Heart Palpitations

Are Heart Palpitations Normal?

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Two beautiful Indian ladies who are best friends having a happy time sharing gossips during their vacation on the hillside.

Healthy Heart|June 28, 2018

BY GAGANDEEP KAUR

Is something setting your heart aflutter? Has your heart been skipping a beat one too many times? Well, this might be about a little bit more than a passing crush. While in most scenarios these are happy symptoms of an enraptured heart, sometimes they can be a hint of a troubled one too. These symptoms could also be actual heart palpitations — slight abnormalities in the beating of your heart — in your chest, throat or neck. In plain speak, it’s just your heart demanding some me-time.

Before you become more alarmed, let’s see what causes heart palpitations. These symptoms aren’t always a cause for concern. Usually, fluttering, skipping and pounding are signs of palpitations that can easily be addressed.

What Causes Heart Palpitations

Palpitations occur for many reasons. For example, it’s common to experience a fast or abnormal heartbeat during a critical presentation or a review of your annual performance. Intense emotions, including stress, mental turmoil, anxiety and panic, can all trigger them too.

Adding to this, strenuous physical activity also means your heart has to work harder, and while you may think you need that extra coffee to get going in the morning, excessive intake of stimulants, including caffeine and nicotine, can induce similar symptoms. What’s more, a woman may experience them during hormonal changes associated with menstruation, pregnancy and menopause.

How to Address This

Although heart palpitations are quite normal, they can still be alarming. To avoid needless panic, follow some preventative measures to help keep your heart beating steadily:

  1. Relax!Excitement of any kind, including stress or anxiety, increases your adrenaline, which makes your heart beat more quickly. Relaxing is easier said than done, but nevertheless, turn to techniques, such as yoga, meditation and Tai Chi, to prevent stress and put your heart at ease. Listening to music or doing something creative, such as journaling or painting, can also positively affect stress levels as can breathing exercises. Sleep is an important factor for overall health too, so ensure a full eight hours each night to relax your body and help limit anxiety.
  2. Reduce Your Stimulant IntakeStimulants, such as nicotine and caffeinated beverages, tea and coffee can make your heart flutter. Control your consumption to keep your heartbeats steady.
  3. Monitor Your Blood PressureHigh temperatures coupled with bad eating habits can cause rapid heartbeats. This is especially true in tropical countries. Make sure you eat healthy foods and drink plenty of water at regular intervals. This helps ward off low blood pressure, which also causes palpitations.
  4. Use the Valsalva Manoeuvre
    The vagus nerve is one of the nerves responsible for controlling your heart rate. This important nerve passes through your neck and thorax to your abdomen and has an extensive distribution throughout your body. Stimulation of the vagus nerve with the Valsalva manoeuvre can help control heart palpitations. The Valsalva manoeuvre is a procedure in which you hold your nose, close your mouth and try to breathe out, forcibly. This action stimulates the vagus nerve to help stop palpitations and restore your healthy heartbeat. Though it is recommended that this manoeuvre not be performed without sufficient training or professional supervision. Ask for your physician for guidance.

When to See a Doctor

There are a few situations, however, where the palpitations might be more than just a minor skipping of the beat. When these are accompanied by symptoms, such as the fullness in your chest or throat, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, sweating or fainting, they may be more serious. Consult your doctor in such cases and even more so if you have an existing medical problem e.g. thyroid, diabetes etc.

In the absence of these symptoms, allow yourself the excitement and say ‘yes’ to everything else that makes your heart skip a beat!

Are Heart Palpitations Normal?

Posted by

0


Two beautiful Indian ladies who are best friends having a happy time sharing gossips during their vacation on the hillside.

Is something setting your heart aflutter? Has your heart been skipping a beat one too many times? Well, this might be about a little bit more than a passing crush. While in most scenarios these are happy symptoms of an enraptured heart, sometimes they can be a hint of a troubled one too. These symptoms could also be actual heart palpitations — slight abnormalities in the beating of your heart — in your chest, throat or neck. In plain speak, it’s just your heart demanding some me-time.

Before you become more alarmed, let’s see what causes heart palpitations. These symptoms aren’t always a cause for concern. Usually, fluttering, skipping and pounding are signs of palpitations that can easily be addressed.

What Causes Heart Palpitations

Palpitations occur for many reasons. For example, it’s common to experience a fast or abnormal heartbeat during a critical presentation or a review of your annual performance. Intense emotions, including stress, mental turmoil, anxiety and panic, can all trigger them too.

Adding to this, strenuous physical activity also means your heart has to work harder, and while you may think you need that extra coffee to get going in the morning, excessive intake of stimulants, including caffeine and nicotine, can induce similar symptoms. What’s more, a woman may experience them during hormonal changes associated with menstruation, pregnancy and menopause.

How to Address This

Although heart palpitations are quite normal, they can still be alarming. To avoid needless panic, follow some preventative measures to help keep your heart beating steadily:

  1. Relax!Excitement of any kind, including stress or anxiety, increases your adrenaline, which makes your heart beat more quickly. Relaxing is easier said than done, but nevertheless, turn to techniques, such as yoga, meditation and Tai Chi, to prevent stress and put your heart at ease. Listening to music or doing something creative, such as journaling or painting, can also positively affect stress levels as can breathing exercises. Sleep is an important factor for overall health too, so ensure a full eight hours each night to relax your body and help limit anxiety.
  2. Reduce Your Stimulant IntakeStimulants, such as nicotine and caffeinated beverages, tea and coffee can make your heart flutter. Control your consumption to keep your heartbeats steady.
  3. Monitor Your Blood PressureHigh temperatures coupled with bad eating habits can cause rapid heartbeats. This is especially true in tropical countries. Make sure you eat healthy foods and drink plenty of water at regular intervals. This helps ward off low blood pressure, which also causes palpitations.
  4. Use the Valsalva Manoeuvre
    The vagus nerve is one of the nerves responsible for controlling your heart rate. This important nerve passes through your neck and thorax to your abdomen and has an extensive distribution throughout your body. Stimulation of the vagus nerve with the Valsalva manoeuvre can help control heart palpitations. The Valsalva manoeuvre is a procedure in which you hold your nose, close your mouth and try to breathe out, forcibly. This action stimulates the vagus nerve to help stop palpitations and restore your healthy heartbeat. Though it is recommended that this manoeuvre not be performed without sufficient training or professional supervision. Ask for your physician for guidance.

When to See a Doctor

There are a few situations, however, where the palpitations might be more than just a minor skipping of the beat. When these are accompanied by symptoms, such as the fullness in your chest or throat, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, sweating or fainting, they may be more serious. Consult your doctor in such cases and even more so if you have an existing medical problem e.g. thyroid, diabetes etc.

In the absence of these symptoms, allow yourself the excitement and say ‘yes’ to everything else that makes your heart skip a beat!

What Causes Heart Palpitations?

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What It Feels Like

What It Feels Like

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Your heart pounds, flutters, or seems to skip beats. You might call these feelings palpitations. Although they can feel scary, most aren’t serious and rarely need treatment. Knowing what makes your heart race can help you not panic when it happens and know when to call your doctor.

Stress and Anxiety

Stress and Anxiety

2/16

Intense emotions can trigger the release of hormones that speed up your heartbeat. Your body gets ready to face a threat, even if you’re not in danger. Panic attacks are intense bouts of fear that can last a few minutes. Symptoms include a racing heart, sweating, chills, trouble breathing, and chest pain. A panic attack can feel like a heart attack. If you’re not sure which one you’re having, get medical help.

Exercise

Exercise

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Working out is good for you. And a brisk run or intense indoor cycling class will naturally make your heart beat faster. That helps your heart pump more blood to power your muscles through the workout. If your heart flutters or pounds, it could be because you haven’t worked out in a while and you’re out of condition. An irregular heartbeat, or arrhythmia, can also cause palpitations when you exercise.

Caffeine

Caffeine

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Does your heart beat faster after your morning latte? Caffeine is a stimulant that raises your heart rate, whehther you get it from coffee, soda, an energy drink, tea, chocolate, or another source. One study found that caffeine from coffee, tea, and chocolate isn’t likely to cause palpitations in people with healthy hearts. But experts don’t know whether it might trigger them in people with heart rhythm problems. 

Nicotine

Nicotine

5/16

The addictive chemical in cigarettes and other tobacco products, nicotine raises your blood pressure and speeds up your heart rate. Quitting smoking is one of the best things you can do for your heart, though it might not slow your heartbeat right away. Patches and other nicotine replacement products can make your heart race. Palpitations can also be a symptom of nicotine withdrawal, but they should stop within 3 to 4 weeks after you quit.

Hormone Changes

Hormone Changes

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Women might notice that their heartbeat speeds up when they have their period, they’re pregnant, they’re close to menopause, or they’re in menopause. The reason: hormone levels. The boost in heart rate is usually temporary and no reason for worry. If you’re pregnant, palpitations can also happen if you’re anemic, which means you don’t have enough red blood cells that carry oxygen throughout your body.  

Fever

Fever

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When you have a fever during an illness, your body uses energy at a faster pace than usual. This can set off palpitations. Usually your temperature needs to be above 100.4 F to affect your heart rate.

Medicines

Medicines

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Some prescription and over-the-counter medicines cause palpitations as a side effect, including:AntibioticsAntifungal medicinesAntipsychotic drugsAsthma inhalersCough and cold medicinesDiet pillsHigh blood pressure medicinesThyroid pillsIf you take one or more of these types of meds, ask your doctor if it could affect your heartbeat. Don’t skip any doses before you check with your doctor.
Low Blood Sugar

Low Blood Sugar

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Have you ever noticed that you feel shaky, cranky, and weak when you’ve skipped a meal? It can also lead to palpitations. When your blood sugar level drops, your body releases stress hormones like adrenaline to prepare for an emergency food shortage. Adrenaline speeds up your heart rate.

Overactive Thyroid Gland

Overactive Thyroid Gland

10/16

Your thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland in your neck. It makes hormones that help manage your metabolism and other things. An overactive thyroid (called hyperthyroidism) can make too much thyroid hormone. That can speed up your heart so much that you feel it beating in your chest. Taking too much thyroid hormone to treat an underactive thyroid gland (called hypothyroidism) can also rev up your heartbeat.

Heart Rhythm Problems

Heart Rhythm Problems

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Sometimes an irregular heart rhythm, called an arrhythmia, causes palpitations.

  • Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, happens when the heart’s upper chambers, called the atria, flutter instead of beating normally.
  • Supraventricular tachycardia is an abnormally fast heartbeat that starts in the heart’s upper chambers.
  • Ventricular tachycardia is a fast heart rate due to faulty signals in the heart’s lower pumping chambers, called the ventricles.
Alcohol

Alcohol

12/16

If you drink a lot, or just have more than usual, you might feel your heart beating faster or fluttering. It often happens on holidays or weekends, when people drink more, earning it the nickname of “holiday heart syndrome.” But for some people, it can happen even when they only drink a little bit.

Premature Ventricular Contractions

Premature Ventricular Contractions

13/16

Premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) are extra heartbeats. They happen when your heart’s ventricles squeeze too soon. The extra beat throws off your heart’s normal rhythm and makes it flutter, pound, or jump in your chest. If your heart is healthy, occasional PVCs are nothing to worry about. But you might need treatment if you have heart disease and you get these extra beats often.

Cocaine and Other Street Drugs

Cocaine and Other Street Drugs

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Illegal drugs like amphetamines, cocaine, and ecstasy are dangerous to the heart. Cocaine boosts blood pressure, raises heart rate, and damages the heart muscle. Amphetamines stimulate the nervous system, which ramps up your heartbeat. Ecstasy triggers the release of a chemical called norepinephrine, which makes the heart beat faster.

When to See a Doctor

When to See a Doctor

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If you’re healthy, you probably don’t need to worry about palpitations that happen once in a while and last only a few seconds. But make a doctor’s appointment if they come more often or you also have symptoms like these:

  • Chest pain or pressure
  • Shortness of breath
  • Dizziness
  • Fainting
Finding the Cause

Finding the Cause

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These tests can help your doctor figrue out what’s going on:

  • Electrocardiogram (ECG). This test looks for problems with the electrical signals that control your heart rhythm.
  • Holter monitor. You wear this portable ECG for 24 to 72 hours at a time. It can find heart rhythm problems and any patterns that might need more tests.
  • Event Monitor. You wear this device for several weeks. It records your heart rhythm when you press a button while having symptoms.
  • Echocardiogram. This test uses sound waves to make pictures of your heart. It can find problems with your heart’s structure.

The Cup of Coffee That Could Cause Heart Palpitations

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If you love your caffeine in the form of a brewed cup of coffee, then know that the “world’s strongest coffee” is now available. That’s the good news. The downside, according to CNN Health, is that just one cup of this special brew could add up to 702 mg of caffeine, or almost twice the FDA’s daily caffeine recommendation.

It’s true that caffeine — once vilified as a health hazard — has been vindicated, with recent studies showing it has more to offer than just a boost of energy. From cancer to type 2 diabetes and Parkinson’s disease, coffee has been found to inhibit many diseases, and even has an ability to promote the growth of good gut bacteria.

One study showed that drinking four or more cups of caffeinated coffee daily lowered the risk of colon cancer recurrence or death by an astounding 52 percent. Another study reported that drinking at least five cups of coffee a day reduces the risk of some brain cancers by as much as 40 percent.

However, as with anything, too much of a good thing sometimes can be bad, so if you do choose to imbibe in several cups of coffee or in this new extra-boost version, remember to do it with a bit of reserve so you don’t have caffeine jitters all day.

And, when you brew that cuppa joe or tea, remember that it can pose a health risk if it exceeds 149 degrees Fahrenheit, and may be culpable in relation to esophageal cancer, so make sure it’s not TOO hot. Also remember that straight black is the most healthful way to drink it. Fake creamers and sugars, or just regular sugar, all pose their own health hazards.

Source:mercola.com