I am a male 76 years old, athletic and fit for my age. Started getting episodes of afib a little over a year ago and diagnosed by emergency room physicians. I have been able to control episodes by elimination of alcohol and caffeine.
I would like to find other methods of controlling episodes without having to eliminate both alcohol. I enjoyed socializing and occasional drinks with friends.
Many of us have occasional social drinks without triggering atrial fibrillation. So are you sure that is your trigger, or could it just be a coincidence that when you stopped alcohol completely your a fib went away.. if so, motivated easy enough to find out.
If it turns out that even a small amount of alcohol triggers your atrial fibrillation, then your choice is to either stop alcohol completely, or try an anti-arrhythmic medication or have a catheter ablation.
Needless to say, heavy drinking and especially binge drinking are known triggers and should be avoided at all costs .
Jim
Thanks Jim, I have just recently been trying again with glass of wine last night and unfortunately felt like afib occurred about 2 hours later. ( Checking pulse) However it seems like taking 2 Tylenol relaxes me and afib goes away in about 30 minutes. I am wondering if my mind might be creating a bit of anxiety and causing irregular heart beat?
You might want to get a home EKG monitor like the Kardia to make sure what you're feeling is actually afib, It could be for example ectopic beats which are usually benign. Personally, I've never done well with red wine, so unless that's your drink of choice you might try something else and see if you react better.
Jim
I have found hard liquor better tolerated than wine. White wine in particular. So a nice gin and tonic or a margarita goes down ok. Champagne better than Prosecco! Haven’t gone beyond one of anything, and early in the evening.
There's no evidence that caffeine will do anything for or against AF, so that might be a coincidence,. Having an alcoholic drink seems to trigger AF in a few, but, if anything, it absolutely helps me.
Steve
I haven't had AF since my ablation 3 years ago in Feb. Still get arrythmias, but not bothered about those!
I can have a few beers with the lads, relax and enjoy myself with no resulting arrythmia. However red wine or whisky is asking for a drum solo! Someone on here ages ago said it's the sulphites in wine but I have no idea how accurate that is.
Bottom line is, every cardiac arrythmia sufferer is different and you will have to find out for yourself what does and does not trigger yours. One piece of advice I'd add is that dehydration is a notorious trigger for most of us, and alcohol definitely causes that. I drink plenty of water before going to the pub (or rugby club in my case) and next morning.
Thank you for the reply. Very helpful as it seems like most people on here have not had great response to ablation. I am considering it if I felt I had a good chance for success. Maybe many of those who had ablation success no longer follow the forums?
I had an ablation 7 years ago, and rarely follow this group any more, but saw this comment and had to reply.
I also have a friend, a year older than me, who had an ablation 3 years ago.
We're both runners, in our 60s. Neither of us have had any AF-related issues since our ablations, and we'll both be running the Great South 10 mile race next weekend.
I drink alcohol, but not a lot (and rarely ever drank more than 1-2 glasses). Before the ablation one drink didn't trigger AF, but more did. As did red meat or anything that felt "heavy" on my gut/slow to digest. Coffee was always fine - unlike some friends I've never been sensitive to coffee.
Everyone's gut is different - you may find what irritates yours triggers AF. I still rarely drink more than 1-2 drinks or eat red meat. And if I do, my gut is still uncomfortable, but that's it.
It happens that I'm also lactose intolerant, but I didn't know that before I had the ablation. So I don't remember if lactose triggered AF. Now I take care not to overdo the lactose and take lactase tablets if I do.
Although I still run regularly, and sometimes hard, I no longer push myself quite so close to my limit as I was prone to doing before the ablation. I never really enjoyed hanging my lungs out to dry in the final few km of a race anyway, so it's nice to have an excuse to stay below 95% of my maximum heart rate.
Thank you for the response. That is refreshing to see you have had great results. Hopefully, others will respond as well. Much appreciated and gives me more confidence in ablation should I need to have it done. I am still having good succes minimizing AFIB through dropping alcohol and caffeine. I am experimenting with testing the waters with a drink at night . Thus far red wine was not good, but may try a beer or small amount of bourbon.
I am 71yo and sport orientated so also keep pretty fit. My neighbour said so this week! I think alcohol and caffeine after 1pm has to be cut out as a precaution but the PAF may be partially caused (as I believe there is rarely just one trigger) from the divergence between exercising a lot (for your age) and then super relaxing with friends. I have found my heart prefers boring constant levels 😖.
I'm 76 - had AFib for 20yrs+ at first paroxysmal (up to 200bps) then permanent (shown as bradycardia (40bps)) v irregular also flutter at night, but none of this has ever been painful/to alarming - fine quality of life and keep athletic activities (Masters age group swimming) - only take anti-coag and no ablations. I'm fully aware some have bad experiences and I've been fortunate (would be even more so if had no AFib, but there you go).
If you Google alcohol and AF you'll see there are clear links (for some people) between it and AF. So I'd say steer clear. I've found a few very low alcohol beers and ciders that aren't bad. I don't miss alcohol any more, now 2 years on the wagon and back in NSR.
PPI’s and atrial fibrillation 
Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation
Atrial Fibrillation.
I have Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation wondering if I am now having Atrial flutter too.
Experiences with Atrial Fibrillation
