As some of you know, I've been on this website forum ( and the earlier and now defunct version via Yahoo) since Jan 2010.
Now I know age plays tricks …………… BUT ………….. looking at posts going back just a couple of years now ……………. is it that the age of newer members of this elite club are getting/is getting younger and younger. Maybe I'm imagining things, but I am convinced I'm seeing more and more people put an initial post on here with introductory wording along the lines of ………….. " I lead a healthy lifestyle and I'm 41 or 33 or whatever and I've been diagnosed with AF".
At one time, back in the day, mostly there would be no reference to lifestyle but an admission that person was 60 or 65 or 70 +and that they'd been diagnosed with AF.
Just an observation, out of curiosity that's all - just wondering if newbies to AF are getting younger.
Hi John, I am a newbie and I had a couple of medical students visit me in hospital earlier this year and said “you must be the youngest person on the cardiac ward by 20 years” 🤪 I’m now 54 and feel that I’m too young to be dealing with this so when I see others in their 30s and 40s I feel for them. It’s frustrating - I am not an elite athlete but I was healthy and reasonably fit until I had an accident and needed ankle surgery. Cest la vie!
My daughter was a weird case ---- around the age 31/33 during both her pregnancies she developed AF. She received appropriate medical attention (lived in Melbourne at the time) and moved on with her life.
Now that she has stopped breeding no more AF !! She is now really into some forms of martial arts and loves Thai kick boxing - still no more AF.
I had preeclampsia with both pregnancies (no AF though) and the research shows a link between preeclampsia and arrhythmias later in life. My doctors believe my injury, pain, stress and surgery could have triggered the heart problem but that there would have been an underlying propensity which may have appeared later in life (I would have rather later than sooner).
I had post partum pre-eclampsia 25 years ago after my son was born. I have had high blood pressure (controlled) for the last 10 years, which my doctor had said might occur after the pre-eclampsia, but I had never heard it might also cause Afib later in life! I just got diagnosed with Afib in June of this year, and had an ablation in September. I wonder if that pre-eclampsia 25 years ago also played a part. Interesting.
Also, I think there are more diagnoses earlier now, because they can do something about it, where before, they did not have as many options for treatment. Possibly?
My kids are 27 and 25. I was only diagnosed with AF this year (SVT two years ago). Here’s a link to one of my earlier posts with an article about preeclampsia.
John you are not wrong. It is my belief that life style is playing a big part in this. I might also suggest that people will seldom tell you they are unfit and will always claim they are healthy and fit.
There is growing anecdotal evidence that diet and life style play a part in AF burden and that being over weight plays a major part here. How that is defined in today's world is another matter. Watch film of WWll and you never see anybody remotely tubby let alone obese. We know that women's dress sizes were all changed some years ago to make people think they were thinner than they were. My wife suddenly had to start buying size 10 rather than 12 and had lost no weight at all!
The change to a more natural diet with fewer processed meals and less meat has been shown to be highly beneficial in reducing the burden to such extent as it can with some people render ablation unnecessary.
Prof John Camm once told me that when he was at medical school AF was described as a normal process of aging but as you say it has now become mainstream for anybody at any age and they are not all adrenaline junkies I'm sure. It HAS to be life style surely?
An interesting post John. One thing to perhaps bear in mind is that AF occurs in some people who engage in one form or another of extreme sport. Today, certainly where we live, cyclists are everywhere and more people are involved in marathons than ever before and I think the majority of younger forum contributors do seem to have a connection with sporting activities. Call me a miserable ‘ole fart (many do) but lifestyle, in it’s broadest context, is clearly very different to what it was like 20 years ago and most in their 70’s I think will relate to that.
So I think you are right, but I think in many ways, it’s sadly not surprising.
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Yeah Flapjack, younger people and extreme sports and associated sporting activities are a big factor, for sure. Apart from cardiology, another growth industry - with its roots in these areas is orthopaedics ..... when most of these folk are in their 60's and older its gonna be hip, knee and associated other joint replacements galore Ha! Ha! ............. so much for a healthy lifestyle. I can trace my partial knee replacement right back to high school when I wasn't half bad at high jump and long jump.
Finally, on the matter of you being a miserable old fart ... I'd never say that because I'm in that category myself ........... BobD though, Hmmmmmm - not sure there. Ha! Ha!Ha!
I think people under pension age with PAF used to be brushed off before, partly because docs considered AF a disease of old age, partly because of the expense and difficulty of diagnosis, lack of suitable treatment for a younger person (only thing offered to my father was digoxin) and partly because the link with stroke was not understood. People were diagnosed with 'nerves', menopausal symptoms, etc. I had weird heart symptoms since I had measles badly at 12 years old but even though I had been hospitalised once with a very bad episode I had great difficulty persuading my GP that my heart was at fault when I developed symptoms later on.
I agree about the lifestyle issue but I think my theory is valid too.
Considering how some people react to a diagnosis of PAF (myself included!) docs may have thought better to tell someone they have harmless palpitations, especially if they knew there was no effective treatment anyway. I do think it seems to have become a fashionable career path - great gadgets, no blood, grateful (mostly) patients - what's not to like? So much more glamorous than geriatrics 😜
Yes John l believe Drs are more aware..Malaise was a term l heard regularly as a child which referred to women of certain age having a ' funny turn ' and older men referring to there ' dodgy ticker' descriptive terms l have not heard for decades..
Carol.
I got fed up of all the junior doctors telling me I was very young to have AF (46) . Like that is going to help. But it turns out that it's not uncommon
An interesting point to raise John. Yes, I think we're certainly finding a lot more younger people coming on to the forum. The number is growing quite fast too.
I think it's because doctors are becoming more aware of AF now and some are suddenly realising that young people can have it too! I remember a few years ago asking my GP if it could be possible that I had sleep apnoea, his answer was to laugh and say no because I was too skinny for that! Instant rejection because of his idea I was skinny. Now those of you that have met me will have observed I'm not skinny! So I can easily understand that GP's are looking at young people and dismissing the idea they have AF because they look too young! I wouldn't be surprised if many of them are still sent away from the surgery with pills for anxiety.
Is AF a fault in the design of our bodies, or are we evolving to live in a totally different climate, surroundings or way. Could AF one day have a purpose, or could it have one already that we're totally unaware of?
Its not just AF that is appearing at a younger age there are many other conditions ..... Type 2 Diabetes, Cancer, Mental illness, Alcoholism etc etc.
In the UK we are in an epidemic of obesity In 2014 62% of adults in England were classified as overweight (a body mass index of 25 or above) or obese, compared to 53% 20 years earlier. More than two-thirds of men and almost six in 10 women are overweight or obese.
In Wales the figures are even worse 23% of adults were obese in 2016, and a further 36% were overweight. 65% of men were either overweight or obese, compared with 53% of women.
We now have categories of overweight, Obese and in recent years they have had to introduce a further category of morbidly obese so its little wonder we are getting problems.
I asked a dietitian at a sports conference I attended a while back if this obesity epidemic could be reversed she said I will answer by saying its not uncommon for her to visit young mothers who liquefy burgers, chips etc to feed to their 6 month old babies......we ain't got a chance in hell there is to much money being made with the fast food outlets.
I dare say the statistics are out there someone It would be interesting if someone could put together statistics on the number of people who have picked up AF as the direct result of lifestyle, Sport, genes, hereditary etc.etc
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