May 18, 2012

Tim Russert’s Heart Attack: Was He Our Canary in the Coal Mine?

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 [...]

AV Node Ablation: Why You Shouldn’t Have It

One topic, AV node ablation, makes the rounds of the atrial fibrillation discussion groups on a regular basis, and has just come back around again. All at about the same time, several afib patients’ doctors have insisted that they have an AV node ablation with a pacemaker implant. Thus they have come seeking others’ experiences. [...]

Women, Atrial Fibrillation, and Inflammation

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 [...]

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 [...]

Statins Help Women with Atrial Fibrillation

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 [...]