New research from UC San Francisco that tested possible triggers of a common heart condition, including caffeine, sleep deprivation and sleeping on the left side, found that only alcohol use was consistently associated with more episodes of the heart arrhythmia.

The authors conclude that people might be able to reduce their risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) by avoiding certain triggers.

The study is published in JAMA Cardiology and was presented Nov. 14, 2021, at the annual Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association.

Researchers were surprised to find that although most of the things that participants thought would be related to their AF were not, those in the intervention group still experienced less arrhythmia than the people in a comparison group that was not self-monitoring.

Read more at University of California - San Francisco

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