shortness of breath
fatigue with minimal exertion
racing heart or chest pains
These symptoms can be associated with a heart condition known as, atrial fibrillation. This is an irregular heart beat that results in only partial blood emptying from the atrium into the ventrical. When this continues to occur, a blood clot or clots will eventually form and move with the flow of blood, circulating in the body until it reaches a vessel that it cannot pass through. The blood flow to the area that the clogged vessel supplies is then cut off and ischemia results. All too frequently, the vessels that the clot forms in supply the brain, resulting in a stroke. We have personal experience with this condition in my family as the atrial fibrillation was diagnosed too late.
According to Dr. Benjamin Steinberg at Duke University Medical Center, the problems associated with irregular heart rhythm occur all too frequently because people with this condition do not receive adequate therapy. Even though "a-fib,"(the abbreviated name for atrial fibrillation in the health care community) affects an estimated 2.7 million people in the U.S., Dr. Steinberg says that a good number of physicians treat an irregular heart rate more frequently than an irregular heart beat.
Steinberg's team used a registry of 10,061 patients treated for a-fib between 2010 and 2011 and concluded that patients were being under-treated for heart rhythm and stroke. Only one in three patients reveived treatments meant to control their arrhythmia. Controlling a patient's heart rate is fairly simple, but controlling heart rhythm is more difficult as it requires more sophisticated heart monitoring and drugs that can cause severe side effects.
The only symptom that my family member ever showed was shortness of breath when climbing stairs. She died very suddenly of a massive stroke not long after stating that she had this problem. I tell you about this to encourage anyone you know who exhibits any of the above mentioned symptoms to insist their doctor check for irregular heart beat and treat them for this condition and not just for irregular heart rate.
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