WELLNESS--Arrhythmia is a problem with the rate or rhythm of the heartbeat and Atrial Fibrillation, also known as AF, is the most common type. AF occurs if rapid, disorganized electrical signals cause the heart’s two upper chambers called atria to contract very fast and in an irregular manner. When this happens the blood pools in the upper heart chambers and is not pumped completely into the hearts lower chambers, which may or may not cause symptoms. The severity of AF can vary from “not life-threatening serious” on the less severe end all the way up to causing chest pain, heart failure and in some cases stroke.
A new study commissioned by the Heart Rhythm Society took 4976 participants of which 593 reported having Atrial Fibrillation. The objective of the study was to see whether or not second hand smoke is associated with AF.
What they discovered is that secondhand smoke for a developing fetus of a smoking mother did indeed prove to be associated with AF later in life. The study showed that people exposed to secondhand smoke in the womb or during childhood were about 40 percent more likely to report atrial fibrillation as adults than people unexposed. Many of the individuals that were affected by AF later in life had no other risk factors besides a mother that smoked during pregnancy.
We already know that smoking is linked to the development of atrial fibrillation, but the link with secondhand smoke exposure was less understood before this study. The study showed that the average age of people affected by AF was 62.
Dr. Cuno SPM Uiterwaal of the University Medical Center Utrecht in The Netherlands was quoted as saying “papers like these aim to draw attention to the possibility that early-life secondhand smoke exposure may not only have short term consequences, such as to the fetus, but also long-term hazards to offspring.”
The more we learn, the more we see that preventing exposure to secondhand smoke is crucial to good health and longevity -- for not only children and adults but for babies developing in the womb.
(Christian Cristiano is an acupuncturist in LA, TV host of Wellness for Realists and writes on wellness regularly for CityWatch. Christian can be reached at 323.935.3420. twitter: @CristianoWFR)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 85
Pub: Oct 20, 2015
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