I am there in the same category. Formerly heavy duty tennis/basketball player in my youth and now frequent bike rider (bad knees guy). Had episodic bouts of atrial tachycardia in my youth that were fairly well controlled with stopping all caffeine and lowering stress levels. As age creeps on started to get episodes at night that are linked with mild sleep apnea. I take a med to cut down on episodes, and treatment with C-pap helped a lot! Got an ablation 2 yrs ago and this was helpful.
Definitely I notice an association with excessive alcohol “binge” and increased episodes of flutter. I desperately hope that mild/moderate wine consumption does not increase the symptoms, or else i will have a very substantial wine collection to sell! Life without wine is a depressing future for me, but the above poster is quite correct when he states that you have to listen to your body. The article is somewhat reassuring in that there is an unclear relationship to light/moderate alcohol consumption on a regular basis and the symptoms of a-fib. The research is really not conclusive at this point due to a variety of confounding factors and that the underlying pathophysiology of the condition is not completely understood. “Remodeling” of heart function is an interesting topic in itself. Good luck with your recovery, it sure does suck getting older…
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This article makes stronger statements about the link between at least 15 glasses/week (below binge) and afib.
Would have appreciated a group that covered moderate but excluded binge.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1817591
Interesting. This group studied was actually pretty symptomatic at baseline and I suppose it is not surprising that a large decrease in alcohol compared to control would result in some improvement in a-fib (as alcohol is a known contributor to the condition). Still even the abstinence group was having some significant symptoms despite abstinence. Tough study to do but the better question is does mild alcohol usage destabilize or worsen controlled a-fib symptoms significantly over time. Good research paper to pursue as this is really what most of us who occasionally indulge want to know…
I dug this up as I’m headed to get an ablation on Tuesday. I’m not (and haven’t been) a high intensity endurance athlete, yet I am active and stay in shape. I eat well, have no sleep apnea, and no other of the underlying causes of a-fib (also have atrial flutter) other than prehypertension. My dad has a-fib 85% of the time, but his is less intense, and he never feels it, whereas mine is more intense, and I always feel it. I have zero interest in being medicated for the next 40 years or so, and sometimes when the a-fib/a-flutter flares up (like two weeks ago) it’s outright painful for my heart.
As for alcohol consumption, I haven’t notice any difference in days where I’ve not had a drink for consecutive days versus those where I have, but I know medical journals love to blame everything on smoking and alcohol 
I’m confident in the safety of the procedure, but it does suck getting old, and having to do stuff like this!
Good luck Todd! Lots of friends have had ablations and been pleased with results.
good luck, Todd. Ablation is so cool compared to a lifetime of issues and anticoagulation. I’d jump at doing it if I had AF.
Good luck, Todd. I am in a similar boat, including the diet and sleep not being issues. My episodes have not yet been acute or consistent enough to go the next step to the ablation. However, two weeks I had a day that really sucked and I assume that at some point as I get older that I will have to take a next step.
Interested to hear how it goes and perhaps I will shoot you an email next week.
Wish you the best -
Todd- after five episodes of A-flutter over four years, I finally had an ablation (actually two as the ‘faulty circuit’ grew back after the first one). Both were a piece of cake. I should have had one early on if I knew then what I know now.
When A- flutter occurred, it was always at night and meant a long night in the ER followed always by a cardio version. Ablation was outpatient, in at 7:00am, home by late afternoon. No after effects.
Best wishes! I understand some pre procedure anxiety, but I’m sure you’ll be pleasantly surprised. You’re doing the right thing IMHO.
Thanks, all! Nice to read all this right before the procedure.
Pete, how bad was your a-flutter? You had to go to the ER? That’s incredible! Mine goes to 180 ish without intense exercise, and has gone over 200 multiple times during intense exercise (which is why I stopped that)
My doctor was vetted by our own resident Electrophysiologist Joe Wu, and because mine is of the version that is unexplained or not as a result of an underlying condition, he’s going to ablate all four veins on the right side, and do the left side as well. (both sides because flutter and fib are different sides of the heart, most of the time, or something like that)
Todd- my flutter was about the same as you described yours. I always went to the ER bc for whatever reason, mine always came on late at night. I just couldn’t lie around waiting for daylight to contact my cardio doc. The flutter freaked me out! I could feel my rapid heart rate and no way I could sleep with it racing like it did. No pain or any other symptoms, but I hated that racing feeling.
After the first couple of instances I knew that drugs weren’t going to correct it. Always ended w cardio version. So off to the ER to get zapped.
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Had my ablation yesterday and was able to leave the hospital at 8pm so I didn’t have to stay overnight (whew!)
Only side effects thus far (today, day after) are related to the intubation, I think. The wounds on both legs are holding up, taking off the bandages tonight, as directed
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Good to hear, continued good health and recovery.
Wonderful news, Todd! I hope it solves the issue.
Best regards!
I assume you are talking about a sore throat from the intubation. Not uncommon, but it should be self-limiting.
This is an interesting thread, but I think trying to connect atrial fibrillation to drinking x number of glasses of wine per week is way over simplifying things. Heart disease is very complex and depends on dozens of factors. Moderate wine consumption by itself does not cause atrial fibrillation. There’s no one thing that does. Excessive alcohol consumption is very bad for your heart. Jim Morrison died from alcoholic cardiomyopathy at age 29. But that’s a lot of drinking for a lot of years. Moderate consumption, especially of red wine, may reduce the incident of coronary artery disease and CAD is one of the major causes of a fib.
If you have a fib, from whatever cause, that is a different story. If you get back into sinus rhythm, via cardioversion or ablation, you will always be at risk for flipping back into a fib. Caffeine is a stimulant so its a risk for sure, but I would like to see the any literature that says a glass or two of wine with dinner puts you at significant risk for a relapse.
I had not noticed this thread before. It appears the OP has not posted since shortly after the OP.
Todd-get well and hope your A-fib goes away. As someone who has been intubated far too many times, cepacol lozenges and ice water and it should be gone.
If Mr. Dougald is lurking, a) come join our cycling thread in the Asylum; b) read up on “athlete’s heart”.
Athlete’s heart does not cause A-fib per se from my layperson’s understanding, but it does make things more complicated.
When I was hospitalized for months and months following two separate cycling debacles, I had A-fib and drove anesthesiologists nuts due to having athlete’s heart. To be clear, the words after “and” in the preceding sentence are separate and distinct from my A-Fib.
You likely already know this, but if you start taking a PPI drug for you A-fib, your ability to get your heart rate up will be significantly limited. They act like a governor on an engine.
For sure, some people can have afib triggered by modest wine consumption, even after successful ablation. See my post in this thread from a year ago and another thread. I’m doing well at 14 months after a second ablation in March 2019 and following the literature recommendations of one 6 oz glass on non-consecutive days. Your mileage may vary. I can give citations for the research papers to support if anyone wants the evidence. The wine hobby is not what it once was, but I’m still enjoying it. Last night my wife and I had a glass each of Domaine Huet Vouvray Le Haut Lieu sec 2013, fantastic. The other half of the bottle is tomorrow night. That’s the way it is for me now and I’ve accepted it as a new normal. Once again, not everybody has the same experience. Coffee, tea, and soft drinks are all decaf and I discovered I don’t really miss the caffeine. The quality of decaf coffee is better nowadays than in the past, so if you enjoy coffee for the taste and experience of the coffee and not mainly the caffeine, you can still enjoy that luxury.
The discussion about wine with the EP cardiologist the morning after the procedure was interesting. He advised keeping consumption to no more than a 6 oz glass at a sitting. I said, “But you don’t understand,” and showed him a photo of my cellar. Without changing his expression, he just said, “That’s going to last you a really long time.”
Re medication, I stayed on both a rhythm control drug and blood thinner for 9 months after the second ablation. I’m off the rhythm control drug now and very happy about that. I will be on the blood thinner indefinitely because of the history of afib, age, and history of hypertension.
Todd, glad to hear you are doing well. Relax and do pretty much nothing for a week, then resume activities very gradually. No need to rush, every need to not rush. For me, I sat around for a week, went back to the office part-time the second week, went for a single 10 minute easy walk in the neighborhood the third week, two walks the fourth week, etc. I was brisk walking a half-hour five times per week plus some floor exercises at about 5 months.
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Sure, Todd…blame anesthesia! It’s OK, we’re used to it. 
Bumping this… curious, those of you who got an ablation(s) for AFIB/AFlutter, were you able to drink wine again, at least in moderation, eg half a bottle of wine over the course of a meal once in a while?
Caution is needed. Two ablations later I can gradually resume modest wine consumption. I agree with non consecutive days of consumption and staying under 7-12 portions per week. AFib just sucks, worth cutting back significantly in order to preserve a healthy lifestyle. Lots of good advice in this thread. Regular modest exercise is helpful, but don’t overdo it. I was a high performance athlete when younger (college tennis) and this is probably one of those prices to pay!
Along with a knee replacement next week, but I can’t blame alcohol for that.
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