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by brandonb 12 days ago
The lead author ran a study of personalized trigger mapping for Afib, using an n-of-1 study design: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamacardiology/fullarticle/...

Unfortunately this particular intervention wasn't successful (not much difference between treatment and control groups). But conceivably, afib triggers is something that varies from person to person and perhaps a future design would tease this out.
1 comments
y-c-o-m-b 12 days ago
Interesting to see dehydration on there. I never even thought of that as a possible trigger. It's good to see this is specifically looking at Paroxysmal AFIB patients as that's what I fall under. Mine is very mild and self-corrects within hours to a few days.

Biggest triggers are caffeine, alcohol, and sleep deprivation (correlated with my sleep apnea events) for me. I see exercise is only reported as being slightly higher than caffeine here, but exercise (stationary bike, strength training) usually causes my episodes to self-correct; I usually attribute this to the more controlled breathing during exercise, but I have no proof. I also seem to have a much larger threshold of triggering AFIB with alcohol than I do coffee. I have to reach the moderately drunk stage to induce a flare with alcohol. If I keep things near a light-buzz, I can typically get away with no issues.

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eur0pa 12 days ago
Electrolyte imbalances (alcohol, dehydration), and catecholamine surges (sleep deprivation, stress) are excellent triggers
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nabbed 12 days ago
Doctors blamed my first afib episode on dehydration. I had been very sick, could not eat or drink for days, and just experienced the highest fever of my adult life, nearly 105F. A few hours after the fever finally broke, I went into afib.

At that time, I was on an opioid pain killer for an abscess. The next time I was on an opioid pain killer, years later, I also had an afib episode. So I wonder if maybe I have some sensitivity to opioids.

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ahueb 12 days ago
dehydration impacts electrolyte balance, the muscle cells of the heart work through moving these ions through their membrane. changes in the concentrations changes both the rhythm and rate depending on how the concentrations of each ion is shifted
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