First, I want to thank everyone here for all the wonderful information you have provided over time, it has helped me immensely in so many ways. There seems to be a lot of discussion about things that trigger AFIB, like chocolate, caffeine, alcohol, etc. My question is: After you consume the "offender", how some afterwards does it affect your AFIB? Minutes, hours, days? After reading several recent studies about coffee actually reducing AFIB episodes I decided to give it a try. I had one mild cup yesterday, after not having any for 2 years, and I had NO reaction, YET. Thanks for all your help and Happy New Year!!
When Do Your AFIB triggers actually c... - Atrial Fibrillati...
When Do Your AFIB triggers actually cause reaction?
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Kingst
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Hi King.
HNY too.
Personally I find a trigger happens pretty quick. Maybe within minutes or an hour or so. Saying that lack of sleep can kick start afib for me - always the following day. I've never had the 'offender' start it after 24 hours.
However we are all different. I would think though that you wouldn't have to worry to much after a few days.
Paul
Thank you for your response, I find your info reassuring. Speaking of sleep, I have sleep apnea (sleep with CPAP) and terrible insomnia due to Long Haul COVID. You are so right about the day after a bad night!! I feel like I'm in a vicious cycle- can't sleep, get palpitations over and over. Fortunately, the palpitations I am experiencing are NOT AFIB, nonetheless they are disconcerting and tiresome.
Hi Kingst I suffer from nighttime palpitations which sound like yours. They wake me 3 or 4 times a night. Unfortunately they don’t show on the Holter monitor and at my last appointment the consultant told me it was more likely that something else was waking me and the shock of waking suddenly makes my heart beat more forcefully. All the feelings of palpitations were just in my head! I have had AF and had it ablated so I do know what it feels like, so be told I am basically imagining it isn’t terribly helpful! Last night I decided to indulge in a couple of glasses of wine which I know is a trigger on the basis that nothing would happen as”it’s all in my head”. Wrong I was woken up many times by “nothing” in my chest! I hope you are more successful than I have been at finding out what these events really are. Good luck!
Amazing isn't it that these Drs can "crawl" inside our bodies and tell us what we feel? 🙄 They should try to actually LISTEN to us. Hoping you can find solutions. Take care.
Thanks Belinda - I bet he wouldn't have dared to suggest it was all the mind to a man!
Oh heavens no. We women are hysterical beings to most Drs like him. Men just get angry so that's okay. Sorry guys, but it's true a lot of the time. I would bet that somewhere in my files some Dr has written that I'm a hysterical patient because I got angry with him. But that's okay. What that tells me is #1) that Dr didn't know what he was doing and calling the patient hysterical is a cop out ( the easy way out) and#2) He was a crummy Dr anyway. 🙄Hippocratic oath means nothing anymore.
Take care and be safe.
That's amazing!! Of course it's not in your head! When doctors can't find an answer, their fall-back is always "it's in your head". I wake up every morning with my heart racing and my "gut" feeling like it is shivering, if that makes any sense. It starts when I am just coming into consciousness, and it stops immediately as I get out of bed. In doing extensive research online for the cause, I came across lots of info suggesting that there is a condition called autonomic dysreflexia, which essentially means that the autonomic system becomes hyper-sensitive to stimulae (like waking) and the heart goes crazy momentarily. The typical causes are a spinal cord injury, no matter how minor, but now they are noticing that being infected with COVID can cause the same dysregulation of the autonomic system. Many sites suggest that taking adaptogenic herbs like ashwagandha came calm this mess down. Good luck and thanks for your response!!
I'm beginning to wonder if some of these Drs have anything in their heads!🤔😂Take care.
Actually, we should have been wondering that very thing decades ago!! The Hippocratic Oath has nothing to do with the "medical industry" anymore. Big Pharma has doctors convinced that they really don't have to do the work of keeping updated on their knowledge, they just have to prescribe a pill. It's so much easier than expanding one's education. Up until 2 years ago, I had not seen a doctor in 20 years. I and every single family member and friend had at some point in time been seriously damaged by a doctor or drug they prescribed. The only reason I went to a doctor was because I was unsure of what was happening to my heart since I was having palpitations. I was diagnosed with very mild AFIB. I got 2nd and 3rd opinions- these 3 cardiologists all agreed with the diagnosis, and of course prescribed all sorts of pills. I refused. I take a clinically tested, measured dose of nattokinase twice a day, with zero side effects. The studies published on PubMed concur with the efficacy of this particular nattokinase so I'm sticking with this for as long as it makes sense. I have read all the lawsuits against Eliquis, etc., and I am just not willing to risk possible bad outcomes. I appreciate that many here have great success with these drugs, and I support their choices. We each have to find our own path.
Hi! The truth is, that many different things can trigger and do trigger AF. It can be chemicals (alcohol, artificial sweeteners, ...), psychical stress (almost always present, with changing intensity) and physical load (overload). All these factors act together, contributing to AF kicking off. None of us will ever know how they actually work together and contribute to arrhythmia, so it seams to be absolutely impossible to say what has set the AF off and was there a time delay or not. Still, in one occasion, I remember a clear 10 hours long delay - I had physical overload in late afternoon one day, and the next morning I was in miserable state.
As for coffee, I did not take it for decades (between the age of about 40 and 69). It always caused some kind of cramp in my chest, so I considered it to be a NO-NO. Lately, maybe in the past 6 months, I started having one cup in the morning and, sometimes, one cup at noon and noticed that it keeps me awake (fresh) and does no harm like before. It's always worth making experiments, lol!
My other experimenting was with wine, also with positive result (at least, for now). I have to admit to like the wine and was sooo disappointed when I realized that it is maybe the main trigger for my AF (coming every night). For couple of years, I did not drink wine, but being curious, tested different paths and found that one glass of white wine, at 10 a.m., not only does not make harm, but helps me go through the night without AF. Maybe because of micro-elements known to be present in the wine... will never know. So,I wish you good luck with experimenting!
Kingst in reply to
Fascinating account of your history-Thank you!! I agree with all your points, and am especially comforted to know, after research, that psychic/emotional stress can trigger AFIB. I am now finding that if anything at all upsets me, I get almost immediate palpitations, but NOT AFIB. I was reading that this phenomenon called "burnout" is a physical/mental condition where your adrenals are exhausted and all your body systems are now on high alert, which can trigger an immediate heart reaction. Amazing stuff. Thanks again for your response!!
tridye in reply to
I'm laughing - did you mean you have a glass of wine at 10pm or just go for it in the morning at 10am?!! I
Hi KingstI started with AF when I bent down to look in the oven one day at a new shelf I had bought, I bent down and then back up fairly quickly, and immediately my heart started to race, it was still racing 4hours later and and I ended up in hospital where they diagnosed AF. The second time was when I suddenly turned round in a room to go back out as I had forgotten something ,as soon as I turned AF kicked in. I make sure I don’t do any sudden turns or bending and have been fine up to now,(keeping fingers crossed) so presuming I get immediate reaction although when it does happen on both occasions I have ended up in hospital. I do feel that I have a bit of control over it, but lots of different things for different people trigger AF.
I simply don't believe in 'triggers'. I like alcohol, and drink both beer, wine and spirits (whisky). I avoid excess, and try now to keep hydrated as much as possible when I'm indulging. I also enjoy a very strong coffee at least once a day, and cups of tea throughout the rest of the day. I also love chocolate, preferably the 70% cocoa or higher.
I've never seen any correlation between these 'triggers' and my AF, although coincidental occurrence has happened sometimes.
Hi Kingst, I find that alcohol, dark chocolate and spicy food are triggers for me and, in the case of food, I will get an episode around 8 -9 hours later. Other triggers such as stress etc will often produce an episode much more swiftly. I hope your coffee continues to suit you and Happy New Year to you, too, TC
Thank you. I am sorry that so many of us seem to have these triggers and it's most interesting that yours are so delayed. Probably tied to the digestion process, and maybe somehow your vagal nerve is involved. I hope your symptoms fade into nonexistence!! Thank you for your response.
I definitely have triggers for AF, like three cats mine start about 8 hours after eating the offending food, usually wake up at about 3 or 4am with AF.Sometimes it has happened more quickly which is how I realised not to eat chocolate.
Over doing things will cause AF to come on about 8 hours later too .
By watching what I eat (no caffeine, alcohol or spicy food) and taking Magnesium, keeping hydrated And not over exerting myself, I have gone 7 months without AF, apart from a small episode when I ate chocolate cheesecake!
It's so interesting that you have such a delayed response but what a blessing you have figured it out! I really think there must be some connection to the vagal nerve because so many of us are triggered when food or drink are involved. I agree that magnesium is helpful, and I have tried many, many different types. The one I am currently trying is magnesium taurate-we'll see how this one goes. I just started taking a tincture of motherwort and it has a positive effect in calming down my nerves. Thank you for your response!
I gave up alcohol, but when I still imbibed, my a-fib episodes would start 5 hours -- almost to the minute -- after my last sip of wine.
Amazing how your body metabolized the alcohol in such a predictable way! I wonder what the process was that caused the 5-hour delay? You are lucky to have so clearly identified the culprit trigger for you. For so many of us it's really hard to figure out which of a myriad of things pushes our button. Thank you for your response!
Yes, I think we all owe a vote of thanks to this Forum and also the moderators/IT geeks behind the scenes!
Re your question on triggers 'how soon afterwards does it effect...' as you know and have seen from replies you not only have to work out what are your triggers (if you are lucky enough to be able to identify them, vagally mediated AFers have an advantage here) but also WHEN they cause AF. IMHO the latter can be affected by how close you are to the AF threshold generally, so as SteelHeart says some experimenting may be required...if you are brave enough!!
To close a few personal examples. A cold fizzy drink gulped down is a definite immediate trigger for me (and I should add has also stopped an episode). In my early AF days, I was wary about relaxing onto the sofa in the evening after a busy mental or physical day and also going to bed too early after a dinner out. 8 years in and many lifestyle changes in place, I feel much more robust (feeling I am further away from the threshold) but still risk averse e.g. just sips of coffee & tea.
I hope something there helps.
You have so many good points! This trial-and-error process is probably the only logical way to figure out one's tolerances as far as triggers are involved. I also think that it natural to question every single thing we ingest in an effort to control this mess. In my case I have to watch that I don't get carried away with seeing threats around every corner. I really like that some of us here take a bold stance psychologically against falling prey to over-analyzing this thing. I am trying to find a happy middle ground for myself. It sounds like you have found it. Thanks for your response and Good Luck to you!!
I was trying to find a dietary factor and asked my cardio if the food would immediately trigger an episode or if having that food in the diet would cause a general increase in episodes or severity. He thought the latter. I did find that managing my diet to minimise fructose helped reduce my episodes, once I had my diet under control so I thought he had been right. But sometimes the physical act of swallowing or turning over in bed seemed to bring on symptoms immediately, which some people seem to find with trigger foods. The thing is, we are all different, so it really is a case of finding what works for you.
Yes, you are so right!! There are so many possible things- from sugar to turning over in bed. I was just reading that sugar in all its forms is a potent trigger for AFIB. Perhaps that conclusion was decided by the fact that sugar seems to have so many deleterious effects on the body, from blood sugar issues, obesity, brain fog, arthritis, on and on. As to the swallowing bringing on symptoms, I wonder if this is tied to the vagus nerve, and the esophageal sphincter. There is a lot of info out there about AFIB being a natural response to a sliding hiatal hernia, even a very minor one. So you are right, we have to find what works to solve our problem. Thanks for responding!!
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