Is your heart beating to a different rhythm?
A guide to managing arrhythmias
Most everyone has experienced an odd heartbeat - feeling your heart race, pound, flutter, pause or skip a beat. These episodes of unusual heart rhythm, or arrhythmia, caused by abnormal electrical impulses in the heart, are often minor and harmless. However, sustained or more serious irregular rhythms can pose a danger and lead to cardiac arrest.
Some people don’t notice any symptoms. Others feel:
- palpitations or a galloping or sluggish heartbeat
- shortness of breath
- chest pain or discomfort
- fatigue or weakness
- dizziness
- unexplained falls or fainting.
If you experience any of these symptoms suddenly or frequently, seek urgent care.
The presence or absence of symptoms does not determine the severity of the problem. Sometimes very symptomatic arrhythmias can be a nuisance but benign. However, less symptomatic arrhythmias can appear without warning and can be lethal. “Sudden cardiac arrest is a potentially lethal arrhythmia that kills 400,000 a year in the U.S. and it may have no warning,” says Dr. Robert Sorrentino, Cardiologist and Director of Arrhythmia Services at the Heart and Cardiovascular Services.
What’s going on with your heart rhythm?
A normal heart rate is between 50 and 100 beats a minute. Physicians classify the many types of arrhythmias according to where they originate and the type of heart rate they cause. A rate faster than 100 beats a minute is called tachycardia and slower than 50 beats a minute is called bradycardia.