The heart rate is controlled by a specialized mechanism called sinoatrial (SA) node. From it an electrical impulse is generated that stimulates the contraction of auricles . This electrical impulse reaches soon another node, called auricular-ventricular node and then propagates through the right and left branches of the His-Purkinje system, to cause the ventricular contraction. The fact that the circulation of this electrical impulse follows a correct sequence is fundamental so that the cardiac contraction takes place when the heart is full of blood and, therefore, the pumping to the rest of the organism is the adequate one.
An arrhythmia is an abnormality in the frequency, regularity or site of origin of the cardiac impulse or a disturbance in the conduction that causes an abnormal activation sequence and which can affect negatively the vital function of blood pumping which originates in the heart.
These abnormalities can suddenly be lethal, symptomatic (when they generate pictures of syncope, faintness or palpitations) or asymptomatic; these can be: tachycardia (fast rate), bradicardia (slow rate), extrasistols and blockades (out of sync rates).
Arrhythmias are diagnosed when symptoms show up or are detected during a medical control. Symptomatic arrhythmias and those that may put a patients life at risk must be the first ones to be treated. There exists controversy in the treatment of arrhythmias without symptoms but which could evolve negatively. This uncertainty is due to two fundamental aspects:
1- The difficulty to establish which asymptomatic patients are low risks or which represent high risk complication.
2- The absence of conventional pharmacological treatments that are simultaneously effective and safe (paradoxically the most common indirect effect of anti-arrhythmic drugs, is the generation of arrhythmias).
The diagnosis procedures to precisely determine the type of arrhythmia are the electrocardiogram and the Holter monitor. This last method allows the registration of cardiac activity and to monitor the heart during at least 24 hours and thus accurately diagnose the type of arrhythmia. There are also other electrophysiological tests.
The anti-arrhythmic drugs have a limited effectiveness and, although their use is mandatory in acute cases, its long term benefits are subject for medical discussion. Anti-arrhythmic drugs are divided in four classes, depending on their activity and electrophysiological effect:
Class I: Quinidine, Procainamide, Disopyramide, Lidocaine and Fenitoine.
Class II: Beta-blockers such as Propranolol, Esmolol and Metoprolol.
Class III: Amiodarone, Sotalol, Dofetilide, Bretylium.
Class IV: Verapamil and Diltiazem (both block calcium channels) next to the Digoxine and Adenosine.
Systemic Medicine defines the ideal medicine as that therapeutic which increases Energy, Bio-Intelligence and Organization, reducing the entropy (disorder) of the living system, without causing secondary effects. Within the group of adaptogens that comprise the systemic therapeutic arsenal, exist several superior plants that offer demonstrated anti-arrhythmic effect, such as:
Crataegus oxyacantha (Hawthorne) which blocks depolarization potassium dependent current at the myocardial level, an effect similar to class III synthetic anti-arrhythmic drugs, and
Rhodiola Rosea (Artic root) Because of its effects over the opioid endorphin dependant system.
Because most patients carrying arrhythmias belong to the 'low risk' group, for that reason are not medicated with conventional drugs. Systemic Medicine provides a therapeutic scheme of the highest effectiveness that can be used by any doctor trained in phytopharmacology.
