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Atrial Fibrillation at 27

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??
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612551 tn?1450022175
COMMUNITY LEADER
I see the match on 27 with the originator of this thread, but it is usually best to start a new thread.

I have only afib in common with you, I can't even remember being 27 : (

The medications you are on can and usually do cause side effects including shortness of breath, dizziness, general fatigue, low energy ... crap!  But, not high blood pressure, some you take to control heart rate also lower blood pressure.  So I find that symptom strange.  You didn't mention an anticoagulant (coumadin) or I just didn't recognize it.  I would think that would be part of your regiment and it has few side effects other than bleeding - hey good health is hard to find, but at your age have optimism you should recover.

I think you should discuss specific symptoms that may be side-effects and see if you can get something lowered.  I have taken Propafenone for several years (in the past, not now) and I don't think it had a troubling side effect, I was still running (10 minute miles, not fast but go for someone 60).
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Avatar universal
I am a 27 year old man who just recently found out I have A-fib. One day 6 months ago I was feeling very weird palpitations and feeling weak. I had been experiencing my heart pounding and always palpitating for over a year at that point. I self medicated myself with Xanax thinking I had severe anxiety which was the reason my heart was acting up. I went to a resort to go swimming and within a couple minutes of being in the pool I had passed out under water. No one really knows how long I was under but I got pulled out of the pool and someone there immediately gave my CPR, while waiting on the ambulance to arrive. Once the EMT's first arrived my heart rate was over 240 and they couldn't get it any lower then 200. I don't remember anything that happen until I was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. When I arrived to the emergency room no one had any clue what was going on with me. They couldn't get my heart rate stabilized. After a couple days in the NICU and many tests later from blood work to CAT scans, I found out I had gone into A-FIB. I've had MVP my whole life and my father had just received an oblation for A-FIB as well. After leaving the hospital I was prescribed metoprolol, propafenone, and clonazepam. I've been taking all that for the last 6 months but still wasn't feeling a 100 percent. My doctor had noticed my blood pressure was extremely high for the past couple months and decided to put me on lisinopril. Today I couldn't feel any better, I haven't felt this good in a very long time! It's definitely been tough dealing with being as I'm so young but you got to have faith, and always keep your head up :)
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1647463 tn?1301315053
i am in england, i take tythroid 75 ml.atenalol,warferin 5 ,dixocel.and a couple more things, i had afib last year ,i dont smoke and dont drink since last year, used to drink ALOT, get afib 1-2 times a week ,i had the cardio shock thingy but didnot work ,shall i go back again?
carol
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Avatar universal
Hey Guys

Im from the UK.

Im 24 was diagnosed with this condition when 20! . Ive had the atrial ablation when 22. Not the most pleasant of experiences but nonetheless worth it. Beats being on meds all your life.

Since then ( fingers crossed) i have not had another episode ( my heart would hit 260+ easy, whilst playing sports).

Ive just had an ECG today, and the print off report stated possible enlarged left side of heart. I am wondering if this is a common occurrence in people with AFIB/flutter. I had an ECG a year ago and i remember them saying the same thing. However nothing is being done about it, so i am assuming it is normal.

This condition especially when young is harrowing. Because ultimately its your heart, you think the worse, but i have been told its more common than people think, some people just have it more severe than others.

Let me know if you want any advice on ablation.

Adz

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Avatar universal
Hey, you need to get your cardiologist to refer you to an electrophysiologist. That is a cardiologist with more training that specializes in heart rythm disorders. I am 29 years old now myself. I had 3 episodes of afib over a 7 month span back in 2007 where I had to be cardioverted with paddles, and nothing really since then. I have had minor irregular beats that self converted into synus rythms on there own probably due to stress, etc. I exercise all the time and went to university for physical education. I also worked as a physical education teacher and consider myself to be quite healthy. Afib is a real nuissance but not life threatening. The reason the cardiologist gave you the aspirin a day regime is to prevent your blood from clotting and causing a stroke if you go into afib. You need to see an EP (Electrophysiologist) and get an EP study done to find out why you have afib. I had one done last January and it came back with nothing abnormal.

My doc told me to take an aspirin a day as well, but when you play sports, the risk of bleed increases and being young my family doctor says the risk of stroke is super low. I am not taking any meds and just exercise eat well and try to be stress free. If you are trying to get pregnant, I would stay away from the aspirin. I could be wrong, but talk to as many medical professionals as you can. Read the side effects and such on your own, just dont take the docs word for it. I think a big part of afib is stress..even though the medical professionals will not always say that. Hope this helps.

Parm
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Avatar universal
I am a 29 year-old female with AFIB.  I was diagnosed at age 27.  I have be in athletics my entire life and keep a generally healty diet.  There are no previous heart conditions in my family.  I get episodes any where from once a week to once every 6 months.  Some are the fast almost pound out of your chest kind and some are calm off-beat episodes.  I can't seem to find what triggers them.  Right now I take an aspirin a day to thin my blood.  My husband and I are trying to get pregnant and more than likely I will be considered a high-risk pregnancy.  I have an appointment with a cardiologist in a couple of weeks for another consultation.  The first time I went to see the cardiologist, he basically just told me to take an aspirin a day and sent me on my way.  Do I get another opinion?  
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Avatar universal
Hi all, I haven't checked this forum in a while but thought I would email everyone as some had a lot of questions that I didnt answer as of yet.

I had a EP study done back in January 2008. It came back normal, and they recommended me for the ablation procedure that following summer. However I decided not to do it. I was just a bit hesitant about it. Though it is very safe, I am still very young and decided to see what happens naturally and go from there. My last afib episode happened in november 2007. I am going on over a year and a half now without an episode. I am seeing my EP specialist every year now and he has recommended baby aspirin a day for me. I dont take any other pills other then that. I had 3 episodes over a 7 month period from may 2007-nov 2007 and nothing since.

The clinic I went to here in Canada was at Southlake Regional Hospital, Heart Rythm Clinic. They have an 80% success rate the first time, and it goes up over 95% if they do a 2nd procedure. (The Heart heals itself so they may do another ablation).

In the U.S. the best of the best is the cleveland clinic forsure. The doctors at the clinic I go to are trained from there and thats where they did their ep training.

I think stress plays a big part of this. I have suffered from some anxiety because of this over the last couple of years.

I hope all of you are doing well. Take care
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Avatar universal
Thank you all for the comments and sharing the experiences.
Would someone actually name names of the best EP's and/or diagnostic centers and clinics or hospitals to go for treatment? I am in New Orleans but will go where I need to.  Also, can you excercise when taking beta blockers and rhythmols?
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Avatar universal
Thank you all for sharing your stories, I had my first bout with Afib four days ago and honestly before the diagnoses I hadn't even heard of such a thing. I am a 29 year old male who works out at least five days a week religously, on top of that I have a very full life where 90% of the time I'm working (stressful). I have a very healthy lifestyle and go as far as to only drink water and never eat unhealty foods, actually I am very obsessive complusive about what I eat and do always thinking about health. So after explaining that you can only imagine how depressed and crushed I am after having this nightmare happen to me. I won't bore you with the details but they had to use medication to set me back into SR.
While in the hospital they ran numerous test and found nothing??? My Doctor told me I was the most stable patient he had. Correct me if I'm wrong but to me this was a major disaster in my life and something had to cause it. I am shocked at how minor everyone here seems to think this is. Honestly, I am scared to exercise or do anything else because I fear stressing my heart will land me back in the hospital or something even more tragic could happen like death.
Since my nightmare I have developed major anxiety and depression and I feel like I'm alone, I am going for a second opinion in which this Doctor is suppose to be a master at this>

Idk do any of you have any thoughts on my situation????

Thanks,
Rob
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Avatar universal
I would like to know the names of best doctors that are known for their sucess rate in performing radio frequency ablations and also ingeneral percentage sucess rate of ablations ?

is is advisable for athletles , can they limit my sporting abilities ?,

if i have AF episods for five hours in totality in one month , am i a natural candidate for Radio AF ablation .

yours comments please ?

maz 2
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Avatar universal
this thread is super-encouraging. i turn 27 next month, and have been diagnosed with A-fib. i didn't even know i had it until i went to the ER for a totally unrelated matter, and when they hooked me up to everything, i was in a-fib. i went on metoprolol after i was released, and suffered from the many side effects of that one for a couple of months. the doc had me wean off, but my HR started shooting up to about 115-120 the day i fully came off. so my doc then put me on bystolic, and it's been much better so far...it's only been about a week and half though, so we'll see. i do go in next month to a EP to see if i am a candidate for catheter ablation, to see if i can get rid of this once and for all. good to see the success stories here. thanks!
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Avatar universal
im 27 and i had three bouts of AFIB. i thought i was alone in this. it is nice to hear other Dudes and ladies suffer from this.  i dont really suffer from it.  i am on beta blockers now and i havnt had one since. its been a year and a half now.  i feel like a million bucks!!! i have done alot of cocaine in the past 7 years(it was fun while it lasted!!! ) and i drink and smoke which is rpobably not good.  i was 300lbs when i was playing football and lost about 70lbs when my second episode happened.  respond back with any comments

later guys!!
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Avatar universal
I had an ablation which turned into an AV Nodal ablation when I was 25.  I am obviously now pacemaker dependent.  It does not bother me at all and having had the AV Nodal ablation I got my life back - that was 11 years ago.  Loads of young people have heart issues, so age is not a factor, in fact I went from being like an old old woman to acting like a 25 year old, the positive change in my life was brilliant.
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Avatar universal
I entered into my fourth A-fib about 1 week before parmb did. I am 27 years old with a history of drinking and smoking.  The other 3 A-fibs before this were always said by the doctor and/or cardiologist at the time to be due to the intake of alcohol and it should be slowed. This is starting back at 21, 23, and at 24. So naturally, after having completely stopped ALL alcohol, smoking, or even being around any of these for almost a year and not having had any other problems between the ages of 24 and 26, I was surprised when I slipped into A-fib in the middle of the night while sleeping. I was put back into rhythm via electrocardioversion. Yes, I was nervous and didn't want do it considering all 3 times previous I converted on my own without the shock, but I did and I am now back in normal sinus rhythm. I am wearing a holter monitor for 21 days following a stress test that seemed to show normal or close to normal rhythm while doing strenuous activity.  I too live in Dallas and am willing to network with people my age and in my area to discuss our situation further. I guess my main concern is the difference in action that is being taken for this A-fib. The others, I was sent home in A-fib to convert on my own or literally left to convert with the drugs that slowed me down. THATS ALL.
This time we had the blood thinners, drugs for pain, cardiologist with the electrocardioversion machine and the 21 day holter monitor. I could assume it is because this is the 4th time and they can’t point at the alcohol as the culprit but.....
I am positive, especially finding as many young people out there with the same thing I have. I just got married; I am buying a house, and we are planning on children soon. I would like to resolve this and to move on. Let me know if you have any questions. I will be responding. Thanks
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Avatar universal
Boy am I glad to be reading this post!  I popped into A-fib 3 times in the last month and I'm currently going through numerous tests to see if there is an underlying cause.  I'm an active duty soldier and I dont smoke/drink or drink excessive amounts of caffiene.  I'm tall and skinny and I'm an avid runner and biker....needless to say I woke up one night with a flutter in my chest and I felt wired, like I wanted to do about 100 push-ups.  My wife talked me into going to the ER and I was a little upset when the ER doc told me I was in A-fib.  This site has calmed many of my fears and believe me, I've been irretable the past week thinking it was something I've done.  I'm glad to see I'm not the only 27 year old with A-fib!  Hopefully there are no other issues causing my A-fib.
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Avatar universal
I'm 73 and and a runner.  I developed AF about 4 years ago.  Both cardioversions failed. My doc gave me a list as long as your arm of possible causes. They included stress. I thought it was the end of the world - from being drug free I was suddenly on digoxin, warfarin and amlodipine.  The last, a calcium channel blocker, meddles with the body's electrical system.  It was prescribed to get my blood pressure down but it also acts against the AF.  I gave up digoxin and reduced my running to easy jogging, fearful that pushing too hard would be damaging.  About 2 years ago I thought "what the hell" and started training hard again, letting my heart race up to 200+ for some very brief intervals (run hard 2 mins, walk slowly 1 min and repeat for about a mile).  The effect has been to reduce my resting heart rate (still erratic) to about 54-60 beats a min. I've declined ablation and drugs as being too risky. The possible side effects include death.  I note, though, that an Australian medical doctor who is a veteran iron man champion had an ablation with complete success.  At 60, I could run a mile in less than 6 mins; before the AF my best time was about 7 mins; jogging lengthened it to 10 mins; now, with harder efforts, I'm down to 7 and a half mins.  I suspect that every case of AF is different.  My doctor told me one of his AF patients was cured by a severe virus infection.  After recovering from the virus he found the AF had gone as well.
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Avatar universal
HOW ARE YOU????  What did they say??  The last time you wrote it was a cliff-hanger!!   Not to mention..... I just want to know that you are okay.  

Concerned
betauser
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Avatar universal
Well?? Well??  I don't think I have afib at all.  I think my heart just races and there is a difference.  Mine would eventually go away.  Two weeks ago was the first time it didn't just go away.  4 day at 140..... I was tired.  I do think you have something different.....they just sent me home.  
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Avatar universal
Did your afibs always go away on their own? The hospitals never wait in my case..they have cardioverted me within 3-4 hours all 3 times. They say that cardioversion is the best option because it is usually 90% effective..and they say there is a risk of stroke after 6 hours too. Thanks for your kind words..will keep everyone posted.
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Avatar universal
I will be thinking about you!!!  I would have been so scared if I had been you.  A few weeks ago when I went in the middle of the night, I had to go by myself.......I have had this forever but to be honest I was scared.  I was trying to be tough for my family but I secretly was a little scared laying in the emergency room  by myself.  Thank the lord I had a great nurse.  You have been through a lot and I pray you have a good support.  I don't think I have ever been cardioverted.....sounds scary.  

If you celebrate Thanksgiving...I  hope you have a good one!!!  Please let me know how things turn out.   If you can...take someone to the appointment for support.  It also helps to have someone else to help recall everything that is said and a shoulder just in case.  When I say just in case....I can say that, once again, I know I can not die from this but that doesn't mean it is still not hard trying to decide between drugs or a procedure that my lead me to a pacemaker OR successfully take my problem completely away.   ANYWAY  can't wait to hear!!!                  
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Avatar universal
I am not sure how long they lasted. The first time I had it, I actually didnt even know. I had a terrible pain in my left leg when I would sit or lay down, and when I went into emergency, they found the afib. They kept me on heart monitors for about 4 hours, then they cardioverted me. The 2nd time I was taken by ambulance to the hospital because my heart was racing..Maybe 150+. They cardioverted me again after about 3-4 hours of having it. The third time I had chest palpitations and an irregular beat. My pulse was around 90-100 but in afib. This is probably because I am on metroporol. This time they monitored me for about 2 hours then cardioverted me. I have had 3 episodes, approximately 3 months apart. They checked my blood for pottasium, tyroid, etc..all normal. Will see what the EP suggests Friday. Mine are a bit farther apart then yours when you first got them. My echo was normal, so was the holter..thats why this is all so wierd!
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Avatar universal
They were farther apart.  At first I only got them after I got off my horse in horse shows.  I guess they were a couple times a week.  Then with time they got more often and then eventually they would come at any time.  I could be on the phone and they would start..... or in bed.....it didn't seem to matter.  

It would probably be safe to assume they did blood work on you and your potassium levels were normal?? How long did your episodes last?  What was your hear rate?

I have not heard of the "mini-maze"  I will have to look into it.

I hope all goes well for you on Friday.  Lets hope its a simple solution.  
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Avatar universal
hey, try checking out the cleveland clinic website. They are apparently one of the best places for this. They say that all afibs originate from one of the 4 pulminary viens..and it they ablate those areas it should correct the problem. The mini-maze is also a good bet. If I was in your boat I would also consider the maze..though it is open heart bypass, it has a high success rate 96-98%. I will have to wait and see what they say about me on Friday. For me, I have had 3 episodes that were about 3 months apart. Were your inital episodes when you were 22 farther apart? or did you have it constantly?
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Avatar universal
Parmb,

They found my problem by doing 2 cathater procedures (mapping my heart, diagnostic study??) An EKG will not tell you where your exact problem is from what I have learned. The first time they cathed me was at University of Tennessee and they got it wrong (although I was awake...that was cool!!).  So I stress... make sure you have a good doctor.  At UAB they put a cath in my leg and neck and were ready to ablate the problem area but when they realized where it was they brought me out of anistesia to let me know if they did ablate I would most likely end up with a pacemaker.  I was 23 and said NO.  I had the best doctor who cared about what I wanted.

Yes...I have passed out.  If I don't take my meds I will have them many times a day...every day.  When I was younger my heart rate would shoot up very high.....190...250 and up.  But now that I am older they havent gotten much higher than 150 but when your resting heart rate is in the 40's and 50's at rest and your blood pressure is about 92 over 52..... 150 is not comfy.  I have been on a beta blocker since 1992 and util a few weeks ago I was for the most part okay.  

I do not know of any other problems but they have just told me that they suspect I have more than one area causing the problem.  They just told me yesterday so I am kind of bummed.  I know I can not die from this but I really would love not having it.  I have delt with this for soooooo long.  I want to do the ablation but my odds are not good and they have also said they really don't like putting a pacemaker in someone so young.  I am bound to have problems with it.  I sound so pitiful and I should not.  I am lucky this in not life threatning.  I can't believe this is the first time I have ever talked to another person with the same problem.

Maz2...I used to be on atenelol for a while but it did not work for me so well.  I now take nadolol.  It worked a long time.  Maybe that medicine is just not right for you.  I tried many that made me worse.  They tried many on me and at different doses.    I will admit I have had many symtoms but I am not fimilar with my hands going numb.  My lips go numb and the front of my neck tightens and gives me the sensation of not being able to breath well....but no hand stuff.  The important thing is that they make you comfortable.  It is way to stressful to have episodes every day.  Are you having them in the day with the atenelol?  Do you wake up at night when you have them?  I am with parmb....I would get a second opinion.
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