Coincidence? Wearing mask brings on Afib & high blood pressure?

Yorlick - I wonder also. I have had a TAVR and a mitralclip and since I have been wearing a mask I KNOW I have been having afib. I get up in the morning just as exhausted as when I went to bed. I'm seeing a cardiologist at Mayo tomorrow, Aug 5,6,& 7. I plan to bring up these issues. I'll let you know how it goes.

@yorlik, I have no medical training or background but can tell you I don't particularly like wearing a face mask but do it anyway out of respect to others who fear being infected by COVID-19. I wear cloth masks which are much easier to breath through. I had a K95 mask and got rid of it right away because it was harder to breath with it on. I understand if a person already has a high blood pressure problem and taking medication that could probably trigger more problems breathing. Here's some study information on the subject but it's from 2005.

Effects of wearing N95 and surgical facemasks on heart rate, thermal stress and subjective sensations:
-- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7087880/

What type of mask do you wear?

Masks pose no risk of hypoxia, which is lower oxygen levels, in healthy adults. Carbon dioxide will freely diffuse through your mask as you breathe. Carbon dioxide molecules are too small to be controlled by the majority of mask materials and simply pass right through. For many years, health care providers have worn masks for extended periods of time with no adverse health reactions. Take surgeons, for example - during long procedures, they wear surgical masks for hours with no ill-effects on their carbon dioxide levels.

That said people sometimes feel uncomfortable wearing a mask. It is new and requires some getting used to. This discomfort may cause you to feel anxious or stressed, which may explain an increased heart rate. Stress can contribute to heart rhythm disorders (arrhythmias) such as atrial fibrillation.

Here's some further reading:
- Debunked myths about face masks https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/debunked-myths-about-face-masks
- Wearing A Mask To Reduce The Spread Of Coronavirus Will Not Give You Carbon Dioxide Poisoning https://www.forbes.com/sites/victoriaforster/2020/05/12/wearing-a-mask-to-reduce-the-spread-of-coronavirus-will-not-give-you-carbon-dioxide-poisoning/
- Atrial fibrillation and managing stress https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/atrial-fibrillation/in-depth/atrial-fibrillation-managing-stress/art-20118647

Good for you for wearing a mask to help stop the spread of the coronavirus! To reduce your discomfort, you might consider wearing the mask around the house for 5 minutes a day, then 10 minutes, then 15 minutes, etc until it becomes second nature.

Absolutely not true that mask wearing causing atrial fibrillation or hypoxia.. It is also BS that most people with asthma can't wear masks. For the love of heaven, allergists often RECOMMEND MASKS be work by asthmatics during times of pollen, pollution, flu season etc. People who have so much anxiety and/or are prone to hysteria or panic attacks that they claim to be dizzy or sick when wearing a mask need mental health treatment. Do you think doctors and nurses - and I assure you, some of them even have asthma and heart conditions themselves - work for hours in surgery wearing masks and don't become ill? I realize the propaganda is rife. I also realize that the lack of leadership in this country - where public health decisions are made by politicians with their own agendas and not PROVEN HEALTH PROTOCOLS that have virtually halted COVID-19 in other localities -- is rife. It is selfish and irresponsible in a time of pandemic to not wear a mask. Unfortunately, the absolutely false, bogus and despicable "Plandemic" - featuring a researcher I remember from my own work was thoroughly discredited and her "study" absolutely shown to be the result of contamination, not a virus "discovery" in 2009 - fed the dangerous-to-health lies about mask wearing. Here is information about the silly untrue but oft repeated "information" about masks "dangers" from a REAL and highly trained physician,Jennifer Kasten, MD, (pathologist with degrees in medicine from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, infectious disease epidemiology (CID) from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, postgraduate work in the mathematical modeling of infectious disease at Oxford University and MORE) :
Mikovits states that a mask causes the wearer to re-inhale their own carbon dioxide -- "a toxic gas!" Fortunately, it's not a steel-lined trap. Just as you can suck air in through a mask rather easily, so can you exhale air out through it. If you'd like to feel the difference, clamp your hand over your mouth and nose and take a stroll. Also, exhaled air is about 16% oxygen, versus atmospheric air which sits at 21%. It's not pure carbon dioxide, like the clouds on Venus.
You also cannot infect yourself with your own virus. If it comes out of you (i.e., virus droplets in exhaled breath) putting it back in you won't make you any sicker. Being exposed to the atmosphere -- in fact, leaving its host cell at all -- is a very precarious thing for a virus. It risks drying out its protective moisture coat and falling apart. Taking a brief, exciting tour out your nose, into your mask, and back inside does not energize it, but instead risks inactivating it entirely." https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/generalinfectiousdisease/86461

I wrote the above post in a hurry and didn't proof... of course, I did not mean "Do you think doctors and nurses – and I assure you, some of them even have asthma and heart conditions themselves – work for hours in surgery wearing masks and don't become ill?" I MEANT: "Do you think doctors and nurses – and I assure you, some of them even have asthma and heart conditions themselves – work for hours in surgery wearing masks and BECOME ill ?" Of course not - not from wearing masks.....My point is, docs and nurses do have to wear masks for far longer periods than does someone going to Walmart or the grocery store who whines and complains they can't breathe or are having some other made-up or imagined problem to back up their claims, stoked by propaganda and inaccurate online "medical" BS. Docs and nurses would have spoken out long, long ago if they were gasping for air, having arrhythmias, fainting from hypoxia and more from wearing masks. Folks, we are hitting 1000 Americans dead a day now from COVID-19. Again, stop the craziness and grow up - masks save lives. Countries that mandated mask wearing early on escaped the nightmare now in this country. Sure, masks are only one part of the equation but that matter- a lot.

I look forward to your reply. Thank you.

@rois4richo, like @yorlik, I too will be interested to hear what you learn from your cardiologist tomorrow with respect to mask wearing and afib. Please do let us know what you learn.

Thank you for your reply. My goto mask is a cotton bandana.

slynb thank you for your detailed reply. You did not need to correct first reply; it was very obvious what you meant, thanks. Your reply does show the large variances in opinions and what people consider the facts. For those of us not Dr.s, we can align with either side based on the studies done by 'both sides.' For instance the experience surgeon's comments shown above (https://www.jpost.com/health-science/could-wearing-a-mask-for-long-periods-be-detrimental-to-health-628400) is totally opposite your comments.

What I do know is I have gone without afib for over a year; self employed, stay home 99% of the time so little need for a mask, then all of a sudden I wear a mask for the first time for extended period and I get 24 hours of afib and a blood pressure reading that is totally out of line for me. As an engineer, I was taught to look at the evidence, in this case first hand imperical evidence, and make conclusions guided by them. Hense my question here. Thank you for your reply!

Agree