What Are Heart Palpitations? Understanding the Basics

Blogs28 Aug 2024

If you have ever worried about your heart racing or pounding on some occasions, you may have felt palpitations. It can be a scary experience when you don’t know what’s happening to your body and it can be even worse if you don’t do anything about it. Since our hearts are so important for our health and well-being, you must be aware of heart health issues and how to protect them well for the rest of your life.

In this article, we’ll discuss and understand what is a heart flutter or palpitation. We’ll also learn what causes heart palpitations, its risk factors and how to prevent them. So, let’s get started!

What Are Heart Palpitations?

The feeling of a pounding or racing heart or missing a few heartbeats is known as heart palpitations. Typically, they are felt in the chest, neck or throat. They can happen at any time and don’t often point towards any health issues. However, they may be surprising and can startle anyone while taking the stairs or doing a physical activity.

Rarely can they be related to irregular heart rhythm or arrhythmia, which requires immediate medical attention as they may further cause a very fast heartbeat, known as tachycardia or a very slow heartbeat, called bradycardia, both of which are alarming and need medical help.

Some common symptoms of heart palpitations are

• Heart racing
• A pounding heartbeat
• Missing a beat
• Having a faster heartbeat
• A flip-flopping sensation
• A fluttering sensation

Other serious symptoms that may come with heart palpitations are dizziness, light-headedness, chest pains and fainting. If you face these, you must go to a trusted doctor and get yourself checked immediately.

Women tend to face more heart palpitations than men. One may face them at any phase of their lives including teenage years, pregnancy, menopause etc. According to one study on Indian patients with heart failure and cardiac arrhythmias, around 74% of them face palpitations! Since this is a prevalent issue, let’s understand its symptoms and causes in detail.

What Causes Heart Palpitations?

As mentioned earlier, one reason why you might have heart palpitations is if you have an irregular heart rhythm or arrhythmia. But, having arrhythmia is not so common so here are some other causes of heart palpitations are

• Stress, anxiety or panic attacks
• Mental health conditions like depression
• Extreme fatigue
• Low blood pressure
• Intense physical exercise
• Excess caffeine and certain medications
• Age
• Fever
• Hormonal Changes
• The excess or absence of thyroid hormone
• Conditions like cardiomyopathy, Hyperthyroidism, and heart valve disease

Importance of understanding heart health for people aged 40-60

Ageing may lead to changes in the heart and blood vessels, which may increase the risk of a person suffering from heart conditions. That’s why it’s important to take preventative action and learn more about heart health to reduce this risk and stay healthy for longer. Any age is a good time to start working on your health but even more so in your 40s and beyond. Research has found that exercising regularly in your midlife can help expand constricted blood vessels and reduce cardiovascular risk!

When to See a Doctor

You typically do not need immediate medical attention for palpitations as they last a few seconds and are infrequent. But, if you have palpitations regularly or have a history of heart issues, then it is advisable to meet a doctor. If you also feel light-headedness, dizziness and excessive sweating, then make sure to visit a healthcare professional. You may need to do a few tests and have your heart monitored to rule out all types of issues.

Tips To Prevent Heart Palpitations

While it is best to consult a doctor, some lifestyle changes might help prevent palpitations.

• Try calming activities like yoga, meditation and breathing exercises to manage your stress and anxiety.
• Limit your caffeine intake to reduce the occurrence of palpitations.
• Exercise regularly but practise mild forms of exercise rather than highly strenuous ones to avoid palpitations.
• Stay hydrated and eat healthy to avoid any triggers
• Keep a check on your blood pressure and cholesterol levels and learn how to manage them.

Conclusion

Now let’s recap. What is a heart flutter or a heart palpitation? Heart palpitation is the pounding, racing or fluttering of a heart. This lasts a few seconds and can startle individuals. You might skip a beat or have an additional heartbeat while having heart palpitations. Generally, these can be caused by stress, anxiety, strenuous exercise etc. Occasionally, they point towards arrhythmia or an irregular heartbeat. If you find your heart palpitating, you need not worry too much. But if it happens again, and causes dizziness, light-headedness etc., then it’s a cause for concern and you require medical attention!

We hope this article helped you understand what the reasons for heart palpitations are. For more such informational content related to health, nutrition and ageing, you can follow Right Shift. We are champions of a healthy and happy midlife and will encourage you to take your health seriously. You can begin by trying our health score calculator to understand your current health and lifestyle status. Then you can try our free meal plan creator to generate a tailor-made meal plan which suits your preferences and health goals. Try these today to get started on your health journey immediately!