Welcome to the website for Santé-AF – Sessions of Acupuncture and Nutritional Therapy Evaluation for Atrial Fibrillation. Santé-AF is the first step in a long-term medical research project aiming to test whether traditional acupuncture and nutritional therapy can help people with atrial fibrillation to feel better and experience fewer symptoms.
What is atrial fibrillation?
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common form of heart rhythm disturbance, and it carries an increased risk of stroke. It’s also associated with other health conditions, including obesity, sleep apnoea and diabetes. People who live with AF often take medications, such as beta-blockers or anti-arrhythmic drugs, to relieve their symptoms. But if these aren’t successful they may need further procedures, such as electrical cardioversion (where the heart is stopped and restarted again) or an ablation (where a small catheter is inserted under sedation to remove the parts of the heart tissue that are thought to cause the arrhythmia). Recent research [1] has found that, for people who have AF, their quality of life is lower than for people who do not have AF, and also that quality of life decreases as symptoms get worse.
Where did the idea for this research come from?
The last ten years has seen the publication of some small studies suggesting that two holistic therapies (traditional acupuncture and nutritional therapy) may help to improve quality of life and symptoms for people with AF. To fully test these two therapies, a large-scale trial is needed with hundreds of participants. But first of all, we need to find out whether it’s feasible to carry out a large-scale trial. This will save money and time for everyone concerned, including the participants and the NHS.
So at this stage in the project’s life, Santé-AF is a feasibility study. That means we’re enrolling a small number of participants in a mini-version of the trial so we can test whether it’s feasible to carry out a large-scale trial in the future. You can find out more about the design of the Santé-AF feasibility study on our About pages.
Please feel free to browse our website to find the answers to any questions you have. If you can’t find the answers, please use our contact form to get in touch.
[1] Son, Y. J. et al. (2019). Health-related quality of life and associated factors in patients with atrial fibrillation: An integrative literature review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16 (17). [Online]. Available at: doi:10.3390/ijerph16173042.