- Thank you for visiting this video segment for Dr. AFib.
I'm Doctor Morales.
In today's video segment we're gonna be talking about
causes of atrial fibrillation.
Many times, when I get a patient who's been
recently diagnosed with atrial fibrillation
they wanna know, "Why did I get atrial fibrillation?
"What causes atrial fibrillation?"
So that's what I'm gonna be discussing today.
Discussing the most common things
that cause a long term condition of atrial fibrillation.
Now I do wanna differentiate this
from triggers that can cause specific,
individual episodes of atrial fibrillation.
What I'll be discussing in this segment
is the causes of the long term condition.
And in another video segment
I'm gonna discuss the actual triggers
of individual episodes.
So what are the most common causes for atrial fibrillation?
The most common and significant one is age.
If you ever see a graph of people
who have atrial fibrillation
based by age,
the prevalence of a fib starts to significantly increase
as patient's reach about 60 years of age
and it continues to increase sharply
as people get older.
To the point that when people get
close to 80 years old
that prevalence of people having a fib
gets close to about 10%.
So there certainly is a significant increase
as people get older.
And that's thought to be due to what's called
age related fibrosis.
As people get older,
they develop scar tissues inside of their heart,
not that different from people getting wrinkles as they age.
That's sort of the comparison I tell
to some of my patients.
They get fibrosis and scarring in their heart
which can then lead to atrial fibrillation
as people get older in life.
Other common risk factors for developing
atrial fibrillation include
high blood pressure and diabetes.
Even if either one of these are well controlled
with medications,
just a long term manifestation of having
high blood pressure or diabetes
can lead to episodes of atrial fibrillation.
Another significant risk factor
for developing atrial fibrillation
is any type of past, heart history.
So if you've ever had a congenital heart disease,
meaning something that you were born with
like a hole in your heart.
If you ever had coronary artery disease,
meaning if you've ever had a heart attack before
or you've had stents inside of your heart
or an old blockage inside of your heart.
Also, what's called congestive heart failure,
which is sometimes referred to either a weak heart
or a stiff heart,
or a history of a valve problem with your heart.
Either you have a leaky valve or a stiff valve.
All of these features of other types of heart disease
are all risk factors for atrial fibrillation,
especially when they've been,
potentially, going on for years.
Another thing that is a risk factor related to your heart
is having had a past heart surgery.
So if you've ever had surgery on your heart.
If you ever had bypass surgery on your heart,
or you've had a valve surgery on your heart,
those are risk factors for developing atrial fibrillation.
So what are some of the other risk factors?
Some of them is family history.
I've had some family members
where I take care of a grandparent
as well as an adult child
and they both have atrial fibrillation.
So there certainly is some family history involved.
There have been some genes described
in association with atrial fibrillation.
It's not one of those conditions where they say,
"Okay, it's one gene.
"That's what causes the atrial fibrillation in the family."
There seems to be an association of genes.
That part, it turns out, the genetic side
of atrial fibrillation appears to be
still trying to be worked out
in terms of how that is influenced from family members.
Obesity is also a cause of atrial fibrillation.
Even with it's association with things like
high blood pressure and diabetes,
obesity by itself can be a cause for atrial fibrillation.
And there's actually been a lot of good, recent data
that has shown how much weight loss
can actually improve a person's atrial fibrillation.
Another thing that can be a cause for atrial fibrillation
is any history of lung disease.
The lungs are very closely associated to the heart.
People who have lung disease,
whether that's COPD,
or emphysema, really significant asthma,
can also have risk for developing atrial fibrillation.
Because when people have lung disease
they have increased pressure inside of their lungs
which then gets transmitted over to their heart
and that could eventually lead
to episodes of atrial fibrillation.
Another thing that can lead to atrial fibrillation
is having a history of thyroid disease.
People who have either low
or more commonly seen hyperthyroidism,
especially if it's been going untreated
for a prolonged period of time
it kind of puts an extra strain on your heart
from those thyroid hormones
and it can lead to episodes of atrial fibrillation.
Another thing that is kind of associated with obesity
that can cause atrial fibrillation is sleep apnea.
There's been a very strong association
with sleep apnea and the development
of atrial fibrillation.
And there's actually been a lot of good studies
showing that the treatment of sleep apnea
can also improve a person's atrial fibrillation.
Other things associated with atrial fibrillation
include smoking.
There's been a recent studies that show
that smoking, by itself,
increases the risk for a patient's atrial fibrillation.
And also, of course, smoking's more associated
with things like coronary artery disease,
and lung problems such as COPD and emphysema
and all those, together, can cause atrial fibrillation.
An interesting risk factor
for developing atrial fibrillation,
which is still trying to be understood a little bit more
is endurance training.
People who do long term endurance exercises,
we're talking about long term endurance bike riding,
like MS150's, or triathlons, or marathon runners,
these really extreme long distance exercise patients
can develop atrial fibrillation as well.
And some studies have shown that these people
they end up developing
some additional fibrosis in their atrium
which can lead to episodes of atrial fibrillation.
So that's a risk factor that's kind of
becoming more recognized.
And the data's starting to come out more
as a potential risk factor
for developing atrial fibrillation.
And lastly, European ancestry.
People of European ancestry have a more significant
risk factor for developing atrial fibrillation.
So those are some of the more common risk factors
for developing the long term chronic condition
of atrial fibrillation.
Some of them you can do things about,
such as diabetes or high blood pressure.
Some of them you can't change anything about,
such as a person's age and family history.
But the thing is to help you identify
what may have caused yours or a family member's
atrial fibrillation.
And in another video I'm gonna be talking about
specific triggers which are known to
actually exacerbate or cause an episode
of atrial fibrillation.
That you for visiting this video segment for Dr. Afib.
I'll see you next time.