Vagal AF & how it has gone away

[Guest guest]

Vicky - I am sorry that you are having these problems as you are one of the

persons who I have admired for the advice and information you have put

together. I also have had vagal AF for almost six years. However, for me,

it has become less and less frequent, so that it has become a slight

nuisance, rather than a major part of my life. As a result, I do not read

this listserv very often any more, although I care about you and the other

persons who contribute to it.

I have had to put together my own treatments for the most part. They seem to

be working, and , God willing, hopefully will continue to work. My condition

has improved a great deal since the first years, and I rarely have episodes

any more (unless I get really overtired). I take a good vitamin (Source of

Life with whole food concentrates & no iron) and folic acid, as well as a

good magnesium/calcium/vit D liquid supplement. But most importantly, I take

100 m.g. daily of Provigil in the morning for six days. On the seventh day,

I take it easy and do not take the medicine as it tends to build up in the

system. The Provigil acts almost the same as digoxin (digitalis) except

that it very slightly speeds up the heart rate rather than lowering it. When

I say that it acts like digoxin, I mean that it creates a regular, steady,

thumping heartbeat like digoxin does. All my docs say it is all right to

take it, although my electrophysiologist wouldn't prescribe it because he

didn't know much about it. He had me see a pulmonologist who works with the

drug, who readily prescribed it and said he would write my internist so that

I could get further prescriptions from him when I needed them. My

electrophysiologist can't understand why it works, nor can I. A doctor

friend suggested I take it for the fatigue from AF, and when I did I noticed

how much it regularized my heartbeat. What this means to me is that at night

when I retire, my heartbeat stays nice and steady at between 60 and 64 bpms

which is somewhat higher than it is without taking it. I don't get the

skipped beats while taking it, at least for the most part. I consider it my

" miracle drug " . If I do get too tired and fall into AF, I take 200 m.g. of

Norpace and usually get out of it within 1.5 to 8 hours. I detest the Norpace

as it dries the body out so much, so I only take it when I don't have any

choice but need it to get back to NSR. I rarely have any episodes any more.

I am back at work full time on a very difficult teaching assignment with over

200 students, but I seem to be okey as long as I don't completely overdue it

(which means heavy work for 12 or more hours).

I've also been doing a lot of work on getting stress out of my life, and

doing creative processes, especially working on creating films (IMac 2)and

writing poetry. I'm writing this because the benefits of these activities

and this drug have been so remarkable that I keep wondering if it could help

anyone else who has vagal af. Unfortunately many electrophysiologists are not

as enlightened as mine is, and would not refer a patient so as to be able to

start this drug. I don't know if it would help anyone else or not.

Certainly, though, the creative brain activities are also making a huge

difference. Best to you. Dorean

In a message dated 10/21/01 9:57:51 AM, vmpaf@...

writes:

<< Wondered if anyone else has experienced what I am now finding - I

suspect Dr Lam may have a comment, but would also love to hear from

others.

My AF started 6 years ago and has slowly ramped itself up to my present

state where I have been unable to work for 2 months now, because of, in

a nutshell, exhaustion. My AF was vagal and though short-term stress

didn't set it off per se, I could get vagal rebound attacks, also

resting never used to help it, since the lower heart rate when

resting/sleeping kicked it into AF.

I have now been off work 2 months. I have managed to do some pottering

in the garden, slowly tidying it up, I have sorted out the clutter of

video tapes, have got quite good at crosswords, and all that stuff.

But I have now consistently found that if I do " too much " I get very

tired and the AF worsens (I am out of rhythm 75% of the time). I have

no choice but to rest. But a GOOD rest or sleep, or even a

crucially-timed hour-long nap, will really help. If I stop doing light

work whilst I'm still OK, I stay OK. If I carry on light work until I

even /start/ to feel tired, then that's too late - I can't recover, and

I will go into worse AF - that's when I need a real good sleep.

It therefore starts to feel in a way like those debilitative conditions

like M.E., glandular fever, etc., though of course as it has progressed

into more of a persistent AF rather than purely paroxysmal, it may have

expanded into a mixed vagal-adrenergic type.

Anyhow, on this basis, I have re-started doing some meditation (I used

to be quite into this) and also gently restarted one form of Chinese

energy exercise - Zhan Zhuang (a kind of Ch'i Kung, otherwise known as

" Standing Like a Tree " ). Its only 3 days, but I think it's starting to

help already.

Anyway, I wonder if anyone else has had this sort of experience? I'd

like to hear from you if you have.

I'm now scheduled for Dofetilide at the end of November, btw.

Best of health to all,

Vicky

London, UK, 1954 model

http://www.vagalafibportal.fsnet.co.uk/

" You can convert some of the people some of the time,

but you can't convert all of the people all of the time "

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