The Vagus nerve and Beta-Adrenergic receptors in the myocardium are what are sensitive to, or triggering of, AF. So far, you have what is called 'paroxysmal' AF that comes and goes, usually with some kind of about 20 known stimuli, or triggers. They include alcohol, too little sleep, too much caffeine, exercise that raised the HR above, say, 140 for more than a few continuous minutes, GERD, vomiting, belching, too little serum levels of potassium and/or magnesium, and so on....

You should be on a Direct Oral Anti-coagulant or DOAC, such as Xarelto or Eliquis, that latter of which I and most other AF patients have been prescribed. Aspirin is better than nothing, but in the case of the risk for AF sufferers, a DOAC is strongly recommended because it's a better 'fit'. You might also need to be on a beta-blocker or on a calcium channel blocker, whatever a competent authority determines you need for your particular body's responses. Those drugs reduce the frequency of heart beats during rest, but only a little if the dosage is correct. When you go into AF, they keep the rate low so that you don't go into heart failure inside of a few weeks. Heart failure and cardiac 'remodeling' are the risks in AF, but only once the risk of stroke is dealt with, and that is via the DOAC I mentioned. If the heart is left in AF, it begins to adjust by 'remodeling' itself, and at that the treatment is either more complicated or impossible. This is why you should deal with AF as soon as possible. It prevents atrial enlargement, part of the remodeling process. Atrial enlargement begets two problems: inner endothelial stretching, which leads to fibrosis and more AF (!), and/or mitral valve prolapse, which can be fixed, but not while you're fibrillating...so get the fibrillation under control early!!!

This is a singular journey....for you. You must learn what works and what doesn't at keeping your AF at bay. We can share stories, share apparent commonalities, commiserate...and generally 'be there' for each other, but each patient must ascertain for themselves what keeps their heart in blissful NSR (normal sinus rhythm) most or all of the time.

Two more points: AF is a progressive electrical disorder of the heart. Secondly, it ain't gonna kill you. It might make you anxious, you might lose sleep, and when it is going on it feels terrible, but if it's held at bay 95% of the time, you can live a long life with atrial fibrillation. But do, please, consider the mechanical fix called 'catheter ablation'. They work most of the time (first attempts have about a 25% failure rate, but about the worst that happens as a result is that you go into flutter, or develop many PACs (premature atrial complexes or contractions), or you just remain in paroxysmal AF. A second attempt, usually four to six months later, has a much better probability of stopping the electrical circuitry that promotes AF in the left atrial endothelium and substrate). Introduce yourself to a really good, highly skilled, widely regarded, electrophysiologist as soon as you can and get in line for a catheter ablation at the first intuition that your heart is beginning to fibrillate a bit more often. This might be inside of six months (for you, remember, not for everyone), or you might be okay, as I was, for about three years. Eventually, I couldn't wait to get ablated because my heart began to come on like gangbusters over the spring in 2022.

Good luck. It's not a death sentence, but it's also not something you want to put your head under your pillow about.