Exercise is bad for you? Of course not, yet the myth persists around the heart condition atrial fibrillation, known as AFib. AFib is the most common type of treated heart arrhythmia. An estimated 12.1 million people in the U.S. will have AFib by 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.
By now, most of us realize that medical facts are often distorted on social media and in conversation. But when it comes to matters of the heart, bad information might be the biggest threat to a person’s health.
Electrophysiologist Dr. Rafael Cavalcanti of Novant Health Cardiology - Kimel Park Main addresses misconceptions around AFib, the most common heart arrhythmia which can increase the risk of heart failure.
Expert treatment for irregular heartbeat conditions.
5 misconceptions around AFib
Every fluttering or irregular heartbeat must be AFib.
There are many rhythms that can mimic atrial fibrillation and cause palpitations, so it’s important for patients to get an official diagnosis with a clinician. Whenever wearable devices pick up any irregularity in the heartbeat, it’s labeled atrial fibrillation. But there are a host of false-positive findings. Just because your Apple Watch says you have AFib doesn’t necessarily mean that you do.
Having one AFib experience must have been a fluke.
Certain patients have a single episode of atrial fibrillation, whether they were unusually sick with an infection or had surgeries that led to AFib in the postoperative state. Because of that, many think they’re not going to be long-term patients. But they should know that they are still prone to long-term atrial fibrillation and similar risks.
Exercise makes AFib worse and should be avoided.
I get this one a lot. The patient becomes afraid of exercising and that their heart rate will go too fast. What they don’t realize is that exercise is one of the important lifestyle changes for AFib treatment, combined with smoking cessation and avoiding alcohol and caffeine.
When the first episode occurs, the heart rate is much faster at rest. So the common logic goes, “If I’m sitting here with a heart rate already at 120, then my heart won’t be able to handle exercise.” But as AFib is treated, exercise becomes a vital part of your lifestyle change. In fact, very little exercise is detrimental to your health.
By the same token, endurance athletes are predisposed to atrial fibrillation. Those who cycle 100 miles every other day are increasing their risk of having atrial fibrillation by a lot. So exercising for 200 minutes per week (40 minutes per day) is what we tell our patients to shoot for. You don’t want to go much more than that, and less than that isn’t helpful either. Just aim for breaking a sweat.
I can skip my blood thinner medication.
As a general rule, you should not come off blood thinners. A big misconception is that you’re safe to go without them if you haven’t experienced AFib for the past year. Even though we don’t yet have the data to say whether that’s true, the decision to come off blood thinners is between the doctor and the patient.
Ablation treatment will cure my AFib condition.
Even pulsed-field ablation, which is a big step up in technology at Novant Health, is not a cure for atrial fibrillation. I have patients tell me, “I got my ablation but I had another episode last week, so clearly the treatment did not work.” That’s not true. Think of it as how much AFib you were experiencing before treatment and how much you are now. And if that treatment has impacted you enough that you feel better, then it’s working for you.
