I recently wrote Olympic Athlete Nicola Coles Fights Atrial Fibrillation about the New Zealand rower who experienced atrial fibrillation during her final training for Beijing.
You may have wondered if Nicola’s afib impacted her during the Olympics. You’ll find the answer in the updated story:
Nicola Coles and Other Olympic Athletes Fight Atrial Fibrillation
Just scan about halfway down the page to find the update.
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.
I love the Olympics, and find myself staying up half the night watching them. Yes, I know it’s bad, but it’s only for a short while. I found myself transfixed the other night by the women’s gymnastics competition. They were so incredibly graceful, and yet so powerful, too.
Not being athletic myself, I find this level of athleticism amazing. But being athletic can be a problem, too, when it leads to atrial fibrillation.
The latest story on StopAfib.org is about Nicola Coles, an Olympic athlete competing in Beijing, who stopped by the Atrial Fibrillation Blog recently while struggling with her afib…here’s the story:
Nicola Coles and Other Olympic Athletes Fight Atrial Fibrillation
If you’re a Blackberry addict or a stress junkie, which can contribute to atrial fibrillation, you may be interested in this new article in which Mellanie True Hills, CEO of StopAfib.org, was quoted.
Mellanie True Hills quoted at FOXBusiness.com
P.S. A reader just sent this additional link for Blackbery addicts:
Texting and walking is bad for your health, emergency-room doctors say
So texting can kill, too.
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.
Is there anyone with atrial fibrillation who hasn’t been told that coffee and caffeine can cause or trigger atrial fibrillation?
The first step to controlling atrial fibrillation, we’re often told, is to eliminate coffee. Because of this, coffee and caffeine are frequent topics on afib discussion forums.
But there’s interesting information about coffee at the Micronutrient Information Center of the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University.
This fascinating site contains interesting facts, such as that unfiltered coffee can raise total cholesterol and bad cholesterol (LDL) levels. In addition, coffee consumption is associated with decreased risk of Type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and liver disease, and there is no evidence that it increases the risk of cancer. It can increase blood pressure, but most studies found no increased cardiovascular disease risk from moderate consumption.
What was most interesting, though, was the relationship of coffee and cardiac arrhythmias, such as atrial fibrillation. According to the site,
“Clinical trials have not found coffee or caffeine intake equivalent to 5-6 cups/d to increase the frequency or severity of cardiac arrhythmias in healthy people or people with CHD. A large prospective study in the US that followed more than 128,000 people for 7 years found no association between coffee consumption and sudden cardiac death. More recently, two prospective studies in Scandinavia found no association between coffee consumption and the risk of developing atrial fibrillation, a common supraventricular arrhythmia.”
So, according to this, coffee, even 5-6 cups per day, doesn’t play a role in developing atrial fibrillation or increasing the frequency or severity of arrhythmias.
When this topic comes up on a discussion forum, someone will inevitably say that they drink as much coffee they want as long as it’s organic or it’s decaf.
What has been your experience with coffee and afib? Does cutting out coffee or caffeine decrease or eliminate your atrial fibrillation? Or does it make it any difference at all?
How many of us grab some coffee when we’re stressed? Could it be stress, not coffee, that’s the culprit?
Since the shocking death of political commentator Tim Russert a few days ago, we have seen a huge outpouring of love and respect for this man who was so admired. I admired him, too, but this post is not about what his life taught us, but about what his death taught us.
Many of us with atrial fibrillation also have heart disease. Even those with lone atrial fibrillation may be at risk for heart disease. Thus this story hits close to home for many of us even though it’s not about atrial fibrillation.
We were shocked that Tim Russert was taken from us at age 58. Why, and how could that happen to one so young? Why couldn’t he have been saved?
While heart attack symptoms for men are usually overt, and for women subtle, there are some men for whom the symptoms are subtle as well. So for many of us, a heart attack is the first recognizable symptom. He may have had subtle symptoms that could have saved him had they been recognized and acted on in time—that’s how I had a different outcome—but maybe not as it’s not always possible.
We’ve since heard from Tim’s doctor that an autopsy showed that he had coronary artery disease and an enlarged heart, which is often a by-product of the heart having to work too hard. A cholesterol plaque ruptured an artery, caused a clot, and led to his death.
His coronary artery disease was being treated with medication and exercise, but medication doesn’t generally reverse significant heart disease and you have to question whether he was able to find time to exercise with his intense job.
He had just had a good stress test, too. Of course, passing a stress test is no guarantee of good heart health—it’s a reasonable screening test, but it’s only accurate at indicating heart disease in about 2/3 of men and only 1/3 of women.
Interestingly, Tim had just come back from a trip to Italy with his family to celebrate son Luke’s college graduation. Some doctor blogs have suggested this as a possible source of a clot. This hit home for me because my very first episode of atrial fibrillation was just a few days after my own long flight back from Italy. I had artery clots (not vein clots from “economy class syndrome”) and a close call with stroke. Tim’s trip to Italy could have played a role.
To me it seems that Tim’s intensity and relentlessly high standards drove him to literally work himself to death, the same as what almost happened to me. His colleague, Tom Brokaw, said, “He worked to the point of exhaustion so many weeks.” That sure sounds familiar.
It didn’t help that his role in “Meet the Press” was to confront. And the media business is stressful—always on deadline and always trying to scoop the other media. The stress on Tim’s face told us that he was a heart attack waiting to happen.
Is Tim Russert the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the media? There are so many heart attacks just waiting to happen there. In one particularly heated Fox News debate about immigration, Bill O’Reilly was so angry that the veins on his face popped out—I thought he would have a heart attack or stroke right there. His sparring partner, Geraldo Rivera, appeared equally angry and at risk. Come on, guys, take it easy! It’s not worth a heart attack!
The media isn’t the only occupation at risk—there are many other high-stress occupations as well.
What about you? Will this be a reality check for you? If you need to, will you make changes that will save your own life?
Heart attacks can be prevented. Eating right, exercising, managing the insidious stress that hijacks healthy habits, getting enough sleep, and taking proactive control of your health—the HEART Program’s five simple steps—saved my life and could have saved Tim’s, too.
If you need help, there are many books out there (including my own). Just do something to save your own life.
It was so easy to like and admire Tim, and he really made us think. He was always influencing and teaching us. May he influence and teach us in death just as he did in life.
