What is Atrial Fibrillation?

So, what is atrial fibrillation? Well, it's the most common heart rhythm disturbance and occurs when the upper chambers of the heart, instead of beating regularly, perhaps once a second, start to wriggle irregularly. And although the heart as a whole can continue to pump very effectively, and indeed some people are completely without symptoms from their atrial fibrillation. These wriggling upper chambers tend to cause the heart to beat irregularly and because the blood in the upper chambers doesn't flow as well, blood clots can form in those upper chambers and are responsible for the main risk of having atrial fibrillation and that is the stroke risk because of these blood clots.