WomenHeart.org Asserts A-Fib Not Curable! (They are so Wrong!)

by Steve S. Ryan, PhD

We recently visited the web site ‘WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease’ (http://womenheart.site-ym.com) and took their quiz “Are you an Afib Expert?”

To the question “Is A-Fib curable?”, The quiz answer states:

“Unfortunately, Afib is not curable, however medication and/or surgical procedures can significantly improve your quality of life.” (see the quiz answers at the bottom of this page.)

As someone who’s been cured for 15 years, I was astounded by this comment. It’s so wrong!

And it’s a real disservice to people with A-Fib who need to know they have other options than living the rest of their lives on A-Fib meds. People are cured every day by catheter ablation (and surgery). There are thousands of Electrophysiologists (EPs) doing catheter ablations in both the US and throughout the world. Their success rates are quite good with what’s considered a low risk procedure (it’s not like heart bypass surgery).

What Being “Cured” Means

One could possibly argue about the semantics of the word “cure” (EPs prefer the term “A-Fib free”). The American Heritage College dictionary definition of “cure” is “Restoration of health; recovery from disease.” To someone who has a successful catheter ablation and no longer has A-Fib, they certainly feel cured. For someone suffering from A-Fib, there’s nothing like the feeling of being A-Fib free. (I’m speaking from experience here.) It’s wonderful to have a heart that beats normally again!!!—to be able to exercise, to live life fully, to no longer have to take those awful A-Fib meds with their bad side effects!

Our Email Response Sent to WomenHeart.org

Here’s the email we sent on 10/20/2013  to their ‘contact’ form at:  http://womenheart.site-ym.com/

“SERIOUS ERROR on your website about Atrial Fibrillation (subject line)

I took your quiz  “Are you an expert in Atrial Fibrillation”. The answer about medication and surgery to cure A-Fib is completely WRONG.

“Unfortunately, Afib is not curable, however medication and/or surgical procedures can significantly improve your quality of life.”

A-Fib is curable through Cox-Maze surgery, Mini-maze surgery and several forms of catheter ablations (pulmonary veins ablation, RF ablation, CryoBalloon ablation to name a few).

You need to CORRECT this misinformation.

Two major sources of correct, up-to-date information are:

Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/atrial-fibrillation/DS00291/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs

Cleveland Clinic : http://my.clevelandclinic.org/heart/disorders/electric/surgtx.asp

Our non-profit education website, Atrial Fibrillation: Resources for Patients, A-Fib.com, is published by Steve S. Ryan, PhD, who was cured of his A-Fib in 1998 by RF catheter ablation of the pulmonary veins.

His book is available on Amazon.com: Beat Your A-Fib: The Essential Guide to Finding Your Cure, by Steve S. Ryan, PhD.

You are doing your readers a serious disservice by posting incorrect and out-of-date information.

Call us if you want the names of the leading cardiologists who cure A-Fib everyday through minimally invasive procedures and surgeries.

Patti Ryan
A-Fib, Inc.
pattijryan(at)gmail.com

Update

WomenHeart.org did not respond to our email. They did not correct the misinformation on their website. In the month following our email, WomenHeart.org removed this quiz from their web site.

Why Say ‘A-Fib Can’t Be Cured’?

Why in the world would WomenHeart.org assert that A-Fib can’t be cured? We can only speculate that it’s because many of WomenHeart.org sponsors are drug companies who profit by keeping people in A-Fib and buying their drugs. Drug companies’ profit bottom line suffers when people are cured of their A-Fib. From their perspective, it’s better if people don’t know they can be cured of A-Fib.

Shame, shame on you.

Steve Ryan
Publisher, A-Fib.com, and A-Fib-Free since 1998

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Last updated: Sunday, February 15, 2015