Irregular heart rhythm

Two of my three children have an irregular heartbeat and I was told after I had my third child that I also have an irregular heartbeat. My doctor says this is very common and three out of four people have it. My oldest daughter was sent for an EKG when she was very small for it, but nothing really turned up. This has not caused any of us any problems and none of us take medication for it. I would have to assume that yours is worse than ours. Good luck.

Not me but my best friend and i researched to see what treatment was needed for irregular heart rhythm Age would be a very important consideration and of course we have no idea what that is????????????

Treatment

Sometimes all you may need is reassurance that the palpitation is harmless. It is also helpful to avoid any triggers if you know of any, such as stimulants like caffeine or alcohol.

If your palpitation is troublesome, there are a number of treatments available. Your treatment will depend on the type and cause of arrhythmia. Treatments include the following.THERE MAY BE MORE .......

Drug treatments

Your doctor may prescribe medicines called anti-arrhythmics. Examples include digoxin and flecainide (eg Tambocor). These drugs will slow down a fast heartbeat or help it return to normal.

If you have atrial fibrillation you may be advised to take aspirin or blood-thinning drugs regularly such as warfarin to reduce the risk of blood clots forming.
Cardioversion

In this procedure, a controlled electrical current is applied to the chest wall, which is synchronised with the heartbeat pattern seen on the ECG. This helps your heart to return to its natural rhythm.

This treatment is performed under a general anaesthetic, which means that you will be asleep throughout the procedure and will feel no pain.
Pacemaker implant

A pacemaker implant is a small electrical device, which produces electrical impulses. It ensures that your heart does not go too slowly so is used to treat heart block or slow rhythms (bradycardias) when the heart's own natural pacemaker is not working properly. A pacemaker implant is inserted under the skin of the chest and is connected to the heart muscle with thin wires. You will be given a local anaesthetic that numbs the area but you will be awake.

Every once in a while I would have an irregular heartbeat where it would feel like a butterfly was in my chest (only way to describe it) and it would last from a few seconds to a minute. At that point I never really thought about it.
In 2001 I wound up in an emergency room while on vacation because my heart was racing and wouldn't stop (over 200 beats per minute). They called it supraventricular tacchycardia. For a few months after that I would get the palpitations a few times a week (never as bad as that day). When I went to my regular doctor he did the EKG, echocardiogram, 2 different stress tests and the Holter monitor. Nothing ever showed up except once on the Holter monitor. He put me on Atenolol to prevent any further palpitations. It did take a couple of months before the palpitations stopped but I've been fine ever since.

One word of caution if you're on Atenolol, I ran out of it once and didn't get to the drugstore for a week. I thought it was okay since it was only for palpitations. During that week my blood pressure was high which it never was before. According to the doctor once you are on the medication, if you stop it for some strange reason your blood pressure will go up even if you never had any problems before.