Half the patients with AFIB also have sleep apnea. Patients with sleep apnea have 4 times the risk of developing atrial fibrillation. How does sleep apnea contribute to AFIB? Potential mechanisms: Changes in intrathoracic pressure during apneic episodes leads to left atrial stretch. Intermittent periods of hypoxemia (low oxygen) and hypercapnia (high carbon dioxide) related…
Category: lifestyle
leaking roof, rotting timber
ARREST AFIB trial Dr. Dennis Lau from Adelaide, Australia made this analogy at the Heart Rhythm Society meeting in San Francisco. He works with Dr. Prasanthan Sanders’ group. This group published one of the seminal studies regarding lifestyle and AFIB – the ARREST AFIB trial. Lifestyle factors that lead to AFIB are like the leaking…
anger, hostility and AFIB
Elaine Eaker et. al. published an interesting study in Circulation in 2004. It followed 1769 men and 1913 women from the Framingham Offspring Study. It showed that after adjusting for known risk factors such as age and high blood pressure, researchers found several traits significantly increased the risk of atrial fibrillation in men. Those with…
don’t be an Eeyore
Having type D personality is not good your cardiovascular health. Type D personality has 2 traits: Negative affectivity (worry, irritability, gloom). Social inhibition (reticence, lack of self assurance). The prevalence of Type D personality is 21% in the general population and 53% in cardiac patients. Cause or effect? Type D personality affects health related quality of life in…
plant based for environment
BBC has a compelling article today on veganism for the environment. It quotes an Oxford study. If everybody cut meat and dairy from their diet there could be… 49 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from food production. 76 per cent reduction in land used for food production. A 49 per cent reduction in…
sleep 7 hrs
Inspired by Dr. Koushik Krishnan who runs a lifestyle program for the veterans at VA Hospital in Tampa. Here is something I lifted straight off his Twitter page : “Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.” – Gandhi
processed food & mortality
A JAMA study from February 2019 showed highly processed food kills you. In 44 551 French adults 45 years or older, a 10% increase in the proportion of ultra-processed food consumption was statistically significantly associated with a 14% higher risk of all-cause mortality. Ultra processed food has high amounts of sugar, salt and saturated animal fat….
the wanderer (vagus) & AFIB
The Latin word vagus means “wandering”. The vagus is the longest nerve in the autonomic nervous system in the body. It is a parasympathetic nerve, i.e. it counters the fight or flight response. It innervates the heart, lung and stomach among other things. Just like the famous Nordic wanderer, Odin, the vagus nerve has been attributed with a lot…
athletes & heart arrhythmias
Moderation in everything, including exercise. Food for thought: https://www.velonews.com/cycling-to-extremes-heart-health-and-endurance-sports https://www.velopress.com/athletes-with-haywire-hearts
magnesium & AFIB
Low serum magnesium levels have been correlated with a risk of AFIB in both the ARIC and Framingham studies. There are also data that US population as a whole is deficient in magnesium. Here is an excellent review article on magnesium and its role in cardiovascular disease. There are data that magnesium supplementation may reduce…