Healthwatch – Heart Health
Heart health isn’t just something to worry about after retirement anymore. It’s affecting people of all ages, shapes, and sizes and really starting to take a toll on how people feel day to day. “We treat a wide range of patients in the heart rhythm clinic. It ranges from young, active people with no other cardiac problems, ” said electrophysiologist Dr. Shawn Baldwin. “It could be eighteen, twenty, thirty years old to patients who are in their middle age or older and sometimes patients who are in their eighties, nineties, or over one hundred.” Symptoms for an irregular heart rhythm can include heart palpitations, chest pain, or even something like fatigue. “The problem is all those symptoms aren’t very specific for our particular diagnosis,” Dr. Baldwin said. “Somebody can have symptoms like shortness of breath or fatigue and those can be associated with many other medical problems. The key is trying to decide does this symptom that somebody has correlate to an abnormal heart rhythm?” Dr. Baldwin says once you are diagnosed with a heart problem, there are a few different options for treatment including something as simple as observation and medication or installing a pacemaker or defibrillator.. Regardless of the diagnosis or treatment, Dr. Baldwin says getting the proper treatment can help a patient feel better in day to day life. “A patient who may be treated because the heart rate is too slow,” Dr. Baldwin said. “If they’re getting worn out and tired cause their heart rate is twenty or thirty beats per minute and doesn’t increase when they’re trying to do the work they need to do. They may feel a lot better of their heart rate is back in the normal range.” To learn more about irregular heart beats, Dr. Baldwin is hosting a seminar Monday, August 12th. During the event he will discuss arrhythmia and how they can be treated.
