Each minute, your heart should beat between 60 and 100 times, keeping a steady rhythm that delivers blood and oxygen to every corner of your body.
If you have an arrhythmia like atrial fibrillation, or AFib, this rhythm can turn from steady to erratic, which can place you in serious danger — AFib is behind one in seven strokes, for example.
More than 5 million Americans are diagnosed with AFib today, and the American Heart Association predicts this number is going to jump to more than 12 million by 2030. Given this big projected increase, the team at Advanced Cardiovascular Specialists thought it would be a good idea to outline some of the symptoms and risk factors of AFib because early intervention is key with arrhythmias.
We briefly touched on AFib being a heart rhythm problem, but we want to expand on this a little bit before we get into signs and risk factors.
Under normal circumstances, your blood enters the upper chambers (atria) of your heart, and an electrical impulse sends the blood through and down into the lower chambers (ventricles). Ideally, these chambers should all work together and coordinate so that blood moves efficiently through the organ.
With AFib, the upper chambers don’t beat regularly — they can quiver instead of beat and can contract irregularly. As a result, blood can get left behind, which can form a dangerous clot.
AFib can be tricky — sometimes you can feel symptoms during a flare up, but other times there are no outward signs. During an AFib episode, you might experience:
When AFib strikes, people describe their heart activity as flip-flopping, fluttering, racing, and pounding.
You might feel lightheaded when you have AFib since blood and oxygen aren’t flowing as they should. Some people describe it as dizziness, and fainting is also a possibility.
If your heart isn’t able to deliver oxygenated blood well, you can become fatigued very easily, and you might lack your usual energy.
Another sign of AFib is shortness of breath. You may even become winded doing something as simple as climbing a flight of stairs.
During an AFib episode, you might experience some tightness of discomfort in your chest.
(Please note that if any of these symptoms come on suddenly and they’re severe, please call 911 immediately.)
The reason why we want to outline a few risk factors is that one in three people with AFib don’t know they have it.
Some key risk factors for AFib are:
If you have any of these risk factors, it’s a good idea to have us perform an evaluation of your heart function so that we can spot any arrhythmias like AFib.
The good news is that we have some excellent treatment and management options for AFib that include medications, pacemakers, cardioversions, and lifestyle changes, to name a few.
If you suspect you might have AFib, please contact our office in Mountain View, California, to schedule an appointment with one of our heart health experts today.
