Hello all, I have a question I have had two known episodes of afib in 5 years that required conversion. I am now in "afib" again but this time it feels different almost mild, I am only taking Metoprolol 25ER twice daily and my rate stay below a 100 during most daily activities,, exercise, stair climbing it goes a bit higher. Could I have flutter and not afib?
I am going to do an ablation in the next few months, any thoughts?
Fib is irregular irregular. Flutter is fast regular. Easy to see on an ECG as well. Check your pulse.
Thank you, EKG shows afib but it seems mild and as I have grown to learn more about this I am beginning to think I have dealt with it for an extended period of time without being aware of it. This episode which started on January 4th for the most part I feel normal can still work out and I am relativity unaffected but I am not sleeping as long as before. My HR when watching TV for example is in the 60's-70's walking around 80's climbing stairs 90's . I feel good but I can now see signs of it before, that I had no idea about
Hello there, my HR is similar to yours during those activities.
We do get used to things which is probably why after going back into AFib after a couple of successful cardioversions I didn't actually feel as bad as when I first had it. The body just gets used to it. When I first had AFib I couldn't do a thing apart from walk and even then couldn't breathe well. Now my main problem is breathlessness at night when in AFib. and I carry on exercising as normal. I too am waiting for an ablation which should be done within the next month or so. My hospital has just started doing "lectures" on ablation and I go to the hospital for an hour every week for five weeks. I will post my experiences here eventually when I get enough time to compose a not too lengthy post about them The first was last Thursday. One thing that did impress me was that they handed out the AFA leaflet on ablation for AFib and told us where we could view them on line as it seems a lot of people are not aware of the leaflets and are not given the information necessary. They did say they couldn't give out all the leaflets as it would simply be too expensive for them.
All the best with your ablation.
Des
Hi easygoer13 about 12 months after an ablation for flutter in 2010 I had an ECG resulting in a Cardiologist and a Electrophysologist arguing whether I had AF or Flutter. I have just had a 24 hour ECG which is said to show Flutter. My pulse is only a little irregular ( enough for my GP to require the ECG as he thought I was in SR- I disagreed). My pulse is in normal range( readings 60 to 80 usually). KARDIA shows AF. Maybe it's me!? It should be an interesting meeting when I see the Consultant . Any ideas for challenging questions from the Forum would be welcomed.TerryW
thank you
Try this - if it works you will not need another ablation and your afib episodes will be so mild that you will hardly know they are happening:
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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:
thank you
flutter or afib… or both
Atrial flutter
Afib or A flutter
Atrial Flutter 
Is this AFib or Flutter?5weeks post Ablation 
