I wonder if the trigger is Sleep or Alcohol. Any Opinions?
Hello, 33 year old Male here. I have obesity, wieght oriented high blood pressure (average 14/9) and on meds for 5 years. Since 3 months my doses were very lowered since cardiologist told me that at this point its not important if you take meds or not you're good. He also said that you have tiny early beats and some unimportant SVT's that are below our limits that we should care for.
2 weeks ago I experienced an acute AFib. When I got up and lying in the bed my heart rate was normal (50-65 bpm). Then I figured I was late to work and jummped out of bed. Then my beat started climbing. Normally it climbs up to 110 and drops back. At this one, it climbed very fast, unsusually and when I checked it from my watch ECG, I saw 186 bpm yet the normal bpm counter was unable to show. Anyways the anxiety kicked in, I did some breath works, valsalva moves but nothing worked and I immediately went to hospital. My rate was like 170 and hemoglobin was 18.8 at the hospital. They made me wait for 4 hours there with only diazem. Then took me to another hospital for ICU. They started 24 hour amiodarone and several IV medications. My rythm came back to normal 4 hours after they took me to the ICU and spent the day there. after a week my cardiologist called me and did 24h blood pressure and ECG Holter. Everything is clear as he said.
Before this, for 3 months I was very stressed, drinking alcohol (4-5 beers on average) roughly 3-4 days per week. If I was hungover after a night, I had to rest otherwise I had higher heart rates and anxiety attacks.
Last 10 days I was drinking 8-12 beers a night and some mornings i was waking up unrested. After the last day on alcohol I slept normally, went to work, drank 1 coffee, mineral water and about 2L water. That night I went to bed early yet I struggled to sleep. Then when I woke up this event happened. After ICU I checked my watch and saw that my deep sleep ratio was %6 and REM sleep was also something there for a 7 hours of sleep. That means just 1 hour of that sleep was efficient and rest was trash.
I wonder if this AFib most likely triggered by poor sleep or by alcohol? Should I drop alscohol for a lifetime? I dont know but I reduced every consumption, started taking magnesium before sleep and probably won't drink any alcohol like 6 months or further. I don't know if I should ever drink in moderation or not, my neurologist friend (didnt see any of my reports) says its a risk and I should not take it and drop alcohol for life.