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How can I prevent afib?

I'm a female in my early 40s, normal BMI, don't drink, smoke or do drugs. I am fairly healthy, but do have POTS, diagnosed with a tilt table test. I've had many heart tests recently, including an echo, and all looked normal, except for my 7 day heart monitor, which showed 'frequent' pacs, and even atrial couplets, zero afib episodes (it feels like afib to me though, not sure why it says it isn't) though. I am reading my kind of palpitations  this can potentially cause afib later on. They are extremely disruptive to my daily life, I can't imagine what afib is like, if these feel this bad already. What can i do to prevent this? I have a healthy lifestyle and this doesn't even run in my family. I take magnesium. Thanks.
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20748650 tn?1521032211
COMMUNITY LEADER
Try Rowing as an exercise. Patients with POTS seem to tolerate rowing better than other forms of exercise because they don't have to stand up to run. Its been remarkably successful in getting POTS patients conditioned.
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Yes, I used to have a rowing machine, and really liked it. I'll get another one, sounds perfect, thanks!
20748650 tn?1521032211
COMMUNITY LEADER
Activity activity activity

Exercise and conditioning is treatment #1 for Bona-Fide POTS. If you managed to attain athletic levels of conditioning your POTS may literally go away.

For Afib in general caffeine is actually controversial. Most patients with heart rhythm issues can drink caffeine. The blanket caffeine avoidance advice is really going out of style. In your case though with POTS its probably a good idea.
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15695260 tn?1549593113
Hello and welcome to the forum.  This is such an excellent question.  I do encourage you to work with your doctor and seek their guidance. Here is an article on prevention of Afib. https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/atrial-fibrillation/treatment-and-prevention-of-atrial-fibrillation/prevention-strategies-for-atrial-fibrillation-afib-or-af   Lifestyle choices can ultimately make a huge difference.  Sounds great that you do not smoke or drink.  How about caffeine?  Limiting that is also recommended.  How is your weight and how much physical activity do you get?  These are also on the list as key ingredients to prevention. Managing cholesterol and blood pressure as well along with a heart healthy diet.  I think too, although it is not on the list, men and women in their 40's tend to be very busy managing many things and often are sleep deprived which makes everything worse.  I'm glad you've had some testing done and right now, you do not appear to have Afib.  Let's keep it that way!  
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3 Comments
I gave up all caffeine a few months ago and don't plan on drinking it again. I am a normal weight, around 125 pounds. I need to work on being more active though, but I'm making some progress in that area. Thanks for the link and advice!
No problem and keep up the good work with your lifestyle choices. Here is a big one, how is your stress level?
stress has been pretty high, but I'm working on it ha
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