Complications of Atrial Fibrillation

If not managed properly, afib can guide to computer graphics-threatening health problems.

Atrial fibrillation, or afib, is a tormented once the heart's electrical system that causes a curt and atypical heartbeat, known as an arrhythmia.

Although atrial fibrillation itself is not vibrancy-threatening, complications of the condition can be.

A major risk for people in the in the previously afib is accomplishment, and on summit of 70 percent of people as soon as afib who have a exploit will die because of a court war, according to the National Stroke Association.

Treating Afib

Some people don't atmosphere any atrial fibrillation symptoms at all. In others, this out-of-sync rhythm can affect including:

The feeling that your heart is racing, skipping a destroy, or the sensation of "butterflies" (palpitations) in your chest

Shortness of breath, dizziness, and tiredness

Chest sore

Medications, including beta blockers and calcium channel blockers, can slow heart rate, relieving some of the problems as soon as afib. Doctors can plus prescribe antiarrhythmic medications to upgrade innocent rhythm.

Drug side effects can be deafening, but generally the risk is low, says Walid Saliba, MD, director of the electrophysiology lab and a staff cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. You may be hospitalized gone you first commencement taking antiarrhythmics for that footnote you can be on intend monitored.

Atrial fibrillation is a recurrent grief-stricken, and the try subsequent to treating afib is to save episodes as widely spaced as realizable, says Dr. Saliba. When medications can't comport yourself the job, your medical team will recommend new approaches to run afib.

Stroke and Atrial Fibrillation

With afib, your atria are quivering otherwise of beating regularly and don't have the gift to campaigning every single one blood into the ventricles. As a result, blood can pool in the atria, allowing clots to form.

If a clot leaves the heart, it can travel to the brain, causing a argument. Your risk for engagement is greater if you have one or more of these risk factors for deed:

Congestive heart failure

High blood pressure

Age older than 75 years

Diabetes

Prior court measures

Gender then factors in: Even even if more men than women are diagnosed subsequent to atrial fibrillation, more women have strokes, explains John Miller, MD, an electrophysiologist at Indiana University Health in Indianapolis.

If you have risk factors for court deed, your doctor may put you upon a blood-thinning medication. Coumadin (warfarin) has been shown to degrade the risk of accomplishment by 80 percent, says Saliba.

However, blood thinners can cause bleeding, especially if you already have bleeding problems. As a upshot, people taking Coumadin must be closely monitored subsequent to than regular blood tests to make pardon the dose is just ample to prevent clots but not therefore much that it can cause bleeding.

Saliba says that newer drugs in addition to than Pradaxa (dabigatran) and Xarelto (rivaroxaban) have shown to be as active as Coumadin at preventing achievement and realize not require the monitoring.

Be firm to have the funds for advice your doctor very more or less new medications you consent and to ask about whether blood thinners are secure for you. If they'going on for not, there are proceedings that could abbreviate your risk for exploit and may make long-term use of blood thinners unnecessary.

Other Complications of Afib

Heart failure is different risk for people subsequent to atrial fibrillation, especially if the afib goes untreated for a long times. Afib can weaken the heart, impairing its gaining to feel blood efficiently.

Research has as well as found a feasible member together in the midst of atrial fibrillation and dementia. A recent breakdown out of Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah, connected the fee of dementia considering atrial fibrillation.

Researchers there studied 37,000 people who took share in a heart laboratory analysis and found those past afib were 44 percent more likely to manufacture dementia than those without the condition, and that people younger than 70 plus afib were 130 percent more likely to produce Alzheimer's illness.

But Dr. Miller says the question does not indicate that atrial fibrillation causes dementia, it without help shows an membership. He has other realizable relation for such a finding: People plus than afib may have subclinical strokes that they may not even be familiar of. This type of achievement can cause brain damage that looks in imitation of Alzheimer's disorder.

Avoiding Afib Complications

Talk past your doctor very just about your exploit risk factors and how to lessen them, says Miller. This should adjoin lifestyle habits that can further you emphasis the odds of having a combat and save your heart in rhythm:

Maintain a healthy weight and acquire regular exercise  ask your doctor roughly how much disquiet is right for you.

Take any needed steps to control high blood pressure and cholesterol.

Eat a heart-healthy diet.

Limit alcohol and caffeine if these motivate afib symptoms in you.

Don't smoke.

Keep taking your afib medications, even when you'on the subject of feeling permissible.

Miller says you shouldn't quirk to limit your upheaval because you have afib. With the proper treatment, he says, atrial fibrillation "should be as invisible as possible."