Share: 

Beebe Healthcare urges community members to learn more about their hearts

September is Atrial Fibrillation Awareness Month
September 25, 2016

Atrial fibrillation (AFib for short) is a little-known electrical problem of the heart that isn't easy to pronounce. But the racing and fluttering in the heart that are its symptoms can be warning signs of heart failure, or of a pending heart attack or stroke.

This month, AFib Awareness Month, Beebe Healthcare joins the Heart Rhythm Society and the National Stroke Association in encouraging community members to pay attention to their heartbeat, to how they feel and to learn about the most common type of irregular heartbeat.

What is AFib?

AFib occurs when the heart's normal electrical signals that make it pump don't work the way they should. They make the heart “fibrillate,” and consequently the blood does not circulate efficiently throughout the body. This can lead to the formation of dangerous blood clots in the arteries.

Symptoms

Though a rapid heartbeat is an important symptom, often the patient does not feel the irregular beat. Symptoms include dizziness or even fainting, tiredness, chest pain, shortness of breath or confusion.

Who is at risk and what are the risk factors?

Today, there are millions of people in the United States with AFib, and the number is growing, according to the National Institutes of Health. While the risk increases as people age, more than half of the people in the United States with AFib are younger than 75 years of age.

Risk factors include high blood pressure, heart disease and/or diabetes, structural defects of the heart such as mitral valve prolapse, lung disease, obesity and lifestyle behaviors such as consumption of alcohol, caffeine, smoking and stress.

Treatment and living with AFib

There are many treatments available for AFib, starting with several different medications used to restore and maintain the heartbeat. Cardiologists also encourage patients to control stress, to exercise and to improve their diet. If lifestyle modification and medication do not alleviate the irregularity, cardiac electrophysiologists (cardiologists who specialize in disorders and diseases of the heart's electrical system) can perform procedures to destroy diseased tissue in the heart that cause the AFib. These procedures include catheter ablations (cryoballoon and radiofrequency).

"It is important that people, especially as they get older, pay attention to their heartbeats, and to how they feel," says Firas El Sabbagh, MD, FHRS, medical director of cardiac electrophysiology at Beebe Healthcare and vice chair of Beebe's Department of Cardiology. "Luckily, we have many treatment options for AFib, as well as for other heart rhythm disorders and diseases. With treatment and lifestyle modification, many people can recover and once again enjoy quality of life."

For more information on Cardiac Services at Beebe Healthcare, call 302-645-3100, Ext. 5499.

Subscribe to the CapeGazette.com Daily Newsletter