I'm not a medical expert so my comments are probably worth as much as you paid for them. I don't have Afib, but both my parents and my brother have had, or currently have, it. I have several close friends that do as well. The one constant among all of them seems to be that there is no constant. For some, cutting out alcohol and/or caffeine did the trick. For others it made no noticeable change. My father tried all kinds of dietary changes over a period of a couple of years but none seemed to make a difference. He ultimately had an ablation done (twice) before the Afib was gone.

Alcohol and or caffeine seems to be a common trigger among many Afib sufferers so it's definitely worth trying to see if reducing one or both works for you. Good luck and best wishes in solving it!

I was on medication for afib for 9 months a few years ago until I was finally able to get an ablation. However, mine was persistent, and the medication only helped keep it partially under control. One of the medications (metoprolol) couldn't be taken with alchohol, so I didn't drink at all that year. I'm not sure if caffeine had any effect. I tried to keep my caffeine consumption low, but I would have constant random flare-ups anyways, whether I had any coffee or soda that day or not. But from what my cardiologist told me, caffeine is a common trigger. I don't recall him saying anything about alcohol, though...

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"I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10, and I don't know why!"

There is a whole basket of risk factors that can cause, and contribute to A-fib. For a lot of folks in the early stages it can be managed. You hit on two of the biggies, the others are sleep, stress, fatigue, magnesium, sodium, potassium, and other things you might not even think of.

Best to get some really good bloodwork and check the mineral levels, but that can be tricky. You need to know what to supplement, if anything. My biggest problems came from a magnesium deficiency, and sodium next. Cutting out most alcohol helped with my sleep, which can be the biggest problem if it is a real problem for you. Anxiety in many forms can push an otherwise small attack, into a full blown one. But hard to ignore something going wrong with your heart without it, so just being able to recognize your issues goes a long way.

Kind of like if you have a fear of flying, you go over and over in your big brain that it is the safest form of travel you can do. At 30k feet in the air, you are in the least likely spot for something to really happen to you, even though you might be scared shitless at the time.You have to override negative emotions with logic and your own self awareness.

But of course these types of heart rhythms can be chronic and need medical attention too. Ablation or other drugs when it becomes untreatable using just the risk factors..This is just mine and many others experiences, best to talk to a real heart doc that is also athletic. We have a great resource here in dtoce and a few others that fit that bill, perhaps they will chime in if they catch this thread..

MrB-

As noted, there is a lot of good information given to you. You should discuss with your doctors, really...this is ST, not "med.advice.com"

there is actually a lot of info already noted here on ST-use the search function.
and Dan has a number of threads documented on AFIB in the 'Hot forum topics' under 'Injury and Illness'.
Some of this info is old, though.


but ftr-yes, caffeine and alcohol are triggers-as are lots of other things, some of which really are hard to control like stress, unfortunately, there are other more concerning triggers like: underlying (unknown) CAD, sleep apnea, htn, cardiomyopathy, cardiac valve disease, thyroid disorders or electrolyte abnormalities...so much other stuff that you need a real doctor to check things


'Pill in the pocket' is a form of rhythm control for episodic, symptomatic afib. There is a basic path of rhythm vs rate control. There are several drug choices. There is also a decision about whether an anticoagulant is best, or note. Additionally it depends on how symptomatic and how long the episodes are. Long term results are quite individual and your results are really all that matters. If you have lots of breakthrough episodes, talk to your MD.

Discuss options.

Good luck.