I've been considering if I should cut out caffeine to reduce the incidence of vagal afib. I can understand how caffeine could be bad for someone with adrenergic afib, but does it make a difference with vagal afib?

My afib almost always occurs in my sleep, during when my heart rate is low (between 50 to 60 bpm), and I sometimes wonder if stimulants could actually help prevent it. But possibly the rebound effect of caffeine could have a negative impact. I currently drive 2 cups of coffee or tea a day, one in the morning and one in the evening.

Have others with vagal afib found it beneficial to eliminate caffeine?

Thanks,

Mark

Mark,

Some here who determined that coffee was a trigger switched to organic coffee and found it did not trigger.

On the caffeine being OK for vagal afib, see what I and others have written about ginger for vagal afib: <[www.google.com]

George

In my opinion, the caffeine is likely to more harm than good. It is a powerful diuretic and will make you lose electrolytes which will worsen any arrhythmia that you might be temporarily addressing with the coffee. I'd cut it out if possible.

A true diuretic causes you to loose fluids (more than you ingest). But for coffee, you drink an 8 oz cup of coffee and then urinate 6 oz because of the caffeine, but you still gain some fluid, just not as effective as non-caffeinated drinks.

From and article on the subject:

Quote

If you regularly enjoy a few cups of coffee or tea a day, then you can rest assured the moderate amount of caffeine they contain doesn't cause you to lose more fluid than you ingest, says Lisa Renn, accredited practicing dietitian and spokesperson for the Dietitians Association of Australia.

Hydrating with coffee isn't going to do much, but it's better than not drinking anything. If you consume ample liquid from other sources, coffee shouldn't be a big deal. If you think caffeine is a trigger, then stay away, but for me, coffee and or caffeine drinks were never a trigger.

Switching to organic really helped and 2 cups is usually enough.
And never on empty stomach. Which, at a restaurant, means
waiting for the meal first.
Sometimes organic hard to find at restaurant.

Thanks for the feedback. Maybe I'll try switching to organic.

I have been trying adding ginger to my regimen. It hasn't yet been the magic bullet, but I'll experiment some more to see if it helps. With my recent streak of episodes, I'm wondering if I need to take Flecainide nightly for a while, after which maybe I can taper. I've got an appointment with my new EP next week so I'll see what he says.

Mark - organic makes sense when you consider that coffee beans are the most highly pesticided crop... and all imports to the US are additionally fumigated as well at the border.

However, caffeine is well known to be a stimulant and causes excess production of cortisol (the stress hormone)... which is typically troublesome when one also has arrhythmia.

Organic, decaffeinated makes sense for afibbers.

Jackie