Why does it take an electrical current to restart the heart?
by 
tjatherton
ANSWERS: 1
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The beating of the heart is controlled by a neuro-electric system which oscillates. A wave of nerve-impulses, which are elecrtic signals, spreads across the heart, making it contract, then ripples back, making it expand again. With a healthy heart, this happens continuously, like clockwork - or, if you know it, a "Mexican Wave" in a stadium. In some modes of heart failure, the different parts of the heart, instead of operating in sequence as they should do, lose step and all try and oscillate at their own time. Putting an appropriate current across the heart overrides the confusing signals that each bit is giving to each other bit with a singl pulse of "now". Rather like aomebody quiteing a babbling crowd by shouting "SHADDUP". For a moment, all the bits of the heart are stilled, and when they start up again, they start up in step as they should.
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