A-Fib is certainly not a lie, in fact it is a very real concern and unfortunately common disorder among many people. I'll bet you heard of this term, but perhaps you don't have an understanding of what it means. This is where I come in. Join me each week to gain an understanding of one of the world's most common heart disorders.

Atrial Fibrillation or A-fib is a heart disorder. Our heart's have four chambers, two of which are called atria. Fibrillation is a fast, disordered pattern of muscle contraction within these atria. Since our heart is a large muscle, this compromises the hearts ability to contract efficiently. Our hearts function by electricity and this problem is caused by a malfunction in the electrical signals in the heart.

Atrial fibrill...

The atria are small collection chambers for returning blood from the body to enter the heart. They contract and squeeze blood into the two larger chambers, the ventricles. It is the electrical stimulus causing this contraction which becomes disturbed. The cycle begins at the atria, in the electrical center and hearts pace maker, the SA node (a bundle of neurons). This node begins the contraction cycle and maintains a regular heart beat. When this node malfunctions, the heart muscle and blood flow suffer. The atria attempt to contract with each electrical impulse but because the rate can be greatly increased, the heart fails to adequately perform its vital function, transporting blood. This effects the ventricles as well. The SA node transmits its impulse to another node the AV node, then along the borders of the ventricle muscle to contract them. When the SA node is firing irregularly and too fast, not each impulse can be received by the AV node and thus fail to reach the ventricles. This prevents the heart from working in sync.

If this problem persists it can lead to more serious complications. Fortunately the disorder can usually be well controlled if discovered in time.