Some people have perfectly healthy hearts yet are diagnosed with atrial fibrillation—no need to worry, many young people have atrial fibrillation with no identifiable cause!

Many believe atrial fibrillation must be caused by other conditions, such as coronary heart disease coupled with atrial fibrillation, diabetic atrial fibrillation, or heart failure-induced atrial fibrillation. However, atrial fibrillation can actually exist independently. Generally, there are three types of atrial fibrillation.

1. Atrial fibrillation caused by heart aging. Mainly related to age; for example, among people over 80 years old, one in every ten has atrial fibrillation;

2. Atrial fibrillation caused by other conditions. This is the most well-known cause, such as hypertension over time leading to atrial fibrillation, prolonged diabetes also causing atrial fibrillation, coronary heart disease, hyperthyroidism, rheumatic immune diseases may all trigger atrial fibrillation, as well as previous myocarditis or rheumatic heart disease, which can also induce atrial fibrillation;

3. Independent Condition. This is neither the aging-related condition mentioned in the first category nor the atrial fibrillation (AF) caused by other diseases as in the second scenario. If you have no other health issues, it may be due to some residual aberrant cells in your heart's development process. For example, some pulsating cells in the left atrial pulmonary veins—though the cells themselves are normal—may have migrated to the wrong location (typically on the right side), causing excessive erratic firing. This could trigger AF. In such cases, searching for other diseases as the cause would be a misguided approach. (Note: The translation follows the original structure while converting Chinese medical terms and explanations into standardized English equivalents. It preserves the casual yet informative tone of the original text.)

So today we're here to debunk a common misconception—don't assume atrial fibrillation must always be caused by other diseases. AFib can exist as an independent condition, and treatment can focus specifically on managing this arrhythmia. Did you get that?