Dr. Shukla explains Bradycardia. Dr. Himanshu H. Shukla specializes in treating heart rhythm disorders and is founder of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute (CAI) dedicated to providing heart care customized to the individual.
Dr. Shukla:
Bradycardia are loosely related term that encompasses any heart electrical problem that causes the heart rate to go slow. There’s a variety of heart rhythm disorders that could go slow; for example, as an aging effect one can have a loss of the sinus node cells.
As we mentioned earlier, the normal electrical impulse starts in the sinus node, so if those cells die off, the syndrome is called sick sinus syndrome, and generally that can slow the heart rate down to where people feel fatigued chronically; they could have very slow heart rates, and in which case pacemakers are utilized.
Other bradycardia illnesses can be related to the junction point that we mentioned. If unfortunately any of the cells get affected for a variety of reasons, either through medications or through natural cell death due to an aging phenomenon, if that AV node is affected, then patients can actually develop a potentially serious problem called heart block and that could cause extremely slow heart rates that could be manifested as fatigue, dizziness, patients passing out, or generally feeling ill through weakness and symptoms such as that.
Bradycardia
A normal heart typically beats 60 to 80 times a minute. At this rate, the heart pumps about 5 liters of blood throughout your body per minute. However, if the signal rate is too slow, the chambers of your heart do not contract often enough to supply the proper amount of blood and oxygen to your body. When the heart beats slow this is called bradycardia.
Bradycardia can affect the very young to the very old, though it is most commonly diagnosed among the elderly. More than 600,000 people worldwide receive treatment each year for bradycardia.
Bio:
Himanshu H. Shukla, M.D., specializes in treating heart rhythm disorders and is founder of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute (CAI) dedicated to providing heart care customized to the individual. Dr. Shukla is a member of the Heart Rhythm Society, has completed training at Columbia University in New York City, the University of Missouri and the University of Oklahoma. He is recognized for numerous published articles on the treatment of heart rhythm disorders, and by the American Heart Association for Outstanding Research. Dr. Shukla’s community works include raising awareness of heart rhythm disorders, safety and prevention measures through speeches, training and counsel; and contributing external defibrillators to local public schools and other entities.
Dr. Shukla has completed post doctoral training in electrophysiology at the University of Oklahoma/Oklahoma City which is recognized as a world leader in treating heart rhythm disorders, participating in an Advanced Fellowship in Interventional Cardiac Electrophysiology. He also acquired post-doctoral training at the University of Missouri-Columbia, completing a Fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine, and spent his residency for internal medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons’ St. Luke’s–Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York.
In 2003, he was honored by the American Heart Association, receiving its third Annual Cardiology Fellows Forum of Excellence Award.
Dr. Shukla serves on the medical journal review boards of the Journal of Cardiovascular Research: Journal of the European Society of Cardiology; and the Heart Rhythm Journal, the official journal of the Heart Rhythm Society.
His work has been published on several occasions in medical journals such as the Heart Rhythm Journal; the Journal of Interventional Cardiac Electrophysiology (JICE); Cardiovascular Research; and PACE, the official journal of the International Cardiac Pacing and Electrophysiology Society. His teachings include Advanced Physical Diagnosis as well as presently participating in an Electrocardiogram Lectureship at the Arizona State University School of Nursing.
Dr. Shukla speaks regularly throughout the country on the topic of heart arrhythmia, is recognized nationally by his peers on intervention, and is consulted often on the use and development of defibrillators, pacemakers and other devices to regulate the heart.
Founder of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute based in Mesa, Ariz., Dr. Shukla also leads a nonprofit foundation dedicated to providing education and awareness of heart arrhythmia and contributes defibrillators to schools and other facilities within the community.
Dr. Shukla presently has a provisional patent application pending. He is fluent in Spanish and Gujurati.
