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On Friday, the Dodgers begin a three-game series with the first-place Rockies in a crucial series between their division rivals. Los Angeles went to Denver without star Kenley Jansen because of an irregular heartbeat, which embarrassed Jansen during the team's last trip to Denver in early August. The Dodgers will obviously miss one of their best pitchers in Coors Field, who does not fear the hitters, but it's probably not worth it to have caused long-term damage to his health.
<p class = "canvas-atom-canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Why did Jansen follow the advice of his followers? doctors and declined to travel to Denver for the three biggest games of the season? The answer does not lie in the term "irregular heartbeat", but in the medical jargon of arrhythmia and atrial fibrillation. "data-reactid =" 12 "> Why did Jansen follow the advice of his doctors and refused to travel to Denver for the three biggest games of the season? The answer does not lie in the term medical jargon of arrhythmia and atrial fibrillation.
"Irregular heartbeat is an unwanted term," says Dr. Larry Allen, a cardiologist at the University of Colorado's School of Medicine. "All that means is that the electrical rhythms of the heart are off, but that can mean a lot of different things. It turns out that atrial fibrillation is the most common.
For fear of blocking your high school biology class, the heart is composed of two atria and two ventricles: the atria are the upper chambers where blood enters the heart, the ventricles are the two largest chambers that pump the blood in the body. The left atrium receives and transfers blood into the heart through the lungs, while the right atrium passes through the veins. The atria work together to repeat the cardiac cycle: the heart relaxes and expands while receiving blood before contracting to pump blood into the lungs and other body systems. The body also has a natural pacemaker, an electrical signal generated in the right atrium that makes the heart beat.
If you are healthy, it should be about 60 to 100 times a minute. Your heart rate will increase in intense activity (exercise, stress), which will secrete more adrenaline to your adrenal glands and signal to the heart's natural stimulator to beat faster.
Pretty easy, right? So why does Kenley Jansen's heart not act the same way? Arrhythmia can mean that your heart beats too slowly, which sets a pacemaker. Jansen's arrhythmia is due to the fact that his heart beats too fast because of atrial fibrillation (A-Fib). A-Fib exists in about 1% of the population, mainly in elderly patients. Sometimes it's genetic, but it's pretty random and generally rare among young, healthy people like Jansen.
"Atrial fibrillation is a very frustrating condition for patients and physicians because there are no two identical cases," says Dr. William Cornwell, an assistant professor of cardiology at the University of Colorado. "Some people never feel it. Others are totally symptomatic. Some people feel it all the time, others experience symptoms once a year. "
The easiest explanation of atrial fibrillation is that the upper part of the heart beats faster than the rest. While the natural pacemaker in the right atrium creates an electrical signal that responds to adrenaline (your natural heart rate), the left atrium responds to a set of faster and abnormal signals triggered by the left atrial tissue. Thus, while the resting heart rate can be 60 to 100 beats per minute, the atria can beat at 300-600 beats per minute. This makes the upper heart tremble instead of squeezing it, giving the impression that your heart is jumping around your chest. The most common symptoms are lightheadedness, shortness of breath and exhaustion.
There is a common link between atrial fibrillation and high altitude destinations, which is why Jansen does not travel to Denver this weekend. His first episode of A-Fib arrived in Colorado in 2011, and he spent two weeks on the list of disabled people in August after he broke out during the Dodgers' trip in August to visit the Rockies. Now, Jansen will pass the series this weekend before joining the team in Cincinnati on Monday.
The air is about 20% oxygen, but there are fewer oxygen molecules at high altitude. Have you ever walked in the mountains, skied 9,000 feet or walked a mountain trail? If so, you have probably felt a light-headedness or shortness of breath. This is because the pulmonary vessels constrict because of the decrease in oxygen molecules, which means there is less oxygen in the brain. This forces the right atrium and the ventricle to work harder to pump blood so that the heart can expand and contract properly. For patients with atrial fibrillation, this can trigger abnormal electrical signals in the left atrium to quickly trigger the aforementioned quiver. Thus, dizziness and exhaustion are exaggerated and entail significant risks to the health of the patient.
The worst possible result is stroke because of the increased risk of heart coagulation: when the atria tremble at 300-600 times per minute, the blood is not compressed and circulates properly in the heart. If a clot reaches the head, the patient suffers a stroke due to the lack of oxygen transferred to the brain.
"The risk of stroke in athletes is a hot topic right now," says Cornwell. "Patients who are at higher risk for stroke are treated with anticoagulants. Otherwise, the blood will go to bed, get clotted, and we are afraid it will cause a stroke. The concern of athletes is that they generally do not like to take blood thinners because they are prone to bleeding. "
After Jansen's first A-Fib episode in 2011, he had an ablation, an operation to burn heart tissue producing abnormal signals by inserting a catheter into the heart. According to Allen, ablations do not necessarily cure the arrhythmia, but they reduce it. Jansen said he would probably undergo similar surgery during the off-season to further treat the disease.
<p class = "canvas-atom-canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Are there any medicine to cure A-Fib "There is, but Jansen told Bill Plunkett at the OC register that he and his doctor agreed that he could stop taking the drug because of its slow side effects. "data-reactid =" 35 "> Is there no medicine to treat fibrosis? OC register that he and his doctor agreed that he could stop taking the drug because of its slow side effects.
"I do not want to apologize," Jansen told Plunkett. "But it's like you sleepy there. It slows down your whole body. I felt sleepy all the time. He stopped taking the drug after making four home runs in his first three appearances on the list of people with disabilities.
"The drugs basically block the stress hormone from stimulating your heart," said Cornwell. "The problem is that it lowers your heart rate, your blood pressure and some people feel very slow."
Jansen does not risk the trip to Denver this weekend. The problem is not this series, but the very likely possibility that the Dodgers will face the Rockies in the playoffs. In this case, Jansen may take the risk, he may return to his medication, or he may skip the roadtrip completely.
The heart rate is indeed irregular, but it is the increased rate that retains Jansen at the end of the week.
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