Heart Arrhythmias

Bradydysrythmia

Involves an irregularily slow heartbeat.

Causes:

• Endurance athlete
• Opioid medications

Tachydysrythmia

Involves an iregularily fast heartbeat. The most common form is Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) including Atrial fibrillation (AF).

Causes:

• Stress and anxiety
• Hypovolemic shock

Atrial Fibrillation

Involves the hyperexcitability of the aria of the heart.

Causes:

Subclinical Hyperthyroidism

Low serum thyrotropin concentration has been associated with a 3 fold increase in risk of developing atrial fibrillation (Sawin et al., 1994). Roughly 0.9 to 1.9 percent of older persons were found to have lowered thyrotropin concentrations (Eggertsen et al., 1988).

Osteoporosis Medications

Menopause has also been shown to increase the chances of developing osteoporosis (Stein et al., 2003). One of the first line of treatments for osteoporosis is bisphosphonates such as bisphosphonate zoledronic acid (Gray et al., 2006; Woolf & Åkesson., 2003). Nitrogenous bisphosphonates have been shown to increase the incidences of atrial fibrillation (Black et al., 2007; Cummings et al., 2007). This was later backed up with the findings of a large case-control study from Denmark investigating atrial fibrillation patients medication intake (Sørensen et al., 2008). This was not found in patients taking non-nitrogenous bisphosphonates in this study.

Heart arrhythmias may cause palpitations, a sensation of fluttering or pounding in the chest, lightheadedness, dizziness, shortness of breath, chest discomfort, and fatigue. Some dysrhythmias produce no symptoms and are found incidentally, while severe episodes can lead to fainting.

• Full blood count
• Coronary calcium score
• Liver function testing
• Scanning
• ECG

• Stroke
• Diabetes mellitus
• Sleep apnea
• Alcohol intoxication
• Caffeine intake
• Nicotine

Other herbs:

• Ziziphus spinosa
• Leonurus cardiaca
• Cinchona spp.