When Lionel Richie suddenly sat down during “Dancing on the Ceiling” at a June concert in St. Paul, the 77-year-old singer told the audience he was feeling dizzy and “strange.”
“What I have learned from my years of being in the business, when you’re feeling dizzy, sit your ass down,” Richie joked.
The show ended early. Then, in late August, Richie again needed to sit during a St. Louis performance and checked himself into a hospital afterward for cardiac testing. In September, his representative announced that Richie had undergone a successful ablation procedure for atrial fibrillation, or AFib.
Doctors have not said the two concert incidents were definitely caused by AFib. But the sequence offers a useful reminder: an abnormal heart rhythm does not always happen constantly — and an episode that goes away on its own should not automatically be dismissed.
AFib is an irregular heart rhythm that begins in the heart’s upper chambers. It can cause a rapid or irregular heartbeat, fluttering or pounding in the chest, fatigue, shortness of breath, dizziness, weakness or faintness. Some people have no symptoms at all.
And for some people, AFib comes and goes.
Paroxysmal AFib is the term for AFib that returns to a normal rhythm within seven days, either on its own or with treatment. According to the American Heart Association, some people may experience episodes only a few times a year, while others have them daily.
That can make the condition easy to ignore — particularly when someone feels normal again within minutes or hours.
But “it went away” does not necessarily mean “it was nothing.”
Repeated episodes of a racing or irregular heartbeat deserve medical attention, particularly when accompanied by dizziness, shortness of breath, unusual fatigue, weakness, fainting or chest discomfort. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommends keeping track of when symptoms occur, how often they happen and what they feel like because those details can help doctors identify intermittent rhythm problems.
A routine electrocardiogram may not catch an abnormal rhythm if it isn’t happening during the test. Longer-term heart monitors can sometimes help doctors capture intermittent episodes.
AFib also becomes more common with age and, if untreated, can increase the risk of blood clots, stroke and heart failure.
Not every racing heartbeat or dizzy spell is AFib. Other heart rhythm problems — and conditions unrelated to the heart — can cause similar symptoms.
The lesson from Richie’s experience isn’t that every brief episode signals AFib. It’s that a problem that repeatedly comes, settles down and disappears may still deserve attention — especially when other symptoms come with it.
Sources: WebMD, Cleveland Clinic, and notimetowait.com
