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Things to Know about a Slow Heart Rate

With age, a person’s heart generally slows and while resting. Consult with your doctor if you’re concerned about your heart rate to determine whether bradycardia suggests a problem. Heart rate changes with an individual’s activity level. The ticker has to pump faster and harder during intense physical exertion so the rate goes up. A slow heart rate is below 60 beats per minute (bpm) in most adults.

Symptoms:
A slow heart rate is the primary symptom of bradycardia. Some people have no other symptoms whereas other people do experience symptoms where a slow ticker rate is more likely to be due to a serious issue. Some of the common symptoms include feelings of exhaustion and weakness, confusion, fainting or dizziness, difficulty breathing when working out.  More severe symptoms may appear including cardiac arrest (the ticker stops), chest pain, low or high blood pressure, heart failure when a serious medical condition causes bradycardia and an individual does not seek treatment.

Causes:
Some people have only moderate bradycardia whereas some only experience occasional bradycardia. It is crucial that an individual with a slow heart rate seek medical guidance, but not everyone will need treatment as a slow heart rate may be harmless or minor issue when bradycardia causes no other symptoms and when a person does not have an underlying condition. Bradycardia episodes are common in older people as the ticker rate tends to decline with age. Although it’s typical, it still warrants investigation by a healthcare provider.


Exercise strengthens the ticker with athletes having more efficient tickers especially those who engage in intense cardiovascular activity which may slow their pulse because there’s no need for their ticker to pump as hard or as fast to supply oxygenated blood to the rest of the body.
A slow heart rate can also be due to some medical conditions including

1.      Problems with the ticker’s natural pacemaker , or sinoatrial node, that helps regulate heartbeat.
2.      Other heart electrical issues.
3.      Metabolic disorders with one of the most common being hypothyroidism (the thyroid does not produce enough thyroid hormones).
4.      Heart disease and heart medication.
5.      Oxygen deprivation.

When to Consult with a Healthcare Provider:
A parent or carer should immediately take a baby who has a low pulse to the emergency room. It is as important for adults and children who’ve a low pulse and experience severe symptoms like chest pain or fainting to visit the hospital.

See a doctor for bradycardia when you experience an unexplained change in heart rate lasting several days, you have heart disease and bradycardia, you have bradycardia and other heart health risk factors like diabetes or smoking, you experience episodes of bradycardia and tachycardia (fast heart rate that makes the ticker beat more than 100 times per minute).

Treatment:
A slow heart rate doesn’t always necessitate treatment, however, if it causes serious health problems or when heart disease slows the ticker, it is important that people receive treatment. An artificial pacemaker can help in this regard, which is an electrical device that a doctor inserts into the ticker to promote regular rhythms. A healthcare provider depending upon the cause might also recommend changing heart medications, making lifestyle changes (adopting healthy measures), taking medication to treat thyroid or other metabolic disorders, frequently monitoring heart rate or blood pressure.

In USA, heart disease is the leading cause of death that accounts for 1 out of every 4 deaths. Any changes in the health of ticker, blood pressure, or pulse should be taken very seriously. See a doctor for guidance as only a doctor can evaluate an individual's cardiovascular risk factors.

Cardiovascular disease also increases the risk for a cardiac arrest or heart attack. Get CPR trained and contribute towards the safety of cardiac arrest victims in out-of-hospital cases. If you are on the lookout to join a CPR program in PalmHarbor, don’t look beyond the AHA certified CPR Tampa. Register for a class now. Call on 727-240-9404 to know more.

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