- Hey, I'm Dr. Morales
and I wanted to make this quick video
to give you several tips that you can do at home
to stop an atrial fibrillation episode.
If you're at home and you're getting these sudden onset,
heart racing and significant episodes
of atrial fibrillation,
the last thing that you may wanna do is actually
go to an emergency room.
Emergency rooms are expensive.
Several thousand dollars
for a typical emergency room visit in the United States,
let alone if you end up being admitted
and put into the hospital.
And so, there are ways that you can manage it at home
and potentially avoid that hospitalization or that ER visit.
It can potentially save you time
as well as a significant amount of money.
So here is some ways that you could potentially reduce
or stop an AFib episode at home.
Number one would be what's called, "Vagal maneuvers."
Vagal maneuvers are maneuvers that you can do
to activate your vagus nerve,
which comes outta your back
and actually helps slow your heart rate down.
There's a few ways that you can do this method.
One of them would involve holding your nose
and trying to pop your ears,
kind of like when you're coming off an airplane.
You know, hold your breath and push outta your ears
and try to do it as forceful as you can
to try to activate your vagus nerve
and slow down your heart.
Other one would be, bearing down,
similar to what you do when you have a bowel movement.
You actually, again, would take a deep breath
and try to push down on your stomach muscles.
Kind of like if you were having a bowel movement
in the bathroom and just kind of bear down
for as long as you can
and that might help slow down your heart rate as well.
Third one is what's called, "A diver's reflex."
This is involves, actually,
putting your face inside of either a bucket of cold water
or a bowl with some ice and cold water.
That severe cold, it's what's called, "A diver's reflex,"
and actually can activate your vagus nerve
and potentially slow down your heart as well.
So those are all vagal maneuvers,
which can help activate your vagus nerve
and help stop an atrial fibrillation episode,
potentially at home.
Another thing that you can do
is actually breathing exercises.
Similar to either yoga or very structured breathing exercise
called, "Pranayamas,"
where you actually are taking very long, deep breaths
or doing very relaxation-based yoga,
which is actually what I teach, also,
in the Take Control Over AFib Program.
I actually teach, also,
these kind of very relaxation-based yoga,
which can also help reduce and stop episodes
of atrial fibrillation.
A third thing, which can actually stop AFib episodes,
which is something that, honestly,
I don't understand how it works,
but I've had countless patients tell me
that they see that it works for them,
would be exercise.
And it's usually an aerobic type of exercise,
like being on a treadmill or going up and down stairs,
or being on a stair climber.
Something that you have to be very careful,
if you do this while you're in AFib
and you're having episodes,
make sure you're doing it in a way that you can stop
if you need to stop suddenly,
but exercise can be helpful for some people.
And I've heard some people who very predictively say,
they exercise and that AFib episode is gonna stop.
The last thing would be to take extra medication.
Now, that's obviously something that you need to check
with your doctor to see that is safe
for you to take extra medications
when you get an episode of atrial fibrillation,
but taking extra medication,
such as extra doses of Metoprolol or other beta blockers,
or in addition some antiarrhythmic medications,
such as flecainide or sotalol.
That's something that I frequently tell my patients
that is okay to take an extra dose if you get a bad episode.
Can also be helpful to stop an AFib episode at home,
but always talk with your doctor
if that's something that is safe to do
in your specific situation.
However, although it's really great to manage these episodes
at home and potentially stop and stay outta the hospital,
you gotta know when you need to go to the hospital.
And it's not always a heart rate that matters
that causes you a need for urgent medical attention,
but it's your symptoms.
If you are having a significant AFib episode,
and you're feeling very dizzy,
lightheaded, short of breath, having chest pain,
these are all very significant symptoms.
And that's gonna require urgent medical attention
in an emergency room,
because that's where you can get intravenous medications
that can work fairly quickly, so that's...
Knowing when it's urgent,
when is it really necessary to go into the emergency room
is also very important thing to do.
Now, with some of these at-home maneuvers,
especially when it comes to yoga,
these are things that could help you reduce
the amount of episodes that you're having
and potentially stay out of the emergency room.
And again, these are the things that I teach
in the Take Control Over AFib Program,
which is structured to help you
reduce symptoms of atrial fibrillation,
naturally improve your symptoms, and potentially,
reduce hospitalization and emergency room visits
as well as the cost of doctor visits,
emergency room visits as well.
So right underneath this video,
there's a link to go over to my sign-up page,
where you can see testimonials and sign up for the program.
So go ahead and get started today.