Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get StartedResults
By Mayo Clinic staffFor most people, cardioversion can quickly restore a regular heartbeat. For some, your irregular heart rhythm may return within a few minutes or days. It's possible you'll need repeat procedures to keep a normal heart rhythm.
To keep your heart healthy, you may need to make lifestyle changes that improve the overall health of your heart, especially to prevent or treat conditions that can cause arrhythmias, such as high blood pressure. Your doctor may suggest that you:
- Avoid caffeine.
- Reduce your salt intake, which can help lower blood pressure.
- Increase your physical activity.
- Quit smoking.
- Avoid drinking more than one drink of alcohol for women or more than two drinks for men a day, if you choose to drink at all.
- Eat heart-healthy foods and maintain a healthy weight.
- Cardioversion. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/crv/crv_all.html. Accessed March 24, 2009.
- Fuster V, et al. ACC/AHA/ESC 2006 guidelines for the management of patients with atrial fibrillation - Executive summary. Circulation. 2006;114:700.
- Podrid PJ. Cardioversion for specific arrhythmias. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed March 24, 2009.
- Podrid PJ. Basic principles and technique for cardioversion and defibrillation. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed March 24, 2009.