Heart Health Alert: Higher Stroke Risk for Women With Atrial Fibrillation

Brate Smith

over 2 years ago

Although many people think of heart disease as a man's problem, women can and do get heart disease. I was in the same misconception regarding the heart disease, but was made aware by a medical checkup campaign. In fact, heart disease is the number one killer of women in the United States. It is also a leading cause of disability among women. The most common cause of heart disease is narrowing or blockage of the coronary arteries, the blood vessels that supply blood to the heart itself. This is called coronary artery disease and happens slowly over time. It's the major reason people have heart attacks. Prevention is important: two-thirds of women who have a heart attack fail to make a full recovery. The older a woman gets, the more likely she is to get heart disease. But women of all ages should be concerned about heart disease. All women can take steps to prevent it by practicing healthy lifestyle habits. Actually, right now I am suffering from a blockage in the coronary artery and was once blocked up to 85%. I got the stent implantation which is a mesh like spring which is used to broaden the artery and hence restoring back the blood flow. You can see further information regarding stent operation from www.heartsite.com/html/stent.html. I got to know everything regarding my stent operation from this site. I was really unaware of such a blockage. I sometimes feel dizzy, restless, lazy , but thought that to be something related to mental ability, and hence never worried about it. Once I got my basic medical checkup at Elite health medical office in Los Angeles. The ECG report went to be something suspicious. So, they advised me to have further advance diagnosis to determine and assure regarding the problem in the heart. After my MRI , CT scan and other such scans it came to me as a shock that I was facing a problem of blockage. It was quite surprising to me, and as I was not aware of anything regarding this, I was really frightened. The doctors explained me every information regarding my health and its treatment, and suggested me to have stent operation. That was some dreadful days of my life, which I faced only because I was careless about my health. It was my luck that I somehow went for a basic checkup at elite health, but every woman out there may not be so lucky.

Rita.Rupert

over 2 years ago

I have had atrial fib for approx 10 years - In June 2008, I had a small blood clot in my brain, thank God my husband was home and got me to the hospital quickly and I got the tpa drug, which worked, and I am so lucky to not have any side effects. I am on blood thinners now. I have been on atenolol and rythmol for several years and it still did not totally control my atrial fib. After I had the stroke, I requested a sleep study and was diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea. Since April (5 months ago), I have been sleeping with a CPAP machine and I have not had one atrial fib since I've been using the CPAP. I went on the internet and looked up Atrial Fib & Sleep Apnea and was surprised to see how these two things can go together. When I told my heart doctor, all he said was that yes, sometimes AF is caused by sleep apnea. I asked, why didn't he tell me that instead of pushing meds and ablation. I just wanted all of those 22 million people who have AF to know about this and to get a sleep study to see if they have apnea and need a CPAP machine. Amazing what the drs. don't tell you! It took me about 3 weeks to get used to the CPAP machine, but now I sleep better and feel better and would not be without it.