Just tidying up my mind and thought of a few things people might be interested in.
Re-cycling.
We had a post about re-cycling medicine packaging recently and it occurred to me that I should have reminded people to make sure that they remove any personal labels from such before disposal. I'm sure you all understand that NOTHING with any personal information on it should leave your house intact to protect your identity. I know this may reduce the amount you send to re-cycle but please do it for your own sake. We either put any such items in the stove during the colder months or incinerator during summer but if you have a shredder you can compost the shreddings along with your vegetable waste.
Alcohol.
I first discovered that alcohol set off my AF long before I was actually diagnosed with AF.(Just knew it upset me) As a former wine buff with shares in a vinyard this was of course a terrible blow to me. Some years after my third and successful ablation for AF I decided to try some of my dividend (A nice medium dry Bachus grape ) and found nothing bad happened but when atrial tachycardia arrived, again I stopped even considering it. More recently I have been regularly having a very small glass of the above as an aperatif before dinner with no adverse reaction. With Christmas on the horizon I thought it important to select a suitable red to go with the bird and found a nice Flurie in M and S . (Not the Chateau des Labouron I used to enjoy in the 70s but close.) and enjoyed a bottle over several days last week again with no problems. Bouyed up by this, the night before last I poured myself a very small Dows which went down so smoothly I had trouble not repeating this the next evening. I have resisted grabbing hold of my bottle of Talisker which has been sitting tempting me for some time now. Next year maybe.
Caffeine.
I have been drinking decaf tea for years now and normally only have one coffee a week when we go into town for shopping. Today we started our trip in M and S (other cafes are available) and I had their regular latte and a bacon roll. Either I have become allergic to bacon or the coffee really affected me today as I was bouncing off the walls for a couple of hours afterwards and still feel a little jittery. HR and BP normal but feel as if in high anxiety.
Take what you want from any of this just wanted to share.
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BobD
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If you’re in the UK, maybe think about trying the excellent Naked Bacon brand (odd name but memorable!). So far asI know it’s unique in having no nitrates or nitrites as preservative.
I used to eat bacon but haven't for the last year and my life has blossomed since I stopped. I've given up eating meat as I don't enjoy the taste of most of it. I enjoy Lincolnshire stuffed chine but as I live in West Yorkshire it's not available.
Pure blasphemy Thomas. I’m afraid my brain cannot compute any of what you’ve just said 😆 no bacon 🥓 no meat 🍖 sorry but the day that happens to me I’d like to be put out of my misery.
I eat fish, salmon, sardines and mackerel. Today's main meal was a mushroom and courgette 3-egg omelette with salad leaves, tinned sweetcorn, cooked beetroot, warm kidney beans, cucumber and spring onions. Really tasty and healthy.
I'm getting hungry with it as it's 12 oclock day and I'm having fresh homemade sour wholemeal dough and avocado with a tube line of tomato paste on it.
It's not easy where I live as there's no local butcher. Because I can no longer drive because of nerve damage to my right foot I am reliant on ordering food online from a local supermarket where bacon is pre-packed.
I have a friend with MS who has a converted lever car to drive with. She also bought herself a disability vehicle for around town of Kerikeri.
I have a cousin who lives on beans, chickpeas, legumes etc no meat. It keeps her trim. I just had tomato paste, sardines King Oscar and Red Capsium on a slice of homemade (market) wholemeal sourdough bread. Yummy.
3 pieces of expensive cut NZ beef grass grazed (on special) is in the slow cooker 1 piece for dinner, butternut and dandelion leaves in casserole juice. I'll microwave an orange kumara for later.
Nothing wrong with eating fish everyday but tuna, swordfish and larger fish have mercury so keep thi=ose to once a week,.
You can do wonders with rice white and brown, potato, kumara, pasta are great under the fish.
I'm sure you are looking trim and happy Thomas.
There's nothing that can stop my 82 yr old MS with Mitral Valve replacement x twice. Look outside the box and keep smiling.
microwaved bacon 😱😱😱😱 Fatless meat 😱😱😱😱 gives me nightmares just thinking about it.
There’s nothing wrong with fat. It’s a misconception. If your body is adapted to running on fat then even better. Sugar is the problem and pasta isn’t much better either.
I’m not sure a person can answer a statement and you don’t seem to have asked a question. 😆 but I’ll put 2 and 2 together and say yes I am in shape but fat is not an issue regardless. Providing its decent fat and doesn’t come in the form of cheap oils or junk food.
Also you definitely said fat less meat, which is where my joke came from. The fat is where all the flavour is 😛😛 it may turn your stomach but it warms my cockles 😁😁😁 I eat mega healthily and fat is included 😁👍
I'm not sure that you understand your gall bladder.
I shall tell you...
The Gall Bladder works like this:
Eat any fatty meal and your gall bladder calculates how much bile you will need to break down what's in your stomach,
No gall bladder
Bile trickles into my stomach all the time.
I'm in NZ and the Maori people love their hangi food comprising of fatty meats like pork and pork crackling, mutton etc. Kumara and greens.
Most are overweigh on their diet which will include takeaways. They die young of heart attacks and as a Diabetic. Sad really. Little children are fat.
The meat I had was NZ scotch steak grassfed and the very little fat went into the pot so was in the gravy. Then the dog had the fat still showing on my steak.
Some folks can tolerate fat and some cant or their cholesterol is high. What is yours?
I feel those with AF are better to follow their countries HEART TICK FOODS.
I hope you don't pass this life suddenly for overdoing your values.
I'd like to lose about 10kgs but it is difficult. I can't walk too far yet. That's AF for me.
After reading some of your other comments, yes I was assuming you would tell me 😆
Thanks for the info but I understand biology, I understand my own body and I also understand that good fat is good for me as I said before.
Eating nothing but fat is clearly not going to be good for you though as you need a balanced diet and even a child knows that takeaways are rubbish so that would explain why your Māori people are fat, diabetic and dying young.
As I said before I eat very Healthily. It would be a real burden to eat any better than I do. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t eat any junk food, I eat very little sugar at all if any, I don’t have any drugs including caffeine and I have a very well balanced diet that includes fat, which is healthy.
I understand biology and I understand what I should and shouldn’t eat, maybe a little too well in the eyes of my friends and family 😆 but thanks for the info 👍
I know in my case it's the cow's milk that sets me off. I've been drinking Almond milk for quite a while now with no AF symptoms. I've noticed this as I have the same symptoms as you when I drink outside somewhere. Also when I started a new job, they made me a cuppa and straight after was back in AF! 😕. Just a thought.
Cows milk? That’s interesting, never heard that before, but I have been a big milk drinker ever since I was a small child however I have also been a big beer drinker since early adulthood, so I will definitely blame the cows milk and cut that out from today 👍
Interesting thoughts Bob and Thankyou for sharing….always good to remember to take off those labels and sometimes they’re stuck on so well too I find. You almost need to prize them off in bits.
I wish I could risk a small glass of something, perhaps this Christmas, I may be brave. It sounds like certain grapes agree with you and that maybe the key. I have been lucky enough to be able to enjoy a black Nespresso coffee every morning and also have a small amount of dark 70% chocolate every evening with no ill effects it seems…I think we all need ‘something’ to look forward to.
On this side of the pond there can be quite a difference, caffeine wise, in coffee from different cafes. The last latte I had was four years ago from Starbucks and immediately sent me into afib. Now, I drink the far less caffeinated, "coffee shop" variety from time to time, but even so, if I haven't been drinking for awhile, I have experienced that same type of jitters and resulting anxiety you describe. I doubt it's the bacon.
I’ve experienced the same jitters with caffeine Bob and I wonder how many people who have af are the same. I experienced this pre af as well but I did used to drink quite a few when working. Haven’t had a coffee for over 2 years now though. I’d be interested to find out how many others experience this 🤔
I haven't had a coffee for a few years now as it definitely started to make me feel jittery . The smell of my husband's coffee in the morning is torture from the grinding of the beans till he has drunk it. When he used to have a coffee if we went out for lunch I would sometimes order an expresso , take 2 sips then regretfully tip the rest into his cup. Usually that was ok. I eat a small amount of dark chocolate most evenings but even with that I sometimes get insomnia with some types and have to eat a smaller quantity. I find very sweet things can tip me into afib- mincemeat is a cert. Luckily I don't like mince pies but twice now I have had a reaction to an apple and mincemeat frangipani - last time it was just a run of ectopics that settled down but I could tell my heart was trying to go into afib.
coffee doesn’t agree with me but I haven’t drunk it for years now. I think if I had a glass now I’d probably be wandering the streets on my own till 4am 😆
regarding recycling medication packs - I ether peel off the label and scrunch it inside out on itself so the whole thing sticks together and can’t be peeled apart or use permanent black marker over your personal details then recycle it all.
With envelopes I just cut out the name & address and recycle the remainder of the envelope therefor the shredder is hardly ever used as the bits are so small and take ages to build up.
I’ve no problem with good quality coffee, can’t drink the dried stuff though. I restrict milk for sure, tend to stick to goats milk and only have it in coffee, 1 a day occasionally 2.
The caffeine interests me,my brother is a micro biologist. He told me of a study( cannot cite reference tonight)Spiders were fed concoctions of drugs and observed spinning their webs under the influence:
Cocaine....very fast but unstable
LSD....interesting but not really effective
Alcohol...took some time but almost there
Nicotine...bit rushed,few holes but ok
Caffeine...all over the shop,hadnt got a clue,looked like a brillo pad
I know we cannot directly translate across species,but this intrigued me!
It’s sounds eerily similar to a night out during my teenage years to be honest 😆 jokes aside it does sound like a very interesting finding. I’ll have to look into that further. No ecstasy on there though? How come?
Thanks for the heads-up re labels. Living in a rural area I don't think enough about these things and will amend. I hear you about the vino! I'd also discovered boutique gins. Have eschewed all for over 2 years now but hope that the odd small glass of dry organic local cider won't do harm in the future.
I only drink steam cleaned decaff. Taylors is reliable.
Interesting that butter is out for you, I didn't think it is a common AF trigger from what I have read here. It suggests to me that your stomach for whatever reason is acutely sensitive to grease and reacts stimulating the Vagus Nerve which then triggers the AF via the heart.
Personally, I would be loathe to do without animal fats as I understand they are important for brain function and other stuff. I have been on a full fat diet for about the same time as I have had AF (8yrs) and have not experienced any episodes as a result....BMI 23.
i have had similar reactions , i think from coffee, am a tea drinker and only have a coffee if in town etc. maybe once every 2 weeks. Had a coffee on tuesday and about 3 hrs later felt unwell, BP was ok, pulse was low going from 44 to 55 but felt as if going higher ,and a bit stressed, lasted about 10hrs or more.....24hrs later all seemed ok...felt tired and a bity mushy.
Is a low pulse a common AF symptom ,? phoned GP to ask and she said go AE if i am concerned ??? NHS is in a mess.
I would never share bank details, national insurance number, driving licence details, etc as these can be exploited by criminals, But everyone's name and address is in the UK public domain and freely available to everyone else on the electoral register, so I personally don't worry about labels that hold that info.
They contain more information about you such as where you are registered (healthcentre etc) what drugs you are on, all of which can be used against you by the unscrupulous.
Just curious as I don't see how it could be used against anybody. So I never take any precautions when I dispose of the packaging. Never had any issues. However I always use the same pharmacy in the Doctors. Always book my medication on-line first.
Whoever picks it up knows your GP, your illness,/condition, what drugs you take etc all which can be used for identity fraud. When you spend some years working in fraud you learn these things.
For those without a shredder, my elderly neighbour ( even older than me) drops all sensitive info into a bucket adds hot water and next day squeezes it out and disposes of it. Mush, no accessible info.
That is a ridiculously simple but bloody good idea. What the hell do we need shredders for now 😆 quicker as well to throw everything in the sink and pour a kettle over it. 20 minutes later when it’s cooled down, Chuck it. Good luck getting info off that. The best ideas are always the simplest.
Interested in the last bit you wrote about "feel as if in high anxiety" was thinking maybe people in with AF are possibly the worrying kind,and worry would be a definite trigger.
No yours is a fair comment,there's many more people on here know far more on medical matters than me,I'm just an ex radio engineer in the military.I'm just curious to see any common ground regarding AF triggering.
I think it’s a perfectly reasonable and logical comment to make Ronnie to be honest.
I wouldn’t call myself a worrier or say that I have anxiety but like everyone else on the planet I can only see the world through my eyes so it’s hard to gauge exactly what the average amount is.
I would say it’s perfectly reasonable that we could all, or a large majority of us could be above average when it comes to being sensitive to our surroundings to an extent to be classed as higher then average worriers. Doesn’t mean we’re all walking round like paranoid schizophrenics high on caffeine though of course 😆
I think it’s highly probable that you could be on too something there 🤔 interesting. Stress is 100% a huge cause of af so it makes sense.
The odd caffeinated coffee/tea when out usually doesn't affect me but now that my wife is used to drinking decaff it does affect her! We generally have only found cafe nero to have the better tasting decaff coffee for us but would usually favour Costa. Got to say in this weather we don't really walk around town much just go and get what we need and go home and take one of our own coffees with us from home.
We recycle our medicine packets and do make sure that no info is left on them - difficult at times. Just wanted to let people know that if they take inhalers for asthma or whatever the inhalers are recyclable at some pharmacies - I think Boots will take them - have a look on line to under inhaler recycling to find a pharmacy near to you where they can be dropped off.
Oh Bob, at the very mention of Fleurie, I was back in the 70s. It was our wine of choice. My (ex) husband and I were living in Jersey in the Channel Islands at the time. It's been 4 or more years since I had any alcohol and I do miss a nice glass of red.
I found Chateau des Labouron in the mid 70s and enjoyed it as much as Gevrey Chambertin so found the importer and used to buy it by the case for large family dinners. I looked on line and there are some bottle around but quite expensive.
Regarding recycling medical stuff did you know that Super drug will take all the foil tablet strips and recycle the them? I even take the strips from paracetamol etc and pet wormer/flea tablets too.
It is somehow comforting to her others in a similar position. Good to hear you OK with small amounts of alcohol, I too have built up gradually and now "handle" up to a bottle of wine or 4 beers a week without any effect, good news is that I really enjoy it more now and the food somehow is tastier. Love a coffee but ony tried a couple over a year any it keeps sending me on an excitement rush but not in a nice way, have concerns about heart but it still behaves (perhaps only just), not sure if I should cut it out or try and build up an immunity to the rush I get - playing it safe for now.
hi Bob, I am same as you, enjoy a little tipple no adverse affects, but I do read the percentage as I have it fixated in my brain to ere on caution and not go above 12.5 which actually these days is very hard to find…..I’m not sure why I have this in my head but worry a 14/ 14.5 would Be a bridge too far…..crazy???
Afib cane and I read the cautions and drank like you decaf tea I did in Spain this September though have a couple of coffees no adverseffects just aegul hesrtburn!!!
Just reduce your glass size for stronger wines. I have one glass of wine with my principal meal at home - a sherry/port glass. I have got used to this tiny glass and no longer feel deprived! When we go out to eat I have a glass - most restaurants seem to serve 12.5cl now though some give more. Sometimes we will share a half bottle but we rarely finish it. Again half bottles seem to be disappearing and 50cl making an appearance more and more on wine lists.
I do if we go out just have what’s given, and I’m fine so my logic is a bit out of window there eh!
Hope you are keeping well auriculaire, I’ve had bronchio pneumonia these last six weeks but seeing easier days now, poor ol heart took a bashing with this but no afib luckily.
Sorry to hear you've been ill for so long. I have been ok this summer apart from having to be treated for Lyme disease. Enjoying the Indian summer here. I expect you've seen your first snow . La Montagne reported 15 cm in the Auvergne last weekend.
Re decaff tea and coffee, they still carry all the benefits of those drinks. ie anti inflammatory longer life etc. A lot of people are intolerant (as opposed to allergic) of cow milk products (eggs are not dairy) and have an adverse reaction when they eat them. They all give me joint pains. Stopped eating them 50 years ago and felt so much better.
that is helpful information thanks, I use a marker pen to conceal my info before I put in the bin it’s a real thing identity theft my friend had it done to her. I’ve had same in cafes and I’m sure they gave me caffeine but what can you do.. they just say sorry and don’t realise how badly it can effect us. Interesting you mention decaf tea because I buy pg tips and lately I’ve been having to tip it away it tastes bitter, I know some years ago they changed there ingredients and I wonder if they’ve done it again, I plan to ring them and ask. Can you tell me what brand you drink please?
NZ labels have only ones name and dr who prescribed it. I give all out of date, wrong script or change in strength to a Dr who was a DR WITHOUT BORDERS.
I do take the labels off these. But good thinking.
Alcohol is poison so promoting it is ot sensible on this forum. Apart from undoing the the good of any ablation the GUIDANCE IS REFRAIN FROM POISON. My latest husband made fruit wine, became addicted and it took him 4 years to heal.
By the way you would need a gallon of it to get any benefit from red wine.
I enjoy natural grapes and McCoys dark grape juice with no added sugar or preservative.
Caffeine. i milky coffee each morning is OK. But on an Australan Outback bus tour we had to stop refgularly for coffe drinkers who wanted their hit!!!! Sad really and you can get 'hooked'on the buzz
Sugar - why not add sugar! It's also a stimulant - of additive nature. The males in my family went through a bag of white sugar regularly.
SODAS - I was interested in recently that sodas are a No No. Can anyone add to this?
Interesting choices. We want to remain healthy, weathy and wise!
Next thing Bob you will be trying to sell us your vineyard sHARES. No thanx.
Thanks for all the comments. As a once happy beer drinker, I had the same experience as you with alcohol long before my recent paroxysmal AF diagnosis. Now, though, I am not willing to take any unnecessary risk of launching an AFib event, so no more alcohol, period, and I don’t miss it at all.
Coffee, though, is my dearest addiction, and I drink and savor a couple of cups daily with zero negative consequences. And since I eat a plant-based diet, bacon isn’t on my menu but would suggest that eating bacon is likely far more detrimental to good (heart) health than coffee or moderate amounts of alcohol. But to each his or her own, of course. John
Thanks BobD. Caffeine seemed to set my afib off in the first place so I cut down on that to a decaff once most days. Feeling quite well I started to have a coffee every day sometimes decaff or mixed. Since the hour changed I have had trouble sleeping and bp has been a bit raised. After driving my husband to hospital this morning I later went to a café and asked for decaff. When I had nearly finished the cappuccino I started to have a few palpitations. My heart rate was about 99 which panicked me slightly but eventually I felt ok to drive us back. About 1230 pm I started to have an episode of afib which seems to have eased after taking 50g of flecainide which cardiologist gave me in February 2020. Sorry to ramble on but reading your post I see that you have very little coffee so I think I will do that. I rarely drink alcohol as that has set off the afib too.
Hello John, did you have 5mg twice a day or just once in the morning? My 5mg of Bisoprolol in the morning caused me to feel slightly breathless when walking so the doc suggested 2.5 twice a day. So far seems to work in that my heart rate is usually around 65 when resting unless in afib. I was diagnosed with paroxysmal afib in September 2019. I'm 78
I have to shop online for almost everything as in addition to AF I have a balance problem caused my damage to my right peroneal nerve causing right foot drop. I gave up drinking coffee 15 years ago but enjoy drinking tea, both caffeinated and decaffeinated breakfast tea, plus Darjeeling, Chai, afternoon tea, and peppermint leaves, and other flavours of Birchall's tea.
I like the taste of red wine, but don't drink much, or often. The last bottle I had lasted six weeks and I finished it two months ago. Normally 10-20ml is enough . I shall have another bottle at Christmas.
I don't bother with tablet labels. All recycling goes together in the same bin. While it's separated later I can't think that the information has any criminal use, given the availability of electoral registers, etc.
great post Bob ! Alas Alongside my diagnosis of afib I have also been diagnosed with a cholesterol level of 6.16 apparently that’s high …. So I feel like nearly everything I used to enjoy from alcohol and fun foods and treats is all down the drain. Pffft … but good to hear your having the odd tipple long may that continue and not give you any issues. I have a cupboard full of delicious single malts that are going to be gathering dust. I did get my echocardiogram results though which showed a structurally normal heart so that was the best thing that’s happened to me since my afib news.
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Passions (none-AF post)
Talking with others in the same language is a great gift 
Alcohol post ablation
And now another thing
