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October 22, 2008 7:52 AM CT Mellanie True Hills, founder of StopAfib.org, talks about living with atrial fibrillation and about her mini-maze surgery in USA Weekend's HealthSmart edition. Read Page 14 of USA Weekend HealthSmart:  E-mail your doctor: Communicating online lets a patient get answers from her doctor before and after surgery for atrial fibrillation  Please share …

October 14, 2008 7:56 AM CT A study in the October 15 issue of JAMA indicates that reducing how often a patient receives amiodarone for atrial fibrillation does not decrease side effects, but does increase atrial fibrillation recurrence and the risk of death and hospitalizations. Researchers at the University of Groningen, in The Netherlands, conducted a …

October 13, 2008 7:56 AM CT October is Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month, and StopAfib.org is helping to raise awareness of Sudden Cardiac Arrest. According to the Heart Rhythm Society, a founding member of the Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) Coalition, "Sudden cardiac arrest occurs when the heart stops working and no blood can be pumped …

October 13, 2008 7:42 AM CT Mellanie True Hills and StopAfib.org were included in the latest issue of More magazine in Retirement for the Restless by Lisa Belkin of the NYTimes. The premise of the story is that "If you love to work, the thought of stopping entirely can be terrifying. So don't. See how these …

October 12, 2008 8:56 AM CT We've long suspected that gender bias played a part in women not being diagnosed as quickly for heart disease as men, and a new study just presented at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics symposium appears to confirm that. In the study, internists and family physicians were given a vignette to …

October 14, 2008 8:56 AM CT Mellanie True Hills' story of living with atrial fibrillation was featured in the September 2008 issue of EP Lab Digest along with background about StopAfib.org. Read the article at:  Patient Perspectives: Living With Atrial Fibrillation The article includes a sidebar, What Your Patients Wish You Knew, which you won't want …

October 9, 2008 7:56 AM CT A new Canadian study indicates that having a pneumonia vaccination halves your risk of having a heart attack two years later. Read about the study:  Pneumonia Vaccine Lowers Chances of Heart Attack In recent years we have been focusing more on inflammation as a source of heart attacks. Since pneumonia …

October 8, 2008 7:32 AM CT You know that I'm concerned about the relationship between sleep apnea and atrial fibrillation. You also know that atrial fibrillation can overwork the heart and lead to heart failure. Thus, a newly launched study investigating how breathing difficulties during sleep affect heart failure patients is very heartening in that hopefully …

October 7, 2008 7:56 AM CT I'm always concerned about the communication problems between atrial fibrillation patients and their doctors and am constantly on the lookout for ways to improve that. I find that so many afib patients are intimidated by their doctors, and thus don't always ask the questions they would like. That means that …