Tachycardia is more common in women, but it also occurs in men. Even young people may experience this heart rhythm disturbance brought on by anxiety or exhaustion. Although tachycardia is generally not serious and doesn’t signify heart disease, it may, however, cause serious or even life-threatening complications in people who already have heart disease. Symptoms vary but usually start and stop quickly. Learn how to put the brakes on your rapidly beating heart with these strategies for tachycardia treatment.
Slow Down
Think of that speeding heart as a flashing red light that says, “Stop what you’re doing. Chill out. Rest.” Rest, in fact, is your best mechanism for stopping an attack, says Dennis S. Miura, MD, PhD. If you have trouble slowing down, try deep breathing techniques or use a home biofeedback system.
Try The Vagal Maneuver M
How fast your heart beats and how strongly it contracts are regulated by sympathetic nerves and parasympathetic nerves (or vagal nerves). When your heart pounds, the sympathetic network is dominant. (That’s the system that basically tells your body to speed up.) What you want to do is switch control to the mellower parasympathetic network. If you stimulate a vagal nerve, you initiate a chemical process that affects your heart in the same way that slamming on the brakes affects your car. “Vagal maneuvers increase vagal tone, which tends to slow conduction from the top chambers of the heart to the bottom chambers,” explains Stephen R. Shorofsky, MD, PhD. “If the arrhythmia is using this pathway for a circuit, one blocked beat will terminate the circuit.” MORE: 6 Simple Habits That Can Lower Your Heart Disease Risk 92% Doctors recommend these vagal maneuvers to break up supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), a common form of rapid heartbeat that arises from the upper chambers of the heart. Rub your eyeballs. Rub your neck where you feel your pulse. Have your doctor show you how and where. Hold your breath and bear down as hard as you can for as long as you can like you are having a bowel movement. This vagal maneuver is called a valsalva. “Everybody has been constipated. And if you press down really hard, you get dizzy. The reason you get dizzy is because you slow your heart rate and your blood pressure disappears,” says Miura.
Rely On The Diving Reflex
When sea mammals dive into the coldest regions of the water, their heart rates automatically slow. That’s nature’s way of preserving their brains and hearts. You can call on your own diving reflex by filling a basin with icy water and plunging your face into it for a second or two. “Sometimes, that will interrupt the tachycardia,” says Miura.
Cut Down On Caffeine
Too much coffee, cola, tea, chocolate, diet pills, or stimulants in any form can put you at risk for tachycardia, says Miura. And skip the so-called energy drinks. Tachycardia is a commonly reported adverse effect from consuming caffeine in the quantities in most energy drinks, along with insomnia, nervousness, and headache, according to a study reported in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association. (Here’s 8 things that happen when you quit caffeine.)
Go Easy On Alcohol
Drinking alcohol—red wine, in particular—can trigger SVT. Try going without for several weeks and see if your symptoms improve.
Stop Smoking
Smoking is also associated with triggering tachycardia. If you don’t smoke, don’t start. And if you do smoke and have symptoms of tachycardia, consider it just one more reason to quit.
Get Your Fair Share Of Magnesium
In the muscle cells of the heart, magnesium helps balance the effects of calcium, which stimulates muscular contractions within the cell itself. Magnesium creates rhythmic contraction and relaxation, helping the enzymes in the cells pump calcium out, and making the heart less likely to get irritable. Magnesium can be found in such foods as soybeans, nuts, beans, and bran.
Keep Potassium Levels Up
Potassium is another mineral that helps slow heart action and reduce irritability of the muscle fibers. The mineral is found in fruits and vegetables, so getting enough shouldn’t be difficult. But you can deplete it if your diet is high in sodium or if you use diuretics or overuse laxatives. (Here’s 5 signs you may be low on potassium.)
Get Moderate Exercise
Getting in shape with moderate aerobic exercise tends to reset your resting heart rate at a lower level. Exercise also helps you get your aggressions out in a healthy way. But check with your doctor before beginning a new exercise program. Some people may experience what’s known as exercise-induced ventricular tachycardia, a more serious form of rapid heartbeat, says Miura. MORE: How Much Exercise Do You Really Need?
When To Visit A Doctor For Tachycardia
If your heart has lost its sense of timing, get to a doctor—as soon as possible. “You should also notify your doctor if you have heart disease, shortness of breath, or trouble exercising,” saysShorofsky. If you pass out or feel like you are going to pass out, call your doctor, he adds. This may indicate a more serious arrhythmia or condition. “If your doctor has ruled out a serious condition, but you still have recurrent tachycardia symptoms that bother you physically or emotionally, seek an evaluation by an electrophysiologist,” says Miura. “There are new drugs and new techniques that can help.”
Panel of Advisors
Dennis S. Miura, MD, PhD, is an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and director of cardiology at the Bronx-Westchester Medical Group, both in Bronx, New York. Stephen R. Shorofsky, MD, PhD, is director of the electrophysiology laboratory at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, and professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
