r/AFIB

So i’m just curious cuz im 18(M) and was born with atrial fibrillation, can i drink alcohol? I smoke cannabis usually every other day and take breaks, (been going off and on for 2ish yrs now) but ive never had any complications then. I haven’t talked to my cardiologist about it since im in the middle of transferring from states. I’ve had like one or two shots of alcohol on special or rare occasions and it doesn’t like make me feel any type of way besides the usual alcohol burning as it goes down. I don’t want to get hammered every night but i’d like to try it a few times if possible just cuz idk im a curious teen or whatever.

Has anyone here actually put their afib into remission and been able to reduce or stop meds by changing diet, lifestyle, etc. without an ablation?

Hi all, I had one instance of afib 9 years ago and had an ablation pretty quickly, had no issues since until this morning where I got up had a coffee and felt awful, heart pounding, checked my Apple Watch and my heat was at 150bpm and I was in afib!

I have back pain issues and am on a strong anti inflammatory and I took meptazinol last night as well and think the mix of the 2 pain meds may have triggered it.

Just got back from hospital and am in beta blockers! Has anyone else had a similar experience, it was always in the back of my mind but hoped it had gone.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

I’ve had AFIB for maybe a year. Formally diagnosed since June 2026. Am 76 years old. On 25 mg Metoprolol and Eliquis. Was asymptomatic except during exercise (e.g., 20 mile bike ride, spiking HR as much as 210) which is what sent me to a heart doc. An internal echo showed possible blockage. Scheduled for a heart cath. My cardiologist says they’ll put in a stent if the procedure confirms a blockage. He indicated this could have the effect of resolving my AFIB. Anyone else had this procedure resulting in a positive impact on their AFIB? Thx.

So i aiffer with paradoxical atrial tachycardia and lots of heart palpitations and I'm on flecainide for it and its helped massively over the last 5 years.

However over the last 3 years I've put on 5 stone and 3 weeks ago I started a calorie deficit diet and started using my treadmill 3 days ago and noticed my heart was going 132 right after walking at 4mph. Then yesterday I started some squats and leg training.

I googled if it was good to exercise with an arrhythmia and it said its excellent for it, then googled about flecainide and it mentioned something called the "flecainide flutter" and that people can go into dangerous rhythms.

I have just spoke to my gp and he said aim for 120 bpm. But my heart was going 132 yesterday.

I'm now worried and thought for someone my age (33F) that i could go higher than that?

I'm really wanting to lose weight as I'm fed up.

Please any advice would be great

I am currently on metoprolol 25mg ER for my afib. I am well controlled. However, i have gained a significant amount of weight and have been trying to lose it. I work out 4 days a week and walk the other two days. I recently hit 150 days of working out. Unfortunately, in 7 months i am only down 30 lbs. i want to lose another 60lbs.i have also addressed my diet and have made changes there. I start counting macros next month. Has anyone successfully decreased their med dose? The 25mg is stopping me from getting my heart rate into zone 2 for fat burning. Any other suggestions?

I in AFib and getting a ct scan for blockage in 5 hours will they still do it if I am in AFib. It always last awhile

39 Male, generally healthy 5 11” 175lbs. I’ve had a total of 4 proximal afib episodes (last 15 months) lasting around 24-72hrs all converted with diltizam. just completed a pulse field ablation 24hrs ago at the Mayo Clinic. Overall I was incredibly impressed with the staff. The procedure went around 3hrs and I was released after another 5hrs.

The operation started with a study to see if I had any other arrhythmia’s before moving on to the pulse field ablation for afib (PVI). They identified 5 pulmonary veins (10-20% of the population have 5 vs. 4). During the operation I went into afib and they cardioverted me.

They went in through both sides of the groin. One side they put a plug in and the other gauze.

Some general observations - my afib has always been symptomatic - I’ve noticed several times now where I’ve had ectopic beats and feel like I’m going to go into afib and it stops after 3 seconds. I’m hoping this gets better as the inflammation goes down.

My groin, throat, back and chest are a little more sore than I expected for an outpatient treatment.

I’m incredibly hopefully this restores my ability to confidently do daily activities without worrying about afib. Happy to share the news and answer anyone’s questions that’s thinking about having it done.

Hello,

33/ Y/O male, paroxysmal a fib- recent PFA ablation in may.

I recently had an ablation in may and had my 3-month post op follow up; everything looks good so far have done some holter monitors, ekgs, ect and it’s ok so far. I guess I should be encouraged by this but for some reason I feel discouraged knowing that the A fib will come inevitably come as my EP states that it will come back at some point. How long can can younger person stay a fib free and are there long term success stories of others living a full life 20 + years without relapse?

Thank you all for the support and information

For those who have faith in God, does afib impact it?

I struggle because I was diagnosed aged 22 and I am now 33. I’ve had 2 ablations and get an episode every 6-8 months that converts with pill in pocket method. My afib is extremely symptomatic and the meds give me side effects. So it’s a choice of bad and bad.

I find this disease is needless suffering. And it’s really impacted my faith. It’s not God that gets me back to NSR, it’s doctors and medication. But I also have experienced God in big extreme ways like when I had a blood clot the year prior to diagnosis. It didn’t go to my brain and stopped in the last place it could, my eye. I lost part of my peripheral vision permanently, but it’s in the overlap of my 2 eyes so with both eyes open I see fully. What are the chances.

I really struggle with the concept of suffering. This life is full of suffering and why? What’s the point? It’s not just a me issue. Children die from cancer every day. The earthquakes that are happening. So much suffering that isn’t human made like war.

What are your thoughts and beliefs? This is not meant to be specifically religion based but simple believe in the divine and/or how the world works.

This is my first post. I’ve had AFib for three years, and it has progressed pretty quickly. I tried flecainide, and it nearly ended me. I’m currently only on beta-blockers.
My average weekly burden is around 10%. I go in and out of AFib, flutter, and episodes of a very high heart rate throughout the day. Most nights too, although things are usually a little calmer then.
I’ve been fat my whole life. I also have severe BED, probably related to ADHD. Losing weight has been on my mind and something I’ve actively tried to achieve for 32 years. I’m no newbie, and I’m not asking for weight-loss advice.
I know, I know - there’s nooooo magic cure. I’ve read the books, the studies, the articles, etc. But what do you all reckon? Do you think losing a substantial amount of weight could make a meaningful difference? Has anyone here actually experienced it?
I see comments from people who have lost 40 pounds and more power to you! But that’s not really comparable to my situation. I’m talking about needing to lose a lot of weight.
I have mild/moderate sleep apnea and have used a CPAP every night since I was diagnosed a year ago, so sleep apnea isn’t really part of the problem anymore. At least, I don’t think it is. Just a fatty.
I’ve always been active. I love and loved exercise, and I’ve never really had an issue with being physically active - until now. My problem is food - stress, dopamine, lack of impulse control and all that crap.
Anyway, what do you think my chances are? I know you’re not psychic, so I’m just looking for your best guess based on your own experiences.
I have two girls and no village, and I’m doing my best every single day. Please don’t be mean. I really don’t need that right now.

So I had my ablation in February. We thought it was a success. Yesterday I went into afib again. I did come out of it 2 hours later - which is good because before I’d have to go to the hospital to get cardioverted.
My concern are my numbers. My heart rate was flipping anywhere between 45-160. My blood pressure was 118/100.

My blood pressure is back to normal and I’m not in afib but I’m having constant PACS. I can’t get in to see my cardiologist until next week and I’m supposed to be going on a flight in a few days.

Has anyone had this happen? I’m worried I’m going to go right back into afib.

Only thing I can think of that triggered it was lack of sleep the night before. I don’t drink or do drugs. I have one coffee a day. Drink lots of water.

These constant palpitations are scaring me. 😩

Hey everyone, I just got a the Kardia Mobile 6L Max. It says it requires a subscription to even used the device, I thought you could do without a subscription. Anyone else have info on that?

I know this may be a reach, but I’m curious if anyone here has experienced something similar or noticed a possible correlation.
A few months before my AFib episode, I suddenly started developing pretty bad migraines/headaches. What made it strange was that I had never suffered from migraines before in almost 30 years of my life. They became frequent enough that my doctor eventually put me on preventative medication—topiramate, 50 mg twice a day—and over time the headaches started to improve.
Thankfully, I had my eyes checked, had a brain MRI that came back normal, and had a lot of testing done when I ended up in the hospital with AFib. So far, nothing has shown anything obviously abnormal.
But since developing AFib, like I’m sure many people do after their first episode, I’ve been thinking back on everything that was happening with my body beforehand. I keep wondering whether these completely new headaches could have been some kind of warning sign that something else was going on with my body.
I know AFib and migraines may be completely unrelated, and I’m definitely not trying to diagnose myself based on Reddit. I’m just curious: Did anyone else suddenly develop migraines, headaches, or other unusual symptoms in the weeks or months before their first AFib episode?
Maybe I’m connecting dots that aren’t actually connected, but I’d really appreciate hearing other people’s experiences. Thanks in advance.

Hi all.

So I’ve been taking 200mg of flecanide per day. This was always done with 2 100mg pills. In June they gave me my refill and I kept taking 2 pills as usual. (And 1.25mg bisoprolol)

Turns out these pills were 200mg each so for 2 months I’ve been taking 400mg per day. I know this is the maximum dose but when they told me at the pharmacy, it shocked me. Also because they did not inform me about the change of dosage per pill. She asked her colleague and she said as long as I don’t have side effects until now, I’ll be fine and I should go back to my 200mg dosage (which I did). To be sure I’m not in any danger, I’ve messaged my cardiologist but he’s only back on Thursday.

Anyone can tell me if I’m in any danger? Been feeling great for 2 months, no afib and also had my ablation a month ago. Should I worry about anything? Or can I just continue with my 200mg and carry on? Im feeling extremely anxious because of it. And yes, I will also definitely await my cardiologist his answer.

I'm 26 years old.

• Two years ago, Ive often had my heart beating like crazy at night but the doctors always found nothing interesting with the ecgs.
• One year and a few days ago, I got the AF. HR varied between I think 55, and 122 at home. Got up to 166 in the hospital with minimum 100.
• Ever since then it didnt come back... atleast that I know of!

However sometimes at night I still wake up to my heart pounding. Either or its:

• Beating very fast
• Beating slowly but very strongly, my body will shake with it.

And yesterdaynight that happened again. shortly after falling asleep I woke back up to feel my heart beating very fast. I then quickly decided to measure it with the quickest easiest possible method: Placed my hand on my chest and counted the beats per second. That was 5 and 5x60 is 300. How accurate am I with this? About 90%, I'm very good at accurate counting of seconds or events per second in my head. So it must've been anywhere between 270 and 330 BPM. Even the low end is very high.

Weird thing: I waited it out a few minutes, it stayed steadily at the 300BPM, but when I stood up from the bed my HR immediately became normal!!

Since the doctors office and hospital were closed during that time, I asked my friend chatGPT. It said what I felt might not have been heart beats. But I doubt that. It was very regular though. It did feel like heartbeats. Not like a spasming muscle. And it went on for minutes.

Guys I still can't reach the hospital right now.

What could this be and why does it always only happen at night never during day?

Greetings, my AFib/SVT ablation is coming up end of the month. I'm hoping for comments about going through the recovery process. I'm 76, have well-managed congenital SVT, but was diagnosed with Persistent AFib last year. I didn't want ablation so had 2 cardioversions, took Amiodarone for 7 months, loved the NSR, but stopped because of severe neuropathy. EP prescribed Flecainide without waiting for the washout period and I ended up in the Emergency Department. Have Persistent AFib now. Got a new EP and was told my heart has been compromised, can't take any more antiarrhythmics, and need an ablation immediately.

I understand about the Blanking Period, but the only med I can take is a beta blocker. On a practical level, what does recovery look like?

Just got home from my first ever PFA at Lancaster General. Seamless experience. Still feeling some flutters and palpitations but ultimately the worst pain is from the breathing tube! Any recommendations for the recovery process? 27 M PFA for AFIB and SVT. Love yall! This sub talked me into it.

Hi everyone, does anyone take flecainide for PACs or PVCs? I also have SVT. The electrophysiologist wants me to take it, but I'm very scared.