- Hey, it's Dr. Morales,
and in this video, I'm gonna talk about diets for AFib.
I'm gonna give you my overall tips
that hopefully will help anybody with AFib.
I'll also talk about how I can help you with your AFib
with diet, and we'll talk a little bit about, well,
does it work and when can it be helpful?
So what about diet for AFib?
Does it really help?
You know, I get reached out by a lot of people
who tell me that their doctors tell 'em
that they don't think diet works
or it just doesn't help and you get given medications
or procedures as your only option.
But what about lifestyle modification and diet?
Does it really help?
And the answer to that is yes
and it always plays a role to it.
There are times when you need more than that involved.
And I'm gonna get to that in just a moment here.
But yes, diet and lifestyle modifications
clearly are very helpful.
There have been a few studies over the last few years.
Some of the most important ones
are called the LEGACY trial and the Reverse AF trial
and showed people who have AFib and are able to lose weight.
Usually the people who got the best benefit
were able to lose about 10% of their initial body weight
and had a significant reduction of their AFib
and were actually able to reverse the disease.
And so there certainly is clinical evidence
that showed that losing weight
and lifestyle modifications improve AFib.
In addition, there have been studies
that shown that things such as inflammation
and inflammatory markers are worse,
the more and more people that have AFib,
the longer they have AFib,
the more severe that the disease gets,
the more that inflammation gets worse.
And so having a lifestyle
that helps to try to improve your inflammation
can also be super helpful.
Now, timing-wise, is there an optimal time
where diet can be helpful?
And well, that goes down
to what is your overall treatment goals.
You know, do you only wanna do it with diet
or do you want diet to be a component of your treatment?
Diet is always a beneficial component of treatment
for anybody with AFib.
But as far as only treating it with diet, well,
there are times when it can be very successful.
People who can do very well just with diet only
are usually people in the earlier stages of AFib.
You know, maybe they haven't had AFib that long,
their episodes come and go
when they're not in AFib all the time.
And those people can,
you actually do very well with just lifestyle modifications
and make a huge improvement for them
and I've seen it benefit a lot of patients,
especially when you can stay and be committed.
That's always a trick with diet and lifestyle modifications,
that you have to stick with it
to actually get those benefits.
And even in these trials in the path,
the LEGACY trial showed that if people fluctuate,
they're not staying and they're not committed,
the AFib comes back, you know?
And so you definitely need to stay committed on your diet
and lifestyle modifications to have some improvement.
And people who are in the earlier stages of AFib
certainly can have that benefit
just with the diet by itself, okay?
Now, what about people who have more advanced AFib?
What if they are in AFib all the time?
Something they call "persistent AFib,"
or they just had it for many years.
Can diet by itself reverse or improve AFib?
Well, it always possibly can,
but in my experience with my patients,
people who are more advanced stages of AFib
often need a hybrid approach.
Yes, the diet stuff, it works, it helps.
They lose weight, they lower their inflammation,
but they still may need
some traditional parts of procedures
such as a catheter ablation procedure,
an electrical shock called a cardioversion
to get a person out of AFib,
or even some additional medication.
So they usually need a hybrid approach.
One of my favorite stories is a patient of mine
I had a couple years ago who had AFib for several years.
And most people had written them off
and that say, "You're stuck with AFib,
you're gonna have it for the rest of your life."
But he actually made dramatic lifestyle changes,
lost a lot of weight, he lost like 50 pounds,
he eliminated his high blood pressure,
he eliminated his diabetes.
He pretty much eliminated all his medication
except for his AFib medication.
The AFib would not stop by itself.
But when I saw him, I was so impressed
with all the work that he had done,
I said, "You've earned a chance to not be in AFib."
And so I ended up just giving him a cardioversion
just to reset, which normally wouldn't work
in somebody who's had an AFib for a few years,
but he did something, he changed his body,
he got healthier, and in his setting, it worked great.
He got into normal rhythm.
He still required a little bit of medication
to stay in normal rhythm, but it worked
and it was because of his hard work and his diet
which really helped me do my part and get out of AFib.
So I hope that easy to understand
in the sense that if you have more advanced AFib,
using that diet to help with AFib
is certainly an important component
and it can be very, very helpful.
But frequently, a hybrid approach would be needed
if you want really good results
if you've had AFib for a while.
But then if you're relatively new to AFib
or your episodes of AFib come and go, just diet by itself
can have a very, very good results for some people, okay?
I wish I could say it would be a 100% cure
or you wouldn't need any medications anymore
and everything would be gone,
but I mean, people can have a significant improvement
with just diet by itself.
So what do I recommend for diet for most people?
You know, in this video, I'm gonna talk about diet tips,
but however, I created these step-by-step plan.
I created a program
called the "Take Control Over AFib" program
where I'll give you the step-by-step plan
of exactly what I'm discussing in this video
to help you get results as fast as possible.
But in this video, I wanted to give some tips
that could help anybody no matter where they live
and if you're somebody who likes to just do things
on their own and that's good,
take these tips and please put them into your life, okay?
So the diet types that I typically recommend
are very similar in a sense.
They pretty much eliminate most processed foods.
You're really focusing on whole, natural ingredients.
You're really eliminating added ingredients
as in added sugar, added salt.
You know, I always tell my patients,
"Try to keep your food as natural as possible,
the closest to where it came from the ground or the animal."
And because that's the healthiest way to eat, okay?
And we're eliminating artificial ingredients,
artificial preservatives as much as possible.
And these days, it's kind of hard to completely eliminate,
but as much as possible is really the overall goal.
So there's a couple of diet types out there
which have been very around for a long time,
which I do recommend to my patients to try.
One of them would be the Mediterranean diet.
The Mediterranean diet
is actually probably one of the first ones
that I recommend to my patients
because I think it's probably the least life altering
of some of the other diet types that I typically recommend.
You know, it still allows for some foods
that people are kind of accustomed to
like pastas, but it still emphasizes
on a lot of whole foods ingredients,
a lot of vegetables, healthy fats,
healthier meat options like seafood.
So it seems to be a less drastic change for a lot of people.
And the Mediterranean diet, year after year,
is consistently ranked one of the healthiest diets around
for people with any type of heart problem,
including atrial fibrillation.
So it's certainly one that I recommend.
And plus, one of the reasons why I recommend it,
'cause it's, like I said, it's less life altering
and I want people to do something
they can hopefully stick with
because that's how you really get benefits
is when you are able to stick with something long term.
So what's another diet that I recommend my patients on?
It would be a paleo diet.
A paleo diet is basically
sometimes called a hunter-gatherers diet.
It's basically trying to keep your food
as close as you can to the ground and the animal.
Sometimes people get confused with the paleo diet
with like a carnivore diet,
meaning that's all you eat is meat,
and that's certainly not what I recommend to my patients,
but more of a holistic approach.
You just kind of keep everything as natural as possible,
removing artificial ingredients, added sugars.
It's certainly a very healthy way to eat.
It can be a little restrictive,
but it is certainly is a healthy way to eat.
And it is one diet type that I recommend in my patients.
And then the third one, which, these days,
actually probably has the best evidence
in terms of reversing disease.
Nothing specific for AFib,
but in terms of reversing disease
or high blood pressure, diabetes,
even living longer in some studies,
is a whole foods plant-based diet.
Whole foods plant-based diet
really tries to eliminate meat products
as much as possible
and really focusing on whole plant foods,
not processed plant foods,
'cause there's plenty of unhealthy processed plant foods,
but whole plant foods.
And really, the evidence on that
has been really quite, quite remarkable, okay?
And so those are your kind of diet tips.
If you like to kind of go out there on your own
and just do it yourself, that is completely up to you.
I hope you take these tips
and start applying them into your own life
and just in a kind of a do-it-yourself manner.
However, some people want more guidance in that.
Some people want a step-by-step plan
of knowing how can you do it?
How can you input some of these tips into your own life
to get results as quickly as possible?
And that's why I created
the "Take Control Over AFib" program.
The "Take Control Over AFib" program
takes the best parts of all these tips that I just gave
and gives you a step-by-step plan
for everything that you need to improve AFib
with mostly diet,
but then I'll also talk about other lifestyle modifications
such as stress management as well, less sleep as well.
But it morally focuses on nutrition and diet changes
because that's where the best evidence is
and that's what I have really seen
have made a huge improvement for a lot of people's AFib.
So in the "Take Control Over AFib" program,
I've taken the best of all these diet types I just discussed
and put it into one spot.
I gave you the step-by-step plan,
how to implement it into your life,
and I keep tying it back to atrial fibrillation
because the end result is I want you to be able to get
results as quickly as possible.
And so that's why I created the program
to help anybody no matter where they live.
So if you're interested in "Take Control Over AFib" program,
there's a link underneath this video,
it'll take you over to my website for my program,
where you'll get to learn more about the program itself,
you'll see what's included in the program,
as well as see testimonials
and reviews from people who have actually taken the program.
So see what they have to say
and find out if the "Take Control Over AFib" program
could also be beneficial for you and your AFib.