Irregular Heartbeat Treatment Improved By Exercise, Diet

Atrial fibrillation–doctors know it as AF,  you know it a disturbing irregular heartbeat–can be bad for your health. It is usually remedied with a procedure called catheter ablation, in which electricity is used to burn the tissue around the problem area. Strange, but it works, somewhat. Now comes a study from researchers at the University of Adelaide suggesting a way to greatly improve the likelihood that it will continue to work. A U of Adelaide news release reports that researchers at the school followed more than 149 AF patients who had undergone catheter ablation. Of these, 61 had also undergone an intensive risk factor management program aimed at improving weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, and limiting drinking and smoking. The envelope please….after five years, arrhythmia-free survival rates for patients who undertook the risk management program were 87 percent, compared with less than 18 percent of the control group.