Tachycardia is a potentially dangerous disorder, during which the heart rate accelerates to the point that it exceeds 100 beats per minute at rest. It can affect the upper heart chambers (atria), lower heart chambers (ventricles), or both. A tachycardia attack can be an occasional episode, which causes no symptoms or complications, or it can occur often and in this case it can be an indicator of a systemic pathology or a functional abnormality of the heart. Chronic tachycardia increases the risk of heart attack and stroke. Home remedies and some strategies can help you reduce your heart rate when your heart starts "racing," although medication is often required in the case of chronic tachycardia.
Steps
Part 1 of 2: Treating Tachycardia at Home
Step 1. Stop the activity you are doing and rest for a few minutes
Most people experience a few brief episodes of tachycardia on rare occasions, often due to very high stress or sudden panic or anxiety attacks. If you think these are the reasons for your ailment, stop what you are doing and rest for 5 or 10 minutes. This could mean stopping watching a horror movie, walking away from a particularly stressful situation (argument or argument), or distracting yourself from some financial worries. Resting, relaxing, and taking a few deep breaths can naturally help you reduce your heart rate.
- Normal resting heart rate can vary a little between people, but is generally between 60 and 100 beats per minute. If you exceed 100 beats when you are at rest, you are on the verge of a tachycardia attack.
- This pathology does not always cause symptoms, but when they do occur, the main one is the sensation of a rapid heartbeat or heart palpitation in the chest. Other symptoms include shortness of breath, lightheadedness, lightheadedness, fainting, and chest pain.
Step 2. Try some relaxation techniques
Since stress and anxiety are common triggers of tachycardia and hyperventilation, you can try to prevent them by managing how you react and cope with emotionally tense situations. Some techniques for relieving tension, such as yoga, Tai Chi, deep breathing, visualization, and meditation, can promote relaxation and improve emotional health. Find out at your local gym, city cultural center, or counseling center if you can take courses to relieve stress.
- Try to limit emotional tensions in life by making positive changes - free yourself from abusive relationships, change jobs, spend less time with negative people. Monitor anxious thoughts about work, finances, and life as a couple.
- When stress and anxiety are excessive, the body releases hormones to prepare for the "fight or flight" reaction, which increase heart rate and respiratory rate.
- Don't forget to ensure you get an adequate amount of good, restful sleep - at least 8 hours a night, although some people need to sleep up to 11 hours to get better. Chronic sleep deprivation can lead to anxiety and heart palpitations.
Step 3. Apply vagal stimulation
This maneuver simply consists of some actions that you can do with your body to act on the vagus nerve, the main regulator of the heartbeat. There are several methods of stimulating it, including the Valsalva maneuver, inducing the immersion reflex, and making repeated coughing strokes. These simple techniques should be put into practice as soon as you notice you have a tachycardia episode, as they can slow your heart rate within seconds if done correctly. Ask your doctor to show them to you.
- The Valsalva maneuver consists of holding your breath and pushing down, as if to defecate, for about 10-15 seconds. This is a simple procedure, but it can change the rhythm of the heart's electrical impulses and cause the heartbeat to return to normal.
- They all have the diving reflex, which is activated when diving into cold water - the body automatically slows the heart rate to reduce blood flow in order to survive. To induce this reflex, put very cold water or an ice pack on your face for at least 30 seconds.
- Also try to cough vigorously.
Step 4. Avoid substances and habits that can trigger tachycardia
There are several substances that stimulate this disorder, including alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, certain drugs (such as cocaine), and even certain over-the-counter medications (especially those for colds and coughs). Therefore, if you periodically suffer from episodes of rapid heartbeat, you should stop smoking, as well as drinking alcoholic and caffeinated beverages.
- Caffeine is found in coffee, black and green tea, some sodas (especially cola-flavored ones), energy drinks and chocolate. Keep in mind that this substance does not provide energy, but it stimulates brain activity, increasing the heart rate and blood pressure.
- Nicotine introduced with cigarettes can accelerate the resting heart rate by up to 15 beats per minute and raise blood pressure by up to 10 mmHg.
- Overdoing alcohol (as can happen on weekends, for example) often increases the heart rate, while chronic alcoholism tends to cause fluctuations (from too fast to too slow).
- Tachycardia is more common in anxious young people, especially among women who drink a lot of coffee, alcohol and smoke a lot.
Part 2 of 2: Getting Medical Treatment for Tachycardia
Step 1. Ask your doctor about the cause of your ailment
There are three types of tachycardia: atrial or supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), sinus tachycardia, and ventricular tachycardia (VT). These different forms are caused by different factors and understanding which one is afflicting you can help your doctor determine the right treatment.
- The atrial or supraventricular form begins in the upper chamber of the heart. It is the most common type of tachycardia among children and can be caused by anxiety, fatigue, smoking, alcohol, or caffeine.
- Sinus can be caused by fever, anxiety, medications or drugs, panic, strenuous physical activity, or severe emotional distress.
- Ventricular tachycardia begins in the lower heart chamber and can even be fatal. Seek immediate medical attention if you have any other heart conditions and your pulse starts to speed up. This form can be caused by lack of oxygen in the heart, by drugs, by sarcoidosis (an inflammatory disease) or by an alteration of the heart structure due to a disease.
Step 2. Ask your doctor about possible side effects and drug interactions
Some medicines, especially when taken together with others, also include possible episodes of tachycardia among the adverse effects. In particular, antiarrhythmics (used to treat abnormal heart rhythms), digitalis, asthma, steroids, and major cough / cold remedies are known to increase pulse rate. Ask your doctor if the prescription medications you are taking can trigger a rapid heartbeat.
- Due to the complex chemical interactions of the human body, it is virtually impossible to establish whether more than two drugs (taken at the same time) can interact with each other. Read the list of adverse effects of the medicine very carefully.
- If you are concerned that medications are responsible for your tachycardia, don't stop taking them suddenly without your doctor's supervision, otherwise you could aggravate your symptoms. It is better to stop the treatment gradually and take a new product with a similar action.
Step 3. Check your blood pressure and cholesterol levels
Cardiovascular diseases, especially atherosclerosis, increase blood pressure; as a result, the heart has greater difficulty pumping blood and the beating speeds up. High cholesterol is the main risk factor for atherosclerosis, which is the buildup of plaque that clogs the arteries. In turn, blocked arteries trigger high blood pressure, which often results in a faster-than-normal heartbeat. Ask your doctor what lifestyle changes you can make, as well as what medications you can take to control your blood pressure and cholesterol levels, to help reduce the risk of tachycardia.
- Standard cholesterol levels must not exceed 200 mg / dl, while blood pressure must be below 135/80 mmHg to be considered normal.
- Cut back on saturated and trans fats from your diet and eat more fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and nuts.
- If lifestyle and dietary changes do not significantly reduce cholesterol levels, you will likely need to take medication. These include statins, niacin-based ones, bile acid sequestering resins, fibric acid derivatives and cholesterol absorption inhibitors.
- Medicines that are typically prescribed for high blood pressure are thiazide diuretics, beta blockers, ACE inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, and direct renin inhibitors.
Step 4. Talk to your doctor about taking antiarrhythmics
If the cause of your disorder is not to be attributed to your eating habits or lifestyle, or if vagal maneuvers do not lead to good results, medicines may be necessary. The main causes of tachycardia that must be managed with drug therapy are cardiomyopathy, congestive heart failure and valvulopathies. Antiarrhythmic medicines can rapidly reduce heart rate, especially when given as an injection. The other drugs that can be used (often in combination with antiarrhythmics) are calcium channel blockers (diltiazem, verapamil) and beta blockers (metoprolol tartrate, esmolol).
- In an emergency situation, the doctor or hospital nurse may inject a fast-acting antiarrhythmic agent (lidocaine, procainamide, sotalol, amiodarone) into a vein to manage an acute case.
- Patients at risk of tachycardia are also treated with slow-acting oral medications (flecainide or propafenone), which can be taken at home at the first symptoms.
Step 5. Assess whether catheter ablation is appropriate for you
This is an invasive procedure that is recommended when there is an excessive electrical pathway (too many signals being sent to the heart) that causes chronic tachycardia. A catheter is inserted into the groin, neck, or arm and slipped into a vein to the heart. The tip of the catheter is equipped with electrodes that destroy pathogenic myocardial tissue using heat, cold or radio frequency.
- Catheter ablation is very effective especially in cases of ventricular tachycardia; it is also used to treat atrial fibrillation and flutter.
- Catheter procedures are related to the risk of damage to the veins and detachment of emboli which can cause stroke and heart attack; they could also damage the heart walls and alter the heart's electrical system.
- The tests that the doctor can use to detect ventricular tachycardia are: the dynamic ECG according to Holter in the clinic, a normal electrocardiogram and the electrophysiological study.
Step 6. Consider surgical procedures, if recommended
Surgery is the "last resort" to manage tachycardia, but for some patients it is the only effective option. There are a few different devices that can be implanted in the chest and that are effective for treating tachycardia, such as the pacemaker and the implantable cardiac defibrillator. The most invasive procedures involve open heart surgery, both to destroy the pathogenic myocardial tissue and to directly repair the damaged heart.
- The pacemaker is a small device that is inserted under the skin and that sends electrical impulses to the heart when it perceives abnormal beats; helps the heart muscle to resume normal contractions, rhythm and rate; it is also implanted to treat bradycardia (an excessively low rate). When used to treat tachycardia, it is typically combined with medications and / or radiofrequency ablation of the tachycardia core.
- An implantable cardiac defibrillator is the size of a cell phone and is inserted into the chest like a pacemaker; in this case, however, it is connected to the heart with electric cables. An implantable defibrillator delivers precise and calibrated electric shocks when it senses an abnormal heartbeat.
- Ask your doctor which device is best suited for your case.
Advice
- Some forms of hyperthyroidism can cause tachycardia. Treat this condition with appropriate medications or radioactive iodine.
- Some people with tachycardia are at a serious risk of thrombosis; you should therefore discuss the possibility of taking anticoagulants with your doctor.
- Being overweight increases the chances of developing cardiovascular disease and experiencing tachycardia.
Warnings
- If you are confronted with a person with tachycardia, you may be forced to perform CPR if they pass out and lose consciousness.
- If ventricular tachycardia evolves into an emergency situation, electrical defibrillation (electric shock) may be required.
- If you experience chronic episodes of tachycardia, it is important that you have regular medical examinations at the cardiology clinic.
- Don't hesitate to call the ambulance (118) if you need help handling the situation. Heart attack could be the cause of tachycardia, and prompt treatment could save your life.
