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Carey

do i NEED to take this for a YEAR (at least?)

What's your afib situation? Are you having episodes? If not, when was the last one? You say you're a CHADs-Vasc 1, so that means anticoagulants are a judgement call. The biggest factor in that decision is going to be afib activity.

The other question is how long do you expect to need ibuprofen? It's not that ibuprofen is completely contraindicated; it's just that it shouldn't be taken with anticoagulants long term. I've been told by two EPs that taking it for a few days is okay, but a few weeks is not.

And, really, if it's not going to be long term, I'd go for the Norco. You won't become addicted in a few days or even weeks, and with kidney stones you might need a lot more than ibuprofen. I've seen people passing kidney stones who were in horrible pain even with morphine.

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colindo
Will blood thinners stop that one stroke in 10 years?
As I said my sister is now in hospital with a stroke after being on thinners for 12 months, that is in fact true.

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Elizabeth
Colindo

Which blood thinner was she on? How is she doing?

Liz

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colindo
And I ask why, why is my stroke risk after 10 years now 18.3%, what has caused that.? Is it my lifestyle, maybe?

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Carey

And I ask why, why is my stroke risk after 10 years now 18.3%, what has caused that.? Is it my lifestyle, maybe?

Your risk didn't change. What happened is math.

Stroke risk is usually stated as risk per year. So if your risk of having a stroke in one year is 2%, over the course of 10 years you incur that 2% risk 10 times. As safib explained, that risk adds up. It's not 20% because it's not simple addition, but it does add up. The answer is the risk is 18.3% that you'll have at least one stroke in a 10 year period.

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colindo
And I ask why, why is my stroke risk after 10 years now 18.3%, what has caused that.? Is it my lifestyle, maybe?

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safib

Safib, you assume an ablation is an option for all of us.
I also dont believe your stroke risk goes up yearly, and thats my opinion. Which used to be allowed on this forum.

It is not that your annual stroke risk goes up, it's that your cumulative stroke risk goes up (cumulative meaning your risk over a period of several years). The simplest model to explain this is coin flipping with a fair coin. The probability of getting a head in one flip is 0.5. For n flips it is 1 - (1 - 0.5)^n. So the probability of getting a head in n = 2 flips is 0.75 , and the probability of getting a head in n = 10 flips is .999. If you employ the same model for stroke, where the annual stroke risk is 2%, then the cumulative stroke risk is 18.3% over 10 years. Now there are issues with the model, but it is a good choice lacking long term longitudinal data . Better models would account for some fine tuning to allow for stroke incidence occurring continuously rather than once per year, or time variation of the stroke risk, or dependency of stroke events (having one stroke would make it more likely to have another). But it wouldn't change the results much. This isn't opinion, cumulative risks go up with time and models like this are well-validated.

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colindo
Safib, you assume an ablation is an option for all of us.
I also dont believe your stroke risk goes up yearly, and thats my opinion. Which used to be allowed on this forum.

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colindo
So telling forum members that lifestyle changs is a crock is not good advise.

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colindo
So telling forum members that lifestyle changs is a crock is not good advise. BTW not all afibbers are like yourself and Carey.

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wolfpack

This whole theory that afib is a lifestyle disease is a crock, in my opinion. Lifestyle can influence it and make it better or worse, but it's not a cause.


I concur.

I got AF at 6’0”, 170 lb, BP 115/70, running 35 miles/wk, eating a zero-fat diet and, of course, not smoking. What was I supposed to do to rend the “Scarlet AF” from my chest?

My dad got AF at age 50. My mom at age 71. Hmmm...

If poor diet and holding down sofas from the deleterious effects of anti-gravity were the sole cause of AF, it’d be a lot more prevalent than 5% of the population!

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Carey
This whole theory that afib is a lifestyle disease is a crock, in my opinion. Lifestyle can influence it and make it better or worse, but it's not a cause.

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colindo
Never the less 98% chance of not having a stroke are good odds. No one is going to guarantee blood thinners is going to improve those odds much.

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colindo
If you have a CHADs score of 2 you have a 2% chance of a stroke, then if you take a blood thinner you have a 3% chance of a blood bleed.

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safib

Well Carry,

If you change your life style, cut out alcohol, reduce weight, lower blood pressure, eat low carb, get off the couch etc.
You will reduce your afib load and change your CHAD score to a point where you won't need any blood thinners which will stop its calcification action.
A better alteritive then would be nattokinase or Natto as well. It's at least thinning my blood and has lowered my figrinogen level, it's also making my finger and toe nails grow faster. Which means that calcium which does the damage to your artries and causes strokes is now going where it belongs, to my bones.

Some more info for you Carry.

Natto. There isn't pill like it

NATTO ADVANTAGES, the wonder food.


So you are advocating ignoring CHADs and not taking prescribed anticoagulants, and instead proceeding with trying to lower CHADs enough that eventually you no longer need to take anticoagulants (according to CHADs!). You then follow this by the natto (miracle drug). The problem with your plan is there is no rigorous validation of any of it. In addition, there is plenty of risk in the interim while you are trying to reduce CHADs, if you can do it at all. This in addition to the unknown safety and dosing and efficacy data for natto.

These kinds of approaches which go against the best evidenced-based medical opinion are ill-informed and potentially dangerous.

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colindo
Nattokinase. I wonder if there was money to be made from it, would we see evidence of its effectiveness?

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colindo
Well Carry,

If you change your life style, cut out alcohol, reduce weight, lower blood pressure, eat low carb, get off the couch etc.
You will reduce your afib load and change your CHAD score to a point where you won't need any blood thinners which will stop its calcification action.
A better alteritive then would be nattokinase or Natto as well. It's at least thinning my blood and has lowered my figrinogen level, it's also making my finger and toe nails grow faster. Which means that calcium which does the damage to your artries and causes strokes is now going where it belongs, to my bones.

Some more info for you Carry.

Natto. There isn't pill like it

NATTO ADVANTAGES, the wonder food.