I was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation after my first episode at a ½ IM two weeks ago (heart rate zoomed to 220 and I couldn’t get it down below 140 for several hours). I saw from a search of prior posts that there is some experience with this in the group, and I have questions. My doctor is doing additional tests, but believes that it is unlikely that he will be able to determine the cause, and says it may never happen again. His advice is to return to exercise slowly, drink less alcohol, less caffeine, and get plenty of rest at night. He is unable to give me any advice on supplements that I take normally (specifically, acetyl l-carnatine, alpha lipoic acid), or things that I use approaching an A race or during a race (sodium phosphate three days prior to a race, e-caps Race Caps and Succeed electrolyte supplement during a race). Anyone get advice from their doctor on any of this. If anyone knows of a cardiologist at Kaiser in northern California that has any idea on how to treat athletes, that would be very helpful as well. Thanks
I had a couple of episodes but slightly different type than yours (my HR is irregular but the HR remains low, which is a vagally mediate A-fib). I was able to identify the trigger as each time it happens in exactly the same conditions (after training, midly dehydrated, drinking a cold drink too fast…very cold drink too fast is a big no no for me now).
I hope that the doc. you see is a cardiologist. If not, see one. You will likely do an echocardiogram, stress test and 24 to 48hrs holter monitor.
Very often identifying the triggers of an A-fib is difficult though.
He may be right and you may never get an other one. If you drink coffee though, you may want to either stop or reduce significantly the amount of coffee you drink. Alcohol is also a common trigger of A-fib.
www.afibbers.org has some info and personal experiences of people who had/have A-fib. Some guidelines for supplementations (magnesium, potassium, L-carnitine, Pycnogenol, Co-Q10, etc…) that you may find useful.
In any case, worrying about it won’t help! and in the worst case, ablation therapy has a pretty good success rate at fixing the problem.
Definately get yourself checked out, but in my experience this is not that uncommon. I had an episode that lasted for about 56 hours. Irregular HR between 170-200 BPM. Docs were worried about forming a clot in one of my chambers. They put me on blood thinners and were planning to hook me to a defibulator when I reverted back to normal rythm in my sleep. I had one Doc want to keep me on the blood thinners for the rest of my life (no F#$%ing way that was going to happen) and another who wanted to go right to a pacemaker fitting. I finally talked to an Electrophysiologist who told me that it was likely the product of a rough weekend drinking on top of stress at work. Add a little dehydration and too much caffine and you have a recipie for A-fib. that was about five years ago, and I have only had a slight flutter every now and then since.
Get checked out, but be cautious of anyone that wnats to medicate you for the rest of your life.
Welcome to the club. I agree with all that’s been posted above. I have had several episodes of a-fib for the past 4 years and I had a cardiobversion after the first prolonged attack. At this point I have pretty much narrowed the triggers downs to dehydration, alcohol and caffeine. I have been on flecanide for the duration and this has been moderately successfull depending on how much I limit my intake of the triggers. My cardiologist has referred me to a electrophysiologist at Johns Hopkins for an ablation procedure but I am holding off for the time being.
Hang in there and stay hydrated.
Your AF experience is very similar to mine. Back in late 2000 / early 2001 I had experience several bouts of combined AF and Tachycardia while training. Each episode took 16 to 20 hrs to spontaneously convert back to normal sinus rhythm.
After initial hospitalization and cardiologist followup, I was placed on meds. However, the side-effects of the meds were far worse than the illness for me. I have tried: Numerous Beta-Blockers, Amiodarone, Flecainide, Quinaglute, Disopyramide, and Rhythmol.
After getting fed-up with cardiologists telling me I would be on meds the rest of my life to control AF and experiencing the nightmarish side-effects of the drugs, two years ago I decided to deal with my problem on my terms.
Instead of focusing on the cure, I focused on the cause. At the time of onset, I weighed 225lbs. I ate like a pig and drank like a fish. I drank coke like water and washed it down with coffee. Obviously it was time to make a change. I decided to focus on loosing weight, improved nutrition, and a positive / healthy lifestyle.
Fastforward to today. I weigh 185lbs. I eat and live well. In January of this year I decided to explore a surgical solution to my problem. After consultation with an Electrophysiologist regarding AV node ablation and a thorough workup and history, the EP suggested that I give cold turkey a shot prior to getting burned. I was a little hesitant as I have not been off meds in 5 years, but it beat the thought of surgery.
It’s been 8 months now with no meds or blood thinners. Not even an aspirin. More importantly, no symptoms either. I just finished IMLP (my first IM) without a single palpitation.
I am me and you are you. While dealing with the physical causes worked for me, it may not be the same for you. A common sense approach combined with proper due diligence with an EP and Cardiologist is essential to controlling your problem.