The Short Version
Emerging evidence suggests a link between atrial fibrillation and reduced glymphatic activity, but the claim presents this as an established causal mechanism when it remains a contested hypothesis. The strongest experimental data comes from cardiac arrest models in mice—not AF—and the only dedicated clinical study involved just 13 patients. Most peer-reviewed AF literature attributes cognitive decline to hypoperfusion, microembolism, and inflammation rather than glymphatic impairment specifically, and the underlying premise that vascular pulsation drives glymphatic flow is itself disputed.