Cardiac Arrhythmia - What Causes It?

Cardiac or Heart Arrhythmia is a condition which results in disruption of heart’s normal rhythm. Due to this, the heart may beat too quickly, too slowly or have an irregular rhythm. Though most of the arrhythmias are not harmful but at times they can have serious consequences, which might turn to be fatal. Differences in heart beats can lead to the restriction of blood, that gets pumped around the body, hence causing damage to the brain, heart and other organs of an individual.

Now we would take into account the causes behind the occurrence of this heart condition.

Causes

Interruption to the electrical impulses in any form that lets the heart to contract can result in arrhythmia. A person with a healthy heart should have a heart rate of anywhere between 60-100 beats per minute while the body is at rest. There are a number of factors which can cause the heart to work inefficiently, which include:

• Alcohol Consumption: If you are used to drinking alcohol varying from light to moderate, the chance of irregular heartbeat increases. A recent study has shown that with every drink consumed per day, the risk of atrial fibrillation increased by 8 percent. Men and women both are at equal risk for irregular heartbeat. Irregular heartbeat is caused because drinking leads to damage of the cells, which in turn leads to causing damage in small areas of fibrous tissue within the heart.

• Anxiety: Arrhythmia from anxiety is when the heart feels like something happened due to which it tries to overcompensate and beat quickly. This leads to heart skipping a beat, getting squeezed or undergoing heartbeats at a rapid pace.

• Excessive Cosumption of Coffee: Caffeine is a stimulant and tends to speed up heart rate, so consuming too much coffee can lead to the problem of arrhythmia.

• Deficiency of Magnesium and Potassium: Magnesium and Potassium deficiencies in one’s body can cause Arrhythmia. The deficiencies can be caused due to less intake of citrus fruits and vegetables like potatoes, kiwi, papaya etc.

Symptoms

Arrhythmia can produce a broad range of symptoms which affect the proper functioning of heart. Some of the most serious symptoms are:

• Fatigue: If you feel that you are getting fatigued quite easily, then it’s a clear symptom of arrhythmia.

• Dizziness: A sense of dizziness creeps in when you are having the problem of irregular heartbeat.

• Lightheadedness: Feeling light on the head is another symptom of Cardiac Arrhythmia, as there is fluctuation in the amount of blood that reaches the brain through the heart.

Treatment Options

• Problem of irregular heartbeats, especially if it’s on the slower side, can be solved through the placement of certain devices like pacemaker, which can speed up one’s heart rate.
• Faster heartbeats can be treated through blood-thinning medications, which would help keep threatening blood clots from getting formed.
• Doctors can even go for Catheter ablation, wherein they would thread one or more catheters through the blood vessels of one’s heart. Electrodes at the catheter tips can make use of extreme heat, cold or radiofrequency energy to damage a small sport of heart tissue and create an electrical block along the path, that’s causing one’s arrhythmia.