Atrial Fibrillation Blog

Since I posted a few days ago on Statins Help Women with Atrial Fibrillation, Hans Larsen, owner of the Lone Atrial Fibrillation Bulletin Board, created a great recap of studies related to inflammation and atrial fibrillation, including lone atrial fibrillation (afib without any underlying heart disease). It’s definitely worth checking out to find out more about inflammation.

Some findings he included were really fascinating, such as that being out of normal sinus rhythm can cause inflammation, rather than the other way around. Also, inflammation may not be as important in true lone atrial fibrillation.

Importantly, most studies on afib and inflammation have been on populations that were mostly men. That’s why the statin study is so unique - it’s an afib study in WOMEN, FINALLY! We know that afib is slightly different in women and it’s nice to finally have some afib studies that tell us what happens for women. 

So, if statins’ anti-inflammatory properties were beneficial for women (in this case, post-menopausal women with existing heart disease) by decreasing their atrial fibrillation risk, then natural anti-inflammatories should also be beneficial for many, if not most, women in decreasing their afib risk. We know that anti-inflammatories are beneficial to men, but it’s good to finally know that this applies to women as well.

Speaking of afib research on women, one study just presented at the Heart Rhythm Society annual meeting showed that women are way under-represented among those referred for catheter ablation. I know that to be the case for surgery as well.

So that means that if you’re a woman with afib, you just may have to be more proactive and assertive to find out all your options to get the atrial fibrillation treatment you deserve.

Tags: Inflammation, Prevention, Statins, Treatment, Women by Mellanie
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Tasers have been very controversial in light of recent Taser deaths from cardiac arrest. But some studies say that tasers don’t affect the heart. So much for that theory!

The Annals of Emergency Medicine discusses the case of a belligerent young man who had eluded police, but was finally captured. He was being checked out in the emergency room when they discovered he had an irregular heartbeat, atrial fibrillation. He became agitated and started ripping off the EKG leads. To subdue him, police and security guards resorted to using a taser on him, which stopped his atrial fibrillation.

It could have been the beta blocker they gave him that stopped the afib. Or it could have stopped by itself. But more likely it was the taser. This is likely the first documented case of a positive heart result from tasering.

That’s a mighty extreme approach for getting a cardioversion back into normal sinus rhythm! 

Tags: Treatment by Mellanie
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I’m mad and must post this before I explode. Today alone I’ve answered a dozen e-mails or comments from folks suffering with atrial fibrillation around the same theme—their clueless doctors!

Now don’t get me wrong, there are so many good doctors out there. And the doctors to those folks who e-mailed me are probably very good, too. The problem is that most of our doctors don’t truly understand what afib does to us. And part of it may be that we don’t communicate it so that they will understand. So it’s time for us to stand up and tell them exactly what afib does to us.

Afib takes a huge toll, not just physical, but emotional and financial as well. Not just on us, but on our families, too. Here are just a few of those things.

• Huge medical bills from all those trips to the emergency room, tests, and procedures.
• No medical insurance–once you have afib, you can’t get medical insurance. If you can get it, you can’t afford it because it’s too expensive. (Try $1,600-$2,500 per month and more just for a family of 3.)
• Losing time from work, which means lost income.
• Losing your job, or even having to change careers.
• Losing cars, houses, life-savings, retirement savings, everything!

In my case, my family had to travel with me as they couldn’t let me out of their sight for fear I’d have blood clots and a stroke while off by myself (due to blood clots and a near-stroke with my very first afib episode). Now that’s expensive!

But we don’t talk about the financial impact—it’s just too embarrassing. We have to change that. If doctors don’t know this, they will just diddle around, experimenting, figuring that they will eventually find a treatment that works while we deal with meds with nasty side effects that make us feel like crap, meds that quickly stop working, or being on Coumadin and looking like we’re battered. We’re the ones suffering, and our doctors just don’t realize what it’s doing to us. Give us an afib cure already!

And while they’re fiddling, Rome is burning. Afib begets afib–the longer you have it, the worse it gets, and the harder it becomes to solve. I hear from so many people that just can’t get it solved because they have had it for so long.

As a patient, I tell my doctors that I want to know all of my options so I can make the decision. And I want to research all the pros and cons and talk with others before I do. As my doctor, you should expect no less from me than to be an informed patient. Help me to be so.

I see many folks just going around their doctors and self-referring to surgeons and EPs (electrophysiologists are cardiologists that specialize in heart rhythms) looking for an atrial fibrillation cure. They shouldn’t have to. Our doctors need to work with us as a team to help us solve this problem. We have to help them truly understand how afib affects us and what it is doing to our families as well.

Life is too short to live it in afib.

So, what about you? What have you experienced? Does your doctor really understand and help you solve this problem?

Tags: Cure, General, Prevention, Treatment by Mellanie
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Post-menopausal women with existing heart disease have less risk of having or developing atrial fibrillation if they are taking statin drugs. This finding was reported at the Heart Rhythm Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco. It appears that it’s the anti-inflammatory properties of statins that cause this. More about study…

While the news stories say “older women benefit from taking statins” (the study focused just on post-menopausal women), it’s logical that it could apply to younger women as well (maybe men, too). Since inflammation causes heart disease and post-surgical atrial fibrillation, why shouldn’t something that reduces inflammation help reduce the risk of afib at any age? It seems logical.

I tell my audiences that heart disease is forever—once you have it you’re at risk for more heart disease, stroke, and other issues.  I believe that inflammation from all those chronic sinus infections (and a case of bronchitis) contributed to my heart disease at age 51 and may also have contributed to developing afib later that same year.

So if you’re a woman with Lone Atrial Fibrillation (atrial fibrillation without underlying heart disease), these results wouldn’t seem to apply to you. Or do they? I believe that many who have lone afib may also have undiagnosed heart disease. It’s heresy, I know, to say that. But since almost half of us will have (and die from) heart disease or stroke, is it logical to think that we just up and develop it one day? I don’t think so. Heart disease builds up over time, starting in our childhood.

So how could heart disease go undiagnosed in a woman? We’ve learned through the WISE (Women’s Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation) study that women’s heart disease is different from men’s and that tests that diagnose heart disease in men often aren’t as accurate for women. For example, treadmill stress tests accurately pick up heart disease in men about 2/3 of the time, but it’s only about 1/3 of the time in women. The same applies to other tests that work well for men. Women may need different tests to find their heart disease, so just because a test came back clean doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t have any heart disease.  

So what can you do if you don’t want to take statin drugs? Lots of folks don’t. Would a naturally-occurring statin (such as red yeast rice) or a natural anti-inflammatory agent work? Logic says that they might, though I haven’t seen any randomized studies confirming that. (This isn’t medical advice - just my ramblings - so you’ll have to make your own decisions.) 

Bottom line for women: Finding ways to reduce inflammation could help control afib or reduce your risk of having it.

Does that work for men, too? Perhaps so.

For some ideas on naturally-occurring statins and natural anti-inflammatories check out these resources:

• Red Yeast Rice–Wikipedia
• Overview of Natural Anti-inflammatory Agents–Medscape
• Seven Ways to Protect Your Heart With Anti-Inflammatory Alternatives–Dr. Mercola

Tags: Causes or Triggers, Inflammation, Prevention, Statins, Treatment, Uncategorized, Women by Mellanie
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