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Lisa Curry’s devastating health condition

<p dir="ltr">Australian Olympian Lisa Curry has revealed she has been diagnosed with a heart condition.</p> <p dir="ltr">The 60-year-old shared her devastating diagnosis known as Atrial fibrillation, a heart condition that causes irregular and abnormal heart rates.</p> <p dir="ltr">Speaking on <em>Sunrise</em>, Curry said she has been to the doctors who ordered her to change some of her daily habits.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I have been in hospital twice this year with a little bit of AF," the swimming legend said of her Atrial fibrillation.</p> <p dir="ltr">"I don’t know where I have got that – it has just appeared. The doctors say I need to be weaned off alcohol and coffee, and that is hard.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It’s when your heart’s racing for now reason. I’m now on beta blockers, which make you tired, so there is a lot going on.”</p> <p dir="ltr">She said that she’s “trying to do that” but is struggling and has started taking Beta blockers which treat the high blood pressure.</p> <p dir="ltr">A year before her diagnosis, the author was hospitalised with chest pains which she claimed was “heartache” following her daughter Jaimi’s death at the age of 33 in 2020.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It’s day 5 after coming in with chest pain, a wide squeezing band around my chest and back. All my tests are good. Everyone is stumped,” she wrote on Instagram in July 2021.</p> <p dir="ltr">“But you can’t test for heartache.</p> <p dir="ltr">“For every beautiful photo of our girl , there are 10 sad ones. As I lie here thinking about our Jaimi, I wanted to show you how much she hurt too. Broken hearted by things that people said to her and did to her.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Words and actions hurt people so deep that they store that trauma for such a long time. Some people can get through it.. some live with it, some just can’t.</p> <p dir="ltr">“There are many people, like Jaimi, who are beautiful, soft, fragile, sensitive, and are taken advantage of, their trust misused and abused. There are some really questionable people who take advantage of others who are fragile, who go on to live their lives not having a clue the damage they’ve left.</p> <p dir="ltr">“In the (written) stages of grief, there is shock and denial, pain and guilt, anger and bargaining, depression, the upward turn, reconstruction and working through, and acceptance and hope.</p> <p dir="ltr">“You don’t go through each one and tick it off - they overlap, they come and go constantly.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It’s hard, but you do start to work through them. I’ve found that writing things down is helping. People reaching out to me, although hard, is also helping… because we’re not alone.</p> <p dir="ltr">“You never know what will trigger the heart ache, or the tears… it could be a word, a thought, a song, a photo, a memory, a hug from a stranger…all we need is a hug… and understanding… nothing even needs to be said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I now know that every second person you see is grieving in some way so always be kind to others.</p> <p dir="ltr">“To those grieving, I hope you are ok and that you also can find beauty and love in the sadness.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Be not burdened with times of sorrow, I wish you the sunshine of tomorrow. If you feel ANY sort of chest pain, call 000.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Sunrise</em></p>

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Does your heart skip a beat? You could be at a higher risk of a stroke

<p dir="ltr">One in three Australians over the age of 50, or <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27798365/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one in 20 New Zealanders</a> aged 55 or older, will develop Atrial Fibrillation - an irregular or rapid heartbeat which ups their risk of strokes and heart failure.</p> <p dir="ltr">But many, like marriage celebrant Maryann Bawden, will have no idea until something happens.</p> <p dir="ltr">“When the doctors asked me to shift over a little on the bed, I realised I was completely paralysed down my left side,” she said.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-b8851d47-7fff-1f46-3531-42bb9c39e40f"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">In Maryanne’s case, she suffered a stroke and was in intensive care for four days, where staff realised she had Atrial Fibrillation (AF).</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/05/atrial-fib1.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Maryanne Bawden (left) had no idea she had Atrial Fibrillation until after she was hospitalised for a stroke. Image: Supplied</em></p> <p dir="ltr">“It was a surreal moment. I had no emotions at the time, just a detached curiosity that my body wasn’t functioning properly,” Maryanne said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It felt very matter of fact, with no correlation between the seriousness and the actual situation.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Professor Ben Freedman, the Deputy Director of Cardiovascular Research at the <a href="https://www.hri.org.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Heart Research Institute</a>, says the number of Australians who will unknowingly suffer from AF is set to increase by 150 percent over the next four decades.</p> <p dir="ltr">“One in three people aged over 50 will develop AF - the issue is, most people have never heard of it, and that’s problematic because it means they don’t know how to ask their doctor to check for it,” Professor Freedman explains.</p> <p dir="ltr">Symptoms include an irregular pulse, heart palpitations or a “fluttering” heartbeat, and feeling tired, dizzy or weak.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-96c09322-7fff-4e6b-ba47-e70456d485d9"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">“However, people often have no symptoms at all or only experience symptoms some of the time,” he says.</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/05/atrial-fib2.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Professor Ben Freedman (centre), and two members of his team - Dr Katrina Giskes (left), and Dr Nicole Lowres (right) - hope to prove that regular ECG screening will decrease morbidity from Atrial Fibrillation. Image: Supplied</em></p> <p dir="ltr">“People can live suffering these small, silent strokes and they don’t even know they are having them. But while they might not notice them, over time they cause a cognitive decline.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Professor Freedman also heads - and founded - the <a href="https://www.afscreen.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AF-SCREEN International Collaboration</a>, a global group of scientists that includes many of the foremost names in AF research.</p> <p dir="ltr">One way to catch AF before a person experiences a stroke or heart failure is by using electrocardiograms (ECGs), and Professor Freedman will be looking to prove that more intensive ECG screening will prevent strokes, morbidity, and death.</p> <p dir="ltr">Over the next five years, Professor Freedman and his team will be measuring AF in Australians over the age of 70 with a handheld device to prove that this screening helps.</p> <p dir="ltr">“We need to increase awareness of AF, as only 11 percent of people over the age of 65 are being regularly screened for AF by their GP despite it being a very simple test,” he said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Almost everyone who turns 65 should be getting a yearly pulse check. Cost isn’t a factor - anyone can afford a pulse check.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-e9d83005-7fff-6692-b959-28309fe982e3"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">Though only a doctor can diagnose you with AF, you can keep an eye on your heart health by regularly checking your pulse and keeping a record of your results.</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/05/Picture12.png" alt="" width="508" height="508" /></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Supplied</em></p> <p dir="ltr">A resting heart rate ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute, and although a pause or extra beat every now and then is normal, you should speak to your doctor if it is quite irregular.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-6cefb02a-7fff-82f4-b132-77e195a3d19f"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Supplied</em></p>

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