Atrial Fibrillation & Stomach Gas, Digestive Tract Problems?

[delcocat]

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 *******

[SmokChsr]

In my case, it did have an upper and lower GI exam, and they did find H-pylori.  For several reasons I haven't treated the H. pylori as if yet but plan to soon. I've been fairly free of the A-fib since I had open heart surgery 2010 to repair an ASD. I did have a bad run the other morning, and as usual it was gastric related. Something my cardiologist still thinks is crazy. I took my usual Afib cocktail, (2 gas-x, 2 store brand replacements for Rolaids multi systom, 1 Zantac 75, and 20mg omeprazole). 30 minutes later I started jumping from A-fib to NSR, by 40 minutes I was solidly back into a NSR.

It might be nice to find a MD that wanted to investigate the possibility of H-pylori being a factor in the A-fib.  I guess it is definitely a factor since we know that gas is a factor, and one of it's primary symptoms is gas. I guess the reason no doctors want to touch this is that it's covers 2 different specialties, it's not often that gastro and cardio Dr's discuss cases. I guess they figure if it's on the other side of the diaphragm it can't be related. They seen to forget the diaphragm moves continuously (at least if your still breathing) affecting both systems.

Now as for potassium, it's normally low potassium levels that are associated with A-fib. Hyper-K tends to opt towards a slow or no rhythm asystole.

Yogurt, is a good food to help, as it contains natural probiotics. If yogurt is helping some you may get better relief taking a OTC probiotic. My Friend DrVee did a short video on this (I was the videographer) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MmSNX9winU
DrVee is a internist & pediatrician, she been keeping up with my situation and does agree with me about gas being a cause, but she's not my Dr, so she doesn't get consulted and of course as a lowly internist she can't know more than the cardiologist.

I haven't had time to post in a while, so those not familiar with me,  besides having to deal with this, I'm also supposedly a bit more familiar with the medical world since I'm also a paramedic.  

[delcocat]

Its no mystery to me.  I have felt for a long time perhaps longer than most that its no coincidence between afib and it being brought on when symptoms of ibs, reflux, gas, bloat etc. exist.  However those are the symptoms.  Its what is causing these symptoms that is the perplexing part since there are many causes.  I think the number one cause is actually tied with another.  Thats poor diet and antibioics.  Even if you strive to eat a healthy diet today chances are its still a poor diet.  I would be hard pressed to believe that anyone that gets occasional afib and takes notice that it usually is accompanie by digestive symptoms mentioned above that at some point in their lives they were prescribed antibiotics.  Why is this important?  Antibiotics do their job very efficiently in killing off all kinds of bacteria and not just the ones their prescribed for such as bacterial infections but also the good kind.   It may take years for someone that was prescribed antibiotics to become symptomatic so how in the world would it even be a consideration in addressing the problem?  Science is just coming around to the conclusions that probiotics (good or friendly bacteria) are not only natural but absolutely necessary and beneficial to the body and your health.  It has been a long road with its ups and downs for me regarding afib and digestive woes.  Ive tried many things and had some relief thats lasted for 6 months or more but eventually the symptoms rear their ugly heads again and if I'm not on top of my game afib will follow.  I think one of the biggest problem for me is that I can not look inside myself where I feel the problem has been stemming from.  That is a region that is in (or on) the colon just below my left inner rib cage,  I'm thinking there is clearly some damage and sensitivity in there brought on by the aforementioned.  The next hurdle is how to sooth and heal something for which you don't really know the extent of the damage but can only feel it in the the way of symptoms and what do you do about it and what do you take or eat that will heal it completely if thats even possible?  This is where science and the medical community have to pull together to help find answers.  There are certainly enough cases out there for which they can test and experiment!  I feel bad when someone goes for ablation only to find it did not cure the afib and in some cases made things worse.  I have not yet heard of a specific case like mine that was cured of afib when an operations to cut out a small section of colon was found to be diseased or problematic but has cured digestive problems and cleared symptoms of ibs etc.  I'm willing to bet if they had the accompanying afib along with their digestive problems it would have?  Not wishing it on anyone but perhaps it will take a higher up in the medical or scientific field to get this and realize what I have all along to encourage them to do the tests to finally come up with some answers?  Just remember you probably heard it here first folks!   To those of you going to doctors and having them reluctant to believe you when you say to them you feel that there is a connection even after all the tests show clear then keep pushing and insisting they look into it further or find someone that will.  Perhaps a colonoscopy could show something either they or you didn't know existed?  If anyone comes accross this board or is already here on this board at some point ever does have laperoscopic surgery or colon resection and finds it relieved not only their digestive problems, blockage or whatever the case maybe but also the afib please let us know immediately!   Good luck and thanks to all who have posted here.  -Rich-.

[macgillycuddy]

I have had AF for 3 and a half years now. I was put on medication, which helped. Was told it was caused by too high a dosage of Thyroxine (300mg per day), I am also on warfarin to stop the blood from clotting. I take the medication every day and mostly do not feel the flutters, however, I was getting them quite severly every now and again, and was convinced it was to do with the digestive system and stomach areas. Over a period of time, I realised that eating raw onions, (or even too many cooked ones) brought on a bout of atrial flutter. I am in AF at the moment, and have wrecked my brain to think what could have brought it on, and the only recent change in my diet is yellow plums. I love them and have eaten them for 3 days in a row and suffered badly with AF last night. I am still suffering, so will not have any more yellow plums and see if this helps. I did do a period of eating a TLC yogurt every day after my evening meal and this seemed to help enormously. I went for months not feeling the AF. Will have to return to the yogurts to prevent a recurrence of this horrible disease. I have also recently stopped using lo-salt and gone onto table salt, as the lo-salt apparently is very high in potassium, perhaps this too could be a cause of this bout of AF. Whatever it is, I just wish it would go away and stay away.

[delcocat]

My opinion is to be careful when a doctors right off the bat suggests ablation.  Particularly when they themselves don't even know whats going on and there have been few tests to determine it.  My opinion is the same as it has been. In probably more cases than not afib is probably brought on by digestive tract troubles.  Now if the doctors could do ablation on the colon and section that sets the nerve impulses off triggering afib then maybe they'd have something?  Certainly couldn't be any worse than taking a shot in the dark by burning heart nerves and heart tissue.  Yikes!

[afibnewtome]

37 yr old white male moderate health calls 911 one night after just finishing a movie leaned back to stretch in my ez chair and all hell broke loose my heart went nutz! the ambulance guy says WOW!  your heart is all over the place that he is gonna have to shock me. so after that fun night i schdule a cardiologist appt. he shoots from the hip and says i have afib.and refers me to meet with his electrocardiologist to talk about ablation. i think to myself hey shouldnt we do some tests? i ask him and he says yeah ok lets wear an event monitor for14 days. well after that great experience all the strips show sinus wave forms. he insists i see the electrocardiologist. she says from accross the room i need this ablation procedure. well on the way out of the office one of the back office secrataries tells me she has had 2 ablations and she still gets the palps and afib. so i decide to research it and i found this site and a few like it. i am disgusted by health care socalled proffesionals. if i ran my auto shop like this i would be out of business in a flash! my palps are more noticeable after i eat too much and lay down. also standing still is very hard after i eat too much, drink too much caffiene, eat any amount of msg, i feel like fainting. so i am planning on skipping the ablation procedure and just pay attn to what i eat and how much. thank you all for ur comments its helped me figure out whats really going on and avoiding the pitfall of modern day heath care providers.

[ronbn49]

No symptoms? Having A fib is a symptom. Digestive issues do not just announce themselves. Symptoms in the digestive tract are very mild. You could have leaky gut as I do, you could have low digestive enzymes, parasites, and low acid like I do and have A fib all day and all night every day like I do and believe me the only possible source is digestion. Address the yeast, the parasites, the acid, the leaky gut and eventually it will change. I am currently treating myself with whole aloe leaf and it is stating to show I had severe digestive issues even though I had no symptoms other than the constant Afib.