Could my afib be all down to calcium?

After reading lots of posts on this forum (many from GeorgeN) I'm wondering if calcium could have started my afib.

My story.
I started to have gut problems 5 years ago, waking after 2-3 hours with stomach pains, I was prescribed PPI's that didn't help much so I would chew 4 Rennie antacids (calcium carbonate 625mg/each)before bed and 4 again when I woke with pain, this helped with the stomach pain and let me sleep, I did this for about 1 year and then a CT scan spotted kidney stones so I reduced the use of the antacids assuming the calcium my have caused them.
I was still using some antacids when I had my first afib attack 4 years ago, like GeorgeN I think mine is vagaly triggered I was sitting relaxed leaning forward typing into a laptop when I felt what was like indigestion I carried on typing and next thing I new my heart was racing 130+ my resting HR is 50-55, I went to the ED and was there for 5 hours before reseting to NSR. My second afib was 1 month later and started exactly the same way this time I returned to NSR after 9 hours. My cardiologist prescribed me PIP's and I got a Kardia so I could manage the next afib at home.
I found with the FODMAP diet I could stop my stomach pains without meds and for the next 3 years if I ever felt that indigestion feeling I would stand up and was afib free.

6 months ago after a shower I was bending to dry my feet and and went into afib I took my PIP (100mg flec/ 60mg Diltiazem) and converted to NSR in 90 mins. Because I was now getting bad bloating after food I started a low carb + FODMAP diet which was very restrictive so to get enough calories I was eating 100-150 g of cheddar cheese everyday and in the last 3 weeks I have had 2 more fibs attacks, both times I woke in afib and used PIP to reset to NSR, since being on this diet I noticed a lot more PACs and caught a few on my Kardia.

I have now stopped eating the cheese and trying to reduce my calcium intake to under 500mg/day to see if this helps reduce the PAC's and afib.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

By the way I caught my last Afib conversion on my Kardia I was trying GeorgeN's triangular breathing and it worked. pic attached.

I dunno. My AF would come on when bending over to pick something up off the floor or to tie my shoes, and my Ca scores are low/normal. I also don't have coronary artery disease, probably because my Ca scores are normal.

I think you have the typical vagal/electro response to AF, meaning an ablation should fix you up. I would give several diets a try for at least two full weeks and see if things settle down. You aren't using an artificial sweeteners, are you? They're terrible for the gut biome. Use only erythritol-free stevia.

How is your weight? Do you have substantial visceral adiposity? That's a problem if you do. Get rid of it as soon as possible. A spare tire isn't so bad, but visceral fat is a no-no.

How about alcohol? Again, avoid it like the plague if you have gut problems.

I am 61 years old 5'11" was 65kg but lost 4kg on this low carb diet it's hard to get enough calories with not much carb and no sugars, I don't drink or smoke and go to the gym 3 times a week. I am only on the diet to stop my gut problems, they get worse with lactose or glutens. After going 3 years without afib I was hoping to avoid ablation but with these 3 recent attacks I'm now not sure.

I seriously doubt that calcium or any other single element is the cause of your afib. The cause of your afib is known as atrial myopathy, which basically means that cardiologists don't know exactly what causes it but they agree that it indicates an illness in your atrial tissue. It is a form of heart disease and that's why the term "lone afib" is no longer used.

So the real question you're asking is what triggers my afib? Figuring out triggers is the holy grail of people with afib, and in my experience most people guess wrong a lot more than they are right. I can't count how many times I've seen people declare X is a trigger for them after a single episode occurring that followed X closely in time. A single correlation is a coincidence until proven otherwise. People give up all sorts of things they enjoy, often needlessly. Doctors still go around preaching that afibbers should give up caffeine despite a near complete lack of evidence it promotes afib and some evidence it's actually helpful. So, my point is that in your search for triggers, be very selective and don't call one identified until you can reproduce it multiple times. Yes, that means risking another episode, but if you want to identify triggers you're going to have to take that risk.

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Carey
I seriously doubt that calcium or any other single element is the cause of your afib. The cause of your afib is known as atrial myopathy, which basically means that cardiologists don't know exactly what causes it but they agree that it indicates an illness in your atrial tissue. It is a form of heart disease and that's why the term "lone afib" is no longer used.

So the real question you're asking is what triggers my afib? Figuring out triggers is the holy grail of people with afib, and in my experience most people guess wrong a lot more than they are right. I can't count how many times I've seen people declare X is a trigger for them after a single episode occurring that followed X closely in time. A single correlation is a coincidence until proven otherwise. People give up all sorts of things they enjoy, often needlessly. Doctors still go around preaching that afibbers should give up caffeine despite a near complete lack of evidence it promotes afib and some evidence it's actually helpful. So, my point is that in your search for triggers, be very selective and don't call one identified until you can reproduce it multiple times. Yes, that means risking another episode, but if you want to identify triggers you're going to have to take that risk.

Thanks for the reply, I guess I am really looking for my triggers but was just thinking because I was eating 7,000mg of calcium a day for almost a year and am pretty sure that caused my kidney stones I was just wondering if the extra calcium may have started my afib a few years earlier than it may have done otherwise and now the extra calcium in my diet may have now been triggers.

Maybe instead of chewing calcium carbonate tablets switch to baking soda. Just dissolve a tablespoon of baking soda in a glass of water and drink it. I find that works as well or better than antacid tablets, and is definitely faster.

Did you ever see a gastroenterologist about the stomach pains? If not, I would.

I did use the baking soda in water after I stoped the antacids. now I don't need either if I stick to a strict diet. If i avoid lactose and fructans and some fructose its ok now.

I have had about 5 endoscopies They did find a duodenal tumour 5 years ago that they said was an incidental finding it was resected early enough so I didn't need any chemo but that wasn't causing the stomach pain, they also found some mild gastritis and a sliding hiatal hernia which my EP thinks could be my afib trigger as it touches the left atrium.

My gastroenterologist as all other tests were negative just put it down to IBS which just means they don't know.

IBS triggers epinephrine, or adrenalin, which will trigger an attack of AF.

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gloaming
IBS triggers epinephrine, or adrenalin, which will trigger an attack of AF.

IBS is a diagnosis of exclusion which really means they don't know what the problem is and as I don't get most of the common symptoms they call IBS(only stomach pain) you can't really say that my "IBS" triggers epinephrine, or adrenalin.

To Carey's point, in my case, calcium was not my initial trigger, which was likely too much long duration, high heart rate endurance exercise. At the time of my initial afib episode in 2004, I was eating a whole food vegan diet, so not high in calcium (however low taurine from the vegan diet could have contributed). It was around 8 years later, eating a low carb diet, that my material consumption of cheese increased my calcium. This increase in calcium did significantly increase my afib episode propensity which decreased dramatically when I reduced calcium intake. However the initial "switch" turning on afib in my body had already been thrown.

Steve Carr has kept his afib at bay and calcium reduction was a big part of that. His site. Steve's afibbers.org posts here. Discussion of Steve's posts on afibbers.org here.

Thanks George the Steve Carr links are very helpful and also thanks for the triangular breathing technique which worked to reset my last episode.

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SimonR
thanks for the triangular breathing technique which worked to reset my last episode.

I'm glad that worked for you. I'm also glad you mentioned it, as it is always good to get feedback and learn that it works for others. For those who haven't seen that post, it is here.

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GeorgeN

thanks for the triangular breathing technique which worked to reset my last episode.

I'm glad that worked for you. I'm also glad you mentioned it, as it is always good to get feedback and learn that it works for others. For those who haven't seen that post, it is here.

I was also glad I caught it working on my Kardia. Incase you didn't see it on my previous post.

[www.afibbers.org]

Many other threads on calcium

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SimonR

IBS triggers epinephrine, or adrenalin, which will trigger an attack of AF.




IBS is a diagnosis of exclusion which really means they don't know what the problem is and as I don't get most of the common symptoms they call IBS(only stomach pain) you can't really say that my "IBS" triggers epinephrine, or adrenalin.

Yes, I surely can, and did when I taught about the stress response and how to mitigate the deleterious effects as a professional. Any time you are under duress, and that certainly includes attacks of IBS, or even the fear that one might be imminent, your system produces both cortisol and epinephrine. It might be low amplitude and of low duration, but it doesn't follow that the body won't react the same way it does to all stressors.

I should correct my quoted text above to 'may'. It is not absolute that increased serum levels of epinephrine will absolutely trigger AF.

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gloaming

Any time you are under duress, and that certainly includes attacks of IBS, or even the fear that one might be imminent, your system produces both cortisol and epinephrine..

Ah ok thanks I didn't know that.

I guess in the same way then after feeling PAC's the fear that it might turn into afib might actually be a trigger itself.

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SimonR
I guess in the same way then after feeling PAC's the fear that it might turn into afib might actually be a trigger itself.

Bingo!

Fear of afib might be the biggest trigger of all.

It is getting more distant for me, thank God, but I seem to recall wondering if I were about to enter AF, or if I had just had one or two ectopics because of the sensation in my chest wall, and then ...BAM! The PACs would start, or I'd have a run of AF.