and he insisted upon an echocardiogram. All this made very twitching're. heart matters and I now try and make sure I investigate all heart matters
I was told today by my gp I have a heart murmur and she was surprised the hospital didn't pick up on that Friday when paramedics took me in after an afib episode, it's all so stressful and worrying
Hi Jodie - I know it is very worrying right now but cardiology appointments are often triaged so if there was something very worrying you would have been seen straight away. My husband has had a ‘heart murmur’ and lived with it since 1942, he ran a marathon, sailed half way around the world & led a full and active life. He is 85 now & still volunteers for 3 organisations. He has not required any interventions for his heart until February 2019.
The uncertainty and the waiting is the most anxious time so do what you can with the breathing & think about meditation. Staying calm will help your heart, stress will only make things worse.
You will find support here so keep posting, it can really help.
Sending positive thoughts x
Thankyou so much for your reply and kind words its certainly reassuring, I actually spoke to a pharmacist today for over an hour and gave her my full history of thyroid problems and how the NHS refuse to test my T3 levels which is crucial as I don't think my levels are optimal and she 100% agreed and said my symptoms of afib could be directly related to not being properly medicated with my thyroid meds and she rang my gp to try and insure the necessary blood test is taken as its effecting my quality of life and causing me unnecessary stress , I'm the sole carer of my severely disabled son and i cant afford to be ill as hes 24 hour care so you can imagine the added pressure of my thyroid illness impacting on my health and now afib , I'm really trying to be positive and have been meditating for a while and that does help , thankyou so much I feel better just for reading these replies
Hi , thanks for reply yes I'm hypothyroidism and iv read a lot of hyperthyroidism patients have afib it's all very confusing
I meant to write 'wrongly diagnosed' which in my case included having an undiagnosed thyroid problem.So it was all sitting there plus the murmour and the hole in the heart and nobody noticed! And the surgeon who closed the hole thought the hole was there when I gave birth and again it went unnoticed.Apparently, none of this is rare.You really do have to look after yourself and find out as much as you can for yourself.....if pos. with a supportive friend or partner to at least listen in/take notes and even remind you that you meant to say this or that when you did not say it.Make notes of what you find out that may be something you suspect about yourself and air it here as well.people are very supportive.
It will get easier as you gain more information and understanding.
AFib is common in hypo patients as well, I have both. How are your thyroid levels ? If you are under or overmedicated that will cause symptoms.
Omg what! This is my biggest fear how??? My endo say no but I have ectopics now
Yes I know and I am angry that the NHS refuse to test my T3 or Ft3 or Rt3 which are essential considering I take T4 and T3 so I know my levels are not optimal and I'm 100% convinced it's due to being wrongly medicated on my thyroid meds so now il have to pay medichecks £85 and get the bloods drawn at my surgery and sent off to get my levels.. it's so frustrating
You could just order the cheaper TSH, T4 and T3 as that would tell you what you need to know, can you not do the finger prick test ?
I need T3 ft3 and rt3 and T4 and Ft4 as I also have adrenal issues and I take T3 so get levels optimal I need the full panel , I used medichecks before just the T4 T3 and TSH but it was the basic test and didn't resolve my problems unfortunately but thankyou for your reply
My daughter was found to have a heart murmur as a teenager but thorough checks didn't find a cause so she was told she just has a noisy heart! Her grandmother and aunt had the same and grandmother lived to 95 so don't worry until someone tells you to 😊 Worry will make AF worse, more episodes, more severe, so though I know it's useless to say ' don't worry' it would be helpful to try ways of calming yourself - lots of advice here and also useful apps to help, sorry I can't remember names but if you ask someone is sure to know 💜
Wow , well that's reassuring 🥰 I believe if I get my thyroid levels optimal il get the afib under control but its persuading the NHS to test my T3 levels that's the problem
Would concur 're Thyroxine. My first "round" of AFIB was caused by overprescription of Thyroxine. (My GP ' - not the original prescriber! - was ecstatic as she had learned aeons ago when training the "classic link between afib and too much Thyroxine ' but had never encountered such an incidence- happy to oblige!)
Once my Thyroxine levels were sorted out (took a wee while) I was afib-free, discharged from cardiology and fine for a good 3 years until it hit me like a bolt from the blue a year and a half ago. Thyroxine levels fine - afib remedy still a work in progress at the moment.
All the best on your AFIB journey.
Take care
Polly
I'm absolutely convinced it's due to either under or over medicated on my thyroid meds I currently take 75mcg T4 and 12mcg T3 but I know I'm not optimal I feel so ill at the moment
Hope you feel better soon, Jodie. It took quite a while - going 'under' then 'over' to get my thyroxine levels balanced. It also took me a while to convince my GP that I felt my levels weren't right and my tiredness was due to not enough thyroxine. She was reluctant to increase the dosage, but when she did, I felt better and subsequent lab checks on levels were fine. At one point, too, very early on, the GP didn't mention thyroid problems when I said what my symptoms were as the results, it seems, kept coming back 'border-line' which she thought was fine. It was only when I went into hospital for something totally different that the doc there said he believed I had an underactive thyroid.
Afib can make you feel unwell, too which doesn't help.
Take care
Polly
Thanks polly , I was so desperately ill on levo only which is why I decided to self source my own T3 and that's the day I got my life back and actually left the house as I'd been bed bound for 12 months I kid you not , but just this last month I'm feeling I'll again and afib episodes are back , something isnt right , out of balance, but il get there , thankyou for your reassurance I feel so relieved reading all these replies it's good to know there is help out there
Don't know if this will work for you or not, but it won't harm you to try (plus it's free):
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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
PS – there is a study backing up this data you can view at:
Cardiab.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2840-7-28
Wow this makes so much sense, I'm obsessed with fruit , pineapple, grapefruit, strawberries, grapes, just gimme the fruit and oh my days I love honey I literally went to a local honey fair last week and indulged heavily 🙊 thankyou for this info I cant access the link but I'm keen to explore this more , once in an episode of afib I'm literally unable to stand let alone walk it literally floors me I feel dizzy , nauseous, unbalanced and sort of out of body if you get what I mean and I hear my heart in my ears so loudly and its frantic and jumping and missing beats i honestly think I'm having a heart attack which obviously im not but it's just the scariest thing iv ever had, will defo explore the sugar connection I only eat fruit / veg and lean meat im wheat and gluten free so my diet is quite healthy thanks for this
I have low thyroid too (Hashimotos) and 11yrs ago a dr overdosed my thyroid meds and it sent me into AF and the ER. Since then I am very careful about my thyroid meds and eliminated the T3 and am just on Levoxyl. I get tested every 6mths to make sure my levels are ok (yes I get T4/T3 tested too). Sadly once one has an AF episode apparently we are destined for more and for awhile I only got an episode every year or so (regardless of my thyroid levels). Last year I went a year without an episode after having several in one month. Now same thing last month 
I had originally been put on Metoprolol (beta blocker) but weaned off and only used when I had an episode. I also have read that it can interfere with the thyroid altho cardiologist acts like I am nuts to think so. So now am back on it daily (low dose) but hope to wean off again and just use when needed.
Hi thanks for your reply, I don't have a thyroid now iv had a scan recently and she said its completely been attacked by hashimoto's and there is very little if any thyroid tissue left , I just feel rotten most of the time but the afib scares me so much I dread a flutter and fear it will turn into a full on episode, I don't understand anything about it except the episodes are getting worse and at the time you try not to panic but in the back of my mind I'm thinking god am I going to die of a heart attack 😳 sounds dramatic I know but it really scares me , I'm due a monitor on 11th December so I hope something shows up on there
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