Re: TACHYCARDIA

Posted By CCF Cardio MD-SGM on January 25, 1998 at 22:28:25:

In Reply to: TACHYCARDIA posted by Martin Smith on January 23, 1998 at 22:46:19:







:
I am a 30 year old very healthy male who never gets sick. However, I do suffer from Tachycardia.
I have been to the doctor and I have had my blood, urine, and heart checked with an EKG and everything is perfect.
What then should I do about this Tachycardia attacks?
The symptoms that I get are dizziness, faintness, weakness and slight numbness in my arms, and the obvious rapid heart beats.  The rapid heart beats usually last for about 1 minute, but I feel weak and sleepy for about an hour after they occur.
Please tell me what I should and shouldn't do whenever I get this attacks and how can I prevent them?
Thank you,



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Dear Martin,
In general, upon feeling tachycardia, and especially in the setting of dizziness or faintness, its important that you sit/lay down to avoid injury should you actually pass out.  If you've had episodes of loss of consciousness, it would be prudent to pull your car off to the shoulder of the road when driving.  Other than these seemingly obvious suggestions,  the answer to your question depends highly on the cause of your "tachycardias".   It may  be helpful to perform a holter monitor, or provide you with an event recorder which you can trigger when the irregular heart beats begin.  In this manner, your physicians can usually discover what's actually going on and recommend appropriate therapy.  Some episodes of tachycardia can be terminated by performing what is known as a Valsalva maneuver.  To do this, you take in a breath and bear down for several seconds as if you were having a bowel movement.  
You might be surprised to learn that many such complaints prove to be only intermittent premature beats,  a quite benign condition.  However,  you may be suffering from short bouts of supraventricular tachycardia which is often treatable through various means, both medical and catheter-based.
Again, the next step in treating this condition is discovering the exact nature of the arrhythmia.  Hope I've been of help.  Information provided in the Heart Forum is for general purposes only.  Specific diagnoses and therapies can only be prescribed by your physician.