New Clinical Review of Diet & AF

[Barny12]

Atrial fibrillation risk factor management with a plant‐based diet: A review

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi...

Spoiler alert:

"Many clinical and epidemiological studies investigated the effects of a plant‐based diet on risk factors predisposing individuals to AF, however, a large trial specifically tailored to patients suffering from AF is missing. Nevertheless, the current literature points at strong evidence for the beneficial effects of plant‐based diets in cardiovascular disease and its risk factors. Physicians halted and reversed coronary artery disease and even heart failure in severely impaired individuals by prescribing a plant‐based diet. Why would not this be possible in patients suffering from atrial fibrillation?"

Conclusion:

"Reviewing the current evidence, a whole‐food plant‐based diet might be a valuable tool in managing and reducing common risk factors that are associated with atrial fibrillation, including hypertension, coronary artery disease, inflammation, obesity, and diabetes. Larger randomized controlled trials investigating plant‐based diets in routine AF management are necessary to confirm those findings."

[BobD Volunteer]

Good enough for me.

[Hidden]

Plant based non processed diet and BMI under 25 are the reasons AF is so low in non western countries!

[jeanjeannie50]

That confirms what we've been advising members on here for quite a while. Changing to a more plant based diet and avoiding foods containing artificial additives can really help reduce AF attacks.

Thanks for posting Barny.

Jean

[Rienij70]

I hadn’t thought about it. But since I live on my own, I tend to eat less meat and more plant based meals. And my AF episodes seem to be less. Food for thought.

[Hidden]

A plant based diet solves many ills. For Afib, it keeps sugar out of your diet and puts more water into it. Here is some data that I found to work:

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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 50 grams today, so AFIB episodes are more frequent and last longer (which confirms the fact that Afib gets progressively worse as you age) . 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, and have done it a hundred times since. 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. I suspect the Pancreas is involved, but not sure yet. I also suspect there is a gland(s) that are sending mixed signals to the heart, perhaps one telling the heart to beat fast, another one telling it to beat slow, so the heart doesn't know what to do - and you get skipped heart beats, Afib, etc. 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

[Auriculaire]

I found this totally unconvincing. The words may and might were repeated with great regularity. There are no large scale RCTs to establish their hypothesis as they admit in the final paragraph of the discussion section and until there are there is no proof that vegetarian or vegan diets are better than omnivorous ones for afibbers. As for the work of Ornish and Esselstyn it is not difficult to find plausible critiques of their work. The real comparison I think is not between omnivorous and plant based ( which in my opinion is a weasel term that actually means vegan as you could quite easily have have a diet based largely on grains, nuts pulses and vegetables but still eat small amounts of meat ,fish and dairy and would then be omnivorous ) ,but between industrially produced food and home cooked from scratch organically produced food. Up till recently vegans have not been that well catered for on an industrial scale and probably have been more likely to home cook. This is changing as environmental factors are pushing vegan lifestyles and they are now seen as a substantial "market" . Well I would be willing to bet in 10 years time that studies will show that those who eat "plant based" ready meals are just as unhealthy as those who eat omnivorous ones.

[momist]

Of course, a more plant based diet is also what we all should be pursuing in order to reduce our carbon footprint as well. All good.