You don't need the same blood monitoring, you don't need to change the dosage and they don't interact with food or other medicines in the same way. The 'new generation' of blood-thinning agents are called the NOACs or DOACs apixaban, dabigatran, exoxaban and rivaroxaban. So can other medicines including some herbal remedies, so always check with your pharmacist. Cabbage, spinach and broccoli, alcohol, cranberry and grapefruit can all upset your warfarin levels. If it's lower than this, you're at increased risk of a stroke if it's higher, you're at increased risk of bleeding, including bleeding into your brain.īecause lots of things can interfere with how your warfarin works, your dosage may have to be adjusted when you have your test. If you have AF, the aim will usually be to keep your INR between 2 and 3. People who aren't on treatment have an INR around 1. You need to have regular blood tests to monitor a clotting level called INR, which can be done with a fingerprick. It cuts your risk of stroke by nearly 60%. The most commonly recommended medicine to prevent strokes in AF today is the blood-thinning medicine, warfarin. So if you're taking regular aspirin, don't stop it without your doctor's advice. It's important to know that even though aspirin hasn't proved that good for AF, it's extremely effective at preventing another heart attack or stroke if you've already had one. That's why it's no longer recommended for AF. What's more, it can cause side effects like bleeding from the stomach.
In fact, we now know that this doesn't cut your risk of stroke by very much in AF. In the past, many people were put onto a regular low dose (75mg) aspirin tablet every day. Check your pulse - if it's completely erratic, with no regular rhythm at all, you could have AF.ĪF - how can you cut your risk of stroke? Fortunately, taking regular tablets to reduce the tendency of your blood to clot can hugely reduce that risk. That's because if you don't have the right treatment, you're about five times more likely to have a stroke if you have AF. It's very important to get atrial fibrillation diagnosed and treated, even if you don't know you've got it. You'll also have a painless scan called an echocardiogram, and sometimes blood tests.
Sometimes AF comes and goes over minutes or hours, and you may be asked to wear a heart monitor for 24 hours to pick up bouts of AF. If your doctor thinks you might have AF, they'll send you for a tracing of your heart called an ECG. Keeping your blood pressure under control can cut your risk of developing AF - get it checked regularly. But about one in five people with AF have no symptoms at all, and it's picked up by accident when your doctor or nurse examines you. These happen because the different parts of heart muscle aren't able to co-ordinate, so contractions are less efficient at pushing blood round the body. It's the most common cause of irregular heart rhythm in the UK, and along with age, other causes include high blood pressure, heart disease and overactive thyroid gland.ĪF symptoms, which can come on suddenly, include an irregular heartbeat with no pattern to it breathlessness on exercise dizziness and sometimes chest pain. About one in 200 people in their 50s has AF, compared to one in 10 of over-80s.
But as we live longer and longer, it's getting more and more common. When I was a medical student, AF was a bit of a medical rarity. It affects over a million people in the UK, with 50,000 people diagnosed every year. You always know a medical condition is important when it's known by its initials - and every doctor knows all about AF, or atrial fibrillation.
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