- Overview of A-Fib
- Causes of A-Fib
- Find the Right Doctor for You
- Treatments for A-Fib
- Q & A: Coping with A-Fib
- Personal A-Fib Stories of Hope
- Directory Doctors/Facilities
- Patient Resources & Links
- Our A-Fib Support Volunteers
- 2023 AF Symposium: Reports
- A-Fib Videos & Animations
- Bibliography
- Glossary of Terms
- Free Offers & Downloads
- How to Search for Articles
Doctors & patients are saying about 'A-Fib.com'...
"A-Fib.com is a great web site for patients, that is unequaled by anything else out there."
Dr. Douglas L. Packer, MD, FHRS, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
"Jill and I put you and your work in our prayers every night. What you do to help people through this [A-Fib] process is really incredible."
Jill and Steve Douglas, East Troy, WI
“I really appreciate all the information on your website as it allows me to be a better informed patient and to know what questions to ask my EP.
Faye Spencer, Boise, ID, April 2017
“I think your site has helped a lot of patients.”Dr. Hugh G. Calkins, MD Johns Hopkins,
Baltimore, MD

Doctors & patients are saying about 'Beat Your A-Fib'...
"If I had [your book] 10 years ago, it would have saved me 8 years of hell.”
Roy Salmon, Patient, A-Fib Free,
Adelaide, Australia
"This book is incredibly complete and easy-to-understand for anybody. I certainly recommend it for patients who want to know more about atrial fibrillation than what they will learn from doctors...."
Pierre Jaïs, M.D. Professor of Cardiology, Haut-Lévêque Hospital, Bordeaux, France
"Dear Steve, I saw a patient this morning with your book [in hand] and highlights throughout. She loves it and finds it very useful to help her in dealing with atrial fibrillation."
Dr. Wilber Su,
Cavanaugh Heart Center, Phoenix, AZ
"...masterful. You managed to combine an encyclopedic compilation of information with the simplicity of presentation that enhances the delivery of the information to the reader. This is not an easy thing to do, but you have been very, very successful at it."
Ira David Levin, heart patient,
Rome, Italy
"Within the pages of Beat Your A-Fib, Dr. Steve Ryan, PhD, provides a comprehensive guide for persons seeking to find a cure for their Atrial Fibrillation."
Walter Kerwin, MD, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA
Where it All Began: Steve Ryan’s A-Fib Story (A-Fib.com’s 1st Personal Experience)
Steve Ryan had his first A‑Fib attack in early 1997 at age 56 when in apparent good health. He ran 400 meter dashes and 5K’s, lived in Los Angeles, CA and worked on the camera crew of the NBC-TV soap opera “Days of Our Lives”. He had to take disability leave when episodes of erratic heart beats lead to dizzy spells making it unsafe for him to work around heavy equipment.
Steve shares that since finding his Atrial Fibrillation cure in April 1998, his mission has been to spare others the frustration, depression, and debilitating quality of life that Atrial Fibrillation caused him.

Steve with 10-lead portable monitor before PVI, Bordeaux hospital, April 1998
“…before I decided to go to CHU Hopitaux de Bordeaux in France, I was on and off many, many different medications over the course of 15 months or so. None of them seemed to do much good. Then I had two catheter ablations of the right atrium, and one aborted attempt of the left atrium. All to no effect.
During my ten-day stay in the Bordeaux hospital, I had a successful “Focal Point Catheter Ablation” (now called Pulmonary Vein Ablation/Isolation) in the left atrium. Due to recurrence, I had a second ablation a week after the first. (So does that add up to two failed right atrium ablations and two left-atrium ablations?)
Looking back to 1997, I see that the two right atrium ablations were probably a waste of effort as we now know that A-Fib usually originates in the left atrium (and A-Flutter from the right atrium). For that reason, most of today’s EPs will ablate the left atrium for A-Fib, but as a precaution, will also ablate the right atrium against any rogue A-Fib signals and to address diagnosed (or undiagnosed) A-Flutter.”
Learn How Steve Found his A-Fib Cure


Continue reading to learn how Steve educated himself about his Atrial Fibrillation and sent his records to the best EPs in the U.S. for advice.
And how he decided to travel to France to see Dr. Michel Haissaguerre, the world-reknown researcher and cardiac electrophysiologist who discovered the link between A-Fib and the Pulmonary Veins and who invented the PVI procedure.
Go to the first A-Fib.com personal experience story: Steve S. Ryan: Finding My A‑Fib Cure by Early Focal Catheter Ablation Procedure in 1998.