Afib and breathing

Dear Gem,
Having "episodes" is an interesting comment; apparently you can feel the AFIB. Normally, I believe< AFIB is constant requiring medication such as a blood thinner to prevent blood clots.
Stopping breathing is common with sleep apnea, unusual while exercising or soon thereafter.
I suggest that you first stop is a review of your symptoms with your cardiologist, nest your PCP, and then onto an ENT.
If the AFIB has caused heart failure, your breathing could be impacted by your lungs filling up. You would be sufferings from shortness of breath and oxygen insufficiency.
AFIB cause a loss of 30% of the heart output.
If sinus arrhythmia occurs with sinus bradycardia or tachycardia, you might experience some complications from the combination. For slow heartbeats, you may experience dizziness, shortness of breath, and fainting. Heart palpitations, lightheadedness, and chest pains can occur with irregular fast heartbeats.

Hello, I was just diagnosed with afib, I also have other issues, panic attacks, sinus, high blood pressure, arthritis, but reading the post of "elegant gem" also said it was noticed stopped breathing but how, and also reading the answer of "spudmato" said something about sleep apnea, it did happen to many years I am now 66 yrs old, I was in my forties and I had panic attacks that's when it happens, what to expect with having afib, i am on blood thinner right now, i have a prescription of a blood test to do, I read so much on google about afib it's scary. ty

@fde11, I'm tagging @elegantgem and @spudmato to make sure that they see your post and mentions of them.

A-Fib, like any new diagnosis, can be scary. However, as they say, knowledge is power. The more you know about YOUR a-fib (not everyone is the same), the better you will be able to live well with the condition, recognize the warning signs and live healthy to help prevent any complications. Mayo Clinic suggest these prevention tips:
- Eating a heart-healthy diet
- Increasing your physical activity
- Avoiding smoking
- Maintaining a healthy weight
- Limiting or avoiding caffeine and alcohol
- Reducing stress, as intense stress and anger can cause heart rhythm problems
- Using over-the-counter medications with caution, as some cold and cough medications contain stimulants that may trigger a rapid heartbeat

Do you have sleep apnea? What lifestyle changes might help you?

TY Colleen, exercise, lose some weight and sleep apnea I only had it twice when I first had panic attacks thank god, it's not an easy thing to go through, very scary.

I also am on Eliquis but I don't think having afib means you will have a stroke. Does it? Do you know what percentage of people who have afib go on to have a stroke? I do everything Colleen suggests with my only issue being stress. By asking this type of question I know a lot of my issue is not getting enough oxgyen in my body at times. However, I don't read doctors telling people to rent oxgyen. I know I have sleep apnea but have never pursured it. I was wondering if this is something people pursue to help with afib?

One thing I have learned is that I don't read online except for Mayo and my heart hospital. Too scary and we are all different. So many kinds of Afib. I needed to take it seriously, the higher risk of stroke, etc., but not be frightened to death. My doctor is terrific and honest and monitors closely. In my kind, paroxysmal.....when it comes, I feel terrible. Not lightheaded, not SOB, no chest pain, but just not right. Very not right and I know it's happening right away. I also have tachycardia. But I'm not getting this all the time and I have paid attention to my triggers....the biggest one for me is dehydration! Imagine. So like other things, information, taking care of myself, paying attention and really good about medicine. One thing, I have moved my cardio workouts to daily on a NuStep (learned from rehab) and it has made a difference. Good luck everyone.

One question. Why do some people take Coreg and some take Metoprolol. My sisters also have it and they take a different med than I do.

Everyone reacts differently to different meds. I have a family history of A-fib - my folks and one of my brothers took Metropolol, but that didn't work for me. It took some trial and error and some meds worked for me for awhile, but then didn't. What ended up working for me was Diltiazem and Flecanaide. ...until they didn't. An ablation (cryo) took care of it for a while, then back on Diltiazem, then a mitral valve repair, and now, no a-fib.
Okay, that was a bit of an aside, and long way to say that different meds work better for different people. Doctors prescribe different meds depending on specifics of the patients conditions also, but you might ask your cardiologist next time you see him; I'm sure he knows more than I do.
All the best to you!

What is a heart ablation? Is it major surgery? Do most people with A-Fib eventually need it?
Christine

An ablation is when an electrophysiologist (cardiac electrician as mine called himself), runs a catheter into your heart either through the femoral or another vein/artery in your chest, and essentially creates scaring to prevent the erratic electrical signals from causing irregular heart beats. The latest technologies that I am aware of are 1) cryo-ablation, which is done with a cold "balloon" creating scaring around the pulmonary arteries and veins; and 2) Pulse Field ablation, which I am not familiar with. You can probably google (or duck-duck go), or just search on youtube to see some animations of what is involved. I was sedated to the level of being unconscious, but it is not major surgery (if you can call any heart surgery not major), and doesn't require general anesthesia. I was out of the hospital the same day as my surgery.

I don't think most people with A-Fib need to have an ablation. I was on meds, which controlled mine, for several years; for some people, it can be controlled for life with meds.