This does not take into account human suffering. That is a budget buster for individuals, insurance companies and tax payers (think skyrocketing Medicare costs). Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, May, 2011). could be as high as $26 billion! It is estimated that each American with AFib could run up a tab of $8,705 a year ( Circulation. The annual medical cost of AFib in the U.S. That’s because this arrhythmia greatly increases the risk of hospitalization, stroke and death. Australia, Western Europe, Scandinavia and the United States have much higher rates of this arrhythmia than countries like Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Mexico, Peru or Russia.Ītrial fibrillation has become a huge public health problem. There is twice as much AFib in developed regions compared to developing countries ( Circulation, Feb.That’s despite the fact that African Americans and Latinos are more likely to suffer from overweight, diabetes and hypertension. White people are more likely to develop atrial fibrillation than African Americans and Latinos.Other risk factors that have been proposed include heart failure, hyperthyroidism and kidney disease. It is not clear, though, that weight reduction and tight glucose control could reverse the AF epidemic. Some experts suggest that obesity and diabetes could be contributing risk factors ( European Heart Journal. Therefore one might argue that blood pressure is probably not responsible for the dramatic increase in AF incidence. But the data suggest that rates of hypertension have stabilized due in large part to improved blood pressure control ( JAMA, May 26, 2010). Some hypothesize that it’s due to increases in blood pressure. But that doesn’t really tell us what’s behind this fast growing epidemic. Older people are more susceptible to atrial fibrillation than younger people. Experts now characterize these epidemiological trends as an AF epidemic.” What’s Causing the AF Epidemic? “Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia in adults, and its prevalence is expected to increase 3-fold in the next 3 decades. Could common medications taken by millions of people every day be contributing to this life-threatening epidemic?Ī comprehensive review in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings (December, 2016) concludes: That number is expected to double by 2030 to 12 million ( American Journal of Cardiology, Oct. The CDC estimates that as many as six million Americans suffer from this irregular heart rhythm. Atrial fibrillation (AFib or AF) is a big hairy heart deal.
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