Irregular heart rhythms can be common and caused by such things as stress, fatigue, too much exercise or overuse of alcohol or stimulants, such as caffeine or nicotine. Home treatment is usually all that is needed to relieve minor rhythm changes.

However, damaged heart muscle can also lead to irregular transmissions of electrical signals in your heart and cause abnormal heart rhythms, such as atrial fibrillation, which is an irregular heart rhythm (arrhythmia) in your atria, the smaller chambers on the top of your heart.

Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is the most common heart rhythm abnormality in the United States. Atrial Fibrillation is an abnormal heart rhythm originating in the top chambers of the heart (the atria). The electrical impulses that usually travel down the normal pathways, instead spread through the atria in a chaotic fashion causing the heart to beat in a rapid disorganized manner.

Atrial Fibrillation affects more than 2.5 million Americans annually. Until just a few years ago health care providers considered AF to be a “nuisance” arrhythmia with few consequences.



Research has yet to uncover the definitive cause of AF. A number of other health conditions including thyroid disorders, valve disease, hypertension, sick sinus syndrome, pericarditis, lung disease and congenital heart defects may also be associated with AF. This type of arrhythmia can occur at any age, but its prevalence tends to increase with age and affects men slightly more often than women.

Cardiomyopathy is another disease of the heart muscle that occurs when the heart loses its ability to pump blood and, in some cases, heart rhythm is disturbed, leading to irregular heartbeats or arrhythmias. Usually, the exact cause of the muscle damage is never found.

To determine the cause of your irregular heart rhthym, it is best to schedule a consultation with one of the electrophysiologists. at California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC).
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