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Gary Barg: I have seen you perform live and I was thinking about this because you bring so much to the stage; you have so much energy. I was wondering if you are worried about that happening in the middle of the performance.

Barry Manilow: I think if it did happen, I could get through the performance. It does not stop me from living my life. Most of the time, the medication does its job and pulls it all back together again. But sometimes even that does not work. I have not had any episodes while I have been on stage.
 
Gary Barg: That is great.  Do they tell you to restrict exercise or do different exercises?

Barry Manilow: No. Many people ask what I do; there are no rules—everybody is different. For some people, there is caffeine and in other people, it is too much exercise. It just goes—everybody has got a different reason— do not eat this kind of thing, do not drink that kind of thing. For me, no one has ever told me not to do this or that.  I just take the medication and go on with my life.  If I had not gone to the doctor, I do not know if I could have easily gone on with my life.

Gary Barg: I think that is the key. It sounds like when you feel that irregular rhythm that mostly just comes out of the blue, do not ignore it; get medical help.

Barry Manilow: Not just that one time. You have got to form a relationship with your doctor because just going to your doctor once is not the answer. Because if you have got it, it is not going away; there is no cure for this. You have got to call him when you feel it is coming on and know that he is on the other end of the phone when you need him.
 
Gary Barg: We call it a partnership.

Barry Manilow: A partnership. That is a good one; form a partnership with your doctor.

Gary Barg: What would you think is the one most important piece of advice you would like to share with family caregivers about AFib?

Barry Manilow: You have got to take this one seriously. It comes on very innocently. I can understand why people would say other people have worse problems than I do. I do not think that is a good way to deal with this. If anybody is reading this interview and it sounds familiar to them, you have got to take it seriously because, like I said, you are playing with fire. If you say that my family has got more problems, well, if you do not take care of this, you are going to be a big problem in your family.