About Heart Arrhythmias And Palpitations
Your heart is a vital organ. Its a muscle that pumps blood to all parts of your body. The blood pumped by your heart provides your body with the oxygen and nutrients it needs to function. Normally, this pumping is controlled by your hearts electrical system.
Sometimes, your hearts electrical system may not work properly because of cardiovascular disease, chemicals in your blood or sometimes for no known reason. Changes in your hearts electrical system can cause abnormal heart rhythms called arrhythmias.
Arrhythmias are a disturbed rhythm of your heartbeat. There are many kinds of arrhythmias. Some may cause your heart to skip or add a beat now and again, but have no effect on your general health or ability to lead a normal life.
Other arrhythmias are more serious, even life threatening. Untreated, they can affect your hearts pumping action, which can lead to dizzy spells, shortness of breath, faintness, loss of consciousness or serious heart problems.
Immediately call triple zero and ask for an ambulance if you feel any of these warning signs: pain or discomfort in your chest, neck, jaw, arms, back or shoulders, or if you feel nauseous, a cold sweat, dizzy or short of breath, lasting for more than 10 minutes.
Different Types Of Anxiety Disorder
Anxiety disorders fall into several categories. Here are a few of them:
- Panic disorder can be associated with cardiac disease or mistaken for heart attack. Feelings of extreme agitation and terror are often accompanied by dizziness, chest pains, stomach discomfort, shortness of breath, and rapid heart rate.
- Post-traumatic stress disorder a condition that can follow a shocking or frightening incident or sudden, life-threatening event such as a violent crime, major accident, or heart attack. A person suffering from PTSD often has trouble dealing with anything associated with the incident that caused their condition, and experiences feelings of jitteriness and detachment.
- Obsessive-Compulsive disorder People with OCD will manage unreasonable thoughts and worries by performing the same actions over and over. For example, an individual obsessed with perceived cardiovascular symptoms that have been checked and cleared by a physician may compulsively research them or find new ones for hours on end.
Will My Healthcare Provider Be Able To Rule Out Other Causes Of Heart Palpitations
Your provider will want to verify that anxiety-related palpitations arent dangerous. They may recommend other tests, such as:
- Chest X-ray to look at your heart and lungs.
- Echocardiogram or to examine your hearts overall function.
- Electrocardiogram to check your heart rate.
- Exercise stress test to see how your heart performs with increased activity.
- Holter monitoring to record your hearts activity over 24 to 48 hours.
If a Holter monitor doesnt show unusual heart rhythms, your provider may give you an event recorder. You can wear this recorder for weeks. You press a button to record any heart sensations that you experience.
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Is It Anxiety Or A Heart Problem
Studies suggest that approximately 11 percent of the population suffers from a general anxiety disorder at some point during their lifetime. Anxiety may be felt like a general but low sense of unease, or it may come and go in moments of stress. For some, anxiety involves panic attacks, events that can closely mimic the symptoms of a heart attack.
Because anxiety can coincide with rapid heart rate, abnormal heartbeats, lightheadedness, and chest pain, many people wonder if they are having anxiety, a heart attack, or if symptoms indicate an underlying heart problem. The question is, what comes first: anxiety or rapid heart rate? Here, we discuss some of the clues that may indicate that the heart is the root cause of symptoms.
How To Stop Heart Palpitations And Anxiety
Stress and anxiety are two of the key triggers of skipped beats. To avoid palpitations, try meditation, exercise, yoga, or another stress-reducing activity. If palpitations do appear, techniques like the ones described below can help:
- Deep breathing. Sit quietly and close your eyes. Place one hand on your abdomen and breathe in slowly through your nose. Feel your abdomen move outward. Exhale through your nose or mouth, whichever feels most comfortable. Repeat.
If your hearts racing unexpectedly, you can try to stop it yourself with one of the following maneuvers:
- Valsalva maneuver. Pinch your nose closed, close your mouth, and try to breathe out forcibly through your nose.
- Bear down. Clench your stomach muscles and your anal sphincter. Then bear down as if youre having a bowel movement.
- Cold water. Splash cold water on your face, or immerse your face in a sink or large bowl filled with cold water.
The Valsalva maneuver, bearing down, and cold water stimulate the vagus nerve, which helps control the heart rate. Deep breathing helps relax you and ease the stress and anxiety that can come with palpitations.
If none of these work, have someone drive you to an emergency room or call 911.
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How To Treat Anxiety
There are many different ways you can help yourself if you suffer from anxiety. GPs run a scheme called Reading Well Books on Prescription which gives you free access to books that might help. Its important to take good care of your physical health and to try and manage your worries. A way to do this might be to dedicate a particular time of the day to focus on what is worrying you or to write your worries in a notebook or on pieces of paper and put them in a jar. That way, they are not going round and round in your head. Simple breathing exercises can help with anxiety as taking slow, deeper breaths can calm the bodys stress response. Mindfulness and meditation can be helpful ways to cope with anxiety.
Looking Out For The Telltale Signs
AFib is notoriously tricky to diagnose on your own, but there are some signs that can help you tell panic attacks and AFib episodes apart. Its important to keep in mind that the two syndromes stem from different sources: AFib is an electrical disorder that sends a mess of signals through the chambers of the heart, but a panic attack typically wont have a physical cause. Rather, its triggered by events in your environment, stressful situations, or sometimes happens for no apparent reason at all.Here are a few markers that can help you tell the conditions apart:Rate of decline. Pay attention to the rate of building and declining symptoms. Since AFib is triggered by a sudden physical event , AFib episodes typically hit suddenly. When the episode subsides, so will the symptoms, but the cycle tends to repeat until treatment is administered. With a panic attack, heart rate can start to creep up as other discomforts manifest, and after the attack hits a peak, heart rate will gradually return to normal as the other symptoms dissipate.Nature of the heartbeat. The pattern or rhythm of a heart beat can also tell you whats going on: a panic attack typically brings a constant rapid heart rate, while AFib causes an erratic heart rate. If your heart seems to be skipping beats, or speeding up then slowing down and speeding up again, its more likely that AFib is to blame.
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How Are Palpitations Diagnosed
Your GP may arrange for you to have a trace of heart to check whether the heart rate is regular and at a normal rate. This painless test lasts a few minutes.If your ECG shows something abnormal, or your symptoms continue to bother you, you may need to have further tests or heart monitoring over a longer period. Visit our ECG page or speak to your doctor if you’re concerned about this and similar tests.
Heart Palpitations: Frequently Asked Questions
The symptoms of palpitations vary from patient to patient with some common features.
A perception of irregularity of the pulse, an uneasiness in the chest, a flip-flopping in the chest frequently people describe their palpitations as “my heart stops.” Certainly a feeling of strong pulse throughout the chest, head, and neck could well be described as a palpitation.
Occasionally palpitations can be perceived in unusual ways including a general sense of uneasiness, and, rarely, palpitations are associated with lightheadedness or even loss of consciousness.
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Sometimes Though Palpitations Might Signal Something More Serious
For example, these impulses go offbeat due to arrhythmias, which are basically short circuits in your hearts electrical system, the NHLBI explains. Arrhythmias can make your heart beat irregularly and feel strange, along with causing weakness, dizziness, feeling light-headed, fainting, shortness of breath, and chest pain, among other symptoms, according to the NHLBI.
While arrhythmias often arent dangerous and can be treated in many ways, sometimes they can be life-threatening. Only a doctor can tell you for sure, but any symptoms besides the strange heart sensations are typically a clue that your arrhythmia may be more serious, says the NHLBI. If you think youre experiencing any strange symptoms along with your heart palpitations, seek medical attention immediately.
Other times, the Mayo Clinic notes, heart palpitations can be a sign that somethings up with a different organ, like your thyroid gland. Your thyroid produces hormones like thyroxine and triiodothyronine, which influence many of your bodys systems, according to the Mayo Clinic. If your thyroid is on overdrive , it will generate too much thyroxine, which kicks up your bodys metabolism. This can lead to a rapid or irregular heartbeat, along with symptoms like an increased appetite and sudden weight loss.
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Treatment For Heart Palpitations
Treatment for heart palpitations depends on the cause. They often do not need to be treated.
Avoiding things that can trigger palpitations, such as stress, smoking, caffeine and alcohol, can help.
You may have an electrocardiogram to help find out what the cause might be. This is a test where small pads are stuck to your skin to check the electrical signals coming from your heart.
If your palpitations are caused by a heart problem, you may need medicines or a procedure to help correct your heartbeat.
Page last reviewed: 07 June 2022 Next review due: 07 June 2025
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A Patient’s Anxiety Or Heart Disease
One patient I saw, who was over age 70, had a lifelong history of anxiety and panic attacks. She’d stopped leaving her home out of fear of another attack after she’d tried multiple anxiety medications without benefit. But when I saw her, we found that each episode of her anxiety was caused by a rapid heart rhythm. It was easily corrected by a simple procedure called an ablation.
Shortly after the ablation, she attended a close relative’s wedding free of anxiety. This was the first time she’d participated in a large family activity in nearly 40 years.
How To Tell The Difference Between Heart Palpitations Anxiety Or A Heart Condition
This is a good question, and there is no simple answer since there could be a symptom overlap and it can be easy to confuse them.
The best way of knowing is to consult a physician and get a further assessment through an electrocardiogram or a heart monitor.
However, according to WebMD, some studies have shown that stress and anxiety can worsen symptoms of a serious heart condition called Atrial Fibrillation but more research on the matter is needed to determine if people with anxiety and depression are actually at a higher risk for developing it.
Dr T. Jared Bunch from Everyday Health indicates that there are some clues to determine whether you are having heart palpitations due to anxiety or a heart problem, the most straightforward clue is symptom pattern.
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Heart Palpitations Anxiety Symptoms
Heart palpitations, including skipped, missed, unevenly spaced heart beats racing heart and pounding heart are often signs of anxiety disorder, including generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and others.
This article explains the relationship between anxiety and heart palpitations.
When Are Heart Palpitations Dangerous
In isolated cases, a fluttering heart is normal and does not indicate anything dangerous, but if you find yourself experiencing them regularly it could be a sign of atrial fibrillation or another potentially serious heart condition. You should also watch for other symptoms which accompany palpitations, such as:
- chest pain
- sweating
- fainting
You should contact a doctor if you experience any of the above symptoms, particularly if you have a family or personal history of heart disease or other cardiac conditions.
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Anxiety And Heart Attack Recovery
Anxiety disorders come with a high degree of fear and uncertainty. When this fear and certainty keeps the heart attack or heart disease patient from following the advice and treatment plan of their cardiologist, it can have a major impact on recovery. Anxiety can interfere with:
- Sticking to prescribed exercise regimens
- Taking prescribed medications
- Following through with a healthy diet
- Getting a proper amount of quality sleep
- Reconnecting with friends and family
- Confidently resuming job career and family responsibilities
What Are The Health Risks Of Experiencing Heart Palpitations
The irregularity of the heart rhythm per se usually does no damage to the heart itself. Patients with a very rapid heart over a long period of time do run a risk of developing enlargement and failure of the heart.
We see heart enlargment with a very common cause of palpitations called atrial fibrillation. Patients can be in atrial fibrillation for many years without harm, but some patients with very little symptoms may have too rapid and irregular a rhythm present with symptoms of heart failure. There may also be some increased risk of stroke because of blood clots that can form in association with atrial fibrillation.
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The Role Of Genes In Anxiety Disorder
Just like a major heart attack, a burn is a horrible thing, says McCann. About 33% of patients who have really severe burns develop post-traumatic stress disorder. Which makes us wonder about the 66% who do not get PTSD. We think genes are a huge part of it. Were currently researching whether this same genetic vulnerability holds true for cardiac disease.
Constant Anxiety And Constant Heart Palpitations
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I am a 51 year old woman and I haven’t yet gone through menopause. However, in the last 3 months I have had a lot of anxious feelings, sleeplessness and just recently I have started having a lot of heart palpitations. Along with that I have a sensation of fullness in my throat. I have worried that it’s my heart but I have recently had an EKG and it was normal. I wonder if all of this is due to me being so close to menopause. If I just knew….I believe my anxiety level would go down. It is definitely a vicious cycle.
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Are Pvcs That I Can Feel More Significant Than Those I Can’t
There is no prognostic difference between the PVCs that are felt by the patient and those that are not. Obviously the symptomatic PVCs are of more concern to the patient because they can be annoying and distracting. Beyond that, the PVCs are all the same, prognostically. In most patients who are otherwise healthy, PVCs on a Holter are of little prognostic value regardless of whether they’re experienced or not.
Tachycardia Can Cause Anxiety
Abnormal heart rhythms of more than 100 beats per minute that come from the upper heart chambers are called supraventricular tachycardias . These can occur in healthy hearts as well as in people who’ve had prior heart injuries or problems. In most people, SVTs are random events not triggered by exercise or other activities. SVTs cause symptoms of heart palpitations, lightheadedness, chest discomfort, shortness of breath, and, at times, they may cause you to pass out. The mind responds and can cause further symptoms of anxiety and panic.
Most of the time, I encounter people who’ve had anxiety for a few years and for whom medications haven’t worked which prompted their doctors to look for additional potential causes.
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