Health experts have warned that millions of people are at risk of suffering from a silent killer, and these are the signs you should be keeping an eye out for. Research from the University of California San Francisco has suggested nearly five per cent of people suffer from atrial fibrillation and that it is more than three times more common than originally thought. The condition causes rapid, irregular heartbeat and can trigger heart attacks and strokes.
In the US, around 10.5million adults are affected. While in the UK, the British Heart Foundation says one in 14 - the equivalent of 1.
5million, are known to be living with it. However, the charity warns the real number could be much higher. Author of the study, Dr Jean Jacques Noubiap, said: "Atrial fibrillation doubles the risk of mortality, is one of the most common causes of stroke, increases risks of heart failure, myocardial infarction, chronic kidney disease and dementia, and results in lower quality of life Fortunately, it is preventable, and early detection and appropriate treatment can substantially reduce its adverse outcomes.
" People's hearts should beat anywhere between 60 to 100 beats per minute while resting. But someone with atrial fibrillation can be much higher than this, the NHS says. Those with the condition can have short breath, tiredness, dizziness and heart palpitations.
Atrial fibrillation has seen a rise in the past decade, alongside increasing blood pressure rates, diabetes and obesity, the Sun reports. The US study looked at medical records of 30 million adults who received care between 2005 and 2019 in California. In total, around two million of these patients had the conditions and the numbers began to grow as the years went on.
Between 2005 to 2009, just under 4.5 percent of people were diagnosed with it, before rising to 6.82% between 2015 and 2019.
There are other symptoms people should look out for other than the direct ones mentioned above - these include blood clots, strokes, heart attacks and heart failure. Previous research has found those with the condition are five times more likely to have a stroke than those without it. Senior and corresponding author Dr Gregory Marcus, a cardiologist and electrophysiologist, said: "Physicians recognise that atrial fibrillation is often encountered in essentially every field of practice.
These data provide objective evidence to demonstrate that prior projections severely underestimated how common it truly is." Dr Marcus believes technology such as smart rings and Apple watches may uncover data the condition is more common than we think. He added: "With the growing use of consumer wearables designed to detect atrial fibrillation, combined with safer and more effective means to treat it, this current prevalence of atrial fibrillation in health care settings may soon be dwarfed by future healthcare utilisation that will occur due to the disease.
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