Your heart is a muscular organ designed to pump oxygenated and nutrient-rich blood to the body’s tissues and receive deoxygenated blood to be replenished. The average heart beats 60-100 times/minute, putting in about 100,000 beats per day to pump about 8 pints (5 liters) of blood.

Not everybody’s heart beats at the same pace, and not everyone has a normal rhythm. A pacemaker is a mechanical device used to force the heart into a normal rhythm.

At Northwest Houston Heart Center, cardiologists Dr. A. Adnan Aslam and Dr. Roy Norman diagnose and treat all manner of heart conditions in their patients in Tomball, Cypress, Magnolia, and The Woodlands, Texas, including recommending a pacemaker when necessary. If you already have a pacemaker, here’s how to make the most out of the device.

More about the heart

Your heart is about the size of a fist and is divided into a left side and a right side by the septum, a thin muscular wall. Each side has an upper chamber and a lower chamber, with the upper two called the atria and the lower two called the ventricles.

The left side of the heart is responsible for pumping blood throughout the body; the right side receives back the deoxygenated blood and pumps it to the lungs to pick up more oxygen.

The heart has a built-in electrical system that determines when each chamber of the heart contracts and when it relaxes to ensure the blood is pumped regularly. The signals initiate from the right atrium’s sinus node (SN), which functions as a built-in pacemaker.

Usually, the SN sends the signals at a steady pace, but the pace can vary depending on your activity level or even what emotion you’re experiencing.

Abnormal rhythms

Sometimes the SN doesn’t send out signals at a steady pace, leading to missed beats or an uneven rhythm. This is known as arrhythmia. Sometimes it sends out a signal, but the rate is abnormally low – below 60 beats per minute (bpm). This is known as bradycardia. And sometimes, it sends out a signal with a rate that’s abnormally high – over 100 bpm. This is known as tachycardia.

When the SN signal is abnormal, the heart’s chambers may squeeze in the wrong order or too weakly to provide enough blood to your body. In these cases, a pacemaker may be indicated. A pacemaker is an implantable device that uses electrical impulses to correct these kinds of abnormalities.

While used in cases of atypical heart rates, pacemakers are also used when the heart can’t pump enough blood, such as with cardiomyopathy (enlarged heart muscles) or congestive heart failure. It’s most commonly used for atrial fibrillation, which produces a chaotic heartbeat.

How to make the most of your pacemaker

If you’re going through all the trouble and expense of getting a pacemaker to improve your heart’s function, it’s important that you make every effort to keep your heart healthy.

You can start by eating a healthy diet. That includes lots of fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, healthy fats (no saturated or trans fats), low-fat dairy, and whole grains. Also, be sure to drink plenty of water to keep your body hydrated and your system flushed of toxins.

Next on the list is exercise. No, you don’t have to join a gym or run a marathon. The American Heart Association recommends getting 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week (that’s 30 minutes a day, five days a week), and that can be anything that gets your heart pumping. Your heart is a muscle, and as such, it needs to be exercised.

If you’re not a fitness freak, try low-impact activities like walking briskly, swimming, cycling, or yoga. And fit in some time on your two days off for some strength training; you can use resistance bands in place of fancy equipment.

Take any medication your doctor has prescribed exactly as directed. They prescribed it to help your heart help itself, and to assist the pacemaker, as well.

And, yes, it can be hard, but try to eliminate, or at least reduce, your stress level. High levels of stress lead to overproduction of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. The more they stay around, the more stressed your heart will be, and the less benefit your pacemaker may have.

Want to learn more about pacemakers, whether they’re right for you, and how to ensure you’re making the most of yours? Come into Northwest Houston Heart Center for an evaluation. To start, give us a call at any of our locations, or book online today. You can also text us at 832-402-9518.