Omega-3 Does Not Prevent Atrial Fibrillation

Omega-3 Does Not Prevent Atrial Fibrillation.
Omega-3 fatty acid supplements don't dock back on recurrences of atrial fibrillation, a pattern of irregular heartbeat that can cause stroke, uncharted research suggests. "We now have definitive data that they don't work for most patients with AF atrial fibrillation ," said Dr Peter R Kowey, go first originator of a study appearing in the Dec 1, 2010 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association that is also scheduled to be presented Monday at the American Heart Association's annual convocation in Chicago. "Although we can't bounce the possibility of efficacy in sicker AF patients, it would be hard to believe that it would vocation in that population and not in healthier patients. So for practical purposes, yes, this is the end of the line in AF".

This study, the largest of its kind, looked at patients with AF who were otherwise healthy. "We cannot imagine there is any convincing basis of a role for omega-3 in the prevention of atrial fibrillation," added Dr Ranjit Suri, president of the Electrophysiology Service and Cardiac Arrhythmia Center at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, who was not concerned with the trial. The study was funded by GlaxoSmithKline.

Omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in fatty fish such as salmon and albacore tuna, had showed some bid fair in preventing heart disease in earlier trials. Of the out-and-out 663 outpatient participants, 542 had paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, which appears speedily and resolves on its own, and 121 had persistent atrial fibrillation, which needs treatment.

Cardiologists Recommend The Use Of Heart Rate Monitors

Cardiologists Recommend The Use Of Heart Rate Monitors.
A largely hand-me-down type of heart monitor may provide a simple way to predict a person's hazard for a common heart rhythm disorder called atrial fibrillation, according to a new research Dec 2013. Researchers found that people who have a greater number of heart contractions called early atrial contractions have a substantially higher risk for atrial fibrillation. These types of contractions can be detected by a 24-hour Holter monitor.

Premature atrial contractions are beforehand heartbeats that occur in the two uppermost chambers of the heart. A Holter monitor is a portable device that continuously monitors the electrical pursuit of a person's heart. The study included 1260 people, superannuated 65 and older, who had not been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and underwent 24-hour Holter monitoring.

Pathological Heart Rhythm Is Related To Alzheimer's Disease

Pathological Heart Rhythm Is Related To Alzheimer's Disease.
People with atrial fibrillation, a material of eccentric heart rhythm, are more likely than others to develop dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, a redone study finds. The presence of atrial fibrillation also predicted higher expiry rates in dementia patients, especially among younger patients in the rank studied, meaning under the age of 70.

So "This leaves us with the finding that atrial fibrillation, non-affiliated of everything else, is a risk factor for dementia," said Dr Gary Kennedy, chairman of geriatric psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. "This is adding one more block in the road toward understanding that cardiovascular disease is a major risk factor for dementia".

Now "Alzheimer's disease, in particular, is one where we don't truly understand the risk factors and what causes it, so studies counterpart this that try to investigate the causative effect will help us understand that and ultimately design therapies and approaches to hamper or minimize disease," added Dr Jared Bunch. Who are be conducive to author of a study appearing in the April edition of the HeartRhythm Journal and a cardiologist or electrophysiologist with Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah.

This study, however, was not specifically set up to confirm a direct cause-and-effect relationship. The authors looked at 37025 patients without atrial fibrillation or dementia, grey 60 to 90, over a five-year period. Individuals who developed atrial fibrillation had a higher endanger of all types of dementia, even when other chance factors were taken into account. Alzheimer's disease is by far the most common coin of dementia.

Weakening Of Control Heart Rhythm

Weakening Of Control Heart Rhythm.
Leading US cardiac experts have peaceful the recommendations for firm heart rate control in patients with atrial fibrillation, an bizarre heart rhythm that can lead to strokes. More lenient management of the condition is safe for many, according to an update of existing guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association (AHA). Atrial fibrillation, stemming from unreliable beating of the heart's two loftier chambers, affects about 2,2 million Americans, according to the AHA. Because blood can clot while pooled in the chambers, atrial fibrillation patients have a higher jeopardize of strokes and humanitarianism attacks.

And "These new recommendations get ahead the many options we have available to treat the increasing number of people with atrial fibrillation," said Dr Ralph Sacco, AHA president and chairman of neurology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. "Health-care providers and patients indigence to be conscious of the many more options we now have".

Under the additional recommendations, treatment will aim to keep a patient's heart rate at rest to fewer than 110 beats per itsy-bitsy in those with stable function of the ventricles, the heart's lower chambers. Prior guidelines stated that constricting treatment was necessary to keep a patient's heart rate at fewer than 80 beats per piddling at rest and fewer than 110 beats per transcribe during a six-minute walk.

So "It's really been a long-standing belief that having a lower heart dress down for atrial fibrillation patients was associated with less symptoms and with better long-term clinical outcomes and cardiac function," said Dr Gregg C Fonarow, a professor of cardiology at the University of California Los Angeles. "But that was not voter to a prospective, randomized trial".