Pacemakers and Heart Attacks

If you need a pacemaker, it is most likely because you have an arrhythmia not because you have some heart condition that is going to predispose you to a heart attack.

The purpose of a pacemaker is to regulate the electrical system of the heart to stabilize the heart rhythm. Pacemakers are typically prescribed to people who have arrhythmias or irregular cardiac rhythms.

By contrast, heart attacks happen when the vessels surrounding the outside of the heart are clogged or blocked. This deprives the heart muscle of oxygen from the bloodstream. Without oxygen, the muscle starts to die. Depending on how much muscle tissue is involved and how little oxygen gets through, the heart attack may range from mild to severe or even fatal.

A lot of people hear the word pacemaker and assume that they are at high risk for a heart attack. That is not necessarily the case at all. The two conditions, that is, arrhythmia and heart attack, are distinct and different.

A healthy heart should beat about once a second in a very carefully choreographed and complicated sequence of events involving upper and lower chambers and even split-second periods of rest within a single heartbeat. If those beats are out of sequence or too slow or too fast, the doctor diagnoses an arrhythmia.

One problem with arrhythmias is that they are often intermittent, which is a medical term that means the rhythm disorder comes and goes, usually without warning or any obvious reason. Many people who need pacemakers have intermittent arrhythmias, meaning that their heart rhythm is out of whack some of the time, but not consistently.

For that reason, most pacemakers have a standby function. In the medical device world, the function is called inhibition, but it is the same thing as standby. The pacemaker watches the heart and paces only if the heart needs pacing. As long as the heart is beating normally, the pacemaker simply observes and does nothing.

Most people who are told they need a pacemaker need the device for quality of life more than anything else. While some arrhythmias can be serious and even life threatening, many are somewhat harmless but they can cause symptoms. How do you know if you might have an arrhythmia? The most commonly reported symptoms include feeling dizzy, lightheaded, fainting or thinking you might faint, being tired, out of breath, or feeling exhausted for no apparent reason.

For many people, a pacemaker improves their feelings of well-being, gives them more energy, and gets rid of unpleasant symptoms.

If you need a pacemaker, it does not mean that you are necessarily at risk for other heart disease, a heart attack, or heart failure. However, it does not mean you are out of the woods, either.

If you need a pacemaker, that is a problem involving an arrhythmia. You should still continue to get checked for other signs of heart disease. It is perfectly possible to have more than one heart condition.

Getting a pacemaker is not a complicated procedure. It is sometimes done on an outpatient basis, but most of the time, a short stay in the hospital is in order. The operation itself typically takes about an hour (for a regular pacemaker with no particular complications) and recovery is about four to six weeks. However, you should talk to your doctor, since every person is unique which means that every medical case is unique, too.

Millions of people all over the world have pacemakers. They are generally credited with improving the lifestyle and quality of life of the people who have them. Pacemakers have been at work smoothing out bumpy heart rhythms for over 50 years.

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