By Aishani Balukumar
Research has shown that atrial fibrillation could increase the risk of dementia, through its impact on cardiac function.
Atrial fibrillation is an issue which causes the heart’s beat rhythm to be unsteady. It is an arrhythmia, which means irregular heart rhythms. Atrial fibrillation is commonly abbreviated to AFib or AF. Symptoms of this issue can include feeling tired, having a heart beat faster than 100 beats per minute, chest pain or tightness, and many more. It may also affect the upper chambers of the heart (the atria). From 2010 to 2019, the number of diagnoses of AFib has increased from 33.5 million individuals to 59 million.
Dementia is a disease which can affect an individual’s memory and brain activity. Dementia is an umbrella term encompassing multiple diseases affecting the brain, such as Alzheimer’s disease. Symptoms of dementia can include memory loss of recent events, struggling to find the correct words, general confusion, and many more. An estimate of 982 thousand people are living with dementia in the UK, and in 2022, the rate of diagnosis in the UK was 62%. In the same year, there were over 74 thousands deaths due to dementia in the UK.
A study which undertook investigation on the impact of atrial fibrillation on dementia stated that for participants under the age of 70, the risk of dementia due to AFib increased by 21%. This study involved a sample of 2,458,905 participants, some of which were excluded as they had previous cognitive impairment or dementia. The study also showed that participants under the age of 70 with atrial fibrillation were at a 36% risk of getting early onset dementia, therefore resulting that it is very likely that an individual with AFrib could be diagnosed with Dementia at the age 65.
This new research has shown that there is a significant impact of atrial fibrillation on dementia, particularly on those just below the age of 70. It would be interesting for future studies to investigate how and why atrial fibrillation can impact dementia.