Doctors & patients are saying about 'A-Fib.com'...
"A-Fib.com is a great web site for patients, that is unequaled by anything else out there."
Dr. Douglas L. Packer, MD, FHRS, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
"Jill and I put you and your work in our prayers every night. What you do to help people through this [A-Fib] process is really incredible."
Jill and Steve Douglas, East Troy, WI
“I really appreciate all the information on your website as it allows me to be a better informed patient and to know what questions to ask my EP.
Faye Spencer, Boise, ID, April 2017
“I think your site has helped a lot of patients.”Dr. Hugh G. Calkins, MD Johns Hopkins,
Baltimore, MD
Increased Dementia Risk Caused by A-Fib: 20 Year Study Findings
Dementia risk is “strongly associated” with younger patients who develop Atrial Fibrillation. That’s the finding of a 20-year study among 6,196 people without established A-Fib.
Rotterdam Study of Cardiovascular Disease
In a 20-year observational study of participants in the long-term Rotterdam Study, researchers tracked 6,514 dementia-free people. Researchers were monitoring participants for dementia and Atrial Fibrillation. At the start of the study (baseline), 318 participants (4.9%) already had A-Fib.
Results: A-Fib and Dementia
During the course of the study, among 6,196 people without established A-Fib: 11.7% developed A-Fib
and 15.0% developed incident dementia. Other findings:
• Development of A-Fib was associated with an increased risk of dementia in younger people (<67 years old)
• Dementia risk was strongly associated with younger people (<67 years old) who developed A-Fib
• Dementia risk was not strongly associated in the elder participants who developed A-Fib.
The Rotterdam researchers didn’t state explicitly that A-Fib “causes” dementia. Instead they concluded that A-Fib was “strongly associated” with dementia. Because there may be other factors at play, that’s as far as researchers can go (though they did use regression models to adjust for age, sex, and cardiovascular risk factors).
A-Fib Leads to or Causes Dementia
As patients we have to conclude that, all things being equal, A-Fib leads to and/or causes Dementia. This makes intuitive sense, doesn’t it?
In A-Fib we lose 15%-30% of our heart’s ability to pump blood to our brain, and to the rest of our body. Research confirms that older adults with dementia had significantly reduced blood flow into the brain compared with older adults with normal brain function or young adults.
What Patients Need To Know
The bottom line, the younger you are when you develop A-Fib and/or the longer you have A-Fib, the greater your risk of developing dementia. Seek your A-Fib cure sooner rather than later.
To decrease your increased risk of dementia, your goal should be to get your A-Fib fixed and get your heart beating normally again. We can’t say it enough:
Do not settle for a lifetime on meds. Seek your A-Fib cure.
