Transcription
A stroke can change your life in seconds. One minute you're holding your grandbaby, the next you can't lift your arm to hold them. You can't speak, you can't walk, you can't ask for help.
And here's the thing. Most people say, "Oh, that's an unlucky person. They just had a stroke that couldn't be prevented." Nothing is further from the truth. You do not have to have strokes. So don't make those big mistakes that lead to them.
Atrial fib is when the top chambers of the heart stop squeezing in rhythm and then the the ventricles, the big chambers can't work as well. Blood starts pooling in those atria, those top chambers. And when it pools, clots form in them. And when those clots stay put, they don't stay put for very long. They start traveling to places like your brain. Atrial fib raises your chance of having a stroke five to eight times. So that's why in this video I'm going to walk you through the five most dangerous mistakes people make with atrial fib, how that can lead to a stroke, and what you can do to protect yourself before anything slips past you. And don't miss the last one. It's the most common and the most dangerous mistake.
Now, let's start off by talking about a short story. It was inspired by a patient. In fact, inspired by many patients making these same kind of mistakes. Bill is 67. He's a retired engineer. He came in complaining of just, you know, he was feeling off. He had this he had he noticed a flutter in his chest a couple of times, but he figured it was just getting older and it he didn't think like it made him feel any different. His doctor had thought about that and suspected atrial fib. So his doctor got what they called a rhythm strip, an EKG, and it really didn't show anything. So they sent him home again. Big mistake.
After we talked to him, we suggested something similar to a halter monitor. That's what they used to be called. You have several devices these days. Uh some of them are called Neo Monitor. It monitors your heart rhythm for days at the time. It's a strap-on device for the chest and it monitors rhythm day after day. But as we were talking, I noticed he was wearing an Apple Watch and it was an Apple cardio watch. These watches are made to pick up atrial fib and they do it. So I told him before we go to all the halter monitor and the neo and all that stuff, let's just take a look at your your Apple cardio watch. And it wasn't set up. We set it up for that. And a few days later, boom, there it was. Atrial fib. And it had a common type of atriib. In fact, the most common type. It's called a paroxismal atriib. That mean peroxismal just means it comes and it goes. You know, some people can have two or three episodes a day, once a week, once a month even. And often they have it when they're asleep and never even notice it. They don't know that they're having it.
Mistake number one, thinking atrial fib is harmless. Now, Bill said what a lot of folks say. He said, "Yeah, doc, I had felt my heart skipping a couple of times, but I feel all right, and I ain't had a stroke, so I'm good, right?" And that was the problem. Atriof doesn't always hit like a heart attack. It doesn't feel dramatic. It just sits there quietly disrupting blood flow. And when the blood flow causes a clot and then that clot travels and it goes to the brain, that's the danger. And by that time, it's too late. And so thinking, well, I've not had a stroke. You know, everybody didn't have a stroke until they had their first one. You don't want your first stroke. That's not a good warning sign. Atrialib is just not is not just a heart problem. It's a stroke problem, plain and simple.
Mistake number two, thinking that no symptoms means no risk. So, Bill was like a lot of people. He'd had a couple of flutters, but he didn't know most of the time that he was having it. And as I mentioned a few minutes ago, some people never have a sign. They never have a symptom. They have a couple of flutters when they're asleep. They never notice it. He didn't know he had it. About 30% of people with atrial fib have no symptoms. 30%. That's almost one in three. No symptoms at all. They're living their lives where their their hearts just kind of out of rhythm. They don't know it and it's letting that blood pull in their atria forming cluts. Cluts that can go to their brain. So that's why we don't go by how you feel. If you feel good, h that's not all we want. We want to make sure your rhythm and stroke risk are minimized.
So when we caught Bill's atrial fib, I told him, "We need to start medications to protect you right away." That meant a blood thinner. He wasn't thrilled. You know, he pardon the pun, but he said, "That's a tough pill to swallow." He just didn't want to do it. Like many of us, he wanted to avoid medications and he didn't like the idea of blood thinners. And he said, "Doc, you know, how about if I just use natural stuff, cayenne pepper, ginger. I've heard nakinise is a great blood thinner." Okay, I understand all of that. Netinase may have some blood thinner capacity, but it has never been proven to prevent strokes. By the way, aspirin, that number one most common blood thinner for heart attack prevention, doesn't protect protect you from strokes if you have atrial fib. We're not really sure why, but we think it might be because uh platelets are not that involved and aspirin is really more of an antiplatlet type of blood thinner. We don't think platelets are involved because this is blood pooling in the atria, those chambers of the heart. It's not a clot from a cut. Anyhow, bottom line, nakine kynise does not prevent strokes. Cayenne pepper doesn't prevent strokes. Ginger doesn't prevent strokes. Aspirin doesn't even prevent strokes. You need the appropriate kind of blood thinner. And we're talking about Eloquis, Zorelto, a couple of those types.
Mistake number three, trusting supplements to fix your atrial fib. I'm a supplement guy. I I've used the supplements for inflammation and metabolism, but when it comes to atrial fib, there's no supplement that can stop clots from forming. That's where I draw the line. If you've got atrial fib, stroke prevention requires proven tools. That means anti-coagulants like Eloquis or Zerelto, not aspirin, not natakinase.
Mistake number four, stopping your medication too soon. A few months later, Bill came back and he said, "Doc, I've been feeling great. I stopped the blood thinner. I just didn't like that." It's a common and dangerous move even after procedures like ablation where they go in and the doc thinks the cardiologist the electrphysiologist cardiologist says I've uh burnt those areas that were causing this. You don't have atrial fib anymore. Bottom line is most ablations um last for 18 months or so and then they stop and you don't know when they stop and the atrial fib comes back. The atrial fib sneaks back and you start getting that fibrillation rhythm again and the pooling of the blood and the clots and the stroke risk. So be very careful about stopping your medication. If your stroke risk is high, stay protected. That's how we keep a good day from turning into a tragedy.
Bill agreed to go back on his meds, but asked, "Okay, Ford, I'll take the blood thinner, but is that all I can do to avoid a stroke?" Here's mistake number five. Ignoring what triggers atrial fib. Too many folks ignore what triggers their atrial fib episodes. You got to pay attention to what sets it off. Alcohol, caffeine, dehydration, stress, poor sleep, all of those things. We've even got a couple of people who say that ice cream triggers it. That would be really bad for me.
Now, there's some things about root causes as well. Alcohol can be a root cause um as well as a trigger. The biggest root cause, by far the most common cause, inflammation associated with undiagnosed metabolic disease. So you need to go back and think about if I've got atrial fib, I probably have metabolic disease. What is that? Easy term for it is pre-diabetes or diabetes. And why does that happen? Well, if you've watched this channel, like a lot of people have, you know where I'm going. Uh, the number one cause of vascular inflammation is having too high of blood sugar andor too high of insulin. That can cause inflammation of the lining of their artery wall. Now, what most people don't know, even if you've watched this channel a good bit, is that the number one cause of atrial fib is inflammation of the atrial cells, the muscle in the atria, those compartments. If they get inflamed, they can start creating this fibrillation type of rhythm. So if you've got atrial fib, you need to start thinking, could I possibly have metabolic disease, obesity, sleep apnnea, high blood pressure, inactivity, magnesium deficiency. These are all things that can contribute to the risk. But again, the biggest, most common, and most often hidden cause and trigger is metabolic disease.
So, if you've been told you have atriib, don't wait for the symptoms to see how serious it is. Get evaluated. Know your stroke risk and stay consistent with your treatment plan. Protect your rhythm, protect your brain, and protect the people who you care for. Download my free sevenstep heart attack prevention guide. It's linked below. And it's or again, if you're on the TV screen, it's on the QR code. And by the way, if you'd like to help us save lives, we get a lot of feedback from viewers that we've saved their life with this channel. And you can help. It's easy, it's simple, and it's completely free. Just subscribe. Thank you. Now remember, growing old is not for sissies, but it's a lot easier with healthy arteries.