Heart-Healthy Lifestyle Helps Prevent Irregular Heartbeat

The same lifestyle changes that can help prevent heart disease can also help avoid an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation.

More than 2 million Americans have atrial fibrillation, in which the heart's atria (upper chambers) contract erratically. The condition puts a person at greater risk for stroke.

A recent study found that people with risk factors for heart disease were more likely to develop atrial fibrillation. Those risk factors included high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, and being overweight. High blood pressure was the most important risk factor, the researchers say.

Reducing the risk

"Maintaining a heart-friendly lifestyle, which has a known beneficial impact on cardiovascular risk factors, will not only reduce an individual's risk of developing heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases, but it will reduce the risk of atrial fibrillation," says lead researcher Alvaro Alonso, M.D., at the University of Minnesota.

For the study, the researchers looked at data on more than 14,500 people enrolled in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study. The average age of participants was 54. Participants were tracked for 17 years, and 1,520 people developed atrial fibrillation.

Having one or more risk factors for heart disease increased the risk for atrial fibrillation by half.

Other factors

Race and gender also played a role. For white women with at least one risk factor, the risk of developing atrial fibrillation was 50 percent; for white men, it was just over 38 percent. Among African-Americans with at least one risk factor, the risk of developing atrial fibrillation was 94 percent for women and 91 percent for men.

"These findings further reinforce the important need to maintain healthy blood pressure, body weight, diet, exercise, and not smoking to reduce the risk of atrial fibrillation and other forms of cardiovascular disease," says Gregg C. Fonarow, M.D., at the University of California-Los Angeles.

Always talk with your health care provider to find out more information.