Arrhythmia: As we get older, we get wrinkles on the surface of the skin, which you can perceive and can see. But when the heart gets old, you cannot see it, but it expresses itself. How does the heart express itself? It tells us that it has wrinkles by telling us that electrical impulses are beginning to become abnormal. That means the natural pacemaker of the heart because of the aging process may begin to work slow.

It was supposed to beat at 60-100bpm. But it can begin to work slower and slower, and it is called Bradycardia. You don’t need to know this. But it’s a good idea that you are aware that the heart can be slow. Slow abnormal rhythms or slow arrhythmic patients come complaining of dizzy spells, they can even faint which is called Brady arrhythmia. If a doctor thinks that you truly have brandycardia, you may sometimes need a Pacemaker.

The pacemaker is a small device that has leads going inside your heart. So, if your electrical impulse becomes dysfunctional that means your natural pacemaker is working slow and these electrical wires become slow, you may need the implantation of a pacemaker.

The natural pacemaker of the heart gives an electrical impulse of 60 to 100 beats per minute.

Sometimes, some people have extra circuits, that circuit can be here, the circuits can be in different places, your electrical impulse can begin to work more than 100 beats per minute. It is very common that most patients who complain of arrhythmia actually complain of fast heartbeat. Now, this is important to understand, there can be extra circuits inside your heart, which can be anywhere in the heart, those of you who are getting older when I say older, I mean beyond 70 to 80 years of age, you must pay particular attention to palpitations or pounding in the heart and why is that so, because it can have significant complications on you and can change your life. So, remember, as I just mentioned, the normal electrical impulse is coming from the upper chamber and goes down to the lower chamber.

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As we get old, I told you, we get wrinkles in the skin. Similar wrinkles also come on the surface of the heart. When these wrinkles come in, they result in results in the formation of abnormal electrical circuits. These abnormal electrical circuits can fall inside your upper chambers. Remember, these abnormal electrical circuits which fall inside your heart can give rise to a real problem, which is very common as we get older, and it is called atrial fibrillation. Atrial Fibrillation as the name implies, comes to the atria and fibrillation means this chaotic rhythm, I told you the normal pulse should be 62-100bpm. But when we get atrial fibrillation they are also very rapid. It can go as much as 150-180 beats per minute. Now imagine that 80-year-old man whose normal should be 60 to 70 beats per minute and suddenly is 140 -160 bpm. He will be very uncomfortable. That is a problem is called atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation is a disease of the elderly.

As we get older, I told you the part that loves wrinkles, these wrinkles express themselves as atrial fibrillation. So what happens if there is atrial fibrillation? Why should we worry? We really need to be worried because when we develop atrial fibrillation, the problem that can be one is everything yeah, and palpitations, but more problematic, and have real significance is that there can be small blood clots which can fall inside the heart. And these blood clots, which appear really simple to you actually can have very serious consequences. These clots form this chamber can go into our brains. And when it reaches our brain, it can give rise to stroke.

So if you get palpitations, if you get irregular palpitations and you are elderly, you must want to get medical attention. Your doctor may ask you for an ECG, which is a very simple thing. Your doctor may ask you for a Holter which is a 24 hour ECG recording, which is also a very simple thing. Or you may want to keep an ECG device with you.

Sometimes your doctor may want to give you an implantable device to pick up your rhythm problems. It is as small as a small pen drive this little device is put under the skin. It is called an Implantable loop recorder and they record every abnormal rhythm of the heart. This is to pick up everything. Yes. So I told you a normal heartbeat. I told you what is arrhythmia. I told you what are the symptoms of arrhythmia. And how do we pick it up. So we pick it up either by ECG, or by holter, or by these simple ECG devices.

Or sometimes you may want to insert this device under the skin, and it records the rhythms for up to three years. So this is called the insertable loop recorders. So all over the world, we as doctors are working aggressively to pick up the arrhythmia so as to save our patients from the complications of areas. So I told you if you are elderly, and if you feel abnormal heart beating, you must see a doctor because if you have atrial fibrillation, you should protect yourself. Otherwise, you can land up because of a stroke because of this clot. If you have atrial fibrillation, we as doctors can protect you, we can safeguard you from stroke by giving you special medications, which are now available for the past five or 10 years. And they are very safe, very good.

They are called blood thinners. So you should be aggressively searching to have any abnormal problem, which means you must seek medical attention, you should go back to Best Cardiologist in Delhi, your doctor may want to do holter the doctor may want to do a prolonged Holter, what is it prolonged Holter, it can be for three days, it can be for seven days, where we watch the patient’s abnormal rhythm. And we want to pick it up. Also, to understand that they can also be abnormal extra heartbeats.

 

But there can be some people who get an extra heartbeat. The extra heartbeat can be from anywhere in the upper chamber. So we have to understand where they are arising from. So I think we have understood clearly what is a normal heartbeat, what is an arrhythmia? What are the symptoms of everything here? what I have to do if I have an arrhythmia? Can I have some complications occurring?

 

Reach your cardiologist as soon as you feel symptoms of arrhythmia.

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