Imagine going through life
wondering if your heart will suddenly
speed up uncontrollably with no warning.
Well my next guess Melanie lives with that fear every day.
Now Melanie has a condition
called atrial fibrillation or a-fib.
At any time, her heart can start racing
and during one episode, it went up to 300 beats per minute.
Here's Melanie's story.
Melanie?
I was in my home office when I realized
something wasn't quite right.
My heart skipped a beat and then it took off racing.
I called the doctor and he said,
get to the emergency room.
That's when I found out that I had a heart condition
called a-fib.
It's an irregular heart beat that can lead to strokes.
When I'm experiencing a-fib,
I feel like I'm running a marathon 24 hours a day.
My heart condition kept coming back.
Sometimes I might just be walking or leaning over.
I was afraid to go anywhere by myself.
I knew that I couldn't live this nightmare
the rest of my life.
I felt like I was a stroke walking around
waiting to happen.
I didn't wanna be watching over my shoulder
to make sure that the a-fib beast doesn't strike again.
(beating)
Well Melanie is joining me now along with
our very good friend Dr. Freda Lewis-Hall,
chief patient officer of Pfizer
so welcome to you both.
(applauding) Glad for you to be here.
Melanie, when this all started,
how often did you have a-fib episodes?
Well over a couple of years I had about
30 to 40 episodes. Oh seriously?
So once to twice a month typically
and it still is scary because I'm always watching
to make sure that it doesn't happen again.
Would you have any warning at all
before an episode started
and how long did they last?
Well typically, they'd just come out of no where
and it could be anywhere from a few hours to a whole day.
So Dr. Freda, tell everybody
what exactly is a-fib
and how dangerous is it?
She said she had 30 or 40 of these things in a year.
Atrial fibrillation or a-fib is the most common
heart rhythm problem.
It's a condition in which the heart
beats too slowly, too fast, or in an irregular way.
It can be permanent as in continuous
or it can be episodic as Melanie has described.
Now as to the dangers, it can lead to
serious health consequences like heart failure or stroke.
In fact, people with a-fib have a five times
greater risk of stroke
than those with regular or normal heart rates.
So during an a-fib episode,
what is actually happening to the heart?
A-fib occurs when the electrical signal
becomes very rapid and disorganized
and what happens in the heart is these upper chambers
contract irregularly as the result of that
and are unable to push blood into the lower chambers.
That blood then may pool and develop clots.
The clots then may travel to the brain
and block or limit blood flow
and may cause a stroke.
So the important thing as Melanie described well
some of the symptoms that you may have,
palpitations, shortness of breath, tiredness,
dizziness, weakness.
Now the scary thing is that there may be
no signs at all.
Oh really?
No really.
So then who's at risk for developing this?
Age is a major risk factor.
About nine percent of people 65 or over in the US
have a-fib compared to only two percent under 65.
Now there are other risk factors such as
high blood pressure, a history of cardiovascular disease,
thyroid problems, diabetes, asthma, sleep apnea,
or excessive drinking.
Well despite having a-fib,
I know you travel a great deal and live a very
active lifestyle, so what's your secret?
So I travel about 50% of the year
and I definitely stay in close contact with my doctors
and make sure I never miss any appointments.
I also make sure to take care of myself,
to get seven to eight hours of sleep a night,
stay hydrated and perhaps most importantly,
to make sure that I live as stress free as possible.
If anyone has any of the risk factors
that we've talked about,
particularly being over 65, what's to do?
Melanie told us some of the important steps to take
but if you have any of the symptoms that we talked about
in particular if you're 65 and older,
it's really important to connect with your doctor
and have this discussion and make sure
that you're paying attention or are aware
of your heart health when you go for your regular
routine visits.
And obviously another important factor
is educating yourself and one of the best places
to do that is gethealthystayhealthy.com.
And of course while you're there
you can sign up for our monthly newsletter
(applauding) and all that great information
gets sent to you.
I wanna thank all of my guests today.
A special thanks to Dr. Freda Lewis-Hall.