About six months ago, I realized that I was experiencing atrial fibrillation. It likely was happening prior to that at a level where I wasn’t aware of it. The testing ordered by my cardiologist seems to indicate that my heart is otherwise healthy, so it would seem that I have lone atrial fibrillation. I’m 58 years old, fit, have been on a paleo diet for 12 years, and don’t have high blood pressure. As far as risk factors, the only one I check off would be sleep apnea. I’ve never been formally diagnosed or treated for that, but I know it is present.
I was very glad to find this site and the information contained herein. I was wondering if there are any statistics on the percentage of people who are able to treat their AFib successfully with supplementation only. Is there some time frame for seeing a positive result? How long should one continue with the supplementation approach before deeming it unsuccessful and moving on the next step of the strategy?

I have never seen any stats like that, although they may exist. Also, what is supplementation...per se? What will it comprise, and how would you go about determining what it is to comprise? Some of our members here do very well by a self-imposed regimen of a kind of abstinence in some ways and supplementation in others. For example, GeorgeN refrains from excessive calcium intake, but he supplements with fairly substantial daily intake of magnesium in one or more formulations. So far, he has done amazingly well and uses a pill-in-pocket approach to beat down the very rare, annual, bout of AF he experiences...if I recall his details...he'll surely comment before long.

If I were to hazard a guess, about 50% of all AF sufferers could have the same results as George's, or close to them, if they adopted a strict regimen to deal with apparent triggers. The rest of us rely on the medical establishment to drug us, lecture us, and to treat us with cardioversions, if they work, and ablations. Or pacemakers.

Going back to the beginning of your statement, how did you learn that you were experiencing AF? If you felt it, you may have been sufficiently symptomatic from the outset and it is indeed brand new...as in a week or three. Some of us don't know, regretfully until it's too late to prevent atrial enlargement. But a great many of us feel it right away and we want to get it treated. If your imaging shows no atrial enlargement, it's about as sure a sign as anything that you are in the very early stages.

Gloaming is correct about me. My initial afib was over 20 years ago (I'm now 69). Within a month or so, I had figured out my path to afib was likely excessive endurance exercise. My afib also progressed to a 2 1/2 month episode, starting about 2 months in. The data were sparse for creating a plan, but when my EP suggested I stay out of rhythm as he did not like the rhythm meds or ablation (at that time) I suggested a "Plan B" that included revamping my training (this ended up meaning that I limited exertion on long duration activity to what I could do while nasal breathing or currently called "Zone 2" - more exertion was a delayed vagal trigger, for me), as well as supplementing electrolytes which I subsequently settled on potassium, magnesium and the amino acid, taurine. Much later, I determined that excess calcium intake (for me) "lowered the bar" for triggers as well as precipitating "no trigger" afib. Many say that figuring out triggers is a waste of time. When I'm consuming excess (for me) calcium, this is true for me. However I when I'm hitting I also asked for a script for on-demand flecainide to be used to convert when I went out of rhythm. The initial paper on doing this was published in 2004. The EP accepted my plan, but gave me little advice, except to take B6 with my magnesium. I've basically followed this template since, with generally good results, though there have been anomalies I've had to figure out. I also pay extreme attention to how things impact my afib and I'm pretty disciplined about following my plan.

Statistically, most people think I'm (or my story) is a purple unicorn.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2025 12:21AM by GeorgeN.

Quote
gloaming
Going back to the beginning of your statement, how did you learn that you were experiencing AF? If you felt it, you may have been sufficiently symptomatic from the outset and it is indeed brand new...as in a week or three. Some of us don't know, regretfully until it's too late to prevent atrial enlargement. But a great many of us feel it right away and we want to get it treated. If your imaging shows no atrial enlargement, it's about as sure a sign as anything that you are in the very early stages.

I mentioned that I have been following a paleo diet for a long time, and as part of that, I incorporate intermittent fasting: I try to limit myself to two meals per day, and also I was in the habit of fasting for about 36 hours once a week. I started noticing an abnormally high (for me) heart rate on the mornings after fasting. Closer inspection revealed my pulse to be somewhat irregular. I had purchased a home blood pressure monitor that also can take an EKG. When I tested myself, it confirmed atrial fibrillation.
The echocardiogram that my cardiologist ordered for me showed a normal (age-appropriate) heart; there was no mention of atrial enlargement in the report.
That said, progression seems to have been fairly rapid: the average time between AFib episodes is only about three days, and the average duration is about 14 hours, with an increasing trend. The longest episode so far has been about 39 hours.
The Halter monitor also showed bradycardia while I was asleep (min 36 bpm), and pauses greater than three seconds, so my cardiologist won't give me the drugs without me first being fitted with a pacemaker—neither of which I'm very enthusiastic about.
I started taking the magnesium, potassium, taurine, and other supplements recommended herein, but so far (about two weeks in), I haven't seen any significant effect. Before I came across this website, I had found some references indicating some success treating AFib using acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicines, so I'm giving that a try as well. I've been doing that for about two months and also can report no major effect; the AFib incidents are still happening.
At some point, if I don't see any improvement, I'll have to consider other options (e.g., what the cardiologist is proposing). Hence, my question—to try to gauge when to escalate.

"Timeframe for Results?"

In my case, if I'm turning the correct "knob" or pulling the correct "lever," results are pretty rapid. That doesn't mean it hasn't taken me a long time to figure out the correct knob/lever to adjust.

For example, I've mentioned calcium restriction. I learned this 12-13 years ago. I was eating a low carb diet and I went through a divorce. My normally excellent afib control got materially worse. I thought it was divorce stress that there was nothing I could do. As I was on a low carb diet, I thought I got a free pass stress eating wheels of brie. After about a year, I reread the literature and wondered if the calcium in the brie (my only dairy and only concentrated source of calcium) could be the bad actor. I quit the brie and my afib control immediately went back to my pre divorce level.

Initially my afib, in 2004, would last about 6-9 hours every 10-14 days. Then, after about 2 months, I had an episode that would not convert. I converted it with a loading dose of flecainide after 2.5 months of persistent afib. I implemented the plan I posted here.. Immediately my control was dramatically better than before the episode.

Becoming keto adapted (which I did in 2009 and have maintained since) can impact electrolytes. In my case, I had an episode during my adaptation that was related to the electrolyte changes. These electrolyte changes can be caused by the lower insulin levels associated with a low carb or keto diet. The low insulin signals the kidneys to excrete sodium and this can be dramatic enough that the body excretes potassium along with the sodium.

Mine began in mid 2015 and was continuous for almost 4 months. Spent 5 or 6 days in hospital (waste of time) and had 2 cardioversions. first one was good for 1 hour, second one (several weeks later held for months (forget how long exactly.
Cardiologist told me that mine will be permanent and my atria was quite enlarged. Didn't take to beta blockers. Went to an alternative (she actually lectures med students at Monash University ) who gave me an Hawthorn berries extract/liquid and i began to drink Hawthorn berries tea after a few weeks on that extract. Kept drinking this tea adding other herbs for several months then i stopped.
Long story short, it kept me in NSR for a few years and after a check up my left atria was almost normal size.
These days, it's come back since a couple of years back (2 or so) paroxysmal and i take Flec as PIP or when i feel that something is not quite right about to happen. Usually converts me in a few hours, longest about 24 hours so far.
I've began to drink that tea again but not regularly as well.
BTW, i had a 40/42 hour fast two weeks ago taking nothing except water with a bit of bentonite and psyllium - no sign of AF

Ultimately, i may have been lucky so far and all the above mean nothing and aren't relevant to anybody else. For context, my BMI is about 22 and will be 75 this coming march - fingers crossed

Good Luck!