Statins

[Bubs6]

Would anyone know or have heard if statins help to prevent episodes of AF

[beardy_chris]

I'm not a medic but, no, I don't think so - they are usually prescribed to help the levels of cholesterol and so may help to delay congestive heart failure resulting from AF. So, not stopping AF but reducing the effects of AF, perhaps.

[Bubs6 in reply to beardy_chris]

Thank you.

[BobD Volunteer]

No they don't.

[Bubs6 in reply to BobD]

Thank you.

[Marytew]

Hi

Below is a link to a research article entitled ‘Statins and Atrial Fibrillation – Developments and Advances’ that may be of interest to you regarding your question. I have AF and was prescribed statins not because of high cholesterol but for the protective effects in patients with coronary heart disease (which is a less well-known reason for prescribing them).

ecrjournal.com/articles/sta...

If the link doesn't work cut and paste it into your search engine.

[Janith in reply to Marytew]

Interesting article ... statins reduce inflammation ... inflammation is one cause of afib ... hence statins may reduce afib.

[Junoesque in reply to Marytew]

Very interesting article. Could be something in it. My doctor told me that anyone with angina should definitely be on statins. As I have AF and Angina I can now tolerate pravastatin which I am grateful. I have been taking the tablets for six weeks now and whether it is my imagination they do seem to help with the AF.

[Hidden]

Don't know about statins, but this triggers Afib:

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After 9 years of trying different foods and logging EVERYTHING I ate, I found sugar (and to a lesser degree, salt – i.e. dehydration) was triggering my Afib. Doctors don't want to hear this - there is no money in telling patients to eat less sugar. Each person has a different sugar threshold - and it changes as you get older, so you need to count every gram of sugar you eat every day (including natural sugars in fruits, etc.). My tolerance level was 190 grams of sugar per day 8 years ago, 85 grams a year and a half ago, and 60 grams today, so AFIB episodes are more frequent and last longer. If you keep your intake of sugar below your threshold level your AFIB will not happen again (easier said than done of course). It's not the food - it's the sugar (or salt - see below) IN the food that's causing your problems. Try it and you will see - should only take you 1 or 2 months of trial-and-error to find your threshold level. And for the record - ALL sugars are treated the same (honey, refined, agave, natural sugars in fruits, etc.). I successfully triggered AFIB by eating a bunch of plums and peaches one day just to test it out. In addition, I have noticed that moderate exercise (7-mile bike ride or 5-mile hike in the park) often puts my Afib heart back in to normal rhythm a couple hours later. Don’t know why – perhaps you burn off the excess sugars in your blood/muscles or sweat out excess salt?? I also found that strenuous exercise does no good – perhaps you make yourself dehydrated??

Also, in addition to sugar, if you are dehydrated - this will trigger AFIB as well. It seems (but I have no proof of this) that a little uptick of salt in your blood is being treated the same as an uptick of sugar - both cause AFIB episodes. (I’m not a doctor – it may be the sugar in your muscles/organs and not in your blood, don’t know). In any case you have to keep hydrated, and not eat too much salt. The root problem is that our bodies are not processing sugar/salt properly and no doctor knows why, but the AFIB seems to be a symptom of this and not the primary problem, but medicine is not advanced enough to know the core reason that causes AFIB at this time. You can have a healthy heart and still have Afib – something inside us is triggering it when we eat too much sugar or get (even a little) dehydrated. Find out the core reason for this and you will be a millionaire and make the cover of Time Magazine! Good luck! - Rick Hyer

PS – there is a study backing up this data you can view at:

Cardiab.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2840-7-28

[Bubs6 in reply to Hidden]

Thank you. That is so interesting.