Atrial Fibrillation at 27

[parmb]

Hi, I am a 27 year old healthy male. I work as a physical education teacher and consider myself to be relatively healthy. I had my first episode of atrial fibrillation at the end of May. I had to be cardioverted to restore it to normal. Then about 3 months later at the end of August I had another episode of atrial fibrillation and had to be cardioverted again. It is the middle of November now, and I had to be cardioverted again yesterday for the 3rd time. My symptoms were all different all 3 times. The first time I had only leg pain, 2nd time I went flush and palpiations and a racing heart, and the third time I had mild palpitations. My holters (2) of them were normal, my echocardiogram was normal..no alcohol or drug abuse.I dont drink caffine..I just dont get it..any one else in the same boat? I am wating to see an electrophysiologist for an EP study to see what is going on. My hope is that this can be corrected quickly. I am taking metroporal and asprin daily. I am way too young for heart problems, and the stress is what is bothering me most! Can stress and anxiety cause Atrial Fibrillation??

[dquenzer]

It is not uncommon for people that are in phyically good condition to get AFIB.  There are a number of basketball players in the NBA that have had the problem.  Stress and axiety can percipitate occurances, but they are not the underlying cause.  The underlying cause is something wrong with the way the electricity is conducted in your heart muscle.  

I am 52 and have been a runner most of my life (still run).  I got AFIB when I was in my mid 40's.  Tried different meds to keep me in rythmn but nothing worked for very long.  I went to see a doctor at Mayo and he recommended an ablation because he was sure that the cause of my AFIB was coming from my pulmonary veins.  This is a typical for athletic hearts.  I had an ablation four years ago and it worked.

An EP study will determine the cause and whether an ablation would be successful.  I know that at age 27 this is hard to take.  But remember you do not have heart disease.  AFIB is treatable.  Hang in there .  I know it can be very frustrating.  I tried meds for 3 years before I had the ablation.  You think you do everything right and then something like this pops up.

I am in a study at Mayo to see if heredity plays a part because my Mom, sister, and brother have had AFIB or flutter.  My brother had an ablation this year for flutter.  My sister doesn't have it often except when she has an allergy reaction.  My Mom, now deceased, had to be on a pacemaker later in life.

[anacyde]

I think dquenzer answered this perfectly, and I don't have much to add other than to agree.  I have SVT, which is also a rapid atrial rhythm, and stress does contribute but is not the cause.  I'm a healthy young woman, in good shape, eat very healthy and abstain from all drugs (even OTC stuff) and I still get SVT on occasion.  Atrial arrythmias don't seem to care how healthy we are.

Best wishes to you in getting this figured out and under control.  You are a young healthy guy, and I think you're going to do just fine with proper management of the symptoms and episodes.  While frustrating, it is something you can treat.

Happy holidays to you.

[parmb]

Thank you so much for your answers and comments. I think that I will opt for the ablation procedure  right away over the meds. I would rather get it taken care of once. After reading through the many postings and websites..everyone says the same thing..the meds dont work. I hope I am a candidate for ablation.

I am just crossing my fingers and praying that a pacemaker will not be involved at all. I hope that they can just find the affected areas on the atria and use the catheder to ablate them.

dquenzer: how many ablations did you have to have to correct the afib? How often did you go into Afib before the ablation? Its really good to connect with people with similar experiences. At first I was freaked out..but am more calm about it now. Its weird, when I read the info about afib on the internet I read differing views. Some say that the ablation works in 80-100% of the people who get it, and others say that it only works in 20-30 % of the procedures. Not sure of which facts are actually true.Thanks again for your support.

[jmatt73]

Hey, you need to call me...we have very similar stories. I am 34 and am also considering an ablation for afib very soon. I have been conversing with several folks on the Yahoo Groups , A-Fib site that have helped me come to grips with this pain in the *** condition. One guy that I have been talking to is 28 and has given me alot of advice. He lives in Orlando, I live in Dallas, how about you? I wish I could find a whole network of 20 and 30-something folks battling this. Feel free to email me your # (***@****) and we can chat about this some time. It seems to make me feel alot easier, the more younger people I talk to that are in this same, rare boat.Below is my original post:

Hello to all,

I am new here and relatively new to A Fib. I am a 34 year old male with no history of heart disease. I am healthy otherwise just very slightly overweight. I have also been very active/athletic most of my life. I have never smoked, used to drink heavy in college but now am just a social drinker and never used any illicit drugs.

So here goes my story...

I had a brief bout with panic attacks around the ages of 19-22. I did have palpitations back then but they seemed a lot less infrequent and went away when I was on the meds. So the Drs. just chalked it up as anxiety. I took Xanax for awhile and then turned to Klonopin which seemed to completely cure my panic disorder. I had EKGs back then that were completely normal. So I went on living my "bulletproof" 20's with no more problems.

Fast forward to my 30's...

4 years ago, I started taking the deadly OTC weight loss stimulant, Metabolife. Big NO-NO! I noticed the increased palpitations; especially at night when I would lay down to go to sleep. I also noticed that any time that I would drink alcohol excessively, I would get palpitations from that as well. Still taking the Metabolife with effedra, I went in to see my family Dr. and he immediately told me to throw that garbage in the trash! They did an EKG in his office which showed that I was in AFib. He then sent me to my first Cardiologist appt. and they made me do an echo stress and Holter for 48 hours. Heart structure looked great and Holter produced only a few skipped, premature beats but still in NSR...I was bulletproof again!

2 months ago, I went in to see the family MD again and mentioned in passing, that I was again having palpitations at night. I also explained to him that I had developed a Starbucks addiction over the past few years and had been drinking A LOT of caffeine. Keep in mind, during this entire 4 year hiatus; I was jogging 3 miles regularly, playing full-court basketball in a church league...no other symptoms other than night palpitations. No fatigue, trouble breathing, etc. He said cut back on the caffeine, did another EKG, yep...back in AFib.

So new trip to the Cardiologist, prescribed me Digoxin, this time a 14 day monitor, and echo in his office. Heart again looked good just had a very slight enlarged left atrium 44cm. but looked normal. The monitor results however, showed that I was pretty much in persistent AFib the entire 10 days that I wore it. His thoughts were to do a TEE and cardioversion...I PANICKED!! What? I have 3 small, beautiful kids at home...you can't shock my heart! I was also freaked out because of my age. It's so rare for folks in their 30's.

So it was on to the EP which they too concluded, cardioversion would be best right now given my age, lack of symptoms, etc. He prescribed me Coumadin to get my INR to 2, which I am currently on. Also a calcium blocker and high blood pressure medicine which I have never had hypertension but he said it was good for rhythm as well (forgot the names of these off-hand). Cardizem is one of them I think? So I went from never taking anything other than my anxiety pills for a brief time to 4 heart drugs now...NOW I'M REALLY FREAKED OUT! I have cut out all caffeine in the last few weeks and have begun a diet to go from 230 back down to 190. But, I am too scared to exercise because of the condition even though they said moderate cardio is fine for now.

I am going to see another EP for a second opinion on Monday and I am just really terrified by all of these recent, turn of events in my life. I am to the point now where I have calmed down somewhat about the cardioversion but it still worries me. What if the shock flatlines me? What if it sends me into VFib or some other crazy, worse rhythm? I have been reading about ablations, cryotherapy, etc. One side of me wants to just do the cardioversion, get back in NSR and stay there hopefully forever, with the help of Rythmol (sp?) or maybe no more meds. Another side of me says, let's just do the ablation now because of the better cure rate and be done with all meds. Another side of me says, do the cardioversion and if I do go back into AFib, look at what even new and improved techniques are available in 5-10 years.

I am here obviously for lots of advice and courage. Maybe I am being too much of a wimp and irrational about all of this? Please, please help me feel better about this condition and share any, personal stories, similar or not with me. Sorry to write such a long, detailed note but I wanted to cover everything. The most important thing in my life is my family and being there for them long term. I just need to do whatever it takes for me to see those grandkids and great grandkids one day! :)

I sure do appreciate any feedback and stories. If there is any one out there that is relatively close to my age and have experienced this, those would be some comforting replies as well.

Thank you all in advance and God Bless!

[parmb]

Hey, the cardioversion is only a temporary cure for afib. From what I have read and researched..the 2 ways to get rid of afib are cardioversion (shock) or chemical version. I have had 3 cardioversions done in the last 5 1/2 months. They fix the problem, temporarily, but it came back a couple of months later. Unless you have an underlying condition (heart problems, thyroid condition, severe alcohol abuse, etc) the afib will most likely come back.

From what I have read the only long term treatment options are:

1. Meds
2. Surgery

The meds work for some time but cause side effects and are not 100% successful. From everything I read, I would go for option #2. Depending on the type of AFib you have, the EP will recommend a procedure for you. The options in general are the maze procedure (open heart surgery, where they make a grid pattern in your atria) or the catheder ablation (minimally invasive). The results for the first one are pretty good..about a 96-98% cure rate. The catheder ablation has mixed results from what I read, but I hope it works for my sake! It also depends on where you get it done and the experience of the EP. I live in Toronto ON Canada and am being referred to a good EP so I am not that worried anymore.

You are your worst enemy. I was freaked out for a while then i realized what happens is going to happen. Dont stress