Symptom 9 : Frequent Urination – The Unending Calls of Nature
Waking up multiple times at night to empty your bladder, interrupting your favorite movie for bathroom breaks, constantly keeping an eye out for restrooms during outings – these might be telltale signs of polyuria. Although it sounds mundane, frequent urination can be a clue to AFIB, often overlooked because of its commonality.
It all starts innocently. An extra glass of water here, a late-night cup of tea there, and you find reasonable excuses for the increased trips to the restroom. But as time progresses, the frequency becomes too noticeable to ignore, transforming from a minor nuisance to a significant disruption.
Imagine the constant dread of planning your day around the availability of restrooms, or waking up in the wee hours of the morning with a desperate need to relieve yourself. You see yourself reluctantly turning down social invitations, worried about easy access to a restroom.
Your kidneys, in an attempt to cope with the increased blood flow from AFIB, go on an overdrive, producing more urine. It’s a simple demand-supply equation, but with far-reaching consequences on your day-to-day life. Your bladder becomes an unwitting victim of this vicious cycle.
An increase in urine volume isn’t just about the frequency; it’s also about urgency. It’s a distress signal your body sends, indicating an underlying glitch in your system. The need to urinate often, especially at night, can be your body’s unique way of indicating something’s off rhythm, quite literally, in the case of AFIB. (9)
