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.

Symptoms of congestive heart failure

 
 









Symptoms of congestive heart failure have a great impact on a person’s life, considering this is a progressive and eventually fatal medical condition. Nowadays, in the economic well developed countries, people die because of the heart problems, more then they do from any other cause. It is important to know that symptoms of congestive heart failure have a fluctuating evolution: there are episodes with severe symptoms, followed by long periods of time when the situation is stable, nevertheless, even if people recover from the acute phase, they can’t return to the previous level of functionality. Also, it is very important to mention that is difficult to predict how much time is left to live once the diagnosis is established, because sudden death isn’t uncommon in these patients. Heart failure is not just a disease of an one individual, but a disease that affects the entire family.

What do you know about symptoms of congestive heart failure?

If you are one of the patients suffering from congestive heart failure, you should be informed about the symptoms of congestive heart failure and when to sick medical help. Every readmission to the hospital will increase mortality; there are medical articles that suggest a 20-30% increase of this risk with every readmission. You may experience shortness of breath during effort (exertion dyspnea), during night (nocturnal paroxysmal dyspnea) or even when you rest( in the advanced stages of the congestive heart failure). At the beginning, shortness of breath occurs only during great effort, but in time, daily activities that once were performed very easily, like dressing, shaving, eating etc, can produce shortness of breath and force the patient to give up on his/her social life and depend on other person’s help. Another form of rest dyspnea is orthopnea, meaning that you can’t breathe while lying in the bed and you require elevation of the head with pillows.
Other symptoms of congestive heart failure are palpitations, rapid heart beats, fatigue, fainting, blue coloring of the lips or limb extremities, accumulation of water in the limbs tissues (this  condition is called edema) lungs, pleural and abdominal cavities, heart murmurs.
Because heart can’t deliver enough blood to muscles, patients will experience weakness and heaviness in the limbs. A low blood flow to the kidneys will determine oliguria (diminished amount of urine), this condition appears in advanced stages, when the cardiac output is severely reduced.
Cerebral manifestations of low cardiac output are also symptoms of congestive heart failure: headaches, insomnia, confusion, memory impairment, anxiety or nightmares. In more severe cases, patients experience other symptoms of congestive heart failure that require special medical care: hallucinations, delirium, disorientation.
In the end, we will present a list with a few symptoms of congestive heart failure, which may guide patients to require medical help (they were published in a guide for caregivers, by The Washington Home Center for Palliative Care Studies):

• gain of 3 pounds or more within a few days or a week,
• increased swelling in hands, ankles or feet,
• difficulty breathing at any time or coughing at night,
• decreased urination,
• confusion, dizziness, or faintness,
• nausea or vomiting,
• increased fatigue,
• muscle cramps or weakness,
• any distressing symptom.

For more info on symptoms of congestive heart failure check with your doctor.

Irregular heartbeat causes

Irregular heartbeat causes are very diversified, beginning with heart disease and continuing with electrolyte imbalance or other medical conditions unrelated to heart pathology. Many times we wonder what is the meaning of the palpitations: Is it something wrong? Do I need to see a doctor?
In some cases, irregular heartbeat causes remain uncovered, persons with “healthy” hearts experience palpitations (also called arrhythmia in medical practice). However, each person with these complaints should have a medical examination, in order to exclude a disorder that may cause these symptoms, as we will see next.
A normal heart rate is 60 to 90 beats per minute; if heart rate is under 60 beats/minute, then we have a bradycardia and over 90 beats/minute a tachycardia. Arrhythmia occurs with a normal heart rate, but also with a low or rapid heart rate.
In order to understand the next medical terms, some specifications are necessary: sinus node, atrioventricular node and Purkinje fibers are the heart system (the heart pacemakers) which normally conducts impulse to muscle cells and make the contraction possible; a pacemaker is a group of cells capable of generating electrical impulse and heart contraction;
How many types of irregular heartbeat causes exist in medical practice?

• sinus node dysfunction (one of the pacemakers, located in the atrium is no longer working properly): e.g. sinus bradycardia, sinus node stops, sinus node blocks,
• supraventricular extrasystoles (irregular heart beats generated in the sinus node or atrioventricular node, they occur faster then a normally heart beat and are followed by a pause)
• sinus tachycardia, supraventricular tachycardia (rapid heart rate generated above the ventricular tissue)
• atrial fibrillation and flutter (irregular heart beats generated by multiple atrial pacemakers, others then the normal heart pacemakers)
• ventricular tachycardia (rapid heart beats generated in ventricles), extrasystoles (a premature heart contraction generated by a ventricle pacemaker) and ventricular fibrillation (rapid heart rate, incompatible with life, this is a heart rate that determines cardiac arrest)
• atrioventricular blocks (cardiac impulse is delayed or blocked in the atrioventricular node, and will be received by ventricles later or at all)
• torsade of points (a form of ventricular tachycardia that occurs when there is a potassium deficit)

What are the irregular heartbeat causes?

There are different disorders that can be a cause of irregular heartbeat causes including:

• Coronary artery disease ( coronary vessels that supply heart tissues with blood are blocked, usually by atheroma, the consequence of this blockage will be heart ischemia-the oxygen deprivation of heart tissues- and this can be one of the irregular heartbeat causes),

Atheroma is a swelling of the artery walls determined by an accumulation of lipidis.

• A heart attack it is common among  irregular heartbeat causes,
• Electrolyte imbalances (such as sodium, magnesium or potassium): e.g. a high level of potassium can result in cardiac arrest,
• Heart muscle changes (fibrosis-a conjunctive tissue deposit in the heart muscle- can also affect cells responsible for electrical impulse generation- the pacemakers),
• Healing process after heart surgery,
• Heart failure it is also one of the  irregular heartbeat causes, because in this condition one of the mechanism that heart uses to compensate for its diminished function is sinus tachycardia (if it can’t pump a proper amount of blood, it tries to pump a smaller amount but faster),
• Infection or fever is one of the irregular heartbeat causes, many times associated with sinus tachycardia,
• Anemia, in severe cases produces sinus tachycardia, the heart tries to pump the blood faster, in order to compensate for the lack of red blood cells and hemoglobin, the oxygen carrier,
• Thyroid disease-e.g. hyperthyroidism is associated with rapid heart beats, while hypothyroidism with low heart rate,
• Emotional stress produces irregular heartbeats, specially in people suffering from heart diseases,
• Usage of caffeine, tobacco, and alcohol are related with irregular heartbeat causes.

The usage of drugs is an important problem of the nowadays society, also with a great impact on our body: many times the usage of drugs was mentioned as one of irregular heartbeat causes and there were cases when cocaine consumption determined heart attacks and death.

If you think you have irregular heartbeat causes please see your physician.

Decompensated heart failure

Decompensated heart failure is the term used to define heart incapacity of pumping enough blood in the main arteries, according to the organism needs. What distinguishes decompensated heart failure from a compensated heart failure is the fact that defensive mechanisms are not efficient anymore and the blood amount delivered to the tissues is no longer sufficient, which determines a variety of symptoms as we are going to reveal next.
How do you know you have a decompensated heart failure and if u need to go to the hospital? Decompensated heart failure has different manifestations, as following:

•  when the left heart is inefficient, blood will stagnate into the heart chambers forcing them to enlarge or increase the number of muscle fibers in order to increase cardiac force; this is a defensive mechanism, which will compensate for a while the inefficient function of the heart. Once this mechanism is no longer able to control the situation, blood will stagnate in the lungs, increasing the pressure in the pulmonary vessels and from this point on, pulmonary edema (accumulation of water in the lungs) and pulmonary hypertension may occur. All these manifestations are a sign that the heart can no longer compensate its diminished function, so we are facing a decompensated heart failure.
•  in right heart insufficiency, cardiac muscle won’t be able to pump blood into the pulmonary arteries, so the blood will flow back in the venous system, determining accumulation of water in different tissues (lower limbs, abdomen-ascites, pleural space).

In clinical practice, people with decompensated heart failure will experience important shortness of breath, being unable to breathe while lying (a condition known as orthopnoea), blue color of the lips and limbs extremities, fatigue, palpitations or rapid heart beats, incapacity of performing daily activities. In more advanced cases, hypotension, fainting, ischemia of lower limbs, stroke or renal failure may occur, these manifestations being the consequence of the low blood flow in the arteries that feed the brain, kidney, or limbs.

What is the cause for decompensated heart failure?

There are many causes for decompensated heart failure, the most important ones are the following:

•  hypertension-if patients don’t follow the treatment, high blood pressure will increase the labor of an already weak heart, making it impossible to accomplish body needs,
•  salt intake-will favor water accumulation in the body, increasing blood volume and requesting a higher cardiac labor,
• infections: respiratory infections, heart wall infections like myocarditis,
• heart attacks, arrhythmia,
• weight gain is common cause of decompensated heart failure,
• patients that no longer respect their heart medication,
• patients that continue to smoke, drink alcohol, with high levels of blood lipids etc.

What are the steps to follow in decompensated heart failure ? People in this condition must be admitted to hospital, carefully watched, investigated for different conditions that might have provoked decompensated heart failure and follow a well established therapy (diuretics and cardiotonic medication will be needed in order to eliminate the overload of water and increase cardiac muscle force).
People with heart failure will have a different number of hospital admissions, followed by „free” periods of time, when the symptoms will be stable. However, the compliance to medical recommendations will determine how fast this disease will evolve, together with the other conditions we enumerated above. Despite the correct treatment and compliance of the patient, heart failure will progress until the only option left is cardiac transplant, but the speed of this evolution can be controlled by avoiding the conditions that favor heart failure to decompensate.

Please call your doctor to find out mode about decompensated heart failure.

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.

Rapid heart beats after eating -worry or not

Rapid heart beats after eating - what should we be worried about?

Rapid heart beats

Some people experience rapid heart beats after eating and this can create an important discomfort as they begin to be afraid or avoid eating in order to prevent these irregular heart beats to occur. Others are worried they might have a heart disease that causes palpitations and sick medical help. In the next part of the article we will find out what is the meaning of these palpitation and how can we prevent them.
After a meal, the digestion process requires more blood in the stomach and intestine and that’s why the heart has to pump more blood in these organs. The process consisting in increasing the amount of blood in the abdominal area after a meal is very important as it helps the body to assimilate food. This routine activity can determine palpitations, because heart has to work harder then usually. Until now, heart palpitation after eating seems to be a normal manifestation that can occur during a daily physiological process of our body.
Along with palpitation, after eating there are other manifestations that can also occur:

• nausea
•  dizziness-it occurs because cerebral blood flow is reduced, as the stomach needs more blood then usually in order to digest the food.
•  fatigue or even exhaustion (the blood will accumulate in the digestive system, while other organs and among them, the brain, will receive a smaller amount of blood)
• chest pain after eating- many times, patient with coronary disease (chronic heart ischemia determined by deprivation of oxygen) can have a chest pains after eating
•  sweating
• insomnia-if you sleep immediately after a meal, you may have problems to fall asleep. Because during night digestion and digestive secretion used in this process are diminished, you may get indigestion with abdominal discomfort, nausea and vomiting.
•  shortness of breath-the stomach is full of food and presses against diaphragma, restricting lung expansion during breathing
•  abdominal discomfort-if we eat too much or meals which are difficult to digest

If we experience rapid heart beats after eating should we seek for medical help?

Even if sometimes, heart palpitation after eating it is a normal manifestation, there are other causes for this condition, which need to be evaluated and treated. The answer is yes, if we experience heart palpitation after eating we should pay a visit to our doctor and check if there is something wrong.
What is the cause for heart palpitations after eating?

•  sudden consumption of food after a long period of starvation. This is often seen in patients suffering from anorexia nervosa, when after a long time of not eating, they start the consumption of food, the level of blood sugar increases rapidly, followed by increased secretion of insulin, which can create arrhythmia and also decreases blood sugar. The rapid decrease of blood sugar will stimulate the secretion of adrenaline, which will stimulate heart activity and create palpitation (it is like when you hurry up a person and it is obviously that in some point she will do mistakes)
•  hiatal hernia– a small portion of the stomach protrudes into the chest through diaphragm (the muscle that separates chest from abdomen and looks like a roof). This condition is usually associated with gastroesophageal reflux disease and may lead to chest pain and palpitations.
•  obesity- usually these persons have a diet with lot of sugar and caffeine, with a sedentary lifestyle and they can experience palpitation and chest pain. Their body has a lot of fats and these fats will deposit on the blood vessels wall, blocking them and generating heart disease (coronary arteries disease-with deprivation of blood and oxygen in the heart tissues). Also, the heart has to work extra hard to pump blood into their stomach.
•  hormonal imbalance could be a possible cause of heart palpitation after eating. For example hyperthyroidism (a thyroid disorder with high level of hormones) determines heart palpitation, tachycardia, chest pain, shortness of breath etc.
•  Severe anemia can affect heart and determine tachycardia (rapid heart rate) or irregular heart beats. Because there is a small number of oxygen carriers, heart will try to pump the blood faster and faster in order to satisfy the tissues need for blood and oxygen. In the same time, heart needs oxygen for itself, working harder with less oxygen it is a very good condition for palpitation to occur. Persons that avoid eating meat, can have anemia, as the meat is the main source of iron.

How can we treat rapid heart beats after eating?

Preventing heart palpitation after eating should first start with a moderate diet and by this we mean to eat moderate amounts of food at regular intervals. It is not advisable to eat one meal after we starved ourselves an entire day. Regular meals in small proportion, regular exercise, losing weight and periodically check of the hormones level (since hormonal imbalance can determine heart dysfunction) are the solution to this medical issue.

Fibrillation of the heart

Fibrillation of the heart

In the next part of the article we will discuss about fibrillation of the heart, one type of irregular heart rate and what are the consequences for our body. Our heart is an organ that has a so called „automatism”, an intrinsic property of the cardiac tissue to create its own electric impulse, a signal that allows changes in cell metabolism in order to generate cardiac muscle contraction and therefore pumping blood into the arteries. This electric signal is generated in the sinus node (a structure capable of generating electric signal, located in right atrium) and then conducted through special structures until it reaches the ventricles (heart chambers that pump blood into the arteries). If these structures called pacemakers, can’t function normally, irregular heart rate occurs and one of them is fibrillation of the heart.

 What is fibrillation of the heart ?

What is fibrillation of the heart? And how many types of fibrillation of the heart exist? There are two types of fibrillation of the heart: one is called atrial fibrillation and another ventricular fibrillation. The difference between these types of fibrillation of the heart is not just in name, but also in origin and prognostic. The first type of fibrillation of the heart-the atrial fibrillation-is an irregular heart rate generated in multiple atrial cells (but not in the sinus node which is the „natural” heart pacemaker).
Patients with atrial fibrillation may experience palpitations, shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness, drowsiness, fainting, but there are some patients that don’t complain of any symptom and they are diagnosed with the occasion of a routine medical check or when the complications occur. Usually, atrial fibrillation allows blood clots to form and they can flow in the arteries and block them, causing a condition known as ischemia: the tissues won’t receive enough blood and oxygen and cells start to die. In this situation, strokes, pulmonary embolism (clots in the pulmonary arteries that can lead to death), limbs ischemia (if untreated it can lead to amputation) can occur and can lead to patient’s death, if immediate  measures aren’t taken. On the electrocardiogram, in atrial fibrillation there is an irregular heart rate, without „P” waves (which are a mark of  heart rate generated by the sinus node) and the frequency of the heart beats can vary: low, average or rapid.
If this arrhythmia was discovered at its beginning, a conversion to the normal heart rate called sinus rhythm can be tried (either using medication or with electric shocks). After this procedure succeeded, other medication is needed in order to maintain the normal heart rate, to control the normal frequency of the heart beats and prevent blood clotting. In some patients, when the beginning of this arrhythmia is unknown, doctors will use only drugs to control the heart rate (beta blockers like metoprolole, atenolol; digoxin-a drug that increases heart contractility and also has antuarrthymic properties, very often used in the treatment of atrial fibrillation, calcium channel blockers like amlodipine, verapamil, diltiazem) and prevent blood clotting. Atrial fibrillation associated with rapid heart rate can be a severe medical condition affecting the level of consciousness and the only way to save patient life is the electrical conversion to the sinus rhythm using electric shocks.
The other type of fibrillation of the heart-ventricular fibrillation is an irregular heart rate generated in the ventricular cells and is not compatible with life, meaning that is one of the heart rate that generates cardiac arrest. Heart stops from beating and emergency measures of resuscitation are needed-cardiac massage alternating with artificial oxygenation of lungs, using facial masks with balloons or orotracheal intubation (which is preferred if it is possible to perform), electric shocks, specific medication like adrenaline, vasopressin, amiodarone. If in 30-45 minutes all these maneuvers are unsuccessfully, then the patient is declared dead.

As we saw above, fibrillation of the heart is a major heart disorder, that requires  special attention, knowledge, maneuvers and skills, since ventricular fibrillation is the most frequent cause of cardiac arrest in adults.

Heart palpitations after eating

Heart palpitations after eating are one of the causes of heart palpitations seen in patients. This may be normal under certain conditions, but if it is associated with other symptoms can be a problem for the patients.
After you read this article you know which are the mechanisms, symptoms, causes, treatments and preventions of heart palpitations after eating.
Heart palpitations after eating are fast heart beats that occurs after eating and may or may not feel the patient. Heart palpitations may be due to cardiac or extracardiac. Very important is the severity of the heart palpitations after eating. They can be without hemodynamic significance (just heart palpitations and anxiety)  or hemodynamically significant, considered severe (with low blood sugar, syncope, chest pain and difficulty of breathing).

Mechanism of heart palpitations after eating  

After eating a meal, need for blood in the stomach and surrounding organs increases and thus aids digestion. In this process of digestion and absorption of food, increased heart rate may be undetectable or may be felt as palpitations. If you want to see if you have heart palpitations    you have to measure your pulse rate. This can be done at any hand with the index and the middle finger of the wrist from the other hand. If the pulse rate is over 90 -100 beats and it is maintained over this values,  the patient should consult a doctor.

Other symptoms that accompany heart palpitations after eating

This are nausea, dizziness, fatigue, asthenia, chest pain, shortness of breath  and discomfort in abdominal region felt as feeling bloated. After dinner heart palpitations after eating can may the patient inability to sleep in peace at night and this may be a very important problem for the patient.

Causes of heart palpitations after eating

There are many causes for this condition. One of this is hiatal hernia, which is a condition that upper part of the stomach enters into the thorax. For this, patients with hiatal hernia should avoid lying position for at least two hours after a meal.
Today an important cause for heart palpitations after eating is obesity. More persons are obese due to environmental factors (a sedentary lifestyle, a diet high in sugar, fast food). In this persons suffering from obesity, the heart must work harder to pump the blood to the stomach. Severe anemia is another cause for heart palpitations after eating. In this patients hemoglobin value are very low and may be accompanied by low serum ferritin values. This palpitations are often accompanied with fatigue, asthenia and adinamie.
There are also hormonal imbalances that cause heart palpitations after eating. Patients with hyperthyroidism (disease of the thyroid gland with overproduction of thyroid hormones).

Treatment of heart palpitations after eating

There is no specific treatment for patients with heart palpitations after eating. They must have a lifestyle adapted for prevent heart palpitations. For example:

• Have frequent meals and few quantitative
• Not have a sedentary lifestyle
• Not have a diet high in sugar and caffeine
• To conduct periodic reviews to prevent severe anemia or hyperthyroidism

If heart palpitations after eating continue after prevention methods the patients should consult a doctor.