Heart palpitations?

Typically, heart palpitations are not something rare or something serious. But it's enough to feel a few times to scare and worry. Learn more about palpitations, their causes and methods of treatment!

What are palpitations and how they feel?

Palpitations feel like abnormal heart beats. Can be beat stronger as heart make a greater effort to pump blood may be a faster and less frequent beatings as if your heart skipped a beat. May occur when you exercise or when standing still when standing up or in bed. You can feel in your chest or throat somewhere. In general, palpitations are harmless, but in rare cases can be a sign of heart disease.

You have palpitations? See which causes!

Most often, the causes palpitations related to your lifestyle. May occur when you drink much coffee, you smoke, you do strenuous exercise, but also in case of strong emotions - for example if you are really stressed or suffer from anxiety. Palpitations can occur when you have a fever and you take certain medicines, such as cold and flu tablets containing pseudoephedrine. Palpitations in women can be caused by hormonal changes related to menstruation, menopause or pregnancy.

When palpitations are a sign of disease?

In rare cases, palpitations are a sign of disease - either hyperthyroidism or cardiac arrhythmia. Arrhythmia can mean beats too fast, ie tachycardia, racing rare, ie bradycardia or irregular, ie atrial fibrillation. All these diseases call to be taken seriously, so if you frequent palpitations, strong or lasting much should go to the doctor. Also, you should get help immediately if you have chest pain, you can not breathe or feel dizzy when you have palpitations.

What's the treatment for heart palpitations?

Treatment depends obviously causes palpitations. If it's an arrhythmia, only cardiologist tells you how to treat yourself after you establish the type of arrhythmia and the exact cause. If you have no heart disease, treatment consists of lifestyle change. You will need to rest more, relieve stress as much as possible, to give up coffee and other stimulants or change doses of medication if you are under treatment.

Mild Heart Attack Symptoms

Sometimes there is a formation of fatty plaque in some parts of the heart and the supply of blood to that part get restricted and due to which supply of oxygen also get reduced and the heart muscles of that portion become inactive and in turn become the cause of heart attack in that person.

Mild heart attack is a term normally referred to a condition in which a person experiences a heart attack but his medical conditions like heart rhythm, blood pressure etc is stable throughout the attack and the heart also keep on doing its work as in normal circumstances and ECG also don’t detect any kind of problem in the heart. Due to prolonged deprivation of oxygen the heart muscles start dying and in turn cause more serious heart problems and serious heart attack.

Heart attack is the most important cause of death rate both in men and women but the condition has been much under control by the inventions of new methods of treatments. But to get wanted results the treatment should start within an hour as the symptoms of heart attack occur. Generally the symptoms of mild heart attack in men is chest pain but the symptoms are slightly different in women as they suffer quite different symptoms like jaw pain, poor digestion and weakness.
Common symptoms of mild heart attack:

Some typical symptoms of mild heart attack are listed below:

• Feeling dizziness sometimes along with nausea but occurrence of nausea is not compulsory.
• Feeling of uneasiness or soreness in left arm and hand.
• A clinching pain is felt in the chest which reduces sometimes but never ends completely by walking or changing the position of body. Gradually the pain elevates towards the shoulders, jaws, back bone and sometimes even teeth. Some patients feel this pain even radiating towards their shoulder blades. The main symptom of heart attack is pain in jaw, arms or in back.

• A very strong pain is felt in the center of the chest which is also a symptom of heart attack.
• A prickling sensation is felt in the arm, shoulder or jaw.
• Heaviness is felt in the lower abdomen which is sometimes mixed with poor digestion.
• Trouble in breathing or complete breathlessness.
• Fainting due to shortness of breath or complete breathlessness is also a sign of heart attack.
• Elaborate sweating is also a symptom of mild heart attack.
• Vomiting due to heaviness in the lower abdomen also expresses mild heart attack.
• Sometimes heartburn or feeling of indigestion is also a sign of heart attack.
• Severe state of anxiety or feeling the end of everything.

All above symptoms are the most common of heart attack and if any of these symptoms are seen one should consult the doctor and should not wait for all the symptoms to occur as most of the deaths due to heart attack are because they didn’t reach the doctor within the time.

Heart palpitations anxiety

What is heart palpitations anxiety?

Anxiety and stress are maybe the “third millennium disorders” and it has “no age” as doctors from all medical specialties have to deal patients suffering from these conditions, both young and old. In some point of our life we all suffered or will suffer from stress or anxiety and many of us deal these conditions by themselves for a long time before they finally decide to sick medical help. Those words are so often used today that it may seem they are part of our life and we must accept them as a normal reaction. But this is not how it really is, because anxiety can change our lives dramatically and make us feel sick, unable to perform our daily duties or even things that used to give us pleasure. Many times when we speak of this disorder we think of heart palpitations anxiety, as it is a frequent symptom in people suffering from anxiety. Next we will find out what anxiety and heart palpitations anxiety really mean and how to deal it.
Anxiety is a medical condition defined as a psychological and physiological state characterized by  feelings of fear, worry, dread, psychological tension or stress that can determine emotional, cognitive, somatic and behavioral changes. This disorder can determine multiple symptoms and among them heart palpitations anxiety are more frequently.
How it feels to suffer from heart palpitations anxiety? Living with heart palpitations anxiety is definitely not easy or comfortable. During heart palpitations anxiety u may feel that your heart beats are too fast or irregular, or that your heart stops for a small period. U may feel dizzy or experience shortness of breath (or suffocation sensation) or even faint. In people that already suffer from heart disease, abnormal heart beats can affect the oxygen supply of the heart muscle and determine chest pain or even a heart attack.
Next we will present the case of a 34 years old women suffering from heart palpitations anxiety:
A 34-year-old female presented with a history of anxiety for the past 20 years. When she was 14, her teacher used to embarrass her in front of the class by making her to stand-up until her face turned red and all the class would laugh. In time she becomes very nervous and fearful about social situation and activities that could draw attention to her. In the highschool she had panic attacks everytime she supposed to make presentation and communicate in peers. She describes she experienced profuse sweetening, heart palpitation and rapid heartbeats, burning in the stomach and the need to get away. These symptoms persisted during university and at the age of 25 she finally sought for professional help. The clinical psychologist diagnosed the patient with social phobia, panic disorder, and mild agoraphobia. She underwent  once- or twice-weekly sessions of psychological therapy with great improvement, slowly she could integrate into the social activities and seemed to be “cured”, convincing her therapist to stop the therapy. After 3 years as she attended the medical school, symptoms reappeared, and they were even worse then the first time and she had to seek the help of a psychiatrist and follow a medical treatment.

In conclusion, heart palpitations anxiety together with other manifestations of anxiety are not easy to deal and live with, but medical help will allow patients suffering from this condition to have a better life.

Heart palpitations at night

Why do we have heart palpitations at night?

Before we discuss the matter of heart palpitations at night, we have to clarify the meaning of the word “palpitation” in general. Palpitations refer to irregular heart beats, usually the heart beats to fast, or with pauses from time to time and gives us an abnormal sensation, sometimes associated with dizziness, light-headed sensation, shortness of breath, chest pain etc.
We all had palpitation at least once in our life, and this doesn’t mean we have a heart disease, because these symptoms occur in healthy people during exercise or associated to stress, smoking, coffee. Even so, if the palpitation persist or are associated with shortness of breath, chest pain, fainting, dizziness, a doctor should be consulted as soon as possible.
Some patients complain they have heart palpitations at night, which prevent them from falling asleep or wake them up in the middle of the night.

Heart palpitations at night -causes:

Normal heart rate for an adult is 60-90 beats/minute. If the heart rate is higher the 90 beats per minute, then the condition is called tachycardia and can provoke palpitation. Not only rapid heart rate can cause palpitation but also irregular heart beats, known as arrhythmia, which is the main cause behind palpitation. Why some patients experience heart palpitations at night, during rest, when heart labor is smaller?
Heart palpitations at night can be determined by one of the following cause:

• too much stress and anxiety gathered during the daytime. It is a habit now that every time we go to sleep, we think again at the daily problems and try to find a solution, as it is said night is a good adviser. If your mind is concerned about certain problems happening in your life, you may be lying down and think about it over and over again, but the emotions and the psychical tension can generate palpitation.
• excessive consumption of caffeine before sleeping can generate insomnia and palpitation, if you drink a lot of coffee, especially before sleeping, you may consider giving up.
• smoking
• alcohol consumption
• medication-some drugs used to treat different diseases (like asthma, heart diseases, high blood pressure, cold) can determine palpitation: pseudoephedrine used in cold medication, theophylline for asthma etc.
• pregnancy
• fever-it is well known that body temperature elevation is associated with rapid heart beats and sometimes with palpitations
• vigorous exercise before sleeping
• breathing problems determined by lung diseases determine a low level of oxygen in the body, which can lead to heart palpitations at night
• heart problem-patients with heart failure may develop paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea (shortness of breath that occurs suddenly during night in patient with left heart failure) and palpitations, forcing them to wake up and search for an open window to get fresh air
• hyperthyroidism (a higher level of thyroid hormones can determine irregular or rapid heart beats)
• elevated blood pressure

If I have heart palpitations at night-how can my doctor discover if there is something wrong in my body?
Yes it is possible. For patients that have these symptoms only during night it is difficult to  diagnose them during a simple medical visit, but if a special device called holter ecg is used, then this is no longer a problem. Holter ECG is a portable medical device that the patient “wears” for 24 hours and it records heart activity during this period of time.
Heart palpitations at night-treatment
Heart palpitations at night can be treated only after proper tests are made in order to establish the correct diagnosis. In many cases, palpitations have no serious cause and a short time treatment associated with a life style change can be the “cure”.
Special precaution in patients with heart palpitations at night:

• avoid consumption of alcohol, coffee, drugs (marijuana, cocaine) or smoking
• avoid stress and anxiety-there are many types of techniques used against anxiety (psychotherapy, sports, taking vacation, travelling etc.)
• sometimes medication is needed in order to control anxiety
• respect your hours of sleep
• avoid if possible the intake of medication that stimulate palpitations

Heart palpitations at night can be very uncomfortable, but sometimes a simple change in the  daily habits can make them disappear.