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An arrhythmia is a problem with the rate or rhythm of your heartbeat. Your heart beats too quickly, too slowly, or with an irregular pattern. Changes in the electrical signals that control your heartbeat cause arrhythmias.

• When your heart beats faster than normal, it's called tachycardia.
• When your heart beats too slowly, it's called bradycardia.
• When the signal to beat comes too early, it's called a premature or extra heartbeat. It may feel like your heart skipped a beat.

There are many types of arrhythmias. Arrhythmias may affect the upper or lower chamber of your heart. The most common type of arrhythmia is atrial fibrillation, which causes an irregular and fast heartbeat.

Some arrhythmias are harmless, such as when your heart rate speeds up during exercise and slows down when you sleep. But if you have a frequent irregular rhythm, it may mean your heart isn't pumping enough blood into your body. Getting treatment and following a heart-healthy lifestyle can help control arrhythmias. It may also help prevent heart damage that can trigger some heart arrhythmias.

Many factors can affect your heart's rhythm, such as having had a heart attack, smoking, congenital heart defects, and stress. Other factors that could increase your risk for some types of arrhythmias could include if you:

• Have a family history of arrhythmias.
• Have certain health conditions, which can include heart and blood vessel diseases, lung diseases, kidney diseases, obesity, and sleep apnea.
• Are an older adult.
• Have had recent surgery for your heart, lungs, or throat.
• Take certain medicines for other health conditions.
• Use illegal drugs.

If you have risk factors, some situations that make your heart work harder, raise your blood pressure, or cause strong emotional stress may trigger an arrhythmia.

You may not have any noticeable symptoms of an arrhythmia. Your provider may find an arrhythmia during your routine checkup. Symptoms of an arrhythmia can include:

• Fast or slow heartbeat
• Skipping, fluttering, or pounding heartbeats
• Chest pain or discomfort
• Dizziness or fainting
• Shortness of breath
• Sweating
• Tiredness or weakness

Seek emergency medical care if you have chest pain, shortness of breath, or think you are having a heart attack.

To find out if you have an arrhythmia, your health care provider may order an electrocardiogram (EKG). This test records your heart's electrical activity and is the most common for finding an arrhythmia. Your provider may also:

• Ask about your medical history, including your symptoms and lifestyle habits.
• Do a physical exam, which includes checking your heartbeat and pulse.
• Order blood tests and other heart tests.
• Check your legs or feet for swelling.
• Look for signs of other health conditions that could cause an arrythmia, such as thyroid disease.

Treatment may include medicines, an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) or pacemaker, or sometimes surgery. Your provider may also recommend avoiding activities that may trigger your arrhythmia.

The goal of treatment is to restore a normal heart rhythm. If not treated, arrhythmias can damage your heart, brain, and other organs and could be life-threatening.

To help prevent an arrhythmia, your provider may suggest that you make heart-healthy lifestyle changes and treat health conditions that may cause arrhythmias.

NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Degenerative nerve diseases affect many of your body's activities, such as balance, movement, talking, breathing, and heart function. Many of these diseases are genetic. Sometimes the cause is a medical condition such as alcoholism, a tumor, or a stroke. Other causes may include toxins, chemicals, and viruses. Sometimes the cause is unknown.

Degenerative nerve diseases include:

• Alzheimer's disease
• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
• Friedreich ataxia
• Huntington's disease
• Lewy body disease
• Parkinson's disease
• Spinal muscular atrophy

Degenerative nerve diseases can be serious or life-threatening. It depends on the type. Most of them have no cure. Treatments may help improve symptoms, relieve pain, and increase mobility.

Having HIV weakens your body's immune system. It destroys the white blood cells that fight infection. This puts you at risk for opportunistic infections (OIs). OIs are serious infections that take advantage of your weak immune system. These infections are less common and less severe in healthy people.

People who have AIDS, the most severe stage of HIV infection, have badly damaged immune systems. This puts them especially at risk for OIs. Getting certain OIs is one of the ways that people can get diagnosed with AIDS.

OIs are becoming less common in people with HIV because of effective HIV medicines. But some people with HIV still develop OIs for different reasons:

• They may not know they have HIV, so they aren't getting treatment for it
• They know that they have HIV but are not taking treatment
• Their HIV treatment may not be working properly

There are many types of OIs:

• Bacterial infections, including tuberculosis, Salmonella infection"/>, and Mycobacterium avium complex"/> (MAC)
• Viral infections, such as cytomegalovirus (CMV) and herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1)
• Fungal infections, like yeast infections, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia"/> (PCP), and histoplasmosis
• Parasitic infections, such as cryptosporidiosis and toxoplasmosis

Having HIV can make infections harder to treat. People with HIV are also more likely to have complications from common illnesses such as the flu.

If you develop an OI, there are treatments available such as antiviral, antibiotic, and antifungal drugs. The type of medicine your health care provider prescribes will depend on which OI you have.

After the OI has been successfully treated, you may still need to take the same medicine or another medicine to prevent the OI from coming back.

The best way to prevent OIs infections is by taking your HIV medicines. Other steps you can take to help prevent OIs include:

• Avoiding exposure to contaminated food and water:
  • Don't undercooked eggs, unpasteurized dairy products or fruit juices, or raw seed sprouts
  • Don't drink water directly from a lake or river
• Talking to your provider about medicines and vaccines that prevent certain OIs
• Preventing exposure to other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) by using condoms every time you have sex
• Washing your hands thoroughly with warm, soapy water after any contact with human or animal feces (poop)
• Not sharing needles, syringes, or other drug injection equipment