Have you ever had the feeling that your heart skipped a beat? It's pretty common.
However, if you feel that flutter or racing heart regularly, you may have a condition called Atrial Fibrillation, also known as Afib.
September is Atrial Fibrillation Month, and health leaders expect Afib to double in the U.S. in the next ten years.
John Ferguson, 59, was in the U.S. Army Special Forces, served as a police officer and then with the DEA. It turns otu the only person who could slow him down was himself.
"I would feel a fluttering in my chest," Ferguson said.
It was the first sign that something was wrong. John has atrial fibrillation, and he called the diagnosis incredibly scary.
"A quickening of my heart. And I could feel it again. I would take my pulse, I would feel out of breath, I would feel I would start sweating," he said.
His doctor, Dr. Arfaat Khan, is the chief of electrophysiology at Henry Ford hospital.
"It's the most common heart rhythm disorder in the world," Khan said.
He said Afib is when the top two chambers of the heart no longer fully contract.
"Almost to the point where about 400 to 500 times a minute the heart is contracting to the point where the top tumor, the heart doesn't squeeze anymore," Khan said.
That compromises the heart's ability to pump, so you feel that skipping heartbeats and palpitations and fatigue.
"Taking out the garbage, mowing the lawn, they'll be more winded or tired and doing that," Khan said.
Khan says Afib affects 40 million people worldwide and 6 million in the US, but that number is expected to explode - doubling to 12 million in the US in the next 10 years. In part because Americans are living longer and age is a big factor in the developing Afib.
Another reason, he said, is we have better methods to detect it like smartwatches, wearable devices, etc.
Atrial fibrillation usually isn't fatal but does lead to an increased risk of stroke.
That's because when blood pools the solids in the blood begin to form clots. Those clots can cause a stroke.
That risk is higher in women - who tend to have more frequent and longer-lasting Afib episodes than men. W
"There's no cure for fibrillation," Khan said. "The main goal is to decrease the burden of the condition
Treatment includes blood thinners to reduce stroke risk, beta blockers to slow the heart, and the treatment Ferguson received, an ablation. That's when doctors use a catheter to burn or freeze the heart cells causing the abnormal rhythm.
"I couldn't wait to get it over so I could start a normal life," Ferguson said. "We just started playing pickleball because that's a thing that I guess [09:30:15][2.8]
Khan also says anyone with sleep apnea should be screened for afib. He also encourages his patients to exercise, adopt a healthy diet, avoid smoking and avoid alcohol.
Ferguson has been doing well since his ablation says he noticed there was a connection between alcohol consumption and episodes of Afib. So now he’s more watchful of how much alcohol he consumes.
