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Atrial Fibrillation & Stomach Gas, Digestive Tract Problems?

I saw another post about atrial fibrillation and stomach gas possible association or connection.  I too have the same thing so it may not be all in your head if your suspect this to be the case.  Most dr.'s think your crazy or never heard of this when you even suggest it.  Thats whats wrong with most dr's atleast in my experience in that they don't think outside the box enough possibly because this is what they learned.  I think I/we can guess or prognose just as well or better than they can at times particularly if we know something about health and or ourselves and our own health.  Never be afraid to speak up because I feel strongly that digestive tract problems are real and translate into other real nasty symptoms like this.  Fortunately we can prevent much of this & need to prevent it from happening. I do feel the more you get afib the worse it can become either physically, emmotionally or both no matter what the cause.  I thought up until now that I may have been the first to discover this but would like to know if anyone else has any real answers to this as being a connection?  I would like to know how many people feel that they get atrial fibrillation and feel that it may be related to gas or full, bloated stomach, intestinal or digestive tract troubles etc?  Isn't it possible
that the gas, bloat, perhaps inflamed digestive or intestinal tract can disturb the vagus nerve thereby possibly causing
you to go into an afib attack?  Any real dr's out there any more with some real info about this?  Even conjecture?
Any way I also would be interested in what anyone might have to say about it and or what they may have learned from this?   If you know or even think this to be the case for you I would also like to correspond with you to trade stories and info on what you''ve learned and done. Be well.  Sincerely, Rich - delcocat at aol *******
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Avatar universal
Hello delcocat and my all my fellow a-fibbers. I am very pleased that I came across this forum.  I had my first a-fib (actually I started with a-flutter, which is almost the same thing)  episode 19 years ago.  My paroxysmal a-flutter and a-fib does not convert to sinus on its own; I have to go to the hospital and get shocked.  I have been electronically cardioverted eight times since 1995 (only once did the drugs work in converting me to sinus). In the beginning, I  had an episode every few years--usually after a weekend of drinking.  Later, I had episodes with no alcohol involved.   I was ablated for a-flutter in 2009 and for a-fib in 2012 because the number and severity of my palpitations greatly increased causing me terrible anxiety.  I found both procedures to be helpful even though I was not cured. The number of PAC and PVCs I had were greatly decreased.
I have always felt there was a connection between my stomach issues: GERD, bloating, hiatial hernia...etc.  and my palpitations. In April of 2013, I went into a-fib while playing basketball; it was the first time I had exercise induced a-fib.  After a night in the hospital and another cardioversion, I had a talk with the cardiologist.  He told me that my had to lose weight. In my quest find out why it was so difficult for me to lose weight, I came across information on Candida.  I read up on it because I had ten out ten symptoms of candida overgrowth. I began to follow the advice of the holistic specialists on the internet.  I was very skeptical of holistic medicine (actually I thought they were nuts), but I am now a believer.  I started to take apple cider vinegar for my GERD and I was shocked that I was able to come off of the PPIs. I also started using strong probiotics and something called diatomacious earth.  I lost 50 pounds in 14 months without dieting (I did avoid bread and sugar but no Atkins style low carb).  My PVCs and PACs are almost gone. I used to have two or three significant rumbles a day.  I can now go ten days without a "skipped" beat. Full disclosure: I was cardioverted a month ago, but it was because of all the success I had been having, where I started to think I was cured.  I have not had more than one drink per month for four years.  Last month, I had three beers one night and green tea and a coke the next day, needless to say I ended up in the ER.  I learned the hard way that I have only come to better manage my a-fib, not cure it.  
Hey, not all a-fib is the same and we all do not have exactly the same causes.  However, if you are reading this forum, you are probably someone that believes, like me, that the digestive system is at a minimum, in the mix if not the cause.  The connection between the digestive tract and heart rhythm is undeniable for me--I don't care what any doctor has to say to the contrary.  To my fellow a-fibbers that are overweight, crave sweets/alcohol, have anxiety, belch and fart a lot, have GERD, and or a sliding haitial hernia, please check out apple cider vinegar on the net.  You can even look  it up on Amazon and read what thousands of GERD sufferers have reported.  I know it is counter intuitive, but people suffering acid reflux actually do better with more acid in their stomach than less. When combined with a daily regime of probiotics, diatomacious earth, and suppliments like caprylic acid and oregano oil, it is powerful medicine for balancing your digestive tract and working on the acidity of your body.   One word of advice, do not try to do this all at once.  It takes several months to safely get candida under control.  I pushed a few times and had a few Herkimers reactions.  Slow and steady is the way to go. Many of the experts, are skeptical about curing candida. Personally, I have found that I can only control it. However, when the cravings are reduced and the bloating diminished, you can start the path to better health and fewer heart rhythm issues.  Good luck.
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Avatar universal
Try the linden method, it really helped me with anxiety and give your anxiety a name like Bert and treat it like a person sitting on your shoulder when it raises it's ugly head say to it oh hi Bert, so your going to spend the day with me, acknowledge it and move on also try deep sleep ap. Linden method is also on ap.As a highly stressed individual anxiety I believe has been the route cause of my stomach upsets and Afib. I feel for anyone with anxiety as it is not nice but there is help.
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Avatar universal
Much applause and thank you so much.
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Hello.  Yes, stress is a huge factor with digestive problems and just about everything else.  Eventually the stress beyond the physical ills mutates into anxiety and from axiety stems phobias.  Medications have known as well as unknown side effects.  Always look to see what the known side effects might be and discuss with your doctor to weigh the pro's and cons as to whether you should take any particular meds.  Sweet things upsetting the stomach could indicate a possible yeast problem or bad bacteria over taking your good bacteria.  All the things you mention can have an affect on your health and how you feel.  There are a lot of other factors as you'll see if you browse these post.  Is there a connection between all this and afib?  I and others believe there is a relation between afib and something going awry in the digestive tract particularly in an area that seems to trigger the vagus nerve.  So in theory figure out, modify and correct your digestive woes and the afib will go away.  It did for me making me a firm believer.  My mission now is to figure out how to strengthen my digestive tract enough so it doesn't return.  The sad thing and what makes this so difficult is that you have two sets of ailments and symptoms that very little is known about.  Got acid take an antacid.  Got gas take a gasx.
Got a combination of bot take xanax.  All approaches that does more harm than good.  We need to learn at a young age what is truly healthful for our bodies, what to avoid and what to do about certain things so we can avoid these problems as we grow older.  Good luck and thanks for posting.
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Avatar universal
Hey everybody,
I'm still in the midst of going through testing. I am back on another 6 month regimen of iron supplements. I'm going to assume, at this point (which is stupid to do) that it totally has something to do with my digestive issues. I still need to do the urea breath test to check for h.pylori, but Im having a hard time going 4 hours without eating or drinking. Again, due to the digestive issues. I'm going to list some issues that I've been dealing with over the years plus medications that Im on. If any of you are willing to do the same, maybe we can narrow down some things we all have in common that could potentially be a link to this disorder.
-I am easily stressed out and have been high strung and uptight with stress for a large portion of my life.
-I am known to be a worry wart as well.  
-I also suffered from anxiety and panic attacks as well as depression. (more so in the past as it seems to be at bay for awhile now, knock on wood)
-The stress from this condition has caused agoraphobia in the past (I was afraid to leave my house for months)
-I have nodules on my thyroid
-I have been on an antidepressant (Celexa) for 15 years or so. (I also wondered if this issue is a long term effect of that?)
-I was diagnosed with PVC's (premature ventricular contractions)
-I'm about 20lbs overweight, but I still had the symptoms when I was at my ideal weight for my height. So, maybe that's not it.
-Sweet things seem to cause my stomach more distress than anything else. I haven't tried an elimination diet yet.
I think that's it? If I can think of anything else, I'll post it. Anybody have similar problems or anything different they could add that maybe others could relate to?
Talk soon!  
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Avatar universal
Been trying the D-limonene that the doc recommended on that show I linked.  It's a huge gel pill and when you burp, man like you ate an orange tree-bitter.  But seems to be helping curb some of the digestion stress, which may calm the vagal nerve.  I don't know much about this d-liminone tho'.

Ginger still seems to be helping too.  Digestive Enzymes, not so much.  But I take it anyhow, figuring it can't hurt.  Read about a herbal liquid that's good for Roemheld but name has escaped me and I need to get my google goggles back on...
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