The heart is one of the body’s most powerful organs. Inexhaustibly producing billions of beats over a lifetime, your heart serves the rest of the body by ensuring a constant flow of oxygen-rich blood to other vital organs (and itself, of course). The heart is divided into four chambers; the top two chambers are the right and left atria, and the bottom the right and left ventricles. Deoxygenated blood flows into the right side of the heart, out to the lungs to collect oxygen, then back through the left sided chambers to be pumped forcefully out into the body again.Your heart’s rhythm is maintained by a series of coordinated electrical impulses, directed by highly specialized cells, that cause the top and bottom chambers of the heart to contract in one smooth motion. The repeating signal begins in the right atrium in an area known as the sinoatrial or SA node, and travels down the myocardium, resulting in your heartbeat. Due to a variety of factors, people can sometimes lose this rhythmic control and develop an irregular heartbeat, known as an “arrhythmia”. Arrhythmias may be benign and cause only mild symptoms, or can become serious or even deadly.
A number of symptoms accompany arrhythmias, and it’s important to learn what to look for if you feel you may be experiencing a rhythm disorder.
