For better or for worse, phones have managed to infiltrate every inch of our lives.
Whether it’s to provide endless entertainment, get you home safely after a night out, or give you directions if you’re lost.
We would be lost without our much-loved portable devices.
But now it’s ours telephones may be even more necessary, as scientists have created a supplement that could save thousands of lives every year.
The application was created to detect early signals of a a stroke or heart failure.
More than 100,000 Britons have a stroke every year, and 38,000 of them die.
Meanwhile, heart disease causes a quarter of all deaths in the UK, more than 160,000 deaths each year.
A revolutionary new app created by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer works by measuring heart rate through smartphones.
If the app detects heart rhythm abnormalities — a common sign of serious health complications — it prompts the patient to see a medical professional.
It also provides relevant health data to ensure that the patient is prioritized and seen quickly.
An app called FibriCheck is available to download in the UK.
As reported in Khaleej TimesLars Gritten, CEO of FibriCheck, said: “We have monitored more than a million people and 70 percent [of those with atrial fibrillation] were asymptomatic.
“So these technologies help with early detection,” she added.
Irregular heartbeat – also known as atrial fibrillation – is the most common heart rhythm disorder in the UK, affecting around 1.6 million people.
Atrial fibrillation can sometimes cause no noticeable symptoms, and a person with an irregular or fast heart rate may not be aware of it.
Heart disease carries with it an increased risk of stroke and heart disease in patients.
What causes an irregular heartbeat and who is most at risk?
In order for your heart to beat normally, its muscular walls must contract to “squeeze” blood out of and around your body.
The walls then relax, allowing the heart to fill with blood.
This is what happens every time your heart beats.
But when a patient has atrial fibrillation, the atria (upper chambers) of the heart contract sporadically, sometimes too fast, so that the heart muscle cannot relax properly between contractions.
This is due to abnormal electrical impulses in the atria.
These pulses turn off the heart’s natural pacemaker, causing the heart to beat faster.
The exact cause of these abnormal electrical impulses is unknown, but it is more common in the elderly (about 7 in 100 people over the age of 65) and is more common in men than women.
Drinking too much alcohol or smoking can increase your risk of developing atrial fibrillation.
