I now get afib episode almost nightly, anytime from late evening through to early morning, always, always after eating in the evenings…… rest and digest are my triggers. I’m on 50mg Flecainide split as 25mg in the morning and 25mg in the evening. I also have 50 to 100mg as a pill in pocket to restore NSR. I’ve discovered by accident that when I get an attack, rather than take the pill, if I run up and down my stairs and raise my heart rate, I can almost always self convert to NSR without taking the Flecainide? Clearly it’s not ideal having to do this at 3.00 in the morning but I can literally terminate an episode often within ten to fifteen minutes! Not sure what to do going forward but the daily Flecainide doesn’t seem to make any difference and Afib still breaks through?
Nightly Afib Now: I now get afib... - Atrial Fibrillati...
Nightly Afib Now
Motov,
I have similar AF events at night. I don’t get them every night, but they do occur very often. I spoke with my doctor about this and he believes it is likely caused by acid reflux and gas pressure in my esophagus. He has put me on a medication to control the acid production. I have been on it for a few weeks and have only had one occurrence since.
I used to go running when I got an afib episode and 8 to 10 mins later was back on NSR. Sadly that trick stopped working on the 12th AFib attack and about 20 months after initial diagnosis. I was only on verapamil rate control at the time but had to go to flecainide immediately after trick stopped working. I eventually had an ablation. Long may the stairs work for you, but my experience was that AFib was progressive.
However we are all different.
Sudden inertia would bring the PAF on and turn it off. I could trigger PAF just by standing up. I wonder however, if the side effects of the Flecanine may also be an issue. I always felt really ill after eating an evening meal whilst on Flecanine. The arrhythmia was different from AF but felt worse than the AF.
If you can terminate an episode in 10-15 minutes, that is quicker than flecainide works so in your shoes I would carry on with the stairs!
It could be your diet, too much calcium. carrafibdietinfo.com/
Yeah, I’ve read that before, I eat hardly any calcium rich foods other than a little milk in my tea. I also take 1000mg of Vitamin D a day along with 300mg of Magnesium, 500mg of Taurine, 500mg of L-Arginine and 1000mg of Vitamin C along with 25mg of Flecainide in the morning and another 25mg in the evening. Despite this and eating smaller evening meals and or eating earlier I get woken with a full on Afib episode virtually every night….. it’s exhausting!
Magnesium can cause AF and/or ectopics in some people I would experiment by not taking magnesium for a couple weeks and see if that changes anything as well as at another time varying dosages or stopping the Arginine and/or Taurine.
Also, water companies notoriously add lime to water to reduce acidity. Lime is made up of calcium compounds -- calcium oxide and calcium carbonate. I had to get an effective water filter to filter out the unwanted extra calcium I was getting. That has made a noticeable difference. So beware of hidden sources of calcium, like the calcium they are adding to a myriad of food products these days.
I wonder if it may be an idea to stop eating after, say, 6pm; go to bed a bit peckish and see where that takes you?I've read advice on here numerous times that AFibbers shouldn't eat late in the day, so maybe it's worth trying just to see if it makes any difference.
You are onto quite a lot of the good stuff already. The key issue is those episodes have to stop occurring not how to stop them! From my experience, you need the medics approval for an increase of Flecainide as you are on a very low dose. I started on 100mgs per day and had 9 episodes in a month; two cardios said straight to ablation. I said can we try 200 mgs Flecainide (a medium dose) first and they agreed and no trouble since; that was 8 years ago.
In view of the amount of episodes you are having, there are likely to be other issues to address.
I tried taking 50mg just before bed rather than the suggested dose of half a tablet in the morning and half in the evening and my heart went haywire straight into 130 to 140 atrial flutter! It eventually slowed of its own accord but since trying that just the once, I shudder to think what 100mg of Flecainide would do never mind 300mg a day! I currently only take the one tablet of Flecainide cut in half, mornings and evening as advised by my cardiologist and no Bisoprolol anymore as he said this isn’t a good treatment for vagally induced Afib? I’m at a loss really and he’s already talking of ablation, something that I can’t honestly say I’m keen on given the success rate or lack of! I’ve an appointment in a couple of weeks with an EP referred via my existing private cardiologist at an NHS hospital in Solihull. Fingers crossed! Not expecting any blinding quick fix though as I know there is no cure for Afib and it is by default a progressive disease! I’m a year next month since being diagnosed with lone PAF and no further forward and frankly the nightly episodes of waking with it and running up and down my stairs at anytime between midnight and 7.00AM are truly exhausting! I go to bed every evening willing myself to have a much overdue decent night of sleep!
As far as I remember, many in this forum have reported to have night bouts of AF. In my case, AF comes regularly, almost every night, but, strangely, not when I get in horizontal position - I can lie in bed, awake, for hours, without getting AF bout. But the moment I fall asleep, it kicks off. God knows why...
Same here and it’s exhausting, literally!
Hi Motov, you have my sympathies as my AF always starts at night , usually in the small hours and it is exhausting. I was only diagnosed last year but went from an episode every few months to having them every other night over December and into January. I was having magnesium every day and had been since November so did wonder about that. I stopped it and also started Bisoprolol at my EPs recommendation. I was very dubious about the latter given my episodes only happen at night but he dismissed that 🤷♀️ and I must say ( says she touching wood) I’ve not had an episode since. I have my suspicions about the magnesium though, so am going to cautiously cut down on the Bisoprolol and see what happens. Also wondering about the vitamin D you’re taking. I’ve read it should be combined with Vit K2 to avoid a buildup of calcium in the blood which in itself can cause arrhythmias . In addition, as you probably know, potassium is vital for good heart rhythm, so I focus on eating as many potassium rich foods as I can, too. Hope some of that helps and avoids the need for you to gallop up and down your stairs every night!
I’ve decided to cut all supplements out for a couple of weeks apart from daily vit c and see what happens? I’m also making a concerted effort to have eaten by 7.00PM each evening which gives me three to four hours before bedtime to hopefully digest my evening meal. Fingers crossed!
Wheat ! Or anything that causes bloating. Sadly in my case that includes wine and beer. Had my catheter ablation last October, told it was 50/50 success first time…well I never win the raffle so now lining up for the second one where my cardiologist says 85-90% chance of 👍on this one, especially as he has some new mapping kit….oh and baby aspirin causes bloating and then bingo. Its a really merry go round of fun this AF 😂
Well having made a concerted effort to eat earlier, smaller meals, no supplements, no sugar, no alcohol and no caffeine of an evening…… good old afib still visits almost nightly! I’m at a loss now and go to bed every night in anticipation of it waking me at some point
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