Atrial fibrillation (AF) or Afib as I like to call it, is the most common heart rhythm disorder, affecting around 1 percent of the population. It becomes even more common with increasing age. It rarely occurs in those under 40 years of age, but it occurs in up to 5% percent of those over 80 years of age. His favorite age to attack is “my age” from late forties to early fifties. I am 52 years old; mine started when i was 51, but it could have been going on for months or even years without me noticing. It must be said that atrial fibrillation is an electrical problem in the heart and not a plumbing problem like a normal heart attack or obstruction.
Normal electrical activity of the heart and what goes wrong in atrial fibrillation.
The heart is basically a large muscular pump that pumps blood throughout the body. To do this properly, the chambers of the heart – there are four of them – must be precisely controlled electrically so that they work together as a pumping unit. The normal heartbeat begins with the sinoatrial or sinus node, a natural pacemaker located in the upper right chamber of the heart (the right atrium). This electrical pulse spreads through both upper chambers, the atria, causing them to contract. Contraction of the atria moves blood into the two ventricles, which are the main pumping chambers. The electrical signal is delayed by about a tenth of a second by a special structure called the atrioventricular (AV) node, and then propagates rapidly through the ventricles to cause them to contract. This additional filling of the ventricles by the atria is not vital, but it does serve to “prime the ventricular pump” and improve overall cardiac function.
These atria, which contain the heart’s natural pacemaker, the SA node, are the part of the heart involved in atrial fibrillation. The ventricles, the muscular part of the heart that actually pumps blood, are electrically isolated from the atria, and the only way the electrical signal can reach them is through the AV node.
Normal heart rhythm is called sinus rhythm (no, nothing to do with the nose)
Most people have a resting heart rate between 60 and 80 beats per minute. In atrial fibrillation, the atria contract rapidly and irregularly at a rate of 400 to 600 beats per minute. Luckily (see GOD), the AV node won’t allow many signals to reach the ventricles; only about 1 or 2 out of 3 atrial beats pass to the ventricles. Even so, the ventricles beat too fast, at a rate of 110 to 180 beats per minute. (Mine was over 170!)
The most common symptoms:
Feeling out of breath, reasonable since your heart is beating faster than if you were running a marathon.
Heart palpitations (a sudden pounding, fluttering, or racing sensation in the chest).
Lack of energy; feel too tired
Dizziness (feeling faint or lightheaded).
Chest discomfort (pain, pressure, or discomfort in the chest area)
In my case – inability to sleep lying down
Slow it down!
The first thing you want to do is control your racing heart rate. This is done with medication and even cardioversion. (similar to shock paddles and electric shocks you see on TV) The goal is to get the heart to beat in a unified, normal way again. This is called Normal Sinus Rhythm and it is the Holy Grail that all Afibbers want to achieve.
I have only touched on the simple mechanics of a complicated problem. Please read the other articles as we dig deeper and try to explain the true “nature of the beast”: atrial fibrillation.