Lone Atrial Fibrillation

[alexvazquez]

Hi, I'm 35 years old and I have had two lone atrial fibrillation episodes in my life. The last was 2 days ago.
My first episode occurred almost 1 year ago, I was in Miami sleeping I woke up at 5:00am to go to bathroom, and exactly when I seat, my heart start beating very hard and fast for about 5 minutes, after that it slowdown but stayed in arrhythmia mode for about 12 hours. I didn't go to any physician because I thought It was something that I could control. I took a flight to home and exactly when we land and they opened the plane door, in that moment my heart rhythm was stabilized to normal. I didn't go to the doctor because I thought It was not going to happen again.

Almost one year later, this last Sunday I was sleeping and exactly at 5:30am I woke up to go to bathroom, but this time occurred when I return to bed, at the moment I lay down on bed I felt my heart start beating a little bit fast and with arrhythmia but nothing like 1 year ago, that was about 5 minutes of extremely hard beating. My wife decided to take me to the hospital and my arrhythmia episode last about 25 hours until it return to normal. Today I feel perfect, and my heart is beating like Swiss clock.

At hospital I got all kind of lab studies and heart studies and I don't have any heart problem or high sugar or thyroid problems. So I'm a healthy man. :)

I was reading on internet that "lone atrial fibrillation" could also be caused because catecholamine surge that is what makes you wake up. Sorry I'm making my own conclusions.

The cardiologist prescribed me two drugs:

REGIVAS / dronedarona (from sanofi aventis lab): this is the anti-arrhythmic drug

and

Xarelto / Rivaroxaban (from bayer lab): this is the anticoagulant drug.

The cardiologist also recommend me to do cardio workout at a normal rate, avoiding extreme exercises like spinning, etc.

Is weird that the two episodes I have had occurred almost at the same time and when I wake up to bathroom.

I would like to know if there is any good recommendation or habit in order to avoid again these scary episodes. I have tried to avoid read internet because some information is very very scary.

Appreciate any help or advice... thanks.

[alexvazquez]

Thanks a lot for the reply. Yes I tried to find out any link that could trigger the events but can't find any. I don't use to drink coffee, or energy drinks but sometimes Gatorade. However I will avoid coffee, sugar at night, alcohol, etc. to avoid any future episode. One of the symphtoms I had on both after seconds of having the afib was cold seawt on hands and feet and warm in my body.

I haven't had any PAC that I remember.
Thanks a lot and keep in touch,

Alejandro

[seaweib]

The first thing I would do is consider possible triggers and try to find if anything identifiable seemed to lead to the episodes.  As you may know, drinking alcohol oftentimes precedes atrial fibrillation.  Also, caffeine, nicotine and sugar are known as other potential triggers for afib.  If you can identify any link between your food/drink intake and the afib, you can likely minimize afib simply by avoiding those triggers.

Also, afib is often sparked by Premature Atrial Contractions (PACs).  Do you often have PACs?  If you do, is there anything identifiable that leads to those?  Being able to suppress PACs would likely assist in being able to avoid future afib incidents.  In any event, the most important thing is that you saw a Doctor and have a healthy heart.  Therefore, in someone relatively young like you, the prognosis for one with lone afib is extremely favorable.