The heart is a muscle that beats tireless non-stop since long before birth until the last second of life. Although not stop, do not always march in lockstep: sometimes slows down, others vary more rapidly as the need for oxygen in the body. As in the dance, sometimes you lose, and we must act quickly to restore the rhythm. A change in the pattern or regular rhythm of the heart is what is known as arrhythmia. They range from harmless to serious. Here’s how they happen and how to identify them.
Palpitations, beat that “skip” a fluttering in the chest or its opposite, irregular pauses between beats other … all these are symptoms of an arrhythmia, an irregularity in the rhythm of the heartbeat. Normally the heart beats 60 to 100 times per minute and this is what is considered normal heart rhythm. When the pace quickens in response to a stimulus such as stress (exercise is an example) is called tachycardia, when you slow down or slows down, as during sleep, is called bradycardia. When the heart beats irregularly, as we said, is that called arrhythmia, which can be harmless or it can be serious because if it causes decreased blood flow can damage the brain, heart and other vital organs.
So you can understand what happens during an arrhythmia, let’s review the functioning of the heart.
A beating heart is a small power system
Why the heart beat? So to move the blood is loaded with oxygen and nutrients throughout the body. But the blood is to push and that’s where the beats, the heart’s contractions controlled by electrical impulses.
The heart’s electrical system which regulates the rate and rhythm of the heartbeat consists of two control areas or nodules and a number of pathways through which runs the electrical pulse, similar to that other circuit functions, such as your home, for example. Broadly speaking, not overwhelm with details, with each beat an electrical impulse runs from the top (or atria) to the bottom (or ventricles). As the impulse moves through the tract, the heart chambers (atria and ventricles) contract and relax, boosting blood, a process that is repeated 60 to 100 times per minute under normal conditions.
Posted in 
Tags: