Heart attack, stroke and death are typical successors of atrial fibrillation, a disease a new study finds that high blood pressure and heart palpitations can lead to. Atrial fibrillation is a common heart rhythm disorder where a person experiences a rapid or irregular heartbeat.
According to the study overview in European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, while the risk factor for high blood pressure often depends on family medical history, heart palpitations are commonly a result of a lifestyle involving drinking and smoking. Palpitations increase the risk of atrial fibrillation in women by 62 percent and in men by 91 percent, according to HealthDay News.
However, since high blood pressure is a genetic ailment, typically passed down from a parent, people can use this knowledge of their family history to prevent such health problems. According to Hypertension, one third of those whose parents have the condition and physically fit are healthy. In another study on different levels of the physically fit, those who exercise are 34 percent less likely to suffer from high blood pressure than those who are not physically fit.
The study also showed that those who were the most physically fit, with high blood pressure in the family are only 16 percent less likely to have palpitations than those physically fit whose family does not have the condition.
Researcher Robin P. Shook, a doctoral graduate student in the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina in Columbia said that, “…even a very realistic, moderate amount of exercise -- which we define as brisk walking for 150 minutes per week -- can provide a huge health benefit, particularly to people predisposed to hypertension because of their family history.”