What to do with arrhythmia - how to relieve an attack at home?

An ordinary person does not know what cardiac arrhythmia is, symptoms, treatment, first aid for this disease are not known to him. But as soon as the rhythm goes astray, the frequency changes or the sequence of heartbeats is disturbed, the state of health immediately worsens, discomfort or pain in the chest, panic and fear appear. Then the question arises - what to do with arrhythmia, if it caught you by surprise.

First of all, you should consult a doctor for examination and treatment.

general information

The heart of a healthy person in a calm state is reduced with a frequency of 60 to 90 beats per minute, a rarer pulse in athletes, people with developed muscles and the elderly, more frequent in young and young creatures. A decrease in the lower limit is called bradycardia, an increase in the upper limit from 100 and above is tachycardia. It happens that an increase in heart rate over 140 beats per minute occurs suddenly in the form of an attack - this is paroxysmal tachycardia. It is possible to establish the type of arrhythmia only on the ECG, which records electrical signals that occur in different parts of the myocardium.

The contractions of the heart in our body occur automatically, they do not obey the will of the person, but are controlled by a small area in the right atrium, which is called the sinus node. From here, electrical impulses are sent along the conductive paths to the atrioventricular node and both ventricles, stimulating their work in pumping blood after the atria.

For various reasons, the conduction system of the heart may fail, then the sinus node will not perform the function of the main pacemaker to the full extent, the contractions of certain parts of the myocardium in this case go out of its control.

As a result, there are different types of arrhythmia:

• sinus;
• supraventricular (tachy or bradycardia);
• ventricular.

A separate type is extrasystole (extraordinary heartbeats followed by lengthening of the interval between contractions), but this is not always a pathology, especially in young people and adolescents. The most severe and dangerous form of cardiac arrhythmia (more often in older patients), in which the atria randomly contract at a high rate, regardless of the ventricles, is atrial fibrillation.

Why does arrhythmia appear

Provocateurs are various unfavorable situations - overwork, climate change, nutritional errors, alcoholic beverages, chronic constipation, stressful situations. Usually, such a violation of the rhythm does not affect the well-being of a person and disappears on its own after the elimination of provoking factors, treatment is not required.

In the case of frequent recurrence of attacks of arrhythmias or the existence of this problem for a long time, an examination is carried out, which can reveal the following causes of heart rhythm disturbance:

• structural anomalies of the heart;
• the presence of chronic myocardial ischemia (various forms of angina pectoris, a history of heart attack or coronary artery disease);
• cardiovascular and bronchopulmonary insufficiency;
• inflammatory heart diseases - myocarditis of various etiologies;
• endocrine pathology (hyperthyroidism, decompensated diabetes);
• medicinal or toxic effects on the myocardium (treatment with large doses of cardiac glycosides, ethanol abuse, past infections);
• electrolyte imbalance in the body;
• catastrophe in the central nervous system (hemorrhage, tumors);
• hereditary predisposition.

Clinic

Others may have slight deviations in well-being, which accumulate over time and add up to a certain clinical picture.

What are these symptoms:

• discomfort or pain in the chest (sometimes like angina pectoris);
• malaise, fatigue, increased sweating;
• blurred vision and dizziness up to fainting;
• a feeling of panic fear of danger and death;
• feeling short of breath, shortness of breath.

Certain types of arrhythmia may have specific symptoms. For example, supraventricular tachycardia often manifests itself in the form of paroxysms or attacks of sudden anxiety, anxiety and heart rate of 150 beats per minute or more. Extrasystole is characterized by sensations of "somersaults" in the region of the heart, followed by its fading. Atrial fibrillation sometimes may not give clinical manifestations for a long time, especially in young people.

Patients usually complain of the following symptoms:

• rapid heartbeat;
• bouts of severe weakness and shortness of breath;
• trembling in the muscles;
• hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating), especially at night;
• polyuria (excessive urination).

Atrial fibrillation usually "debuts" with an attack (an emergency), and then proceeds as a disease with periodic deterioration. Less commonly, a chronic course develops against the background of persistent angina pectoris or coronary artery disease (symptoms are not bright, complaints are rare). On examination and examination in such patients, a frequent pulse with a deficit is found (the number of actual heart contractions is greater than the number of palpable pulse beats). Often, manifestations of the underlying pathology (angina pectoris, hypertension, or others) come to the fore.

The diagnosis is made on the basis of the patient's complaints, listening to heart sounds and ECG at rest and after exercise. An informative method is to conduct daily Holter monitoring (it allows you to clarify the type of arrhythmia, the presence of ischemia, concomitant angina pectoris and other diseases). In difficult cases, invasive EPS is performed with the introduction of electrodes into the chambers of the heart.

Principles of therapy

At the first obvious attack, it is recommended to undergo an examination and select therapy depending on the etiology of the disease, the presence of concomitant diseases, and the characteristics of a particular organism.

What are the principles of medical care?

• establishing the cause or provoking factor and its elimination;
• priority treatment of the underlying disease (angina pectoris, diabetes, thyrotoxicosis, etc.);
• in the absence of complaints and concomitant pathology, one should not rush to prescribe drugs, observation is recommended;
• arrhythmias with an increased risk of fatal complications (atrial fibrillation, paroxysmal ventricular tachycardia) require conservative therapy in a hospital setting followed by continuation at home;
• surgical treatment is used in rare cases with the ineffectiveness of medical care, the impossibility of long-term use of drugs, too frequent debilitating attacks;
• emergency care for arrhythmias should be mandatory in case of a sudden onset of an attack in order to avoid possible complications (formation of blood clots, blockage of the coronary vessels of the heart with the development of angina pectoris or heart attack, etc.);
• always have an antiarrhythmic drug prescribed by a cardiologist with you.

First aid

All patients and their relatives should be familiarized and trained on how to relieve an arrhythmia attack at home. If such a situation arises, it is necessary to call an "ambulance" or a local (family) doctor, before that you can measure the pulse and blood pressure with an electronic tonometer. What to do before the arrival of the doctor with different types of rhythm disturbance at home?

Tips for tachycardia

1. Inhale as deeply as possible, hold the breath for a few seconds, and then slowly, with a certain effort, exhale, as if pushing the air out of you downwards.
2. Gently massage the place on the right under the angle of the lower jaw, where the carotid artery pulsates.
3. With your index fingers for a couple of minutes, press on the upper eyelids with your eyes closed.
4. Dip your face for a moment in a container of cool water or wash your face.

Tips for Bradycardia

1. You need to lie on your back and raise your lower limbs above the level of your head.
2. Open windows to allow air flow from the street, free the body from tight clothing (collars, belts, belts).
3. For chest pain, urgently put a Nitroglycerin tablet under the tongue (emergency for heart attack or angina pectoris).

To stop an arrhythmia attack at home, you can use advice from traditional medicine: mix equal proportions of alcohol tinctures of valerian root, motherwort herb, hawthorn and peony fruits, take 1 tsp from the resulting mixture, drink slowly with a little water.

Treatment of cardiac arrhythmia (including emergency care) should be under the supervision of a cardiologist. Such patients are subject to regular dispensary observation and periodic examination in order to correct conservative therapy. At home, you must constantly adhere to a diet: exclude fatty meat, lard, extractive broths, strong coffee and tea, and alcoholic beverages.