impact of stress

I've been on the board before - first incident was 5 years ago, diagnosed one yr ago after I went to the hospital. I'm on digitalis ( I know!) and sotalol. After a year w/ no further incident, but many pacs, I'm confident that stress is a huge element in my flutters. A month ago my dad died - and my heart started to flutter that moment. For about 3 weeks I felt it fluttering nd doing flips. About a week ago I took some xanax - very small dose in the morning, and what DIFFERENCE - NOT ONE FLIP FOR A WEEK NOW! Lots of stress in the past couple of years - death of both parents and brother - divorce, etc. I just wanted to share my thoughts. I now take massage once a week, COQ10, manesium, vitamins, etc, and am working at reducing stress. Thanks for your insights, too. Pat

Pat

Sorry to hear you have been having such a tough time of it lately. I really sympathise with you. Sometimes stop gap treatments are the only way to go. It is tough to get through stress like this and keep on smiling. Apart from the divorce I have had a very similar time to you.

I have found the best way to keep stress from getting the better of me is to really take time to look after myself and my diet. That way I can take care of everyone else so much better.

Try to keep the xanax short term, I used valium from to time but did not want to become dependent on it again. I have learnt from bitter experience that it is better to rely on yourself long term than on a pill as long term they have a habit of becoming a bigger problem than the one you were trying to solve.

I hope that soon your life takes a turn for the better. If soemone had told me in April - June this year that my life would have taken a turn around I would never have believed them. All I know now is that nothing is forever - and that includes the hard/bad times.

Best of luck to you

Fran

Pat--

I sympathize very much with what you have gone through. Last year when I had some afib episodes, I had just gone through two deaths in my immediate family and a big move.

Stress is a key, if not THE key, contributor to afib. I have found that a very low dose of an antidepressant reduces my stress response, with no noticeable side effects. I think that if you are to use medication over the long term, the antidepressants may have fewer side affects than the tranquillizers and the antidepressants are not addicting in the same way. I happen to be very sensitive to stress, as a result of trauma when I was a child.

There are of course additional ways of dealing with stress that can be very helpful, a good diet, exercise and meditation.

Most of us in the U.S. live near-unavoidably stressful lives. To have insight, as you do, into this, is quite uncommon and should serve you well.

I just came from a seminar that touched on stress issues....one comment made that was "stress is reality" welcome to life! I guess that's true, but stress affects some of us more than others.... no surprise here.

Finding good coping mechanisms is the key. There are many really good emotional freedome techniques that one can do easily and economically at home that really work....do a google and type in EFT and BSFF. Good programs that work.

Beats time on the "couch."

Jackie

Pat:
Couldn't agree more. The timing of this is interesting. This morning the manager of arguably the world's leading soccer club (Manchester United, with apologies to any Madrilenos on the board!) has been diagnosed with SVT. As in the case of Tony Blair the specialists were quick to say that stress is not the trigger.... but of course they don't know what is.

For me, it has always been a key element, and as Michael said, knowing this will serve you well in other aspects of your health and life in general. Fran's also right in that all things do pass - it's just that stress stops you from seeing that. We all have stress, but some people feel they can't escape from it - THAT'S when it really starts to affect your health. Taking back control of my working life - even though it was a huge risk - has turned out to be the best thing I've ever done.

David (10 months-ish NSR - to be honest, I've stopped counting)

David,
You may be aware that I have been "stressing" the role of stress in afib on this BB, so I was interested to hear that changes that you made in your work life appear to have stopped afib.

Are there are any other factors that might have contributed to the cessation of afib? Are you off drugs? Taking supplements?Etc. ?

Thank you.

Carol

Carol:
At the risk of boring veteran posters (who've heard this before) I'll keep it brief.

Firstly, I don't think I've 'stopped' Afib. I had a period of 2 yrs NSR, only for it to return again briefly. It's a lifelong condition, but its effects can be minimised. These last 3 years have been so much better than the first 2, due I think to 3 things.

Lifestyle changes - I quit my job, started working for myself. Started meditating. I'm not very good at it, but I keep at it. When I don't I can feel the stress build up.

Dietary changes - When you almost always go into Afib after burping, or due to postural tension, it finally dawns on you that there's a connection. I have a hiatus hernia, so I decided to cut right down on gassy, spicy food that make you bloated. I'm now trying to elimate the bad fats, and get more of the good ones. I still eat chips and chocolate, but a lot less than I sued to. Bread is a no-no. Walt Stoll's advice to drink liqusdised ginger root, and practice skilled relaxation was the turning point.

Supplementation - The Mag Glycinate seems to be working really well. It feels as though it limits the sense of inflammation. I still burp, but even if I skip a beat, it seems to right itself, whereas before it would be full-scale red alert.

Meds - I still take Flec, but when I had a run of episodes before, increasing the dose made no difference. I take Losec (proton pump inhibitor) for the digestive. If I miss a day or two the acid really builds up, so it's important. And I take Lipitor after religiously following a low-fat diet with no effect on cholestrol.

My main point is this - even if they told me I was 'cured' of Afib, I would never, ever want to go back to the stress I was living with. It isn't just my physical health that was being affected. If we can sort our minds out, we can live with pretty much anything physically.

Hope this helps.

Dr. Natale states in one of his Cleveland Clinic televised videos that the only proven cause of lone atrial fibrillation is acute doses of alcohol.

It surprises me that other causes - that we have all experienced - besides alcohol have not been documented. It could mean only that researchers haven't checked out other causes or if they did, it was only on animals. How do you conduct laboratory tests on monkeys ingesting chocolate, spicy food, bending over, etc.? ! Furthermore, we all know that afib is a flukey, intermittant symptom.

It doesn't surprise me that Dr. Natale does not acknowledge the role of stress in afib. First of all, it is obviously difficult to document something as ephemeral as stress.

Moreover, my experience has been that most M.D.'s are not receptive to the mind-body concept of health and ill health. They tend to have a mechanistic view of how human beings "work."

Carol