EAST LANSING, Mich. (WILX) -Promoting better heart health was the goal of an event in East Lansing on Thursday. University of Michigan Health-Sparrow held a seminar on “atrial fibrillation,” or A-fib.
That’s an irregular and often very rapid heartbeat, which is the leading cause of stroke. The goal of today’s seminar was to teach those 55 and older the impact A-fib could have on their lives and the many factors that could increase their risk.
“Raising that awareness is extremely important because 20% of the strokes happen because of undiagnosed asymptomatic atrial fibrillation,” said Ali Sheikh, cardiac electrophysiologist at UMH-Sparrow. “So the more people know about AFib, the more they know how they can check for themselves if they have atrial fibrillation, can hopefully reduce the chance of strokes and hopefully give people a better quality of life.”…