Dr. Natale Answered Your Atrial Fibrillation Questions
Dr. Natale has answered your atrial fibrillation questions and will take a few more or your questions.
Entries Tagged as 'General'
How Can We Stop Bankrupting Those With Atrial Fibrillation?
I talk a lot in speeches, programs, and articles about the financial toll that atrial fibrillation takes on us and our families.
A new study from The Commonwealth Fund reinforces the burden of rising medical costs in the U.S. on individuals and families. Those of us that have suffered with atrial fibrillation will not find this information at all surprising.
Over at StopAfib.org, you will find an article about the study findings as well as what it means to those with atrial fibrillation and some ideas to help with the financial burden of atrial fibrillation.
Once you’ve read it, please come back and share your thoughts and comments here at the Atrial Fibrillation Blog.
StopAfib.org Announces Atrial Fibrillation Month
Atrial fibrillation patient resource, StopAfib.org, announces that September of 2008 has been designated as Atrial Fibrillation Month in order to raise awareness of atrial fibrillation, a life-threatening irregular heartbeat.
Atrial fibrillation, or afib, is a misfiring of the heart’s electrical signals and involves rapid or irregular heartbeats or quivering of the heart’s upper chambers.
Often considered benign, this cardiac arrhythmia can actually lead to congestive heart failure or stroke. One-third of atrial fibrillation patients will have a stroke, and afib is responsible for 105,000-140,000 strokes per year in the United States. Stroke, the #3 killer, takes at least one person every hour and is the #1 cause of permanent disability. For more about stroke risks from afib, see http://www.stopafib.org/stroke.cfm
Over five million Americans now suffer from atrial fibrillation, where the heart goes out of control with little warning and for no apparent reason. It’s a frightening occurrence that will impact millions more as atrial fibrillation overtakes aging baby boomers. The Mayo Clinic estimates that by 2050 at least 16 million Americans will have it.
To learn more, including what you and others can do, see September is Atrial Fibrillation Month Focusing on Life-Threatening Irregular Heartbeat
Please spread the word and help raise awareness.
Last Chance to Ask Dr. Natale Atrial Fibrillation Questions
Last call — ask Dr. Andrea Natale your atrial fibrillation questions at the Journal of Atrial Fibrillation. Learn more here…
UPDATED 8-17-2008: “Ask Dr. Natale” is now closed, but you may now ask questions of Salwa Beheiry, who works very closely with Dr. Natale. Click on the link above to learn more and to go to the site where you can ask Salwa your questions.
What’s Your Legacy?
It’s been pretty hectic with my travel marathon — 3 trips within a week, and I’m packing to leave again tomorrow.
Being on the road gave me time to reflect on the recent losses of Tony Snow and Dr. Michael DeBakey, as well as the losses a few weeks earlier of Tim Russert and George Carlin. Some were young, some were not, but all were tragic losses. Each left an indelible mark on us and our world. They left a legacy.
Even while Tony Snow was struggling with colon cancer, he lived with such grace, authenticity, and love for those around him and his world that even in adversity he made a difference. As we struggle with our own health challenges, including atrial fibrillation, may we also make a difference for those around us.
It was great to take time to reflect. When my days on this earth are through, I want to have helped others live longer, healthier, and happier lives by helping to:
- improve the quality of life for afib patients and their families
- bridge the chasm between patients and their doctors, and
- wipe out strokes caused by afib
That’s what I want my legacy to be and what StopAfib.org is all about. Please pass the word to those who are struggling with atrial fibrillation, and their families.
What will your legacy be?
If you haven’t already, please sign up for our StopAfib.org newsletter so you’ll be the first to know when we roll out new things for you in the coming weeks and months.
Mayo Clinic Finds Why Atrial Fibrillation Runs in Some Families
Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered a genetic mutation that may be responsible for atrial fibrillation in families. They scanned the entire human genome and discovered a genetic mutation common to all family members with atrial fibrillation.
Our Atrial Fibrillation Patient Resource Featured at Physicians’ Financial News
Our atrial fibrillation patient resource, StopAfib.org, is featured in Patient Web Exchanges Provide Benefits at the Physicians’ Financial News web site. The article is about the value of these patient web exchanges for doctors and patients. Read more…
New Atrial Fibrillation Patient Resource: The Journal of Atrial Fibrillation
The Journal of Atrial Fibrillation is a brand new journal focused on irregular heart rhythms and on improving treatment of atrial fibrillation patients.
Dr. Andrea Natale is the Editor-in-Chief, and dozens of other well-known EPs and surgeons from around the globe serve as editors.
They will be adding patient info over time, but the first issue of the journal is up currently.
Learn more about it, including some of the well-known EPs and surgeons that are editors and the topics in the current issue, or just go straight to the journal.
World Heart Rhythm Day and Arrhythmia Awareness Week
The Atrial Fibrillation Association in the
Atrial Fibrillation and Clueless Doctors
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?
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- Dr. Lishan Aklog Answers Atrial Fibrillation Patient Question About Amiodarone
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- Dr. Natale Answered Your Atrial Fibrillation Questions
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