{"id":2153,"date":"2018-06-13T05:11:54","date_gmt":"2018-06-13T05:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/besthealth.guide\/?p=2153"},"modified":"2021-10-12T01:02:42","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T01:02:42","slug":"10-symptoms-of-ventricular-tachycardia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/besthealth.guide\/10-symptoms-of-ventricular-tachycardia\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Symptoms of Ventricular Tachycardia"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Blood circulates through our body transporting oxygen, water, and nutrients to our tissues and organs, and retrieves the carbon dioxide, toxins and metabolic waste that our cells produce, in order to take it to the kidneys which will filter them and take them out of our body. We need a constant flow of blood to be alive, and the heart is the organ that takes charge, pumping this fluid through our blood vessels every second of our life.<\/p>\n

The heart has a pace called the heart rate, which should remain constant, and be adequate for the requirement of blood our body is experiencing at the moment. For a number of reasons, our heart could be beating faster than it needs, losing efficiency, and causing problems that could be severe if untreated. Ventricular tachycardia is a heart problem that happens when the electrical signals that make the bottom half of our heartbeat do not work properly.<\/p>\n

1. Fast beating of the heart<\/h3>\n

This is the easiest symptom to remember because the word tachycardia<\/a> comes from ancient Greek and means, literally, \u201ca heart beating fast\u201d. When the ventricles, which are the lower two chambers of the heart, have tachycardia, they tend to beat faster than they normally would, and this affects the way the blood is pumped up through our arteries. Healthy ventricles go through a constant cycle of relaxation and contraction; in the first phase they get filled with blood, and in the second phase they contract and pump the blood out through the valves that connect the ventricles and the arteries such as the aorta.<\/p>\n

Ventricular tachycardia happens when the electrical signals that reach the bottom half of our hearts are poorly coordinated and faster than they should be. The ventricles respond by contracting and relaxing more times per minute. In order to be diagnosed as tachycardia, a heart beating pattern must be faster than a hundred beats per minute.\"\"<\/p>\n

2. Irregular beating of the heart<\/h3>\n

The heartbeat<\/a> is regulated by a nervous center that is found on the top right chamber of the heart, called the right atrium. This center is stimulated by the neurovegetative system, which decides how fast the heart should beat and is located on the brain stem inside our head. From the right atrium, signals travel through short nervous channels to the rest of the heart, and the cells in the cardiac muscle respond by relaxing and contracting according to the instructions received.<\/p>\n

When this system works properly, then our heartbeat is constant and adequate for the activity that we are conducting at the moment. However, if the signals that reach the rest of the heart are irregular because there is a problem in the system that conducts these signals, the heartbeat could become irregular, with the length of the space between beats changing erratically.\"\"<\/p>\n

3. Heart palpitations<\/h3>\n

This is, according to many patients that report having ventricular tachycardia as well as other conditions or syndromes that affect the heart, one of the scariest symptoms of ventricular tachycardia, if not the scariest of them all. They feel like their heart is beating very strongly, and sometimes very quickly, so much so that they can feel in on their chest.<\/p>\n

Some even report feeling their own pulse in the form of palpitations<\/a> in other parts of the body, like the neck. Even if these manifestations of a heart affectation can be scary or unsettling, they are often harmless in themselves. They are no sign of immediate danger but let us know that the heart is struggling to pump blood the way it should. Ventricular tachycardia causes our heart to beat less efficiently, so it has to make up for the lack of strength in its beats by beating more intensely.\"\"<\/p>\n

4. Lightheadedness<\/h3>\n

Since the blood circulates throughout all our bodies, problems that affect the way it is pumped will have an impact on other functions that do not depend directly on the way our heart is beating. Other organs will have problems if the supply of blood isn\u2019t constant or if it is not enough to carry the oxygen, the glucose and other nutrients that our cells need for their metabolism and other important functions; also, poor or deficient blood flow will slow down the rate at which toxic substances and metabolic waste loads are relieved from the tissues<\/a> and eliminated from our body.<\/p>\n

Poor supply of oxygen and glucose will affect our brain functions, and therefore, our mental state and our capacity to process information from our environment and keep a state of clear consciousness. For this reason, when ventricular tachycardia happens, we might feel light-headed or vertiginous as our brain struggles to process information.\"\"<\/p>\n

5. Dizziness<\/h3>\n

Stable and well-paced blood circulation is essential for the wellbeing and proper functioning of all living cells in our body. For this reason, heartbeat disorders like ventricular tachycardia will affect all organs, starting for those which are more sensitive to blood deprivation of oxygen and\/or glucose insufficiency. The most sensitive organ in our body in that regard is the brain, and that is why it is the first one, outside of the circulatory system, to be affected by heartbeat problems.<\/p>\n

Symptoms like dizziness<\/a> happen when not enough oxygen reaches our brain. Ventricular tachycardia makes our heartbeat weaker and less efficient, so less blood has enough pressure to go against gravity and up to our skull, reaching our brain. Without a proper supply of blood, our neurons and other cells that are found in our central nervous system cannot work as they should, and one of the first symptoms is feeling dizzy or disorientated.\"\"<\/p>\n

6. Loss of consciousness<\/h3>\n

This symptom often presents itself preceded by the other two, because it is an intensification of the first effects that ventricular tachycardia has on our brain. There are actually many neurological symptoms of ventricular tachycardia, as well as other forms of tachycardia and heart arrhythmia, that are simply an escalation of the effects of the deficient supply of blood to our brain.<\/p>\n

When our brain cells don\u2019t get enough oxygen <\/a>for their cellular respiration or enough glucose to burn and release energy, they will run out of energy and stop working. Since our brain controls our body, and our brain stem literally keeps us alive by telling our heart to beat and our lungs to breathe, these vital functions must be protected at all cost, so some parts of the brain that are not as necessary can temporarily shut down in order to save the energy for those vital circuits in the brain stem.\"\"<\/p>\n

7. Seizures<\/h3>\n

The next step in the escalation of brain symptoms caused by an insufficient supply of blood is the seizures<\/a>, even if not in all cases a person with ventricular tachycardia will have seizures. If they faint due to their heart problems, they might have a seizure episode, or perhaps they won\u2019t have any. However, since seizures can cause bodily injuries and definitively are known to cause slight but accumulative brain injury, it is best to prevent them or at least be prepared to handle them and minimize their effect on the patients.<\/p>\n

Seizures happen when the neurons in our brain start working out of control, sending chaotic and massive signals throughout our nervous system, down our nerves, and to our muscles, hence the shaking that is characteristic of a seizure. Seizures caused by ventricular tachycardia are not induced by more frequent seizure triggers such as the famous blinking lights.\"\"<\/p>\n

8. Cardiac arrest<\/h3>\n

There are many causes of a cardiac arrest<\/a>, also known as heart attack, and all of them derived in the heart not being able to pump blood at all. For this reason, a cardiac arrest puts you at a high risk of death; some forms of cardiac arrest are literally dying because the heart stops completely, but with proper emergency care they can be reverted. However, the kind of cardiac arrest that is typical of ventricular tachycardia is not like that.<\/p>\n

There is electrical activity on the heart, and that is why an electrocardiogram of a person with this sort of cardiac arrest is not flat but bumpy and irregular. If the ventricles of your heartbeat too fast, they might effectively stop pumping blood out, because they don\u2019t have time to refill with blood with every beat. In extreme cases of ventricular tachycardia, you could have a cardiac arrest.\"\"<\/p>\n

9. Chest pain<\/h3>\n

Not all forms of tachycardia often cause chest pain<\/a>, but ventricular tachycardia in particular can make you feel pain around the area where your heart is placed, and that is one of the ways you can identify that you are having problems with your heart. If you feel chest pain, it is important to identify its origin, because many of your most vital organs, such as your lungs and your heart, are placed there.<\/p>\n

If you have ventricular tachycardia, you might feel chest pain caused by the overstressing of your heart muscle, which is beating much faster than it should, especially if it does for a long period of time. Chest pain caused by ventricular tachycardia doesn\u2019t have any relation with your breathing, because the cause of the pain is not located in your airways. If the pain increases or decreases with your breathing then it might be caused by something else.\"\"<\/p>\n

10. Shortness of breath<\/h3>\n

At first glance, this symptom can be misleading, because you might believe that it is caused by a respiratory<\/a> problem. However, it is important to check your respiratory system and realize whether or not this is the cause of the change in your breathing pattern because when you have ventricular tachycardia, the shortness of breath is actually an autonomous reaction triggered by the autonomous centers in your brain stem, which react to the poor oxygenation of your body.<\/p>\n

If your heart is beating less efficiently, then less blood reaches the cells of your body, and they might accuse the lack of oxygen. In order to compensate for this poor oxygenation, your brain stem can tell your lungs to breathe faster, and as a result, you feel short of breath. Some forms of heartbeat alterations can even induce gasping and panting as a way to introduce more oxygen into your system.\r\n

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