The future of AF

[Kbuck1234]

What do people think future medication and surgery advances will bring? Will there be a definitive cure for AF?

[BobD Volunteer]

About five years ago in talk I gave I said that I thought that some breakthrough was due. I compared treatment of AF with aviation and said that if you took the first RF ablation in 1994 as the Wright Brothers first flight then we were about the first world war. After this a leading EP told me he thought I was wrong and that after the first spurt of improvements things had plateaued. Now since then there have been a very few improvements mainly in such things as robots which make life easier for the EP and reduce time taken. There is also now laser balloon ablation along with cryo balloon.. both of which can give good results in some patients for whom it is appropriate. AF is a complex and mongrel condition where no one size fits all solution looks likely but we live in hope.

For my part, three ablations left me AF free these last seven years but I am not complacent.

Bob

[souljacs4 in reply to BobD]

Funny this post should come up was just looking at a site called topera showing new treatment in USA I really don't know what to make of it but I think there are a lot of new treatments on the horizon hope so

[rosyG]

a lot of EPs are turning to weight loss and plant based diets for their patients with very good results

[Mrspat]

This is only a guess and not a wish, as I have no idea what is in the pipeline. The population is ageing and AF is more common in older people. Surgery or invasive procedures are often not appropriate for the very elderly or those living with other serious but manageable conditions. The medical profession, on the whole, doesn't trust nutritional based remedies that it can't control or prescribe.

I think there will be new drugs, especially rhythm control drugs. My cardio Surgeon told me three years ago that "the drugs are getting better all the time". Not sure if any new AF specific drugs have come on stream in that time but we've already seen what I would consider to be advances in the related area of anticoagulation.

Like Bob, I went seven years without AF but that was managed with drugs and I've never had an ablation. I agree that there is unlikely to be one solution for all patients. Different treatments, from surgery, through medication, to nutrition and supplements, will suit different people.

[Japaholic]

In 100 years (if we haven't destroyed ourselves in ww3) we will be able to grow our own replacement hearts from stem cells taken from our blood or bone marrow.

AF will be treated with nano bots injected into the arm and passed out in our poo.

Think that's far fetched?

Look at 1915 medical technology and see how far we have come.

[EngMac]

Just as laser therapy is now something new being used to correct many health issues, including brain ones; perhaps, as is being learned for other health problems, AF is a brain problem and not a heart problem.

[CTG99 in reply to EngMac]

Interesting you say that about the link with the brain - I have paroxysmal AF (vagal nerve related) and have been using Amatsu (a form of Japanese Osteopathy) for some time. More recently, the therapist has been using cranial techniques which seems to have helped my AF considerably. Having been at an episode a week before I started the cranial work, I'm now at 9 weeks since my last episode and still feeling great! Still using the drugs at the same levels as I was before I started but this is a real step change for me. As an added bonus, at the times I do go into AF it reverts to NSR by itself within about 30 minutes rather than 2 hours.

Personally, I'd love to find a way of fixing the problem, rather than covering it. By using Amatsu, I'm hoping it will stop the wrong signals being generated in the first place, rather than just providing a shield to stop them causing any problems once triggered.

I think AF needs to be considered in relation to the whole body, not just the heart and that progress will be faster once this starts to happen.

Caroline

[Hidden]

Agree with Japaholic, in 100 years (or less) people will look back and laugh at the crude way we dealt with AF (and everything else) in much the same we look back in horror at medical practices 100 years ago.

Going in and burning tissue to cure/hide a problem is really very crude if you think about it.

Koll

[Hidden]

I'm optimistic particularly after reading this weekend Ray Kurzweil in the Financial Times - a world innovator who believes advances are so fast in 25 years health problems will be largely over.

I also read 6 months ago about advances in non invasive external medical devices, which may be used to bounce you out of migraines......maybe (my thought) also AF in the future. Sorry, can't remember where this was.

However, I think the biggest advances will have to be in prevention as we find out that altering food intake, supplements and lifestyle we can do much more than is currently accepted practice.

[Emsysy]

I'll look forward to my 95th Birthday then, Apple Jack !