AF and tiredness

[Amurray77]

I have a question. I have PAF and get episodes every three months or so. I’m getting my second ablation in January. Somebody told me that people who have a fib are always tired. I’m tired a lot from the meds. I’m wondering if I have PAF, and spend most of my time in NSR, could the fact that I have AF make me tired? Seems like it doesn’t make sense.

[BobD Volunteer]

Episodes do tend to be exhausting physically but also damaging mentally for many. Being tired can be quite subjective. Is it a feeling of not having the energy to do things or wanting to sleep a lot? Both can be other things. I think it dangerous to blame one thing.

[majjic]

I have PAF and i feel tired a LOT! I fall asleep during the day and i didn't do that until i took beta blockers.....I have a friend who also takes the same beta blockers and she falls asleep also. So for us Atenolol is the culprit.

[mumknowsbest Volunteer in reply to majjic]

Hi

Betablockers can have that as a side effect. I tried several but they all made me feel exhausted so no longer take them. Fortunately they don't affect everyone that way.

[KMRobbo]

I was not tired when I was in afib, except the time I had 130- 195 bpm for 8 days - the I was shattered .

[Hidden]

You might be able to stop your Afib episodes by doing this:

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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:

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

[Hcoe in reply to Hidden]

I have been tracking my triggers for 13 years. I agree sugar is one trigger, however, it’s all carbs. Carbs raise a hormone called insulin. High insulin cause health issues. There are carbs in most foods we eat. I try to keep my carbs under 40.

[Hidden in reply to Hcoe]

Man, if I kept my carbs under 40 I would be starving. I still keep track of carbs (other than sugar-carbs) but I cannot get a handle on how much triggers Afib. But the sugars stand out like a sore thumb - easy to graph and see what my tolerance level is. By the way, I am seeing a Nutritionist and she, so far, has raised my sugar tolerance from 45 grams a day to 70, which means that I can now eat up to 70 grams of sugar (in fruits, veggies, etc.) a day without an Afib episode. If she can get my tolerance level to around 100 grams a day I should be able to keep Afib at bay, because keeping my sugars under 100 a day is a lot easier to do than keeping them under 45 grams (which, really, is pretty much impossible for me to do so was in perpetual Afib when I started to see her 6 months ago). She spends a lot of time and gives me supplements for my Pancreas so I suspect the Pancreas is involved in the Afib problem.

I'm pretty sure that Afib is caused by a gland - like the Pancreas - or an organ that, in our old age, is not working well any more and excess sugar or dehydration is causing it to send mixed signals to the heart - for example telling the heart to beat fast and slow at the same time - which causes it to skip beats, etc. I can't prove that, but I have a very strong suspicion that that is the root cause of our Afib problems. If we can get my sugar tolerance above 100 and I can stay Afib free, that will be pretty good proof that the heart is fine, but something else is telling it to beat hard and soft at the same time (since the heart muscles do not use sugar to contract).

If you or anyone else would like to know if we are successful in raising sugar tolerance to 100, send me your email and I'll let you all know it works, plus I will post it on this forum (plus will tell all my doctors about it but I'm sure they will not be interested). Hopefully at that point we can find some Researcher to do some research on the root cause of Afib and cure it. My email is [e-mail] Thanks - have a nice Fall Season.

- Rick Hyer.