Hello!
New here and wondered what lifestyle changes and ‘natural’ things or alternative therapies people do to support their AF please? Diagnosed with mild AF 9 years ago and only recently got worse in last couple of months. I’m 45 and on Verapamil but would like to know what other AF-ers have done to make possible changes in their lives. Thank you!
Welcome to the forum. I’m trying to do gentle exercise such as Tai Chi and Quijong. I also try to eat more sensibly cutting out sugar and eating more protein and fibre.
Wishing you well.
Hi, I'm new too and wish I had arrived sooner! I have had PAF for 7 years and gradually learned what triggered AF episodes. I think it is different for everyone, but in my case it was two things; sleeping too soon after a meal and stressful episodes. The first is easy and I've not had an episode at night for a long time. For the second I learned how to "meditate" and breathing exercises, such as box breathing. I have never had much success with natural remedies such as vitamin supplements. I started to keep a diary of when I had episodes, how long they lasted and what I had been doing, eating etc. before. It is likely a pattern will emerge that could be missed if you are not logging the detail of things as they happen. Good luck!
Hi
I am 69, I have had papaf for about 4 years. Only diagnosed 4 months ago. I think that my triggers are alcohol, salt, white starch foods, going to bed on a full stomach. Dehydration is a big trigger. Th. e afib experience appears to be exacerbated by stress.
I have stopped eating white bread, rice and potatoes. I avoid salt and most processed foods. I eat a plant based diet, lots of fruit, veg and grains, supplemented with small amount of fish and occasional egg. I eat within a 10 hour window. I try not to eat within 3 hours of retiring to bed. I stay hydrated.. I practice yoga and I meditate. I have given up alcohol. I go to the gym and try to keep my pulse below 120 when I exercise.
I sound like a monk but I think that you have to be disciplined. My afib seems to have been largely under control since the new year.
Good luck , I hope that you make the right decisions for you
Thank you so much, this is super helpful x
PS do you take any particular vitamins or supplements?
My London Naturopath put me on yournutritionshop.com/produ... & CoQ10; said he does that for all his AF patients. I am still on it 10 years later.
is it working?
Do you take medications as well? How bad was your Afib b4 you commenced the naturapathy? Did he make other suggestions?
Yes Flecainide as started that before my Naturopath consultation.
AF had stopped with 200mgs Flecainide, which I started 3 months earlier.
No other suggestions.
Thank you!
Welcome to our forum, it's a great one with members always willing to give their experiences of AF and and how best to cope with it
Having had AF for 18 years, three ablations and numerous cardioversions my advice to everyone diagnosed with AF is the following:
1. Be Aware you are most unlikely to die from Atrial Fibrillation (AF). I used to think that the way my heart bounced around I would surely be found dead next day. Still here though!
2. Changing your diet to a more plant based one, avoiding any foods containing artificial additives, not allowing yourself to become dehydrated, cutting back on sugar, alcohol and caffeine, also losing weight (if it's needed) will all have a beneficial effect on your AF. Artificial sweeteners were a sure trigger for my attacks. How I wish I'd known all of this before having any of my ablations. Would I have listened if anyone had told me? Probably not, because I believed ablations would cure me - three didn't! They have helped some people though and my AF now is not so severe.
3. This is a hard one, but looking at gadgets that show your pulse and AF will make you anxious and anxiety feeds AF. I was obsessed with what my heart was doing for about the first ten+ years of my AF journey and my attacks were so debilitating I'd end up in a hospital ward, it has taken me a long time to take my mind off this subject and get on with living. The less I think about it, the better I feel. Now I used to feel cross with people who suggested I stop looking at my pulse rate machines, I thought that their AF couldn't be as bad as mine and they didn't understand how poorly attacks made some of us feel. I would get cross with anyone who said they could still go on holiday and carry on life as normal. They made me feel evil, by not understanding how ill I felt! In our minds AF is only as bad as we have experienced, for some attacks are mild for others they're more severe.
4. Make sure you don't slouch, or unwittingly do shallow breathing while watching tv or if you're online. If you do your heart will protest. Also avoid tight clothing around your waist.
5. Try supplementing with magnesium, any type except oxide (I use glycinate from YourSupplements and also take taurine, zinc, vitamin B complex, D3, K2 & C). I feel fine and there's little I can't do now, despite being in constant low rate AF. Or at least I think I am, I don't check these days.
6. If over 60 I would make sure that you’re taking an anticoagulant to prevent blood clots forming and causing a stroke. Note that they do not thin the blood in any way, just stop it from clotting so quickly. You should not notice any major difference in the way you bleed.
Hope this will help you.
Jean
Thank you so much Jean, this is really helpful x
A great and thorough reply from Jean.. the paragraph about the ability of anxiety to compound your problems is particularly pertinent.
very helpful and supportive Jean 👍
Hi. Suggest you read The Afib Cure by Dr John Day . It’s all in there
Yes, a great book. I just don't know if I can be faffed with all the monitoring!
Only if you are overweight ( which I have never been) and do not suffer from fatigue, as I do. 10,000 steps a day are far more than I could contemplate now! But I refused the drug I was offered when diagnosed with a hiatus hernia, on the advise in the book, and do an exercise every morning instead. We are all different and must find what works for us individually.
Since 1993 I would get an episode only every 4 or 5 years mostly brought on by alcohol or caffeine followed by exercise. It came back in August and December last year both times cardioverted. I was put on Metoprolol low dose twice a day till review in July
Now I’ve had 2 episodes close together I’ve pretty much given up alcohol aside from a sip of wine maybe once a week if we’re out for dinner. Only decaf coffee. I’ve listened to others here and now take magnesium taurate in the morning and magnesium glycinate in the evening. Also take one CoQ10 and one VitD3 per day 1000mg.
I don’t overeat and eat a broad Mediterranean style diet, avoid added sugar but I still eat whole fruit and a few dates and prunes daily as a treat, even though they have sugars they are high in fibre, try and stay hydrated, I do a brisk walk of about 5km every other day and 1-2 times a week on the indoor bike for 20 minutes but try keep my heart rate to 120. I also do reformer Pilates twice a week.
I don’t push my heart like I used too, I just go at a good steady rate. I feel mentally better when I exercise and hopefully it also helps the heart and general wellbeing. Time will tell.
Cheers James
The only way I've ever gotten out of afib was with cardioversions.
Moderation or sometimes elimination in all things.
eg exercise, alcohol, meals, stress, caffeine, processed food, fizzy drinks.
Change
eg new hobby, spiritual activities, new job, step up dental health
More control
eg follow this Forum until squinty eyed 😁, ask Qs, annual private cardiologist appointment, nutritionist appointment, read 'The Afib Cure' by Dr John Day, 'Breathe' by James Nestor
Persistence
Lifestyle change is learning & trial and error taken over months/years, so be patient!
I would definitely agree that we need to be meticulous about our teeth and floss every single day as a matter of priority, keep up with our regular dental checkups etc. Poor oral health is associated with various inflammatory conditions, including cardiac conditions, but even if those links are tenuous, you don’t want problems with your teeth as you get older anyway.
Brilliant thank you, have now just bought both books! Thank you.
Hi Greenpink and welcome to this club you probably wish you weren’t in. I am newly diagnosed although joined the forum a while ago as I suspected it. I’ve had 3 episodes in 3 years and now working out how to stave off any more. I am a runner and some endurance athletes are more prone to AF. Turns out I am one of those. Exercise is good, but not too much. I am seeing a sports cardiologist and he advised cutting back 20% so I’m doing that and also the Zoe Nutrition programme. I thought I had a good diet but more plants needed. The triggers for the episodes I had were over exertion and cold. That said, big meals with alcohol and chocolate late at night do not feel great either. Thank the lord coffee doesn’t seem to have any impact. Good luck with your journey.
Hi GreenPink and welcome to the forum. I was diagnosed Afib last October and have just had a cardioversion. HB currently in normal sinus rhythm (NSR)
Many of the lifestyle changes recommended for reducing Afib I had already made in the years before onset of the condition. So I was maintaining a healthy weight, walking, cycling, gardening, meditating and practicing qigong and eating a mostly plant based diet. I had almost entirely cut sugar from my diet over 2 - 3 years (apart from an obligatory square of dark chocolate daily!) Minimal alcohol. When Afib hit last year the symptoms were strong and I rapidly progressed to persistent Afib. I sometimes think the trigger was accepting the offer of both booster and flu jab at the same time - causing a sudden increase in inflammation. But if I'm truly honest, I'd been going through an angry and heart-torn phase of my life, a near breakdown in my marriage, and despite all the healthy living and avoidance of comfort eating my stress levels were through the roof. So my sleep patterns were also in a bad way. When I'm stressed I forget to practice the things that keep my stress down - duh!!
My EP cardiologist believes that because of my healthy lifestyle I'm in with a good chance of responding well to any procedures offered. But who knows? At least being 70 isn't considered old in his team! I went to a talk he gave and lifestyle changes really are a big part of "the cure".
Meanwhile the Afib shook some sense into both of us and we've made the positive changes we needed to get our relationship back on track. Support of friends and family, keeping an open heart, kindness to self and others, getting on with life - these are what help me most. Oh, and I'm taking a herbal remedy, berberine. I lost 3 stone with the help of "Second Nature" and practice qigong with Jeff Chand online. Good luck on your journey!
All the lifestyle changes mentioned above are good ones to provide for a more healthy body in general. I encourage all of them, especially diet, limited or no alcohol/caffeine, yoga, TaiChi, and a meditative spirituality
However … you’ll likely still experience arrhythmias (afib-flutter-tachycardia) despite all the clean living. The causes are idiopathic, so don’t bother trying to control them by searching for triggers. Instead, just get on with living life to its fullest and above all breathe deeply to relax.
Most important: find a great cardiology team you trust. I have a great group of EPs, cardiologists, and nurse practitioners specializing in arrhythmias at Lovelace Heart Hospital here in Albuquerque. Rely on their expertise rather than the anecdotal stories you’ll hear here from the likes of me! 😀
Personally, I don’t consider good lifestyle habits as “alternative medicine” but I would say consider your sleep pattern and make sure your sleep as adequate. Plenty of info online if you want to look it up.
Some form of stress management, whether it’s breathing, mindfulness, yoga or if you prefer an app, whatever works for you.
Similarly with exercise, do something you enjoy and do it regularly and within your limits.
Diet is a minefield, and quite frankly there’s a lot of rubbish talked about food, myths, pseudoscience etc. We all know what healthy eating is. We all know what unhealthy food is. It’s not secret. There are many, many dietary patterns that are healthy. There’s no one true way. Think about what you can add in to your diet and be very, very wary of exclusion diets. Cutting out food groups and chugging down synthetic vitamins mass produced in a factory in China to make up for it isn’t my idea of “healthy”.
What works for you and what you can enjoy and do most of the time will be the right way for you.
Very well said. That sums it up for me. I hate all the exclusion diets that are pushed hard in some places. I disagree that we all know what healthy eating is though. We don't. People who try to tell us that we should use margarines instead of butter and skimmed milk instead of full cream have it very wrong in my mind. Also all this idea that vegetarian and (worse) vegan, is more healthy than an omnivorous diet really boils my blood. I know a lot of vegans through something I'm involved in that attracts a festival/hippy kind of crowd and I've yet to find one with any colour in their skin or who can stay awake all day and evening without needing a nap.
These are more fads than health advice I would say, and the contemporary “wellness industry” doesn’t help. I have a vegan relative but she is aware that she needs to supplement, and she’s perfectly fine. Vegetarian diets can be healthy or unhealthy, but vegetarian/vegan diets aren’t recommended as public health advice. There is however advice as about fortified plant milks and B12 supplementation for people who do follow that way of eating. And there are many people who are not vegetarian/vegan who have a very bad diet, so the inclusion of meat or dairy products is no guarantee of a healthy diet either. But we all know sugar sweetened beverages and takeaways, packets of “snack” foods and the like aren’t healthy
There was also the perniciousness of the diet industry too, and they pushed all the “low fat”products and artificial sweeteners etc, as well as quite frankly disordered eating. I have always hated the diet industry with a vengeance and can’t stand the sight of those magazines aimed at women with their “drop two dress sizes” and all that garbage on the cover. It breaks my heart to think of so many women who spend their entire adult lives trying to shrink themselves and feeling awful just for eating. Margarine was pushed as a healthy alternative to butter back in the day and doesn’t seem to be now, but the diet industry was pushing its “low fat spreads” if I remember correctly. So… commercial interests play a big role in what people perceive as “healthy” or “what we should eat” and that’s a big problem. I’ve never been told be any health professional what I should or shouldn’t eat. Never. But I dare say it’s common enough.
I took magnesium citrate for two years and didn't have one touch of Afib, it also cured insomnia and constipation. When Afib started again I suppose I no longer needed the magnesium... too much in my system. Now I have one or maybe two a year but at first sign of one I take a dollop of liquid hawthorne in water, made up by a local herbalist, and a valium, and it doesn't last long.
do you have sleep apnea, that has a big role in my triggers
Don't think so, but have had Afib start in bed at night. Now with just a suspicion I check it with my watch and straight to the valium, hawthorne and bisoprolol. Do you get many such triggers?
Eat healthy, look after yourself, be kind to yourself, exercise if you can. I’m a Reiki Master and use Reiki on myself as well as some others with AF. It’s a very relaxing complementary therapy. Why not treat yourself to a session? Or other complementary therapies. Make sure you go to one who is genuine. Find them on such sites as
All the best 👍🏻
Amazing, thank you.
What I do and what my body tolerates. You need to find out for yourself.
Cliche but true, Listen to your body.
Stay hydrated and if you can put magnesium trace minerals in your water and sip slowly all day.
Avoid gluten, MSG.
CoQ10 supplements.
Walk alot.
Laugh a lot.
Be positive.
Don't fear.
Great advice, thank you.
Recent research shows Vitamin D being vital to lowering the morbidity risks for many health conditions, including various arrhythmias.
Can I suggest you ask your GP for a serum Vitamin D blood test. As UK levels seem generally lower than required, daily supplementation seems to be universally advocated.
Here's just one article about the importance of Vitamin D ...
I have gotten really good results with acupuncture and Chinese and Tibetan Medicine. Recently the only time I have gotten AF is when I've stopped taking my Asian Medicines. When I go back on them the AF disappears in about an hour. I've also cut out Chocolate Cannabis, Alcohol and Caffeine. I eat meat sparingly, and have been triggered by heavy meat meals during holidays (at the same time I had stopped my Asian Medicines because my acupuncturist had gone out of town.)
Meditation also helps. I have found that when I lie down and start to feel Heart irregularities, I can dissipate them by visualizing the energy flowing out of my heart and into my belly chakra. Sometimes I get stomach cramps after doing that, but those go away fairly quickly. I know it sounds weird, but it works for me. That may be because I have no actual damage to my heart muscle, according to my ultrasounds.
Acupuncturists vary tremendously in quality. An American trained acupuncturist usually only knows how to treat pain, because that is the only thing the AMA cannot deny about acupuncture. You need to get an acupuncturist who was actually trained somewhere in the Orient who will know how to read pulses, prescribe herbs etc. They don't have to actually be Asian though. Ironically, All of my Western Doctors are Chinese, and all of my acupunturists are Westerners
Great, thank you x
Hi
The supplement has only been suggested and not researched enough to make it a.benefit.
I keep uptodate as much as possible by signing on to research.
They know how I got AF.
In Sept 2019 after fight with ACC over mesh invasion, then denied op at N/Shore hospital at 2am after mowing 2 small lawns with rest in between I had
an ischaemic Embollic left frontal stroke (sore head but went back to sleep until 5.30am) diagnosed with AF and 4 days later my carotid arteries scan showed "shadow" on thyroid.
Feb 2020 thyroid removed with 12 right lymph nodes!
Twinked after seeing priv heart specialist , now since Dec 2021
Diltiazem 120mg AM mainly for rapid, persistent Heart Rate. Dropped 156 to 51 on 180mg dose
Bisoprolol 2.5mg PM mainly for BP - night H/R avge is 47. Stays there regardless of dose.
and both help rhythmn.
Because I take thyroxin under tongue 100 and 25mcg Synthroid daily it is not recommended to take supplements. Also avorstatin is contra with Diltiazem. My carotid arteries clear.
I take 110mg PRADAXA twice as an anticoagulant.
Exercise even some exertion is good for a AF heart.
I'm hoping my heart reverts itself! Cancer removed and last year I had N/Shore remove the mesh.
Welcome and listen to specialists ad Dr but research and arrive at decisions from those and your research.
I have had no cardiversions or ablations. My L.V is enlarged.
Because I was LOW RISK for cancer return I declined RAI and suppression of TSH. Automatic procedures is never the 'right way' for me as I take an interest in my health. It's called Manage my Health! Here in NZ we have our personal health website.
cheri JOY
Well, I’m a Complementary Therapist of 25 years🤷🏼♀️ Reflexology, Hesling, Emtotional Freedom Techniques, acupressure etc Aromatherapy but not qualified so use for me. Bio-magnetic therapy which I am qualified in. Use herbs for me.
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