Hello all,I was last on this forum about two years ago with continuous AF,it came from nowhere and lasted over two weeks.I was 44.
At the time i was put on the various drugs and talking about ablation planning.Then suddenly it stopped?!The doctor had no idea how or why.
Has anyone else had a similar experience...every few months I remeber how lucky i am it hasnt come back- yet.
The only self medication I did was magnesium oil,but I really dont think it was the cure.
Only comment is lucky you!
It's interesting to hear you tell us this Chris as my younger sister was the same, hers just suddenly disappeared too when she was in her 40's.
Artificial sweeteners were a sure bet to kick my AF off, but I didn't realise that for a long time. I was putting them in my hot drinks, they were in the lemonade I drank, my chewing gum, yogurts and the desserts I had at work (to make then suitable for diabetics). I wonder if consuming something around that time was the trigger for yours?
Jean
Hi, did hers come back?!
Ive never heard that about sweeteners,all I do know is that I hate the taste of them but sometimes they cant be avoided,I can imagine something like that being a trigger.
No, it never came back.
Tell a lie, it did come back very briefly, for a few hours, after she had an op to remove part of her lung about 4 years ago. She's just coming up to age 60 now.
Thanks..very interesting
Aspartame is to be avoided at all costs I believe as it really is nasty stuff and can cause all sorts of problems.
Think yourself lucky but be aware....it has a nasty habit of revisiting 🙄
Good luck to you. In my case I know sugar triggers AF off for me,when I take excess sugar it starts when I refrain it appears to ease right off, so for me I can control it. All I can say is good luck and look after yourself.
Did you have a reduction in stressful events, lifestyle changes ? Weight loss anything like that ?
Andy
I had a similar experience!!! Full AF episode at 40 - ended up on a digoxin drip in hospital. It disappeared completely until last year 25 years later - self induced through alcohol I must admit. I had a cardioversion in October last and so far all good but off the alcohol.
I had an isolated episode when I was 39 then virtually nothing until I was 63! It was about only 7 hours duration. It wasn’t identified as AF however and was attributed to too much caffeine.
I didn’t have it for two years and l asked my cardiologist about it ... “is it gone Doctor Dearest?” His reply ... “no ... it isn’t gone ... it will return” ... and it did! I have
PAF ... it may never return to you but then again it most probably will at some point in time. But only God really knows!
Try to remember what you ate or drank prior to your afib coming for 2 weeks. You probably had an excess of that, and that triggered your afib. You must have continued to eat whatever it was for a week or two. For me it's sugar, or dehydration. If it's sugar or excessive salt for you, then you must have had a hell of a lot of it to trigger your heart to afib, since you are so young. Since then, you must have kept the intake of whatever it was below your personal threshold. Here is the data I have put together over the years on that subject:
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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 (this is why all doctors agree that afib gets worse as you get older). 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 (afternoon) 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??
I'm pretty sure that Afib is caused by a gland(s) - like the Pancreas, Thyroid (sends signals to the heart to increase speed or strength of beat), Adrenal Gland (sends signals to increase heart rate), Sympathetic Nerve (increases heart rate) or Vagus Nerve (decreases heart rate), Hypothalamus Gland or others - or an organ that, in our old age, is not working well anymore and excess sugar or dehydration is causing them 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 (and neither can my doctors), but I have a very strong suspicion that that is the root cause of our Afib problems. I am working on this with a Nutritionist and hope to get some definitive proof in a few months.
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:
https//cardiab.biomedcentral.com/a...
I had one anxiety initiated AF event that lasted several hours. My doctor also put me on lots of medications. I have not had another event since July 28th 2017. When I wore a monitor the doctor said I had one little blip but I asked him if it was at about 10 at night and he confirmed that it was and that's when I pulled off one of the things they stick on you when I was undressing. I am very overweight and they've done a sleep study but no real issues there and the two times I wore the monitor nothing came up. I want to go for a second opinion but it seems in a town as big as where I live which is huge there's only one or two cardiac practices and they all seem related. I would never stop taking my medications but I lost Insurance almost a year ago and it's very expensive except I did find a source out of country it requires prescriptions and have been taking those meds which is about a 90% savings.
Thanks for all the advice and information.I thought it would be good to look back on here even though im ok.As alot of people probably come on here when they are desperate for advice.
When I had my af it was at a time when work was stressful(doctor said this woudnt have an effect).It could also very well have been triggered by sugar/coffee on an empty stomach.
During the 2 weeks I wouldnt have eaten excess sugar,my feeling is when its triggered its harder to then get back to usual rythm even if your eating perfectly.
There seems to be so little known about af.
One of my early episodes was 8 days. Usually they were much shorter. On day 8, I consumed a whole jar of fresh salsa, with a spoon, just because I liked the taste. It was a low sodium kind. About an hour later, I gently went back into sinus rhythm. I always wondered if it was the potassium in the tomato salsa?
I had my first and only episode, to date, about 9 months ago and it lasted 9 days which terrified me! I converted back naturally stroking a horse in the field near where I live. The advice and follow up I’ve received from the NHS was completely inadequate, to say the least.
Great, I believe in miracolous healing, but I do not know how it works, blessing for you
Still af free ? How much do you use hoe many times a day?
PAF for over two years, but now 'heart block'?
Two Ablations for paroxysmal AF now have SVT
In AF again! Moving to persistent/permanent AF?
Two years post Ablation 
