AFib and common triggers
Channel: York Cardiology
Date: 08/11/2017

Hi guys

My name is Sanjay Gupta and i am a cardiologist in York and today’s video is on Atrial fibrillation and this is particularly relevant to those of you who have paroxysmal Afib which means that the AF can come and goes of its own accord.

 Most people with paroxysmal AFib seem to tolerate Afib very badly..they feel lethargic breathless, tires and get palpitations and they  don’t know how long it is going to go on for. 

What we do know is that there are often triggers which can increase the chances of an Afib attack happening and recognizing the triggers and avoiding them can make a big difference to the frequency of attacks.

So i found an interesting study where 100 people were asked what they felt were their major triggers: This is by Hansson et al in the BMC cardiovasc disorders in 2004


100 people were asked about their triggers. There were 72 men and 28 women
Paients ranged from as young as 22 years to 79 years
76 of the 100 were taking tablets (sotalol) and 24 were not taking any medications
72 patients felt that their symptoms starteed at around about the same time of the day and the majority occurred between 6-9 pm but also from midnight to 9 but the least number complained of symptoms starting from 9-3pm. 
35% woke up with AF
31% occurred during rest and 22% occurred after physical exertion
for most patients 64% attacks typicaly lasted less tan 1 day, 17% said they lasted between 1-7 days and none had it for more than a week
The commonest triggers were mental stress (54%), physical effort (42%), tiredness (41%), alcohol 34%, certain foods (25%)
If you can identify and avoid your triggers, you will hopefully get less AF. Please do consider liking, commenting and sharing. Also please visit my Facebook page (yorkcardiology@gmail.com). Many thanks