The heart is a phenomenal creation that is made up of two atria and two ventricles. The blood is pumped through here by the contracting and the relaxing of the four different chambers by means of an electrical impulse from the heart’s sinoatrial or SA node. This is basically the heart’s pace maker. It tells the heart when to beat and it keeps the constant beating so that you have a constant pulse. A normal person’s heart beats from between 60-100 beats a minute. The more fit you are in, the slower your heart beats because the heart can pump more blood through your body with each beat without having to keep a fast pace. However, from time to time, there is a change from the normal beat sequence. The term to explain this is called an Arrhythmia. Under normal circumstances, these Arrhythmias are so quick that it’s just a quick skipped beat or a premature beat. However, if it lasts for a long period of time, it can cause the heart to become too slow or too fast.

Tachycardia is the term used to describe a heart that beats faster than 100 beats a minute. The two types of tachycardia are Ventricular tachycardia and Supraventricular tachycardia. Ventricular tachycardia is a situation that only deals with the ventricles while Supraventricular tachycardia deals with the atria and the ventricles of the heart. One of the causes of tachycardia is when the pacemaker starts shooting out electrical pulses faster than normal and this causes the heart rate to increase tremendously. The symptoms of tachycardia are palpitations, rapid heart action, dizziness, lightheadedness, fainting or near fainting. Treatment for this is taking medicine that keeps the SA node under control. Another method of treatment is to implant a cardioverter defibrillator which keeps the heart rate under control.

The exact opposite of tachycardia is bradycardia. This is when the heart rate is under 60 beats a minute. Its hard to tell whether or not you have this, but some common symptoms that appear with bradycardia are fatigue, dizziness, lightheadedness and near fainting. The only real way to treat bradycardia is to implant an internal pacemaker which will keep your heart rate elevated. It will keep the rate at a constant required for survival. However, if the pacemaker goes awry, the heart could be sped up far too fast which could lead to tachycardia.

Arrhythmias are not always just the rate of your beat. Another form is when the heartbeat is irregular. Its not too fast or too slow; rather, it is quivering. When there is a quivering beat, the heart cannot pump the blood properly which could result in near-fatal conditions. As this heart rate deteriorates, the blood that should be pumped to the brain and other necessary organs does not get there in as much quantity as it should and this causes cell death. As this goes on, more cell death occurs and that could very well result in death. The heart is your body’s way of keeping blood circulating. If your heart is not working properly, damages can occur which is why if you have any of the above symptoms, going to the doctor to get checked out is a very good idea.