Deep Breathing Trigger AF?

I am new to this forum, reading the posts here has been a great help.

I was diagnosed with Paroxysmal AF in 2019 (stress induced), one episode every a few months in 2020 and 2021. Since summer 2022, episodes come and go much more frequently, by now I am getting one episode every week and it always started during the night sleep (I don't think I have sleep apnea but testing it next week anyway). I started seeing an EP in January and have been using Flecainide 100mg as PIP which works for me. Also, I had a normal Echo and stress test result last October, I am healthy in general.

This morning when I wake up at 6am I practiced the deep breathing technique learned last night on YouTube. After a few minutes of practicing suddenly I had an episode. I am really confused, I thought deep breathing supposed to help calming down and lowing the heart rate, not triggering it?

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Yuxi
This morning when I wake up at 6am I practiced the deep breathing technique learned last night on YouTube. After a few minutes of practicing suddenly I had an episode. I am really confused, I thought deep breathing supposed to help calming down and lowing the heart rate, not triggering it?

I'm a breath nerd and know that breathing is powerful. There are many different techniques and these can have different physiological impacts. When you say deep, I assume you mean breathing with the diaphragm into the lower lung lobes? Were these also full breaths? About how long for an inhale and how long for an exhale, in seconds?

Thanks for your reply, George. Yes, I was doing full deep breath, 4 seconds in, hold 4 seconds, then 6 seconds out. I am not sure about "breathing with the diaphragm into the lower lung lobes" though.

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Yuxi
I was doing full deep breath, 4 seconds in, hold 4 seconds, then 6 seconds out. I am not sure about "breathing with the diaphragm into the lower lung lobes" though.

For diaphragmatic breathing (which is suggested in many yoga relaxation breathing techniques), if you are on your back with one hand on your stomach and one on your chest, the stomach hand should go up and the the chest hand stay still or only move after the lowest part of the lung is completely full.

What I was thinking is that perhaps you were hyperventilating. Now your 4 in, 4 hold and 6 out pattern is a bit less than four breaths a minute, and probably isn't hyperventilating. What really defines hyperventilation is if you are exhaling carbon dioxide faster than your body is making it. Hyperventilation can stimulate the sympathetic or "fight and flight" part of the nervous system. This would make your heart rate and blood pressure increase. If you were taking in a large volume of air, it might be hyperventilating. You may not want to try this pattern again, but if you did, I would breathe in slowly, again using your diaphragm for the 4 seconds. So there is a difference between "deep" and "big." What you want is "deep" in the sense of bringing the air into the lower part of your lungs but not big. If you are breathing in slowly & taking in less air, then the times for holding and exhaling may have to be shorter. Doing this should condition your body to slightly accumulating carbon dioxide (which is what signals the urge to breathe). If not done to an extreme, where you feel a strong urge to breathe, should be relaxing and stimulating what is called the vagal or parasympathetic nervous system (or "rest & digest"). There are afibbers where a strong increase in vagal tone can be a trigger. As well there are others where a strong increase in sympathetic tone can be a trigger. See: [www.afibbers.org]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2023 02:25AM by GeorgeN.

Thanks for the explanation, this makes perfect sense to me. I was trying too hard to inhale as much air as I can. For the time being I would not dare to do this again lol