With lives getting stressful with each passing year, there has been a sense of rush in everybody around to win the race. Since struggles have increased, so has the possibility of many illnesses. One of them being atrial fibrillation, a condition wherein a patient experiences quivering or irregular heartbeat. The irregularity can lead to blood clots, stroke, heart attack, and other heart-related issues. The complications related to the heart are deemed as the most serious ones and should not be ignored.

What causes atrial fibrillation?
This particular illness is caused when the two upper chambers of the heart get chaotic electrical signals. As a result, the heartbeats quiver or get irregular. The heart rate during this heart illness ranges from 100 to 175 per minute.

Some conditions that lead to atrial fibrillation are as follows:

• High blood pressure
• Abnormal heart valves
• Any previous heart illness
• Infection
• Stress
• Excessive alcohol consumption
• Obesity
• Old age

While some of the causes are a result of an unhealthy lifestyle, the others come with age. Regardless of the cause, it is imperative that the patient seeks immediate medical help to avoid any kind of complications. Hence, it is important that we learn about the best treatment options for the condition.

Best treatment options for atrial fibrillation
As explained earlier, this illness can have various causes and hence different symptoms. The best treatment for you will depend on your condition, that is, for how long you have had atrial fibrillation, what caused it, and what symptoms you show.

There are various treatment options available to deal with atrial fibrillation. However, the course of treatment usually depends on the severity of the condition and the main cause behind it. Be it medical treatment, surgical treatment, or home remedies, all modes of treatment work through the same course.

Before starting any treatment, the aim of the doctor is to control the heart rate, prevent blood clots, and reduce the risk of a heart attack. It is, more or less, the same in the case of home remedies as well. Let’s read on to know more about the medical and surgical treatments:

• Cardioversion treatment : This is undertaken to control the rapid heartbeat. There are two methods of cardioversion: electrical and one with drugs. Electrical cardioversion is carried out by giving electric shocks, and the other form uses medicines such as antiarrhythmics to normalize the heartbeat.
• Surgical treatment : Sometimes when medications fail to work, doctors turn to surgical methods. Some of these methods are catheter ablation, wherein long thin tubes are inserted in the groin and are guided toward the “hot spots,” causing electrical signals in order to eradicate them and scarring the tissues to normalize the heart rate.
• Maze procedure : Patients suffering from other heart conditions apart from atrial fibrillation are recommended this procedure. If a patient has a condition that requires an open-heart surgery or bypass surgery, the surgeon would carry out the maze procedure as well.

Home remedies to prevent atrial fibrillation

• Healthy food
• No/less alcohol intake
• Regular exercise
• No smoking
• No stress
• Maintaining a healthy weight

Though home remedies cannot completely cure the condition, they can go a long way in minimizing any further damage and also promote recovery after the medical or surgical treatment.

The above-mentioned treatments can help in dealing with the condition effectually. The only possible way to avoid any sort of heart illness or any disease for that matter is to follow a healthy lifestyle and undergo regular checkups to avoid progression of the condition.