Does Stress Cause Afib?

Atrial fibrillation is a condition in which the heart beats in an unusual manner. It is so common that it affects millions of people every day. There are medicines and treatments like catheter ablation that can help, but they don’t cure the condition completely. Patients with this heart arrhythmia can have trouble with everyday stress. Taking care of your stress levels is a great way to improve your episodes and your quality of life as a whole. If you know how stress affects AFib, you can better take care of your health.

Does Stress Affect The Heart? 

Almost all of us have felt tightness in the chest and anxiety when we are under a lot of stress at work or in our personal lives. This kind of short-term stress probably won’t hurt your heart function too much but long term stress on the other hand is a completely different story.

When we’re constantly stressed out, our hearts have to work harder than they need to in order to meet our body’s needs. Studies have shown that when our brains feel more emotional stress, we are more likely to have serious heart problems like heart attacks or strokes.

Long-term stress also makes you more likely to get high blood pressure, which is a common sign that a fibrillation is around the corner. To sum it up, Does stress cause Afib answers yes, it’s a high chance that stress is having a toll on your heart too. 

Please read what reading indicates low blood pressure to stay updated.

Can Stress Cause Atrial Fibrillation?

Even though stress can have an effect on our heart health, it is not usually thought of as a major risk factor for getting atrial fibrillation. Stress does put more strain on the heart’s muscles, it is much more likely that other health factors like lifestyle choices, high blood pressure, genetics, and other medical conditions play a bigger role in the development of the disease.

So does stress cause afib? Yes, living with high levels of stress that aren’t treated won’t help your overall heart health, which can make you more likely to get common heart conditions like atrial fibrillation. To keep yourself and your heart as healthy as possible, you really need to be aware of your stress.

How stress can cause an episode of AFib?

When you’re stressed, your body produces hormones that can raise your blood pressure and cause an episode of heart fibrillation.Many things in your daily life can make you feel stressed. Both physical and emotional stress have different effects on your body.

Physical stress can come from not getting enough sleep, being sick or hurt, or not drinking enough water. Emotional stress happens when you feel bad feelings like sadness, anger, or fear. Unhealthy Habits contribute to stress too. Poor diet such as excessive alcohol and caffeine can trigger an a-fib symptoms.

Can Atrial fibrillation be caused by Anxiety?

Atrial fibrillation is linked with anxiety and depression in a lot of different ways.

Some research suggests that depression and anxiety may affect people with atrial fibrillation more. Depression or anxiety may make your atrial fibrillation symptoms worse and makes you more prone to afib attacks. However, To fully understand the complicated link between atrial fibrillation and these mental health problems, more research is needed. Just as we learnt that stress causes Afib, anxiety and depression follow the same road map.

Talk to your doctor if you have signs of depression or anxiety, like feeling sad or worried all the time, not being able to focus, and losing interest in most things. He or she may tell you to see a psychologist or psychiatrist who is trained to diagnose and treat mental health problems and causes of a fib.

How Stress Worsens Atrial fibrillation Symptoms:

As we he have learnt about correlation of stress with afib and how stress causes Afib, Following are some signs of afib that stress worsens Afib symptoms:

• When stressed, you are more likely to get heart palpitations
• Increased Blood Pressure on regular intervals 
• Affecting the quality of your sleep in a negative way
• Increasing the chance that people will drink, smoke, and use other drugs too much
• Making you less likely to cook and eat healthy meals

But if you could wave a magic wand and get rid of all of the things in your life that cause you stress, would all of your AFib episodes go away? Most likely, the answer is no. Atrial fib is a complicated medical condition that is often caused by a number of other health problems. Getting rid of stress alone would not cure the condition completely because of this.

But, even with that in mind, it has been shown that finding ways to lower your stress levels is good for the health of people with Afib and can help reduce the symptoms of a fib. It is advised to get help of a primary care physician.

How lowering your stress levels can help your AFib symptoms

Can afib be caused by stress? We already know the answer to this now, so if stress is bad for our health as a whole, why doesn’t it come up more often in medical settings? If you go to a doctor about a health problem, they will probably give you options that are based on your symptoms, like medicines. Even though these options are important parts of the overall plan for managing atrial fibrillation, there are other less invasive ways to improve your condition.

AFib is not caused by stress itself, but by how your body reacts to it. Your AFib symptoms might not be as bad if you know how to keep your body and emotions in check when you’re stressed out. Following are ways to reduce your long-term stress so you never have to google: does stress cause afib?

• Meditation 
• Yoga, walking, and tai chi are all low-impact exercises that you can try.
• Getting a sufficient amount of sleep.
• If you can, cut down on your workload.
• Taking time to do things for yourself
• Cooking healthy meals