Heart rate goes up, shortness of breath and a dizzy feeling in the head – I experienced atrial fibrillation from a young age. When I was 5/6 years old, in my teenage years and very recently I have been experiencing them again. Interestingly those times coincide with attempts to break loose from my abusive parents. Stress and cardiovascular issues are common comorbidity. But I was so young when I started experiencing atrial fibrillation. Still I am too young to be in any risk group for cardiovascular diseases. So I did some digging …
An extensive study including more than a million people looked at the correlation between PTSD atrial fibrillation. The average age was 30 years and participants had not previously experienced heart problems. For 13 years information was gathers about PTSD diagnosis, life style and cardiovascular issues. This large scale study provided enough data for thorough statistical analysis. Patients with PTSD are 13% more likely to develop atrial fibrillation at an early age. That makes atrial fibrillation as much of a risk factor as diabetes or obesity for people with PTSD (1).
Arguably people with PTSD often make poorer life style choices like smoking and drinking. However, I always ate well and kept myself fit. Apart from my controlling codependent behavior I always had a very healthy life style. Therefore a more direct link between PTSD and atrial fibrillation should exist.
An other extensive study followed 95 patients for a year and let them report daily on the state of their emotions. Episodes of atrial fibrillation are strongly associated with anger, anxiety, sadness and stress (2). In Figure out how you FEEL – using SCIENCE I explain how difficult it is to be sure of what you are actually feeling. And that is the challenge in this field of research. How to quantify emotions? Large sample sizes are a good way to gain robust data and make reliable statements.
I love to see here how the root causes of PTSD, the disruption and disturbances of the mind, can be linked to the physiological problems that many of us suffer with. Because of the named difficulties in experimental set ups I understand the lack of research. However, it is healing for me to see that science comes to the same conclusions as I do with my own life experiences. I look forward to read more about these topics in the future.
(1) Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Risk for Early Incident Atrial Fibrillation: A Prospective Cohort Study of 1.1 Million Young Adults (2019) L. Rosman, R. Lampert, C. M. Ramsey, J. Dziura, P. W. Chui, C. Brandt, S. Haskell, M. M. Burg
(2) Triggering of Symptomatic Atrial Fibrillation by Negative Emotion (2014) R. Lampert, L. Jamner, M. Burg, J. Dziura, C. Brandt, H. Liu, F. Li, T. Donovan, R. Soufer
