So the usual re-cap, flutter fixed with ablation. Then fibrillation fixed with catheter cardioversion. 10 months no meds, no reoccurrence all good. Then 3 episodes of fibrillation in a month. All fixed by PIP of 200 mg Flecainide. Now here’s the thing my cardiologist and I have worked out...one flutter and four fibrillations all started about 00.30 to 01.30. He reckons its when my sleep goes deep and my heart rate drops low and the fibrillation etc can kick in. Now on Flecainide daily at his suggestion and touch wood all good. Had a stress echocardiogram last Thursday (that was “interesting”) and my heart is apparently excellent. The consultant cardiologist who did that totally agreed with my “electrician” and said going into deep sleep not an uncommon trigger. Not happy about taking meds everyday but if they work then I just need to man up!
Fibrillation- the gift that just keeps on giving.
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Did your doctor suggest a sleep study? There is a strong link between sleep apnea and AF. When I had my sleep study, most of my sleep was fine (hence, I never felt tired or sleepy during the day) but when I went into REM sleep I stopped breathing and my oxygen levels dropped. I now sleep with a CPAP machine. Dr Ross Walker, a leading cardiologist who is regularly on the radio often says that most men and post menopausal women have some degree of sleep apnea, most are undiagnosed.
Glad all is well for you Japaholic. My sleep specialist said that there’s plenty of skinny people and kids with sleep apnea so it’s wrong to assume that it’s only a problem for overweight and obese people.
That is essentially what both my catheter cardio consultant and the stress echo consultant both said about the autonomic...the latter said that after the next four months during which the Flecainide may well “cement” (her words) the heart into not doing this when I go to deep sleep, my consultant may even consider stopping or even reducing the Flecainide. Still doesn’t explain why I could work part time as an Auxiliary Fire Tender nearly all the time. The eight trips to the loo on the plane from LA to Auckland in 13 hours still makes me laugh (retrospectively) and the complete confusion with the walk in centre doctor and the gp a week later when all the obvious tests were all normal. That said I wasn’t anticipating knowing on my holiday that I had healthy kidneys and bladder! Bonus some might say.
Well, if you have a healthy heart then something else it making it flutter around. Try this - might work, might not, but it will make you a little healthier in the process:
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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?? I also found that strenuous exercise does no good – perhaps you make yourself dehydrated??
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:
‘The gift that keeps on giving’ .... isn’t that right....
I am pretty sure that low HR is one of the reasons my AF would start during the night however - I did have sleep apnea - now treated with CPAP and never had nighttime AF since starting treatment in 2014. Still have occasional AF though, even after all the treatments.
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