The Funky Gibbons are back - BIG time !

[allserene]

So there is me thinking I am cured.. No incidents since the one and a bit flutters in April,. In August I finished my anti-coags and Wednesday this week I finished Metoprolol betas. Last night I had my meal and parked in front of the telly and got my usual mild ectopics. All of sudden the funky Gibbons on ecstasy arrived big style. I knew of course...you do. Straight to my THREE monitors... Blood pressure 220 /166 and pulse 160 with the AFIB light lit up.. I quickly downed a 50mg meto plus an Eliquis... Like late April, I went to bed at 10 pm and by 1am I was converted to Normal and felt fine. Now 7 hours later and I am up, and bp is 140/78 with 63 pulse. I am sipping a coffee and will make it last all morning...

OK the Blame Game:

Yesterday I had 3 coffees and 2 beers because I stopped my meto on Wednesday (heavily tapered down over 3 weeks), and I was cured right ? Wrong

This event was a perfect re-run of my late April event following two days after ceasing metos then..

I am tempted to take a meto this morning but I have decided to persevere with being drug free and seeing if my body can handle it

Off for a week's holiday in Florida in 2 weeks time, but I am confident that armed with my metos, I can convert in few hours if I spin up again.

So it seems metos can't prevent an incident, but ceasing them, even very carefully, can provoke an event

Thoughts ? ps I will take the anti-coags for a couple of days just in case. Apixaban/Eliquis needs no build up time and kicks in pretty instantly

[CDreamer]

You can never be complacent with AF, that’s for sure. In your position I would focus on lifestyle adjustments to see if you can lower your BP - that’s really high still at 140 and 220 would really scare me - cut the beer and coffee for a while, smaller meals especially in the evening and moderate exercise but also make sure you are very well hydrated - both beer and coffee will act as diuretics so water, lots of water. Lowering the BP may have a really positive affect.

My only other comment would be to stay on the anti-coagulant, period. AF can cause clots for up to a month after the event.

[allserene in reply to CDreamer]

Thanks that is helpful...I have a 2 month supply of apixaban so I will start using it... zero side effects for me.. the 220 BP did scare me.. My heart was going nuts ! Before April my bp was 128/82 ish so the 140 is temporary I hope.. But all this started when working outside in the yard in 90 degrees F with no hydration, (I hate water and was doing 7 coffees a day +2 beers in the heat), so I reckon much hydration is my first tactic...

[BobD Volunteer]

Now you know wwhy we are so keen for people to saty of anticoagulants. Please go back on them and don't be tempted to stop. Ever!

[allserene in reply to BobD]

I think my electrophsysioligist is taking the view that if I am not fluttering, then there is no point taking anti-coags, and so long as it isn't 'silent' afib and I am fully aware of any event, then I can go back on anticoagulants at the first sign of an event... I know some people have the events as an almost permanent feature of daily life, so life-long anticoags is totally sensible for them... For people who have say, one short event per year for a few hours, the chances of forming clots must be far smaller, and so perhaps an 'as and when' approach might be more appropriate.... I have not spoken with my doc about this as I was hoping be a 'one and one', but I will talk to him in January... His office called me in August and told me to stop anti coags after my month monitor reported no anomalies day or night for 30 days..

[BobD Volunteer in reply to allserene]

There are many EPs with different opinion is all.

[allserene in reply to BobD]

indeed... so long as I can follow the logic, I am ok with different instructions... I won't follow doctor's guidance that cannot be explained, as in "This is our standard procedure"..... That's why I resigned from the the Primitive Methodists in 1958... lol... My mother used to say that if I owned a pig, I would kill it to see where the squeak came from...

[Hidden]

Try this to keep your afib to zero or make it less severe:

-----------------------------------

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:

Cardiab.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2840-7-28

[allserene in reply to Hidden]

I am usually the first one too poo-poo conspiracy theories about health matters, but I think you are right. My Saturday event (BP 220/160 pulse 150) was after a day with 3 coffees (zero water), plus 2 beers (alcohol is sugar), and then 13 licorice allsorts (more sugar)..I am now drinking water and making my morning coffee last from 7am to 11am (cold coffee is fine). I had a few ectopics last night (always as I relax on the couch), but drank two waters and they stopped. Love sugar, hate water...but hate 'flutter events' more

[Hidden in reply to allserene]

This really isn't a conspiracy theory. I actually found out about sugar by accident - never would have crossed my mind to think sugar was involved. (although it isn't really - I think the problem is with one or two of our glands/organs that, in our old age, aren't working quite properly with sugar any more and are sending mixed signals to the heart - one telling the heart to beat fast, the other telling the heart to beat slow, causing fluttering/afib). But that's only my opinion - have no proof of that, plus doctors don't know how to test for it, either. But I DO know that sugar triggers it - I have proved that hundreds of times by going over my sugar threshold (normally by mistake, but a few times on purpose just to prove I can still do it). If you can get this to work, let me know - we need to get the word out to as many doctors and researchers as we can - so it CAN be proved. Thanks.

- Rick Hyer.

[allserene in reply to Hidden]

Drat..I am off to Florida in 2 weeks time and I was planning an apple pie desert ! I will be equipped with emergency betas and some apixaban just in case.. That anti coag kicks in in minutes.. not like warfarin etc that needs to build up. Last night was the first night that I didn't have 13 Bertie Bassets licorice allsorts and I drank 2 pints of water (usually none). I didn't have one ectopic beat for the first time in a month... Water good, sugar bad...