Many people know Mitch Lafon as the host of One On One With Mitch Lafon, a part of Talking Metal Digital. For years, Lafon has interviewed hard-rock and heavy-metal immortals such as Lemmy Kilmeister of Motörhead, Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots and Dee Snider of Twisted Sister.

But there is something about Lafon that many do not know and that at times made him feel less than immortal. Lafon suffers from a cardiac condition known as atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation is an unpredictable and rapid heart rate that can often be associated with fatigue, dizziness and difficulty breathing, and it increases the risk for cardiovascular disease, such as stroke. And as Lafon learned to cope with AF, he has chosen to share his story to help others who also struggle with AF and other heart conditions.

Lafon explained to Michael Friedman Ph.D. the painful physical experience of AF. “It’s not something that’s with you 24 hours a day. You’re not always in AF. It’s just sometimes your electrical current misfires or is misread by the heart receptors, and your heart starts beating very quickly. It’s gone up in my case all the way up to 180 beats per minute. And as it does that, it feels like a fish out of water flopping on your chest,” he explained. “You get a little short of breath; you get a little tired. As the days go on, because the episodes can last 12 hours, it really is as if you were running a marathon for 12 straight hours. It really tires you out.”

Read more at Psychology Today.