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Soap Siren Susan Lucci Talks Atrial Fibrillation
What does Emmy award-winning actress, Susan Lucci take more seriously than her role as Erica Kane on All My Children? It’s the health of her husband of 41 years, Helmut Huber.
Soap superstar Lucci is the recognizable face behind Boehringer Ingelheim’s new atrial fibrillation awareness campaign. According to a recent article in Medical Marketing & Media, Huber “is one of an estimated 2.3 million Americans who suffer the condition, an irregular heartbeat which can increase the risk of stroke nearly five-fold.”
Just what is atrial fibrillation? Sometimes called just A Fib or AF, the condition happens when electrical impulses do “not travel in an orderly fashion through the atria. Instead, many impulses begin simultaneously and spread through the atria and compete for a chance to travel through the AV node.
“The firing of these impulses results in a very rapid and disorganized heartbeat.” These impulses through the atria can reach up 600 beats per minute, creating a number of frightening symptoms in addition to putting you at greater risk of stroke.
Don’t think this is something only older men have problems with, either. Member Afibquestion found herself with A Fib after the birth of her first child.
If you’d like to find out more, check out our Heart Disease and Stroke communities. You can also visit FacingAFib.com with Lucci and Huber, and StopAFib.org, which is a part of the American Foundation for Women’s Health for additional information.
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