What Are Palpitations?
When you experience heart palpitations, you have a heightened awareness of your own heartbeat. It may be beating too fast, too slow, or irregularly. You might feel like your heart is racing, thumping, or fluttering. You may feel these sensations in your neck or your chest.
What It Feels Like
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.
Causes
Stress and Anxiety
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
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
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
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
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
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.
Low Blood Sugar
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
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.
When You Should See a Doctor
If your heart palpitations only last a few seconds and are infrequent, they probably don’t need to be evaluated. You should be evaluated, however, if you have a history of heart disease and have palpitations that happen frequently or get worse.
You should also be evaluated if your heart palpitations coincide with:
Lifestyle Treatments for Heart Palpitations
You may be able to help treat your palpitations with some lifestyle changes such as:
- Reducing stress with relaxation techniques, yoga, or deep breathing
- Avoiding stimulants such as caffeine, cold medicines, and nicotine
- Avoiding illegal drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamines
Credit: webmd
