World Heart Rhythm Week

World Heart Rhythm Week is a week for individuals to learn and understand more about Arrhythmias, which is organised by Arrhythmia Alliance.

Around 1 in 18 people are diagnosed with this, however, it’s not a very common issue that is talked about, or maybe it’s just because it’s a difficult word to spell or pronounce. (If you’re interested in knowing how it is pronounced, it is pronounced as uh-RITH-me-uh). So let's get to the ‘heart of Arrhythmias’.

What is Arrhythmias?

Arrhythmias is an irregular heart beat. Meaning the average heartbeat rate is 72 beats per minute (or 0.86s in between each heart beat). But for people who have Arrhythmias, their hearts will beat irregularly. Their hearts might beat too quickly, too slow or irregularly.

Now maybe you haven’t noticed but for those of you who don’t have Arrhythmias, you can almost feel your heart beating in a rhythm and it always seems to stay in a constant pattern. Maybe you could even take a moment to stop reading and see if you can notice this yourself!

Whereas if you’re someone who does have Arrhythmias, you might have noticed that your heartbeat doesn’t have that rhythm. The reason that that occurs is because the electrical signals that usually coordinate the heart's beats don’t work as well. Which means the faulty signalling causes the heart to have no rhythm.

How could you show your support

A great way of teaching your kids about Arrhythmias is by explaining it to them in a more simplistic way. By talking to them about the different rhythms and beats of our hearts they may gain more of an understanding this way. You could also ask them to design some posters for awareness, this will also give you the opportunity to show your support and for your kids to get involved!

By following this link World Heart Rhythm Week - Arrhythmia Alliance (heartrhythmalliance.org) you can also show your support by purchasing different resources. You can also be kept updated with different things that might be happening that week!

Interesting things you might not know about hearts

Now that we have a general understanding of what Arrhythmia is and you know how you could get involved for the upcoming week, let's talk about some things you might have not known. You could even quiz your kids on some of these questions and test their knowledge on the heart! There are some great facts that can be found on '20 Interesting Facts About The Human Heart'.

Let’s begin! Did you know that your heart beats about 100,000 times in one day and about 35 million times in a year. During an average lifetime, the human heart will beat more than 2.5 billion times. However, if you were to have Arrhythmia, your heart might beat more than the average, depending if your heart beats tend to be much faster. Did you also know that the average heart is the same size as an adult's fist! I first thought it was much bigger, what did you think? Finally, did you know that newborns' hearts tend to beat much faster than adults' hearts, about 70-190 beats per minute!

We've also put together a blog about 'What to eat for a healthy heart' if you are interested in finding out more.