- Thank you for visiting this video segment for
Dr. AFib, I'm Dr. Morales.
In today's video segment we're going to be talking
about symptoms of Atrial Fibrillation.
This is something that a lot of people ask
questions about.
What does Atrial Fibrillation feel like?
How do I know if I have Atrial Fibrillation?
There are people out there that maybe are not
have been diagnosed yet with atrial fibrillation
and feel these symptoms and want to know
is this possible to have atrial fibrillation based
on what I feel and what a patient is feeling inside.
And so let's talk about possible symptoms of
atrial fibrillation.
The hardest part about this is that there are
many people who feel their atrial fibrillation
very differently.
Let's start off with the most common way
in which a person feels atrial fibrillation.
And which is number one, is just that feeling of
the heart going fast.
When people get episodes of atrial fibrillation
the heart rate may suddenly go from a normal range
like 60 to 80 beats a minute to 130 140
sometimes even higher than that.
Some people will feel their heart racing or pounding.
Sometimes felt like a fish flopping or a
thunder pounding.
It just feels like a hard, fast beat.
And that's sort of what probably is one of the
most common ways that somebody feels
atrial fibrillation.
Another way people feel atrial fibrillation
is what is irregular heartbeat.
Irregular heartbeat means that the heartbeat
is not steady.
And so instead of a nice steady heartbeat it
may go at a certain pace, skip, start to stutter
and doesn't go at a nice steady pace.
And that's sort of more of a flip flopping or
skipping type of feeling, which is how
some people feel atrial fibrillation.
That's more of a common feeling for people who have
atrial fibrillation whose heart rate is not going that
fast.
When it's going pretty fast more typically
people feel a heart pounding, but when it's not that
fast then you feel more of a skipping feeling.
And so those are some of the more of the feelings
directly related to the heart rate or rhythm.
But there are also more associated symptoms that
may come from atrial fibrillation.
One of them is chest pain.
There are people when they have their heart rate
going fast, they don't necessarily feel the heart
pounding or going fast they just feel the pain
or throbbing in their chest from the atrial fibrillation.
And in those people there's actually can be a sign
of underlying coronary disease if you get chest pain
when you get your episode of atrial fibrillation.
And I've talked in the past that the risk factors
to get atrial fibrillation are very similar to
the risk factors that people get when they have
coronary heart disease.
So when people have chest pain with their atrial
fibrillation it's very important to get screening
performed for coronary heart disease, such as with
a stress test.
What are other more subtle symptoms?
Another more subtle symptom would be shortness of breath.
Shortness of breath happens for a lot of reasons but
when it comes to atrial fibrillation sometimes
people don't feel that heart going fast
or irregular.
They just kinda feel more short of breath.
And they do their activities they just notice that
they're more easily getting shorter breath and
that can be certainly a sign of atrial fibrillation.
Sometimes people don't necessarily feel short of breath.
They may just feel tired.
Excess tiredness can also be a sign of
atrial fibrillation.
And then there are also people out there who
absolutely feel nothing.
Their heart rate can be going very fast and you can
imagine how fast it's going 130 150,
they hardly feel anything but there are many
people out there and those people they get found
accidentally that they have atrial fibrillation.
So there's a wide variety of symptoms that people
feel when they have their atrial fibrillation.
Maybe the heart going fast or pounding,
maybe irregular.
It may be chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue
and sometimes no symptoms at all.
And so that's just why it's kind of hard to describe
symptoms of atrial fibrillation because people
feel it very differently.
So if you're having some of these symptoms
and you think that you may have atrial fibrillation
please discuss with your doctor or have referral
for a cardiologist so you can get proper testing
to see if your symptoms coincide with
episodes of atrial fibrillation.
Thank you of viewing this video segment for
Dr. AFib.
I'll see you next time.