- Thank you for visiting this video segment for Dr. AFib.
I'm Dr. Morales, and today we're gonna be discussing about
fatigue and why does atrial fibrillation
make you feel so tired.
And we're gonna break down some of the ways
in which atrial fibrillation can make a person feel tired,
and what are the ways that I typically manage it
to help improve some of this fatigue
that can happen with atrial fibrillation.
Now, feeling tired is a very common symptom
that many patients describe to me, and it can happen
because of a wide variety of health reasons.
First, it could happen because of
having things such as anemia,
having lower high blood pressure,
having abnormal thyroid levels.
So there are certainly a lot of areas
that are not related to atrial fibrillation
which can cause people to feel tired and fatigued,
so always discuss those other areas with your doctor.
But when it comes to atrial fibrillation itself,
what are the ways in which atrial fibrillation
can make somebody feel tired?
First is the heart rate.
For somebody who is in atrial fibrillation,
especially with atrial fibrillation consistently,
you always have to intermittently monitor your heart rate.
And your heart rate, if it's consistently going elevated,
if you're much more commonly
to be over 100 beats per minute,
100, 110, even 120,
you can imagine how tired that can make a person feel.
It's like as if you were running a race all the time
and it'd make people feel very tired
if your heart rate is consistently
going more rapid than usual.
Very routinely, I have my patients who are in AFib
consistently wear a 24-hour monitor
just to see how overall the heart rate is controlled,
to make sure you're the proper medications
to make sure that your heart rate's not going too fast.
Number two is, what is the overall strength of your heart?
AFib can affect the overall strength
and pumping strength of the heart in a variety of ways.
It can make the heart weak
in what's called congestive heart failure.
And a weak heart can certainly make a person feel tired,
and in those cases, controlling the heart rate
or potentially getting a person out of AFib
can improve the strength of the heart
and improve this kind of fatigue, tired feeling.
In addition, even when the heart function is overall normal,
there can be elevated pressures on the inside of your heart
which can then make people feel short of breath
or even tired as well, which both of those things,
such as the strength of the heart
and the pressures inside of the heart,
would be best tested with what's called an echocardiogram.
That's an ultrasound of your heart,
which will tell your doctor how strong your heart is
and how the pressures look like inside of your heart
to see how the AFib may be affecting
your overall heart functions.
Now, let's say if your AFib is well controlled,
your muscle strength in your heart is perfectly normal.
What other things can make people feel tired?
Well, the third thing is medications.
The medications for atrial fibrillation
can commonly cause people to feel the atrial fibrillation.
I mean, to feel fatigued or tired.
Now, one of the most commonly used medications
are beta blockers.
A beta blocker such as metoprolol or carvedilol
or atenolol, one of the most common side effects
is just kind of run down, fatigued feeling.
They're a bit of anti-adrenaline medications,
or they can certainly make people feel tired all the time.
So if your heart rate is well controlled,
your heart function's overall well,
look into medications and discuss with your doctors
if there is alternative medications
'cause some may make you feel less tired than others.
And one of the last things
that can make somebody feel tired,
let's say you've adjusted your medication
your heart rate is well controlled,
the strength of your heart is perfectly normal.
One of the other things
is just the atrial fibrillation by itself.
Even if everything is well controlled,
the atrial fibrillation by itself
can still make a person feel tired.
And how is that?
Well, the atrial fibrillation takes away
the natural contraction of the upper chambers of the heart.
In normal rhythm, the upper chambers of the heart
beat together and coordinated
to push blood down into the lower chambers of your heart.
And that atrial kick can contribute to
about 20% of the blood flow that goes through your heart.
So you can imagine not having that
upper chambers of your heart in sync
can reduce the efficiency of the blood flow in your heart
and can certainly cause people to feel tired.
So sometimes it's just the atrial fibrillation by itself.
So what can be done in those settings?
When somebody is just feeling tired,
but the rest of the numbers look okay,
the heart rate looks okay,
the heart function looks okay,
but they're consistently feeling tired,
I frequently do what's called a cardioversion.
A cardioversion is a shock therapy
where we shock your heart back into normal rhythm.
And it's a bit of a trial and error.
You know, I tell the patients,
well, to know if AFib is what's causing you to feel so tired
the only way to know for sure
is to try to get you out of AFib.
And a cardioversion is overall a straightforward way
to try to get you out of AFib
to see if it makes a difference,
to see if it changes anything about how you feel.
And I'm gonna discuss more in my next video segments
about cardioversions, about how those procedures work,
to see if that may be the right procedure
for people who have persistent
or consistent atrial fibrillation.
But these are sort of my treatment strategies
when somebody comes to me who has complaints
of persistent fatigue, persistent tiredness.
There are many ways in which atrial fibrillation
can make a patient feel tired,
and there's several ways to potentially manage it.
So always please discuss those with your doctor.
And if you are constantly feeling tired
from your atrial fibrillation
that's been improved with either medications,
please leave a comment in this video
so that other people can see
how your strategies have improved your quality of life.
Thank you for visiting this video segment for Dr. AFib.
I'll see you next time.