At the end of the study, the group that drank coffee experienced a 39% lower risk of recurring AFib episodes. In addition to coffee’s potential anti-inflammatory effects, the researchers proposed that those who drank coffee may have naturally replaced less healthy drinks, such as sugary sodas, with coffee instead. University of California – San Francisco. “Surprising heart study finds daily coffee may cut AFib risk by 39%.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/11/251110021046.htm (accessed November 10, 2025).
Journal Reference: Christopher X. Wong, Christopher C. Cheung, Gabrielle Montenegro, Hannah H. Oo, Isabella J. Peña, Janet J. Tang, Samuel J. Tu, Grace Wall, Thomas A. Dewland, Joshua D. Moss, Edward P. Gerstenfeld, Zian H. Tseng, Henry H. Hsia, Randall J. Lee, Jeffrey E. Olgin, Vasanth Vedantham, Melvin M. Scheinman, Catherine Lee, Prashanthan Sanders, Gregory M. Marcus. Caffeinated Coffee Consumption or Abstinence to Reduce Atrial Fibrillation. JAMA, 2025; DOI: 10.1001/jama.2025.21056
As we approach the eve of the New Year, the skeptical cardiologist recognizes that many of you will be consuming vast quantities of alcohol tomorrow night. Whether this is done in celebration or in hopes of transiently forgetting pandemical stressors please be aware that as the fermented beverage of your choice begins to cloud your…
These findings show that the prevalence of food insecurity in the U.S. is highest among Americans for whom a healthy diet is especially critical—Medicaid enrollees with insulin-dependent diabetes and diabetes-related eye or kidney complications (over 40% were food insecure). The problem of co-occurring food insecurity and diabetes among the nation’s disadvantaged has likely worsened during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
The Prevalence of Food Insecurity Is Highest Among Americans for Whom Diet Is Most Critical to Health — Diabetes Care 2021 Jun; 44(6): e131-e132. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc20-3116
In patients with newly diagnosed T2DM, alcohol abstinence was associated with a low risk of AF development. Lifestyle modifications, such as alcohol abstinence, in patients newly diagnosed with T2DM should be recommended to reduce the risk of AF.
New research published in Diabetologia has shown that if people achieve and maintain substantial weight loss to manage their type 2 diabetes, many can also effectively control their high blood pressure and stop or cut down on their anti-hypertensive medication.
During Pandemic Year One I lost 25 pounds. My PCP was impressed but when I told her how my diet changed she put her “doctor face” on, looked me straight in the eyes and said,
“I can’t wait to see your blood test results.”
Due to my family history my risk of developing DM2 is approximately 25% higher than the average underwriter. When I asked a prominent Endocrinologist for some advice many years ago he too put on his “doctor face” looked me straight in the eyes and said,
“Stay as thin as you can as long as you can.”
Yesterday I went to see Kevin and got a fresh flattop. The first question he asked was,
“Did you lose more weight?”
No, I haven’t. But my face definitely looks thinner without a mask.
BTW my blood work was about the same as last year even with my change in diet.
We found no evidence of a temporal trend in hazard ratios between newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation and all cause mortality. The hazard ratios for non-cardiovascular death declined over time but no evidence of a temporal trend for cardiovascular death was found. Mortality associated with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation remained high compared with individuals without atrial fibrillation, despite showing some improvements over the past 45 years. More than 10 years after a diagnosis of atrial fibrillation, individuals with atrial fibrillation lose about two years of life compared with matched referents.
Recurrences of atrial fibrillation lasting 30 seconds or more were less common in the abstinence group (53% vs. 73% of control patients). The median percentage of time spent in atrial fibrillation was also lower in the abstinence group (0.5% vs. 1.2%).
The skeptical cardiologist has been evaluating a demo version of AliveCor’s new KardiaMobile 6L. I have been a huge advocate of Kardia’s single lead ECG and use it with great success in dozens of my afib patients. I’ve written about how this personal ECG monitoring empowers patients and providers and is a crucial component of…
A majority of patients in the ablation group, about 63%, were in sinus rhythm at the 60-month follow-up, compared with only 22% (P<0.001) in the group with medically managed AF, “which suggests that maintenance of sinus rhythm is beneficial when achieved without the use of antiarrhythmic drugs,” write the authors, led by Dr Nassir F Marrouche (University of Utah Health, Salt Lake City).
The past 3 decades have been characterized by an exponential growth in knowledge and advances in the clinical treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF). It is now known that AF genesis requires a vulnerable atrial substrate and that the formation and composition of this substrate may vary depending on comorbid conditions, genetics, sex, and other factors. Population-based studies have identified numerous factors that modify the atrial substrate and increase AF susceptibility. To date, genetic studies have reported 17 independent signals for AF at 14 genomic regions. Studies have established that advanced age, male sex, and European ancestry are prominent AF risk factors. Other modifiable risk factors include sedentary lifestyle, smoking, obesity, diabetes mellitus, obstructive sleep apnea, and elevated blood pressure predispose to AF, and each factor has been shown to induce structural and electric remodeling of the atria. Both heart failure and myocardial infarction increase risk of AF and vice versa creating a feed-forward loop that increases mortality. Other cardiovascular outcomes attributed to AF, including stroke and thromboembolism, are well established, and epidemiology studies have championed therapeutics that mitigate these adverse outcomes. However, the role of anticoagulation for preventing dementia attributed to AF is less established. Our review is a comprehensive examination of the epidemiological data associating unmodifiable and modifiable risk factors for AF and of the pathophysiological evidence supporting the mechanistic link between each risk factor and AF genesis. Our review also critically examines the epidemiological data on clinical outcomes attributed to AF and summarizes current evidence linking each outcome with AF.
Researchers in Connecticut have found that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) appears to be an independent predictor of stroke.
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