Atrial fibrillation

[John_Rambo]

Alright guys so last weekend I suffered Atrial Fibrillation. I basically started having palpitations (like I have a couple times a week that last a couple seconds) but this time they never stopped.

45 minutes later I went to the ER, stayed overnight and in the morning the cardiologist had to put me asleep and restart my heart with the defibrillator.

Now I wonder if this could be linked to steroids (enlargement of the left ventricule or anything else). I’ve been blast and cruising moderately since 2012 and i’m only 28. Before the event I had been cruising from september to november and then raised my test to 440mg EW. Plan was to use moderate test and eventually EQ this winter. So I was on week 5, and 4 days after I raised my dose to 660mg and changed brand at the same time (2 injections in as I pin EOD).

After the event, I of course immediately dropped my test. I will stop it for 2 weeks or so and then jump back on 30mg EOD to not feel like complete shit. I self-prescribe my TRT like a few others on here but now i’m thinking of talking about my use to my doc to try to see an endo. TRT is really not popular here in Canada like it is in the States and is not well known, that is why I always hesitated talking about it to my doc.

Other points to mention, I only take 1 coffee a day and moderate alcohol on week-ends (I had 6 drinks before the event). I however am very stressed recently to the point of having a lot of anxiety (my heart has been feeling squeezed from morning to night for a few weeks). My job is the main cause for this as I’m on the edge of my chair for the whole 8 hour that I work basically. Also note that in the past, I had palpitations on tren but only when I went over 350mg / week so now I never go above that (might be linked to anxiety too). Clen also gave me heart palpitations in the past and once my heart almost stopped for a couple sec so stimulant use is done for me.

The cardiologist checked me and said everything looked fine. My heart seemed a bit large but i’m a fairly big guy (not compared to you) so she attributed it to that and to lifting. She advised me to stop using… After I mentionned to the doc that I was on self-prescribed TRT he quickly said that it this FOR SURE WAS THE CAUSE of my problem. I thought he diagnosed me a little bit fast.

Since then I am scared as shit and do even more anxiety now because of it, i’m affraid that it happens again.

Any opinions on the possible cause?

 

[johnjuanb1]

Did they check your electrolytes?
I had that happen after a bodybuilding show for a whole day. After my show, in a dehydrated state, I decided to only have protein drinks, so basically no nutrition. Two days after the show I ate a huge amount of fresh veggies and got sodium back into my body via soy sauce. This corrected the problem. It's scary to have a non stop irregular heart beat.

 

[talltommy]

Did the Dr. prescribe any blood thinners?

 

[muscledoc1]

Hey man I just happen to see you're post I think I might be able to answer some of you're questions here given the fact I'm a cardiac Sonographer that worked very closely with electrophysiologists(cardiologists that specializes in arrhythmias such as A fib for example) so up until last year I also had A fib episodes on and off for years been probably cardio verted(shocked) over a dozen times in the past few years I had 2-ablations(it's basically a cath lab procedure where they find the source or the abnormal conduction that causes the Arrhythmia and basically burn that area with heat, anyway I had two of those done since the first one did not help and haven't had any episodes since....I'll tell you right now the number one reason for A fib is sleep apnea , now regardless of this is you're first episode ever I wouldn't worry about it but if t keeps occurring I would ask the cardiologist to be on an anti arrhythmic drug(such as sotalol) also as johnjuanb1 mentioned electrolytes could also be a reason but more so after using a diuretic or if you're sensitive to potassium....either way lol NO cardiologist in the world can point to the exact reason it's a very individual thing with too many factors the electrophysiologist can tell you after the procedure what was the abnormal conduction but that's it.....trust me I work at a high end hospital top 15 in this country with some of the best in this area and with my own personal experience if you keep getting those talk to you're cardiologist on an ablation it's an easy procedure that will take care of it also check for sleep apnea as it affects the right side of you're heart and is a big cause for A fib, hope this helps.

 

[Cornelius]

I had this at age 24 (nearly 29 now)
Needed cardioversion after 5 weeks of meds not working.
Had it twice since both times after training hard and over heating in a hot environment but it went back to normal once I relaxed.
Back at age 24 my left ventrical wall was 14mm (athletic heart range 11-14mm).
Other than that my heart is perfectly healthy.
Normal EKG and so on.

These days I just make sure to keep BP under 120/80 at all times.
I also don't get super heavy in the off season any more.
No issues.

It's an electrical problem....doesn't mean your heart is all screwed up.

Magnesium is important I take it every day.

 

[John_Rambo]

Thanks A LOT for the responses, please keep them coming!

 

[John_Rambo]

Did the Dr. prescribe any blood thinners?

Yes, for a month until I see him again in a couple of weeks.

 

[John_Rambo]

Did they check your electrolytes?

I had that happen after a bodybuilding show for a whole day. After my show, in a dehydrated state, I decided to only have protein drinks, so basically no nutrition. Two days after the show I ate a huge amount of fresh veggies and got sodium back into my body via soy sauce. This corrected the problem. It's scary to have a non stop irregular heart beat.

I believe they did.. But my diet is very good,
I take in a lot of potassium and drink a lot of water.

 

[Cornelius]

Thanks A LOT for the responses, please keep them coming!

My hematocrit was up to 57% when it happened to me so I think that was a cause. Anxiety can set it off IMO.

 

[Growman]

This is all very interesting to me. Just last week my uncle was put under for a colonoscopy and they woke him up asking him if he was feeling ok, and he said he did feel ok. The reason they asked was because during the procedure his BP dropped and he went into Afib. They then sent him straight to the ER and things were ok i guess but they prescribed him warfarin.

He is nervous because he takes test and GH basically year round, and obviously most of his friends his age dont take that stuff so they are all telling him that the Steroids and GH are most likely his problem. Of course thats what they would say....

So he has me searching on the internet and trying to find out if thats the issue but i cant find a direct link between them. Obviously GH can enlarge the heart but thats not his issue....

So this is good info for me. Maybe i should tell him to take some electrolytes?

 

[TrinityD]

Everybody already gave you good answers.
I'll just add that you should probably consider staying away from nandrolone,trenbolone,any heavy stimulants or fat burners(clen),and make sure you get a full blood panel done if they haven't already.

I do not believe lifting contributed to this. The number of people coming into the cardiac unit nowadays with Afib is crazy. Some of there are also your age and have never even touched a dumbbell in their life.

 

[GymDudeVA]

I had it a few years ago after a long binge-drinking session. I was in the hospital for a few days then on some kind of meds for it (forgot what). Too see if it was still there, a few months later I wore a home health monitor for a month. No AFib.

I think it's caused just by screwed up electrical impulses, and not by a valve problem, enlargement, etc . , so it doesn't seem to correlate with the usual steroid heart issues, but I am not sure.

 

[Growman]

Everybody already gave you good answers.
I'll just add that you should probably consider staying away from nandrolone,trenbolone,any heavy stimulants or fat burners(clen),and make sure you get a full blood panel done if they haven't already.

I do not believe lifting contributed to this. The number of people coming into the cardiac unit nowadays with Afib is crazy. Some of there are also your age and have never even touched a dumbbell in their life.

Were you answering me? I never said it happened from lifting weights. He got put under for a colonoscopy.

I already told him to lay off the pre workouts and clen. Thats obvious.

 

[sluggy]

Keep in mind this experience would probably be different in America or a country with higher quality medical care.

Yep I had a Afib and cardioversion in March this year. I was on a good amount of NPP, which has always gives me palpitations.

I'm on endocrinologist prescribed TRT, so much like your experience the useless cardiogists were like well it must be the testosterone. Testosterone is a killer. However after all sorts of ecgs and echocardiograms there were no effects of anabolic abuse on my heart. At which point they didn't care anymore and continued to blame the testosterone anyway.

I eventually went up the food chain around different research hospitals until I found a cardiologist with some sort of credible education that understood something about TRT. He has cleared me together with my endocrinologist and said it was not at all due to TRT.

You need to re-think exactly what you're telling highly uneducated "doctors." I realize you're scared but your telling them unrelated information is only hurting your own treatment.

Being on TRT is not going to cause afib, however, other steroids can cause significant heart damage.

I used to pound preworkout, but now I take no stimulants of any kind. It seems that the stimulant abuse was the cause, definitely not the TRT...

 

[TrinityD]

Nah Growman, wasn't talking to you bro.

 

[nothuman]

Keep in mind this experience would probably be different in America or a country with higher quality medical care.



Yep I had a Afib and cardioversion in March this year. I was on a good amount of NPP, which has always gives me palpitations.



I'm on endocrinologist prescribed TRT, so much like your experience the useless cardiogists were like well it must be the testosterone. Testosterone is a killer. However after all sorts of ecgs and echocardiograms there were no effects of anabolic abuse on my heart. At which point they didn't care anymore and continued to blame the testosterone anyway.



I eventually went up the food chain around different research hospitals until I found a cardiologist with some sort of credible education that understood something about TRT. He has cleared me together with my endocrinologist and said it was not at all due to TRT.



You need to re-think exactly what you're telling highly uneducated "doctors." I realize you're scared but your telling them unrelated information is only hurting your own treatment.



Being on TRT is not going to cause afib, however, other steroids can cause significant heart damage.



I used to pound preworkout, but now I take no stimulants of any kind. It seems that the stimulant abuse was the cause, definitely not the TRT...

I went to the ER because I thought I was having a heart attack back in February but it was really because I slept like crap and took an extra scoop of jack3d that day, so I echo the stim thing.

 

[Cornelius]

I stopped taking test but kept taking pre workouts for past few years.
Decided a couple of days ago this is probably ass backwards so changed my order around lol

 

[alfresco]

Been there, done that, got the T shirt.

A ton of good info being exchanged here. I love to read all the different experiences. As long as
we keep it real . . . to our own personal experiences, I think this will have some value.

Personally, I had a ‘period,’ several actually, where I have experienced this. The first time it scared
the living shit out of me . . . and I do not scare easily. I literally had just woken up in a luxury suite in
the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite Valley; on an all-expenses paid for ‘vacation’ in one of the most
beautiful locations in the world, surrounded by beautiful women, and my job if you want to call it
that, was to photograph it all. That is largely what I was there for.

When I sat up in bed the first morning, I said to my wife, who had gotten up earlier, had just
returned from a long run, that something was wrong with my heart . . . it was beating wildly and
irregular. Not good. I had been at ‘altitude’ (4X that high actually) before and had photographed way
more challenging subjects, so to the best of my knowledge, I was not having a panic attack or
under any real pressure and was very relaxed. Hell . . . I had a reefer full of Pliney the Elder two feet
away from me . . . plus, I has some Xanax on hand, something I used to travel with when dealing
with super egos, deadlines, and horrific conditions. But this was not one of those times, far from
it; I was on the gravy train and loving it so Xanax served no real useful purpose sorry to say. I was
in deep and just had to deal, but on the big boy pants.

Once I got a grip on things, we went down to the grocery store and got a bunch of electrolyte
replacement drinks. (I must have drunk a gallon of them.) They had zero effect. After breakfast,
we went for a hike up the Mist Trail, to the top of Nevada Falls. Anybody who has done this know
it is not a piece of cake, is very strenuous. But I did it anyway, my heart beating wildly, ready to
bust loose out of my chest.

The ‘afib’ continued, more or less continuously over the next few days. Much hiking, some cross
country; over heaps of loose talus, altitude, bla, bla, bla. Even the drive home across the Central Valley
days later, my heart was still in a state of panic. Looking back, how I survived that trip is beyond me.
I felt like I was breathing through a straw while running a marathon.

In retrospect I will say this. I had been on a ton, and I mean a ton, on and off, of prednisone
because of a medical emergency / issue and some other drugs which I suspect greatly influenced,
if not was directly responsible for the heart fibrillation. That is my story.

When I returned home, I saw my MD, had an EKG which confirmed my suspicions. I was quickly
referred to a cardiologist for a stress EKG. The first cardiologist I saw, I fired on the spot. He
profiled me . . . the minute he walked in the room and saw me sitting on the examination table
with my shirt off, he said I ‘looked like Superman’ and there ’was nothing wrong with me‘ and all
he wanted to talk about was what camera he should buy his wife. He was right of course in his
diagnosis but in all fairness, I too profiled him . . . he was truly obese and disinterested in ‘me’ but
I liked his diagnosis, he told me what I wanted to hear, but I was too quick to judge, could not
make the connection between a cardiologist and obesity. The incongruity astounded me and
still does.

He did make we wear a heart monitor which I was not happy with but did so anyway. But not for
as long as he wanted. I was working on a feature film, not porn, in SF (ironically at the largest porn
studio in the world) and the long house and working conditions, cramped quarters, hot lights;
the probes attached to my chest just fell off because of the sweat and tears so I turned it off, which
prompted numerous and assorted calls from the office, wondering if I was still alive. Yes I was
. . . but barely . . .

Long story short, I saw another cardiologist and finally had a stress echocardiogram like I originally
requested from my primary care physician (thank you PM members who made me aware of this
test). The results of the tests were astonishing to me and the cardiologist. He said that he has never
seen anybody, in all his years of practice (and he is my age), in the thousands and thousands of
patients he has tested, from geriatric and elite athletes, do what I did, perform at a level that I
performed at today. While my blood pressure was being measured every three minutes and under
constant EKG monitoring they continued to increase both the speed and the slope of the treadmill,
until it was maxed out and I would not say stop and they had to call it quits in the interest of time.

So my heart, was and is fine. Is healthy and strong with zero abnormalities. He said don’t worry
about it, the palpations and flutters are most likely adrenaline induced (perhaps a side effect of
some medication I was taking) induced by the anxiety, fear and bewilderment associated with
some health issues I have been dealing with over the previous year. He said he could give me
some pills to help sort out what I was feeling but he said pills are for sick people and clearly
I am not sick. Work on solving those other problems and what you are feeling now, which is more
of an annoyance than anything, and it will go away. (All of which I believe to be true.) See you in
four months. I never went back. (For those interested in the numbers my resting ejection fraction
was >60, and thirty seconds after I got off the treadmill it was >90.)

FYI . . . The cardiologist did mention an ablation ‘procedure’ (thank you muscledoc1 for a great
post) but I opted against it. My wife said no way they are doing that to you . . . there is nothing
wrong with you that time will not heal. Partially true I will say, as I have had re-occurrences in the
past few years but they, in all honesty, are a result, in my opinion, of various medications which
in retrospect I happen to very sensitive to. As many have said, and as it pertains to me, this is an
electrical problem (once you eliminate the physiological), exasperated, brought on by some
medications.

I do encourage anybody to get a very through ‘physical’ if you ever encounter atrial fibrillation,
please, humorous us all and see your doctor . . . we care. And please be honest, but all your cards (i.e.,
drug usage, etc . . .) on the table. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

Be well.

 

[Growman]

I have searched high and low and cant find any connection between afib and using low dose test and HGH. Believe me my uncle doesnt want to stop his test and HGH lol !!

Told him to lay off the pre workouts and he's bitching about that.

 

[Giants83]

Alright guys so last weekend I suffered Atrial Fibrillation. I basically started having palpitations (like I have a couple times a week that last a couple seconds) but this time they never stopped.

45 minutes later I went to the ER, stayed overnight and in the morning the cardiologist had to put me asleep and restart my heart with the defibrillator.

Now I wonder if this could be linked to steroids (enlargement of the left ventricule or anything else). I’ve been blast and cruising moderately since 2012 and i’m only 28. Before the event I had been cruising from september to november and then raised my test to 440mg EW. Plan was to use moderate test and eventually EQ this winter. So I was on week 5, and 4 days after I raised my dose to 660mg and changed brand at the same time (2 injections in as I pin EOD).

After the event, I of course immediately dropped my test. I will stop it for 2 weeks or so and then jump back on 30mg EOD to not feel like complete shit. I self-prescribe my TRT like a few others on here but now i’m thinking of talking about my use to my doc to try to see an endo. TRT is really not popular here in Canada like it is in the States and is not well known, that is why I always hesitated talking about it to my doc.

Other points to mention, I only take 1 coffee a day and moderate alcohol on week-ends (I had 6 drinks before the event). I however am very stressed recently to the point of having a lot of anxiety (my heart has been feeling squeezed from morning to night for a few weeks). My job is the main cause for this as I’m on the edge of my chair for the whole 8 hour that I work basically. Also note that in the past, I had palpitations on tren but only when I went over 350mg / week so now I never go above that (might be linked to anxiety too). Clen also gave me heart palpitations in the past and once my heart almost stopped for a couple sec so stimulant use is done for me.

The cardiologist checked me and said everything looked fine. My heart seemed a bit large but i’m a fairly big guy (not compared to you) so she attributed it to that and to lifting. She advised me to stop using… After I mentionned to the doc that I was on self-prescribed TRT he quickly said that it this FOR SURE WAS THE CAUSE of my problem. I thought he diagnosed me a little bit fast.

Since then I am scared as shit and do even more anxiety now because of it, i’m affraid that it happens again.

Any opinions on the possible cause?

I had the same thing. Out of nowhere my heart would start beating upwards of 280 a minute. Sometimes lasted seconds other times much longer. Went through all the tests and wore an event monitor for a month. It turned out I had a hidden bypass track in my heart that allowed the current in my heart to kind of bounce around in there. Called super ventricular cardia. Or SVT. They gave me a transeptal ablation. Went through the main artery in my groin, up to my heart and through the different chambers and actually burnt the tissue closed to allow the current to exit like normal. It worked and I haven't had it since. My cardiologist said my heart is as good as new.