Participants: Daniel Miller, James Marcum
Series Code: WM
Program Code: WM000363
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00:01 The following program presents principles
00:03 designed to promote good health and is not 00:04 intended to tak the place of 00:06 personalized professional care. 00:08 The opinions and ideas 00:09 expressed are those of the speaker. 00:11 Viewers are encouraged to draw their own 00:13 conclusions about the information presented. 00:35 Praise God for I am fearfully 00:37 and wonderfully made. This is a beautiful 00:40 quotation that is found in the Psalms, welcome 00:43 to Wonderfully Made. I am so glad you took time 00:46 out of your busy and hectic schedules to join us. 00:49 Today we're gonna talk about the important 00:52 topic of heart rhythms. My name is Dr. Jim Marcum 00:55 and I am a cardiologist with a Chattanooga 00:57 Heart Institute. And with me today is Dan Miller, 01:00 Dan Miller is a businessman from 01:03 Chattanooga as well, but he's also a consumer 01:06 advocate of health care. And I am so glad 01:09 he's here and our goal today is to talk to you as 01:12 if we were right there in the house with you, 01:14 we collected questions from all over the world 01:17 dealing with this important topic of heart rhythms. 01:21 What we've done is we, hopefully we can cover 01:24 everything of interest and Dan is gonna if we 01:25 talk a little bit to technical Dan is gonna 01:28 sort of correct us and slow us down a little bit 01:31 and he is gonna make this, everyone feels like 01:32 we are right in here living room today talking. 01:36 So Dan with that introduction 01:37 let's get going with the questions. 01:39 Okay thank Jim, the first question is from 01:44 Brenda she lives in Atlanta and she's 01:48 38 years old, she works as an executive secretary 01:52 and her question is this, she has noticed that 01:57 her heart pounds and races at times. 01:59 It usually happens when she is preparing 02:02 to go to bed and it really bothers her, 02:05 okay, what could be causing this? 02:08 Well Brenda, that is an excellent question, 02:11 many people especially in your age group have 02:14 this problem with pounding hearts. 02:16 Dan, have you ever had a problem 02:19 with a pounding hearts? Yeah, yes, I have. 02:20 Now have you ever notice any time of the 02:22 day when this pounding usually occurs? 02:24 Generally in the evenings, generally in the evening 02:27 well that's a common time when pounding does occur. 02:29 And the reason pounding occurs in is, 02:31 there's so much stimuli that goes on during the 02:34 day and at the evening time people start to notice 02:37 and slow down a little bit and they start feeling 02:39 things that they normally wouldn't feel when 02:41 they're too busy during the day. 02:43 Well Brenda, the most common cause of this in 02:47 your age group would be some thing that's 02:50 called premature ventricular contractions. 02:53 Sometimes we just called as PVCs, this is 02:57 very frequently, now how do I know that 02:59 without testing? Well I don't, but the way 03:02 we would test is put, on a fancy device 03:05 called a Holter monitoring device. 03:07 You've heard about a Holter monitoring device? 03:09 No, I haven't. Well let explain a little bit about 03:11 what a Holter monitoring is, that's a 03:13 special device we put on electrodes and we can 03:16 tell every beat of your heart for x amount 03:19 of time, we can measure from 24 to 48 hours. 03:22 And this is one of the most useful tools that 03:24 we have to detect rhythms of the heart. 03:27 Let's put up our first graphic regarding 03:30 premature ventricular contractions or PVCs. 03:33 Many different things can cause these PVC's 03:36 it could be a structural abnormality within the 03:38 heart that is the heart doesn't work well, 03:40 it's either too weak or the valve's messed up 03:43 or some other problem. Caffeine in the United 03:46 States, caffeine is a frequent cause of PVC's, 03:49 there's certain over the counter drugs that 03:51 can cause it, especially those for cold 03:53 medications that have a substance called 03:56 pseudoephedrine. And stress is a cause of PVC's 04:00 and there is host of medical problems that 04:02 cause these premature ventricular contractions. 04:05 So, this is very common problem Brenda and 04:09 getting back to your question I would be 04:12 very curious, if you were my patient whether 04:14 you did have a structurally normal heart 04:16 and I would ask you a bunch of questions 04:18 about the stress and medications you were 04:20 and we probably wanna put a monitor on you. 04:22 Does Brenda's age have any bearing on 04:24 any of this. Well in pregnant years okay 04:28 we think of PVCs as something that's causing 04:32 stress to the heart, right. And that stress 04:34 can come from anywhere, it can come from the job, 04:39 not sleeping while at night, it could cause 04:41 from a substance like nicotine or caffeine, 04:43 it could come from being scared. 04:45 If I scared you Dan today if I will boo, 04:47 you would jump and you might have a PVC. 04:49 Well all these things can cause the heart to skip, 04:53 in this age group another thing that 04:56 we have to keep in the back of mind 04:57 is could this person be pregnant. 04:59 That would put a definitely a stress 05:01 on the heart. What happens physiologically 05:04 when they're under stress you make a hormone, 05:06 and that hormones called Epinephrine, 05:08 and that Epinephrine is usually what causes 05:11 the heart to skipping beat, and one of the 05:13 treatments that we do if the skips are just 05:15 unbearable, we can't do anything as we 05:17 try to block that receptive with medications. 05:19 So, Brenda what could be causing this well back 05:23 to your question, it could be the medicines 05:25 you take and it could be that a rare 05:28 cause be structural abnormality but 05:30 usually in your age group it's just the stress of 05:32 everyday life that's causing the skip beats 05:34 and that could cause for many things, right. 05:36 Alright, let's get our second question then, 05:41 this comes from Mel in Toronto and the speed 05:48 of his heart is about 38 to 42 beats per minute, 05:52 he takes Atenolol, Atenolol for high blood 05:57 pressure and it's making him very tired, 06:01 do you think that he needs a pacemaker? 06:04 Oh okay, Mel, that's a question we hear a 06:08 lot of and before I ask you a question, 06:10 a lot of people don't even know what a 06:12 pacemaker is, have you ever seen a pacemaker? 06:14 I have not. Okay, well I brought a pacemaker 06:16 with me today, and this is a pacemaker 06:19 and it's keeps the hearts going when it's 06:21 not beating strong enough. 06:23 And the way we have this pacemaker is inserted 06:25 right here under the skin and here is a lead that 06:28 goes inside the right ventricular chamber 06:31 and some time we put a lead in the top chamber 06:33 which is the right atrium and this not only beats 06:37 the heart but every single beat that the heart 06:39 does it can monitor. And we have ways on 06:42 a pacemaker we can tell everything 06:44 that's happening within the heart. 06:45 Now what is this made out of him, okay. 06:47 This pacemaker is made of a substance and 06:50 element called titanium which is very stable 06:53 in the body and these are special plastics 06:56 that go in the body the body doesn't react to it, 06:59 so you don't have a bad reaction or anything 07:01 like that. Pacemakers are one of the most frequent 07:04 treatments we have for heart disease. 07:06 Before we had pacemakers when the heart went 07:10 slower and slower and slower, it would just stop. 07:12 Right. And if the heart's not beating we have 07:14 no blood pressure, and one of the first 07:17 pacemakers that went in, I don't know if people 07:19 realize this was a, did you ever hear about 07:21 Alfred Hitchcock? Yes sir. Okay, well Alfred 07:24 Hitchcock had one of the first pacemakers 07:26 and back in those days the pacemakers were 07:28 about the size of my hand and it went in the belly. 07:31 And that's what it took to keep his heart going, 07:34 but through the years as you see the pacemakers 07:36 have gotten smaller and smaller. 07:38 And it's my prediction the some day there are 07:39 gonna be on the size of a computer chip. 07:42 Now can these be monitored any other way then, 07:45 how does the monitoring process work? 07:47 Well we have couple ways we can monitor Dan, 07:50 one of the ways we can do it as with a hand held 07:52 device over, that we can tell every beat that 07:55 the heart has. Another way nowadays we can 07:57 actually download the information that's stored 08:00 in these computer chips on the Internet, right. 08:03 And I can actually see every beat of a patient's 08:05 heart for a long period of time, in addition 08:08 to see how often the pacemaker's used, 08:10 to see when it's wearing out, to see when it's, 08:13 you know the battery might need to be replaced. 08:15 So, you are saying I could be traveling somewhere, 08:17 oh yeah and you could monitor me from 08:20 a long distance. Totally mobile with the 08:22 pacemaker you know another thing the people 08:26 don't realize is some people ask me can I get 08:29 into MRI's and magnetic fields. 08:31 We usually advice not to get in a MRI machine, 08:34 right. Now an MRI machine is a fancy 08:36 machine that takes pictures of you, 08:38 because it's got such a strong magnetic, 08:40 it can pull on that, we don't want it 08:41 to be pulling on someone's heart. 08:42 It's just like in airports and restaurants and 08:44 stuff like that they've got the signs of that. 08:46 Right, you can still go there but it would 08:48 detect metal in you, and the alarms would go off, 08:51 so it's frequently a cause of, especially 08:53 now with all the problems we've had 08:54 at the airports it's a very frequent problem. 08:57 But, you know what we forget to answer 08:58 Mel's question here, yes we did. 09:01 Mel, making you tired, well could the rhythm 09:05 be making you tired is going 38 to 42 beats 09:07 per minute. A normal runs about 70 beats 09:10 per minute, so the rhythm itself might be making 09:13 you tired, or it might be the Atenolol. 09:15 Atenolol is a medication which slows down 09:19 the heart, it's slows down the wiring of the 09:21 heart so that could be making you tired. 09:23 Do you need a pacemaker? 09:24 A pacemaker is needed usually when the heart 09:28 can't generate enough blood pressure to supply 09:31 the brain. So, you might feel dizzy, you might 09:35 pass out, you might feel weak, those are 09:37 symptoms that would say hey I think you might 09:40 need a pacemaker. Let's go up to our 09:42 second graphics, that has to do with when 09:46 a person might need a pacemaker and here 09:47 the indications for a pacemaker, the heart's 09:50 too slow, okay well the mouse is going too slow 09:54 and he's tired well so he's having some symptoms. 09:57 Usually we see dizziness, so that 09:59 might be a reason, conduction disease 10:01 what that means is the actual wires of the heart, 10:03 the batteries, the thing that keeps the heart 10:06 going or disease. And the last thing is sometimes 10:10 people need to take the medications to slow 10:13 the heart down. The medications are so 10:15 important to slow the heart rate that we put 10:18 a pacemaker in just show the patient can take 10:20 the medications. So, sometimes in that 10:23 emphasis those people also need a pacemaker, 10:25 so but Mel is taking a medication which could 10:29 slow his heart. So, the first thing that I would 10:31 do with Mel here is I, Mel, I would stop your 10:34 Atenolol and use a different medication 10:36 to treat your blood pressure and then 10:39 I would put monitor on you, these Holter 10:43 monitors and see how the rhythm's doing 10:45 and see if anymore symptoms occur. 10:47 If more symptoms don't occur I don't think 10:49 I would worry a lot, now another thing 10:53 Dan I might do is I would watch Mel's heart 10:55 rate when he walked. You know lots of people, 10:57 athletics go very, very slow when they're 10:59 not doing anything but if it speeds up when you 11:01 do things that's a great sign, right. 11:04 Now let me ask you a question, okay. 11:06 Do you know many people don't realize this, 11:09 do you know when do think what part 11:11 of the day do you think your heart goes 11:13 the slowest and what part 11:14 do you think it goes the fastest? 11:17 I would say the slowest would probably 11:20 be in my sleep, that's correct. 11:24 Fastest would probably be when I first wake up, 11:28 that's right, if you're not, that's great Dan, 11:30 you're on the top of this if you don't have 11:32 a lot of stress on your or other side stimuli 11:36 like you're getting cut or hit, your heart's 11:39 gonna go fastest in the mornings, 11:41 'cause the hormonal system starts kicking in 11:43 and slows down in fact I've seen people's hearts 11:46 on these monitors run with no problems at all 11:48 run in 20s to 30s at night, it goes pretty slow, 11:52 right and that's when the body is resting, 11:53 the heart has the time to catch up from the day. 11:55 So, Mel good luck with your heart and 11:58 I hope that answered your question. 12:01 Alright, let's go to question number three, 12:04 it's from Robert in Pennsylvania. 12:08 He says, I'm a minister of a 1500 member 12:12 congregation in Pennsylvania. 12:15 We recently had a parishioner die 12:18 after the morning services, what are your 12:22 thoughts on getting an automatic external 12:24 defibrillator, okay. And most of his congregation 12:29 is elderly, so this is really 12:31 something that concerns him. 12:32 Okay, well this defibrillator issue 12:36 is coming up more and more, in the 12:38 Chattanooga area recently we had a young 12:41 person that actually died from one of these 12:44 dangerous heart rhythms, right. 12:46 It's very rare for a young person to have 12:48 these in every year you heard about a football 12:51 player that has one of these abnormal rhythms 12:53 that was otherwise undetectable. 12:56 So, the issue is should everyone in different 13:00 places carry these defibrillators, 13:02 because you can get a defibrillator to a 13:04 person quickly you can literally save many lives, 13:08 right. And economics that is you know should 13:12 these big churches where there's lots of people 13:14 that could potentially have an arrhythmia from 13:17 a heart problem die. Now before I answer this 13:20 question I just want to go over at of all the 13:22 causes of death in America, the most likely 13:25 cause of death is gonna be cardiovascular disease. 13:28 And a lot of people don't realize that 43 percent 13:30 of all deaths in the United States is due to 13:34 cardiovascular disease, right. Now that's greater 13:36 then wars and cancers and infections 13:38 and every thing combined. 13:40 An interesting statistic is if you have a heart 13:43 attack guess how many people you know 13:45 guess what percentage dies before they 13:47 even make it to the hospital from a heart attack? 13:49 I have no idea. 33 percent, most people 13:52 don't think it's that high, right. 13:54 But, if you have a heart attack there 13:55 is a one in three chance that you are gonna 13:57 before you even make it to the hospital. 13:58 That's why these defibrillators are so much 14:02 in the news and so much you know everyone 14:04 is want to talk about him. 14:06 So, thought on it automatic external 14:10 defibrillator, I think this would be an excellent 14:13 thing for your congregation. 14:14 And the training involved really is very simple 14:17 in fact we brought a defibrillator with 14:20 us today. At this point time let me put this on 14:25 you Jim, but you know and we're gonna sort 14:28 of pretend that and the first thing we do 14:31 as we turn, and show everybody how it 14:33 actually work. Right it's not that hard to work 14:34 and you would be surprised how easy it is to work 14:36 and if you are looking at Robert if you are 14:39 looking at this show this evening I want you 14:41 to sort of put this in your back your mind 14:43 for your congregation, lot of people think 14:46 it's hard to work, but it's not very 14:48 easy okay is a device on? 14:50 You turn it on, okay and we are gonna things 14:54 going here, okay I think it's ready to open up. 15:01 You push the button on the front of the machine, 15:04 the device opens up, and you have to hit it again, 15:08 push it one more time. 15:14 Okay this device we're gonna have to get it 15:19 going here, it's suppose to come on here, 15:23 it talks to you actually when it comes on, correct. 15:25 Now we have trainer with me today, 15:27 so let's back up. "Call for help now." 15:30 Here it goes, so this point it's where 15:32 I call for health. "Remove clothing from chest." 15:34 So I would remove my. At this time right, 15:36 you'd laying on the ground and I would take 15:38 your clothing away from your chest. 15:40 We are going to install this on our shirt, 15:43 so you will take your jacket. 15:45 "Pull red handle to open bag." 15:48 So, I would pull this out. 15:50 "Pull each pad off the plastic." 15:53 When you pull that out. 15:54 "And apply pad to exposed chest." 15:57 You'll tear the two pads in half. 16:03 "Remove clothing from chest." 16:06 It repeats that if you, correct, 16:07 if you don't do something right or you can't. 16:09 This one actually has a picture showing us 16:11 where to put the, okay the pad, 16:14 so I would apply that on at that point. 16:16 "Pull red handle to open bag." 16:19 Okay, I would pull this one. 16:21 "Pull each pad off the plastic." 16:24 This one goes under your arms. 16:26 "And apply pad to exposed chest. 16:28 Do not touch patient. Evaluating heart rhythm." 16:35 And this point in time it automatically evaluates. 16:38 "Stand by." Okay. "Preparing to shock. 16:41 Everyone clear." So I'm gonna get out of the way. 16:44 "Do not touch patient, delivering shock." 16:50 Okay, well as you can see, 16:53 was that the first time you've ever done this? 16:55 Yes, it is. Now that was not too hard to put on 16:59 and yet if I really would have had a dangerous 17:01 heart rhythm that potentially could have 17:04 saved my life. And I would really wanted 17:06 this on that young person that day, right. 17:09 You know that happen to collapse in a gym 17:12 and I really want this on because someone 17:14 could have been trained to put this on 17:16 immediately it would have saved his life, 17:18 correct. Now a question we might get is 17:21 can you mess up with one of these? 17:22 I mean can you be shocked accidentally. 17:25 It is. I've never heard it happening and this only, 17:28 the reason it didn't shock me is because 17:30 my heart rhythm was normal. 17:31 But, it's only, it's trained to only shock that 17:33 abnormal heart rhythm which is called ventricular 17:36 fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia, right. 17:39 That's the one you see people over peoples 17:40 heart shocking you know dramatically. 17:44 So, Robert that's how you use these 17:47 and the prize of these defibrillators are coming 17:50 down every year. One of the questions that 17:53 comes up is what about the liability issues? 17:55 You know are you liable if you have one, 17:58 are you liable if you don't have one, right. 18:00 And these are being worked through right now, 18:02 but most people have a short training course 18:05 they have to be basic service support, 18:08 but when I, I talk to people about what do 18:11 they need one of these, I say, we just don't 18:13 choose it not to, for the legal reasons, 18:17 I mean you want to have this to save lives. 18:19 Save somebody's life, you're correct. 18:20 And if you didn't have it what would happen, 18:22 right and what's the worse thing that can 18:23 happen if you mess up? Do it over, 18:26 I would suppose. Right, I mean but if you don't 18:28 even have the machine you know 18:30 someone is gonna, you don't even have that 18:31 change. Exactly, correct and if you don't get 18:32 the paramedics there within five minutes 18:34 and deliver that shock that patient has 18:36 very little ability of having significant 18:39 long term recovery, right. So, Robert there it is, 18:42 that's a defibrillator and we hope you consider 18:46 getting it and if there is anymore questions, 18:49 the people that run these defibrillator companies 18:52 on the websites, this one happens to be one 18:55 then by company called Medtronic, they're more 18:59 than happy to give information on this. 19:02 It's extremely easy, okay now we stop it, 19:04 hope it doesn't go off again, let's not. 19:06 Okay we don't want it to start talking, 19:07 we got to finish this show Dan. 19:08 So, with that, let's go to the next question. 19:14 Lets leave that closed there and the next 19:17 question will be from Lynette in Tennessee. 19:21 The speed of my heart races at times, 19:24 I was at Disney World a few years ago 19:26 and nearly fainted from this rhythm. 19:29 I have two small children and live 19:31 an active lifestyle. This rarely occurs should 19:36 I will concerned? Well, yeah the speed 19:40 of the heart races, you can go ahead 19:42 and put that up if you need to, Lynette, 19:44 this is a good question, in the heart there are 19:47 some times groups of cells that become very, 19:49 very unhappy. And these cells can generate 19:52 a fast rhythm and sort of generic name we give 19:56 for that is a big name it's called 19:57 supraventricular tachycardia, where the 20:00 heart goes real fast and sometimes when the heart 20:03 goes fast like this you don't get blood pressure 20:05 to your head. And that's what makes 20:07 you feel so poorly, one of the things we say 20:11 when it happens okay lay down and 20:14 put your feet up and you can sometimes 20:16 rub on this part of your neck and some times 20:19 this will actually slow your heart down enough 20:21 until you can catch your breath. 20:23 If it continues for a long period of time 20:25 you really need to go to the hospital, 20:28 so we can need a monitor on you, 20:30 or get an EKG to see what this rhythms about. 20:34 Because you don't want to be having this 20:35 rhythm when you go down with your kids. 20:38 That could, a ride at Disney World have 20:41 brought that about. Yeah I guess it's possible 20:45 but usually these rhythms are triggered 20:47 on their own. Most people have these that 20:51 they're doing nothing and then it just comes on. 20:53 Now we do know that there are some triggers 20:55 that make it worse, if you're dehydrated, 20:57 and some times you can take a stimulant 20:59 from the heart, and some of more common 21:01 stimulates that you might see at a theme part 21:03 would be stress from two small kids all day. 21:05 Standing in line, yes if you don't have to 21:07 fast passes, you have to stand in life a lot 21:09 at Disney World. Another thing we talked 21:12 about caffeine and if you get dehydrated. 21:15 If you're not drinking all day don't have 21:16 enough fluid, those are some other things 21:18 that could trigger this rhythm. 21:19 And the people just have it rarely 21:21 I recommend no treatment just monitor, 21:23 but if it happens on a regular basis more 21:25 frequently, we can actually go up inside the 21:28 body and destroy these dangerous 21:30 heart rhythms now with the small about 21:31 of energy, right. And if people don't wanted 21:33 to do that, we can also take medications. 21:35 Now is it a person's fault that they have this, 21:37 that's you know no, not really. 21:40 Most people are just sort of born that way 21:41 and they have these abnormal pathways 21:43 and they have to just live with that, right. 21:45 So, Lynette, good luck with your rhythm 21:46 and if it keeps coming on I would 21:48 go see your health care provider. 21:51 Alright, next question is from Earl in Minnesota, 21:56 okay. He says atrial fibrillation runs 22:02 in my family. I'm 86, my doctor says 22:06 I have atrial fibrillation and he wants to put 22:11 me on a blood thinner. I don't want to, 22:14 okay, what do you think? 22:15 Okay, atrial fibrillation is another one of these 22:20 rhythms of the heart. Now we don't talk much 22:23 about it earlier, but the normal rhythm is called 22:25 a sinus rhythm, right. That means each rhythm 22:27 is generated from the special battery that 22:30 God give us called the sinus nerve. 22:32 That's a normal rhyme, so if it's going too slow 22:35 we called that sinus bradycardia or too slow 22:38 of heart rhythm. If it's going fast we called it, 22:40 tachycardia. Those are normal rhythms 22:42 of the heart, but just going slow for another 22:44 reason, right. Some times you could have 22:47 sort of these missed connections that 22:50 we talk about, and it's coming from the top 22:52 part of the heart this abnormal firing from 22:54 all sorts of funny spots, we call that 22:56 atrial fibrillation. And that's with the top 22:59 part is literally going like this, 23:01 it just squeezing all over, it's not working 23:04 symmetrically with the bottom part of the heart, 23:06 right. And guess what happens to blood, 23:08 if a heart squeezing like a bag of worm where 23:11 it comes through. Squeezed out, 23:13 well it's from of a squeeze out, 23:15 but as much as normal. But, actually when 23:16 it's moving like this you can get blood clots, 23:19 okay, the blood doesn't pass through. 23:21 And if a blood clot gets in there and it passes 23:24 through from the upper chamber to the lower 23:25 chamber and the lower chamber pumps 23:27 that blood clots somewhere it could go 23:29 to the head and cause stroke. 23:32 In fact about 15 percent of all strokes 23:36 in the United States are cause by this rhythm 23:39 atrial fibrillation. So, Earl, that's why your doctor 23:44 what's to put you on a blood thinner. 23:46 He wants to lower your risk of having a stroke. 23:49 Now is there some people that don't get 23:52 a blood thinner, you know yeah if the risk 23:55 of bleeding out ways the risk of the blood thinner 23:58 then you aren't good. And have to have frequent 24:01 monitoring when you're on coumadin. 24:03 Now do you know what coumadin rally is? 24:04 I don't know, what is that? 24:06 Okay, coumadin is rat poison, a lot of people 24:09 don't like to realize it's just a rat poison 24:11 and a lot of people don't like to take it 24:12 because it's rat poison, right. 24:14 But, it has lowered the risk of having a blood 24:17 clot in the body. And in atrial fibrillation 24:20 you have to evaluate the risk of being on the 24:22 blood thinners, whether you can taking the 24:23 monitoring versus the risk of falling and 24:26 bleeding, these are all very important things 24:29 to think about when you're on coumadin, 24:31 but Earl if you came to me and you had 24:33 atrial fibrillation, first of all I would say, 24:37 you know coumadin needs to be considered, 24:39 but the next thing I wanna look is the 24:41 different causes. You know why, 24:42 correct it's a very common rhythm 24:44 and with that my let's bring up the next graphic 24:46 about the causes of atrial fibrillation. 24:49 Okay, remember, this is where the top part's 24:52 going faster then the bottom parts. 24:54 Sometimes it can again be because there is 24:55 something wrong with the heart itself. 24:57 That is there is a structural heart problem, 24:59 you know it might be that it's stretched out, 25:03 it might be the valves are bad, there might 25:05 be an old heart attack. Some thing's wrong 25:07 with the heart itself that's causing it. 25:08 Sometimes you can have a thyroid condition, 25:11 remember the thyroid regulates these rhythms. 25:13 You can have a thyroid abnormality, 25:15 sometimes high blood pressure can actually 25:17 cause high blood, could cause this rhythm, 25:19 atrial fibrillation, because it stretches it out. 25:21 And there's a host of other causes and Earl 25:24 I wanna sort of go though some of those other 25:26 causes with you just in cause you might have 25:29 one of these, again we talked about being 25:32 dehydrated, right, having an infection, 25:34 certain medications can sort of cause it be 25:37 more likely to happen. Just being sick can 25:40 cause it happen, correct. Now one of the things 25:43 the heart likes most is oxygen, okay and we 25:46 found that people don't get enough oxygen, 25:48 so if Earl has a lot of lung disease, 25:51 that could a trigger for this atrial fibrillation, 25:54 right. And in this rhythm you feel pretty 25:56 bad if it's, the heart is going too fast. 25:58 So, atrial fibrillation is one that you usually 26:01 you have to go in the hospital to get it treated, 26:02 so it's a pretty tough thing to have. 26:05 So, I think coumadin is reasonable and 26:07 the other thing you know if we can fix the 26:09 underline cause. You know if Earl if you 26:11 have problems with your lungs is infection, 26:13 you are not getting enough oxygen, 26:14 let's fix that. Right, now do you have to do test 26:20 to balance the amount of coumadin that you're 26:21 getting, can you get too much, could be? 26:23 Yes, you can, we have to frequently check 26:25 the blood to see if the blood is too thicker 26:28 or too thin while in the coumadin, 26:29 because if it's too thin and you bonk your head, 26:31 you could have a very, very serious problems. 26:34 Right, right you know in the slide you also 26:40 mentioned that the thyroid has a lot. 26:43 Yeah. There are a lot of people with thyroid 26:45 problems in the United States, they would 26:47 seems like, yeah, I personally have some 26:51 problems with mine, and so that's something 26:54 that's even beneficial for me to remember, right. 26:58 You can go you know too low, too high, 27:00 thyroid is very common regulator of the heart, 27:02 it regulates the hearts speed. 27:03 Actually, a lot of people don't realize but a low 27:06 heart rate can cause you to have slow heart. 27:10 Now before we close today I wanted to show 27:12 the people we've talked about rhythms, 27:14 we talked a little about the slow ones, 27:16 right, a little bit about the fast ones. 27:18 And today I just want you to get interested 27:19 in your heart rhythm. One other thing I like 27:22 to show you that we brought with us today 27:24 this is a defibrillator, remember, 27:26 earlier in the show we had an external 27:29 defibrillator. Now what an external defibrillator 27:31 is a device that we put on immediately, 27:34 when someone's having a sudden problem with 27:37 their heart. Now this device and people with 27:39 weak hearts or people that have diseased heart 27:41 that needs this technology all the time, 27:43 this can be inserted under the skin and 27:46 it can deliver a shock and this one can 27:47 actually pace the heart anytime it might 27:50 be needed. Well we're almost out of time 27:52 today Dan. I wanna thank you for joining us, 27:54 and I hope that the audience has learned 27:56 something about the rhythms of the heart, 27:58 the fast ones, the slow ones, a little bit more 28:00 knowledge about what to do. 28:02 And we hope that all of you can have hearts that 28:05 never go out of rhythm and we hope that God 28:07 will create new, a new heart, one that 28:10 depends on him daily to keep 28:12 your heart running smooth. |
Revised 2014-12-17