I experienced frequent bouts of atrial tachycardia (extremely rapid heartbeat) for most of my life, until I had the ablation procedure at age 47. Many doctors told me tachycardia was nothing to worry about, but mine finally became uncontrollable and I spent a weekend in the cardiac care unit after an intense and frightening episode.

A few days later I had the ablation. A probe is inserted through an artery in the groin, and snaked upward to a point in the chest, where an extra cluster of nerves is burned away. After the procedure I was fine, except for a large bruise that developed in my leg. That went away after a few days, though.

The good news about tachycardia (at least the kind I had) is that it's neurological, not a heart problem per se. Which means I can keep drinking coffee, and I don't need any meds!

The doctor who deals with this kind of thing is an "electro-cardiologist". They specialize in the neurological wiring that affects the heart. I learned from him that a great many people have an extra copy of the nerve cluster that helps control the heart's tempo. When the clusters get out of sync, tachycardia is the result. When you're young it's fairly easy to get back in sync automatically, or by some trick like holding your breath and putting a bit of pressure on the heart. But with age, the most-used cluster begins to wear out, and the sync is harder to re-establish.

The ablation procedure was developed about 10 years ago. If you have tachycardia, find an electro-cardiologist before you need one! That "minor problem" is very unpleasant if it gets out of control.

--Bill G