You may not be a doctor, but you do have the job of hiring and firing the doctors who treat you. So you need a basis for judging if they are any good at doctoring or not.

I just went to the doc today because I've been having heart palpitations and occasional chest pains.
They did an EKG and even though I wasn't experiencing anything at the moment, I have irregularities in my heartbeat.

They took some blood (I get stabbed every time I see any doc) and I'm getting some sort of heart monitor to wear around my neck for a few days.
Looks like I'll be learning too.

A few friends around my age have had serious heart problems. One died at age 52. Another survived a major coronary at 51, and his cousin had a transplant about two years ago at 55.

I thought it might be a good idea to go get checked out.

My mother had an atrial fibrillation attack last July, and while has been doing better since, life for her has changed considerably. I hope it doesn't give you as much grief and worry as with my mother, take care.

It’s important to know what your blood pressure is while you’re in A-fib. Essentially the top half of your heart is not pumping properly, filling your ventricles and stretching them out. The is very important due to Starlings Law. If your ventricles aren’t receiving enough blood at a high enough pressure, the blood pressure in the rest of your body can be greatly reduced. So if your pressure drops during a-fib, you may require an ablation or medication to control it. Fortunately, a lot of people live in a-fib all day everyday without any deficit because their blood pressure stays high enough.
I hope this helps.

ablation is where they destroy the nerves that are causing the fibrillation. Cardioversion is when they use electricity to shock the heart back into a regular rhythm

LMGTFY
My Mother had this condition. I could actually tell by taking her pulse when it was out of sync, which surprised the nurses and Drs alike.

It can be very dangerous if not well controlled - which is why we went to the Emergency Room when it became uncontrolled/irregular.

The following article is an excellent overview. Please also talk to your treating physician. They should be more than willing to educate you.

[mayoclinic.org]

Use google to find out medical terms. As for trusting the US medical society you are obviously naive.

Always find out as much as you can about your heath conditions and natural cures and treatments before turning yourself over to people who get kick-backs from the synthetic, toxic drug pharmacy industry for keeping people patients for life.

A new study by patient-safety researchers published in the BMJ on Tuesday, shows that “medical errors” in hospitals and other health-care facilities are incredibly common and may now be the third-leading cause of death in the United States — claiming 251,000 lives every year, more than respiratory disease, accidents, stroke and Alzheimer’s.

Researchers: Medical errors now third leading cause of death in United States [wapo.st]

Dont know about it yet my brother. Maybe next year when its my turn to get it.

Knowledge is power.