Arrhythmia is a common condition that is treated with lifestyle changes, medicines, therapies, and surgery to help prevent blood clots and restore your heart’s normal rhythm.
Your physician will recommend treatments based on the type and severity of your arrhythmia and can include:
Medications
There are several medications available that restore your heart’s normal rhythm by slowing your heart rate. There are others that physicians use to prevent blood clots from forming.
Your physician may recommend:
- Beta blockers
- Blood thinners
- Calcium channel blockers
- Other heart rhythm medications
Lifestyle Changes and Therapies
Adopting heart-healthy lifestyle changes is the most common way to prevent arrhythmia and reduce your risk of more severe health complications.
These changes include:
- Controlling cholesterol levels
- Controlling blood pressure
- Eating a heart healthy diet
- Exercising regularly
- Limiting or avoiding alcohol consumption
- Avoiding drugs of abuse
- Losing excess weight
- Managing stress
- Quitting smoking or other tobacco use
Check out our classes to learn more about heart health
Therapies
In addition to medication and lifestyle changes, your physician may also recommend therapies to correct your irregular heartbeat.
These therapies include:
- Cardioversion
- Catheter ablation
- Implantable devices such as pacemakers or defibrillators
Surgery
If medications, therapies and lifestyle changes are not effective, your physician may recommend surgery to treatment the arrhythmia. Some surgeries involve the use of a narrow tube (catheter) to implant a device that will restore the rhythm of your heart. Other procedures may require open-heart surgery.
Arrhythmia surgeries include:
- Catheter ablation
- Implantable cardioverter defibrillator
- Maze procedure
- Pacemaker implant