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Cardiac dysrhythmias occur when your heart rate beats out of its normal rhythm. What does that feel like, and how do you know if it’s an emergency or not?
Today, Carda is here to talk about signs, symptoms, causes, and ways to address cardiac dysrhythmia. Read on to learn more and to support your overall cardiovascular health.
A dysrhythmia, also known as a cardiac arrhythmia, occurs when your heart beats out of rhythm. An irregular rhythm means that your heart either beats too fast, too slow, or too intermittently. These dysrhythmias can occur in any of the upper chambers or lower chambers of the heart.
While dysrhythmias may be harmless sometimes, they can eventually affect your heart’s ability to pump blood if they continue unaddressed.
While everyone’s baseline normal heart rate is different depending on their unique body type and health factors, there are standard ranges for a normal heart rate. A rapid heartbeat (or tachycardia) is categorized as anything over 100 beats per minute, while a slow heartbeat (or bradycardia) generally presents as any heart rate that is under 60 beats per minute.
There are many different causes for dysrhythmia that range in severity from mild and harmless to more serious, which can include an underlying condition that requires medical attention.
An imbalance in your electrolytes, hormones, or body fluids can lead to dysrhythmia, such as if you are dehydrated or if you are on a medication that affects your hormone levels. Lifestyle choices such as smoking, drinking alcohol, or consuming a lot of caffeine, may lead to dysrhythmia. Certain medications can also cause dysrhythmia as a potential side effect.
Additionally, underlying heart conditions, such as high blood pressure, heart valve disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), or a heart conduction system abnormality, can also cause dysrhythmia. Sleep apnea is another condition that can lead to an abnormal heartbeat.
If dysrhythmia occurs due to an underlying medical condition, that means the medical condition has damaged your heart muscle. This can result in scar tissue that can disrupt the electrical signal that dictates the rhythm of your heartbeat.
A heart attack or a coronary artery disease, as well as other cardiac conditions like cardiomyopathy, can also cause this damage. Any cardiac condition that affects your heart muscles, arteries, or valves can lead to dysrhythmia.
There are different types of arrhythmia, depending on where in the heart chambers a blood flow disruption occurs (whether it’s in the ventricles or atria of the heart muscle). A person can experience an atrial flutter or ventricular tachycardia, for example.
Dysrhythmia can show up in many different types of sensations, such as a fluttery or feathery rapid heartbeat or a dull or slow heart rate. It may also feel like a very intermittent heartbeat, which could mean that your heart skips a beat and then picks back up again with a stronger beat immediately following the brief pause.
A heart palpitation, which occurs when your heart flutters, thumps, flip-flops rapidly, or skips a beat altogether, is a very common type of arrhythmia.
In addition to the physical arhythmic sensations that an irregular heartbeat manifests, you may also experience symptoms such as:
These symptoms often accompany dysrhythmia because the abnormal rhythm affects blood flow, altering the rate or efficiency at which your heart pumps and circulates blood to the rest of your body.
Other times, there are no signs or symptoms of dysrhythmia, and the only way you find out that you have one is because your healthcare provider detects it during a physical examination.
Usually, they can easily detect dysrhythmia by taking your pulse or listening to your heartbeat through a stethoscope. They might also order an exercise stress test to determine how your heart rate changes under physical exertion.
Sometimes, cardiac dysrhythmia is harmless and does not require treatment. Almost everyone experiences mild heart palpitations at some point in their life that are usually no cause for concern.
At other times, dysrhythmia could indicate an underlying medical condition that needs to be addressed rapidly. In rare cases, dysrhythmia could indicate a severe underlying cardiac condition that could lead to heart failure without prompt treatment.
A ventricular fibrillation dysrhythmia, for example, is life-threatening and can lead to cardiac arrest and heart failure without immediate treatment. Atrial fibrillation can also be life-threatening, as it can lead to blood clots in the heart that can cause a stroke or heart attack.
Once your healthcare provider detects a dysrhythmia, they will likely order further tests and screenings to evaluate the cause. There are many different test options, but a few common ones are an electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG), an echocardiogram, a computed tomography (CT) scan, or a heart MRI.
If an EKG does not give clear enough results, then a cardiologist may have you wear a Holter monitor to track your heart’s rhythm and electrical impulses over a longer period of time.
As your doctor learns more about the nature of your dysrhythmia, the test results can help inform a treatment plan. Medical procedures, lifestyle changes, or preventative measures are all different treatment options for cardiac dysrhythmia.
Let's take a closer look at each of these treatment options below.
There are several different medication classes that can address cardiac dysrhythmia. Antiarrhythmic drugs can help prevent dysrhythmia and can also cause an abnormal heartbeat to fall back into a normal pattern. There are also many different types of medicines that can help control or regulate your heart rate to prevent any irregular heartbeat patterns.
Additionally, depending on the underlying cause of your dysrhythmia, your healthcare provider may prescribe medications that target and treat that underlying condition in order to stop the dysrhythmia.
Different medical procedures, including device input procedures as well as surgical operations, can also help treat dysrhythmia. Your healthcare provider will likely refer you to a cardiologist for these procedures.
With device input procedures, a cardiologist may put in a pacemaker to electrically regulate your heart rate. They may also put in an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), which monitors your heart rhythm for abnormalities and sends out energy to your heart muscle when it detects an abnormal rhythm.
Sometimes, cardiology may recommend that you undergo heart surgery, such as catheter ablation, to treat dysrhythmia. The type of surgery depends on the underlying cause of the dysrhythmia and is usually a specific procedure that aims to treat heart disease.
For example, you might undergo surgery to fix your heart valves, which could, in turn, stop your dysrhythmia and help prevent future dysrhythmias from occurring.
Your lifestyle can play a huge role in your heart health, and a cardiac-healthy lifestyle can help prevent dysrhythmia. Engaging in a heart-healthy exercise routine, as well as a well-balanced, heart-healthy diet, can help you to both maintain a healthy weight and also support your heart health.
Additionally, smoking, excess alcohol consumption, and caffeine intake are all risk factors for developing dysrhythmia, so limiting or altogether eliminating these habits can help ease the abnormal heart rhythm.
A great way to set lifestyle change goals and to have support in following through on them is to join a cardiac rehabilitation program. Cardiac rehab centers around education on health topics that relate to cardiac recovery and wellness and incorporates safe, guided exercise routines from expert physiologists.
Moreover, a rehab program includes mentorship to develop other strategies toward a cardiac wellness plan. Rehab programs can be hard to get into because not only do you need a referral from your healthcare provider, but you also need to sign up at the facility, and there are often waitlists. However, this is not the case with Carda since our program is fully virtual.
Virtual cardiac rehab allows you to safely develop and practice your goals in the comfort of your own home. Additionally, while in-person rehab often involves different physiologists and healthcare providers for support each week, our program uses the same support consistently.
This way, you can form a strong relationship with those who are helping you to reach your cardiac wellness goals.
Signing up is easy–all you have to do is fill out our quick online form once you get a referral from your provider.
There are many different ways that you can prevent dysrhythmia. Most prevention techniques involve lifestyle changes, which can include limiting or avoiding caffeine, stimulants, and alcohol.
Additionally, refraining from tobacco use, setting healthy exercise and diet goals to maintain a heart-healthy weight, and addressing underlying conditions such as high blood pressure or high blood sugar, are all different preventative measures you can take to help avoid dysrhythmia.
A cardiac dysrhythmia is an abnormal heartbeat. The irregular rhythm occurs when the electrical activity in your heart changes, either to produce a very rapid heartbeat, a very slow heartbeat, or an intermittent heart rate that skips a beat.
Dysrhythmia can be very common and unharmful, especially if the cause is due to mild external factors such as dehydration, which causes an electrolyte imbalance. However, dysrhythmia can also sometimes signify a more severe underlying cardiac condition that requires immediate medical attention.
If you experience persistent arrhythmia or dysrhythmia that causes life-threatening symptoms such as sharp chest pain or trouble breathing, then you should seek immediate medical care for treatment options.
Fortunately, lifestyle changes such as a heart-healthy diet, cardiac-safe exercise routines, and alcohol and caffeine abstinence can all help to prevent dysrhythmia from persisting or reappearing in the future. Attending a cardiac rehab program can also help strengthen your heart muscle to support your overall cardiac wellness as a prevention measure for dysrhythmia.
Talk to your healthcare provider today about how you can choose a treatment plan that works best for you in your heart health journey.
Sources:
Overview of Cardiac Dysrhythmia | Cleveland Clinic
Heart arrhythmia - Symptoms and causes | Mayo Clinic
Cardiac Dysrhythmia | Tufts Medical Center Community Care
Prevention and Treatment of Arrhythmia | American Heart Association
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