Atrial fibrillation has a strong correlation with obesity.
A study from Australia showed that if obese patients lost 10% of their weight, they had better outcomes. Another study shows the same. REVERSE-AF was a large, well publicised study with similar results.
It seems that a lot of these studies come from Australia, where patients have to wait to get their atrial fibrillation ablation and don’t get it with the same speed that patients get their ablation done in the USA. Is there a physician bias based on payments? Just saying..
How does obesity contribute to atrial fibrillation? There are several potential mechanisms:
- Obesity contributes to hypertension (high blood pressure). Hypertension raises the pressure in the left atrium (left upper chamber of the heart) and promotes fibrosis (scarring) in the left atrium that leads to atrial fibrillation.
- Obesity contributes to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). OSA promotes AFIB by several mechanisms including hypoxia (low oxygen), adrenaline release and increased left atrial pressure.
- Liquid calories causing obesity.
- Obesity causes increase in inflammation (cytokine release) that promotes atrial fibrillation.