You know when you see something that's been staring you in the face for ages?
I've had pretty constant PAF episodes since 2006. I've looked a lot at diet, etc. but I can see a clear pattern related to how 'up' I'm feeling. It goes like this -
-AF episode. Feel fed up, can be bothered doing anything, look at the computer, forget the dog walk, etc.
- more AF. Feeling it's getting worse, worry about the future, feel more fed up, plan to ask for more medication / treatment.
- have a short break in the AF. Feel more cheerful. Forget computer surfing, walk dog, start a new project, have much less AF.
I used to see this as the AF affecting my activity level, but now I realise that it's the activity level affecting the AF. Now I see activity as part of my treatment. I know this is really obvious, but it wasn't to me. I just shared this in case it saved somebody waiting 15 years before they got this.
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DueNorth
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Like you sitting around does me no good whatsoever heart wise. I'm just in from digging the garden, but it's too hot to be doing that right now, so I'll go out again later.
I also believe the mind plays a big part in AF. I only have to think about what beat my heart is doing and off it races. When I've been fitted with a heart monitor I've always felt so well, I could climb mountains (think it must be through feeling secure with it on)! For me shallow breathing can be another trigger too.
Yes. When I've been sitting for too long my wife always says "Walk around. Sitting is the new smoking. Think of your mitochondria!"I'm not sure what all that means, but it does seem true...
I've just googled mitochondria. Apparently they are the energy generators in your cells and I found some really interesting links between them, stress, exercise, heart health and arrhythmia. So maybe there's a scientific explanation for why feeling 'up' and moving around has an effect on AF...
I think you are right. My experience with AF is that you have to be moderately active all the time. A trap is to do too much and then fall into a chair in front of the TV....hey presto AF starts. So I walk twice a day, regular garden work and don't sit down in the evening for more than 90 mins without getting up. Fortunately, I find housework a good level of activity and my wife hasn't complained about that yet!
I think it depends how you feel. The first time I was in persistent afib I managed fine, went to work felt terrible after walking up the three flights of stairs, blamed it on being fat, finally went to gp with my “chest infection” to be told I had afib, had a stroke before I got onto warfarin and was back at work after a fortnight ( because I knew my office work would be piling up ) felt exhausted all the time due to stroke, they said it would last 12 months and it did, was eventually cardioverted, lost weight and was fine for years with just a couple of breakthrough episodes.
Second time I had been painting kitchen ceiling on and off all day, sat down in evening felt heart race then afib, didn’t revert.
This time was utterly dreadful, constant bpm 130, any movement and it was 160, but had awful symptoms of needing to burp and being unable to and awful pressure. Washing dishes and cleaning sink led to sitting rigid on the edge of the couch with my hands clenched for an hour or so till the feelings eased off.
Gp had put in urgent app with cardiologist but I heard nothing, one day I could not take this anymore and went to a&e ( thought they would dismiss me but they were brilliant), tried different drips kept me in overnight, saw their lovely cardiologist and was put in for a cardioversion as soon as possible.
I starved myself in hospital hoping they could do it then but unfortunately not.
It took another six miserable weeks to get it done, due to staff holidays and warfarin testing, now on apixaban.
I would have liked nothing better than to be able to move around freely, I broke down and cried to my warfarin nurse that I felt around 90 and totally disabled. I had a phone call same afternoon to come for cardioversion the week after, coincidentally? Who knows.
I’m on flecainade now after the eventual appointment with cardiologist from the gp, who referred me to an EP but am in dread of afib ever coming back and petrified of Covid as illness has brought on afib in the past, lord knows how long it would take to get a cardioversion now even if I said I’d pay for it. According to EP I’m not suitable for ablation.
In a&e they noticed ventricular tachycardia on my traces but nothing was ever mentioned again about this but maybe I had more than afib that was leading to these feelings, I had a dopamine stress test a while after my cardioversion and when they pushed my heart rate up to 130 all those symptoms came back, it was hideous, they said my result was normal so I don’t know.
Sorry it’s a long rant it just brought back some memories so thought I’d get it off my chest,
Your post is so true! I too found that in the past, when I was overly worried or irritated by something, then a-fib would rear its ugly head. I've been keeping an a-fib diary for years on my computer which lists my mood, activities and food I ate on the day, or preceding day, of an a-fib episode. When doing a Word search, I found there's an astonishing correlation in "bad mood days" and a-fib episodes.
You've read my mind. I've debated the chicken or egg nature of this...."Am I in poor mood due to arrhythmia or is the arrhythmia here due to poor mood". It seems there is no Afib if I'm in a good mood but is that because there's no Afib? At any rate my current intention is to maintain higher mood in spite of the threat of Afib, etc.
You also describe the habit loop we often get caught in that keeps us prisoner to the anxiety surrounding these kinds of health ailments. We experience arrhythmia, get concerned, perseverate and search for meaning while desperately grasping for the quickest fix. Like you, I re-review all my options (contact EP, increase meds, reduce meds, start supplements, take anxiolytics, mindlessly rummage around in Google picking apart pubmed and medical studies looking for new clues).
At some level this informs and helps us develop a treatment/coping plan. In others it makes the anxiety worse as it keeps us focused on the negative aspects of our experience.....I suppose in those moments I'm simply trying to gain some level of control and a bit more certainty......But perhaps, I'm keeping the anxiety/depression furnace lit by allowing my discomfort to drive my thoughts and actions....? Very hard to ignore those ingrained patterns when you have severe symptoms, but an idea I try to keep in mind....."Might I be better off if I just accept that my current treatment is the best for me at this moment, and instead engage (Say Yes if physically able) to the life that is available in the here and now? If I can't entirely rid myself of this, I'd like to at least be okay with it. And failing that, maybe I discover a glimmer of hope if I apply myself to the task of finishing this cute little puppy puzzle here on the kitchen table....Or walk to the mailbox just to prove that I can.
I'm reluctant to claim that the egg came first (if AF is the chicken...), but I keep discovering the same thing by accident and then remembering that I've discovered it before! For a few times now, after a period of regular or long term episodes, and still in AF, guilt forces me to take my very patient dog on proper fast walks (not the short stroll she gets when AF is rampant). After the 3rd walk I realise once again that the AF has sneaked off somewhere without me noticing.
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