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HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
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Why Is Hypertension Linked To Atrial Fibrillation? Being a risk factor for heart disease, high blood pressure or hypertension is a condition in which the blood is pumped around the body at high pressure. This means the blood is flowing with more force than normal and is pushing hard on the artery wall. If this goes on for too long, the added stress on the artery can cause damage that might narrow and cut blood flow. Because of this, all kinds of problems can then happen and one of them is atrial fibrillation (AF). But why? When pressure builds up in blood vessels in the heart, it can affect the heart's rhythm. The higher pressure also makes the heart work harder than normal and the heart starts to get thick and stiff. The heart’s rhythm is controlled by electrical signals. When the heart changes like this, those signals do not flow as they should, and the heart loses its regular rhythm that can eventually lead to AF. AF is a quivering or irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia) that can be associated with heart attack, stroke, and other heart-related complications. Under normal circumstances, the heart contracts and relaxes to a regular beat. In AF, the upper chamber of the heart (the atria) beat irregularly (quiver) instead of beating effectively to move blood into the ventricles. Blood clots tend to form in atria and these blood clots can break off and travel throughout the body and block the blood vessels. In most cases, 25 percent of the blood travels to the brain and it is common that a blood clot if it travels, will go to the brain leading to a stroke. It can also go to the heart and clog up a vessel causing a heart attack. The blood clot can travel to any other area of the body, too. This can create a blocking in an artery, for example, to the leg, in the eye or any other organ.
Hypertension is a common risk factor for stroke,
but people with hypertension is only 2 times more likely to have a stroke while
AF is associated with 5-fold increased risk for stroke. Between 15 and 20
percent of people who have strokes have AF, yet many patients are unaware that
AF is a serious condition.
Though anyone could develop AF, health experts agree that those who have hypertension in middle age and fail to control it properly are most likely to develop AF later on. The likelihood of having both conditions go up as one gets older. Having both conditions will make one’s chance of getting a life-threatening condition even higher. AF is a common cause of stroke in the elderly and up to 30 percent of the strokes in individuals over the age of 75 are caused by AF. On August 28, 2017, a new research suggested that consistency in blood pressure control, beyond the single measurement, is very important, and this appears to be the case across all types of AF patients, irrespective of age, blood pressure history, blood pressure level or clotting risk. The findings were presented by researchers from the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Birmingham at ESC Congress in Barcelona. It is, therefore, important to keep one’s blood pressure in check. This will ensure one has healthier blood vessels, lower the chance of getting AF and having a stroke. An ideal blood pressure to aim for is 120/80 mmHg, but most doctors may prefer their patients to keep the numbers a bit lower, around 115/75 mmHg, to reduce the risk even more. Controlling hypertension require patients to adopt a healthy lifestyle. They should exercise regularly and practise healthy eating habits, including less saturated fat, minimize trans-fat, cutting down salt intake but high in fiber. Meanwhile, the patients should lose weight if they are overweight or obese, stop smoking for smokers and avoid alcohol intake. More importantly, they should take the medications as prescribed by their doctors.
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