heart skipping a beat
Have you ever felt your heart beat?
Under normal circumstances, you will not notice your heartbeat at all
In cases where the heartbeat has caught your attention, there is a high probability that there is a disorder and in fact an abnormal problem in the heart that you have noticed an increase in number, decrease in number or irregular heartbeat or abnormal and irregular rhythm.
If you feel your heart beating, doctors refer to this abnormal feeling as tachycardia.
In tachycardia, the heart rate will be higher. During tachycardia, the following person may feel the following:
- Skipping a heart beat
- Fluttering or trembling of the heart
- Increase the number of breaths.
Although most times the tachycardia will not be harmful, if you have not had a similar experience before or if the tachycardia has suddenly appeared and has worsened over time and has not resolved, immediate examination is necessary as it may be a manifestation of a dangerous arrhythmia.
So if you have skipping heart beat or if you have shortness of breath with increased heart rate, be careful.
What you will read next:
Symptoms of tachycardia or heart palpitation
What is the normal heart rate?
Tachycardia and its types
Bradycardia
Symptoms of arrhythmias
Causes of arrhythmias
Identify at-risk groups
When to see a doctor?
Complications of arrhythmias
Possible causes
Seven causes of skipping heart beat
Diagnostic strategies and measures
treatment
Symptoms of tachycardia or heart palpitation
These symptoms can occur in any position, standing, lying down or sitting. Any unusual sensations received by the affected person should be considered.
Symptoms can be felt in the neck, chest and throat, which include:
- Increase the number of breaths
- Breathing fast
- Beating harder than usual
- Feeling of heartbeat
- Skipping heart beat
What is the normal heart rate?
The normal rhythm of the heart originates from a natural pacemaker located in the wall of the right atrium. Doctors call this node the atrial sinus node, or SV node.
A person's heart rate is normally sixty beats per minute to one hundred beats per minute.
Whenever, for any reason, the heartbeat becomes abnormal, an irregular rhythm, or arrhythmia, will occur.
If this irregular rhythm is accompanied by an increase in the number and intensity of the heartbeat, it is called a tachyarrhythmia.
During many tachyarrhythmias, you may experience a skipping heart beat or a feeling of trembling in your chest.
Tachycardia and its types
Tachycardia is defined as follows:
The resting heart rate in an adult is more than 100 beats per minute.
Types of tachycardias include:
- Tachycardias associated with atrial fibrillation, such as AF
- Tachycardias associated with ventricular disorders, such as VT
Keep in mind that sometimes a person experiences an increase in heart rate in stressful and emotional situations, which doctors call sinus tachycardia, which can also occur during a patient's illness.
Bradycardia
There are arrhythmias in which the number of heartbeats decreases or even stops at some point. Decreased heart rate is what doctors call bradycardia and arrhythmias that are accompanied by a pause or decrease in heart rate.
If the resting heart rate is below 60 per minute, there is bradycardia.
Ventricular fibrillation, or VF, is a serious disorder in which cardiac arrest occurs, leading to death if left untreated. Take the symptoms of cardiac arrhythmias seriously and be sure to call the emergency room immediately.
Symptoms of arrhythmias
- Fitting heartbeat
- Chest pain
- Feeling the bird flutter in the chest
- Chest pain
- Shortness of breath
- Dizziness
- Vertigo
- Fatigue
- Decreased appetite
Causes of arrhythmias
The causes of arrhythmias that can be associated with heart rhythm disorders are not yet known, but items below can cause arrhythmia:
- drug use
- Injuries to the structure of the heart and its components following previous heart attacks
- medicines
- Diabetes
- Hypertension
- smoking
- Excessive psychological stress
- Blood electrolyte imbalance such as blood potassium or sodium imbalance
- Some herbal supplements
Identify at-risk groups
- People with cardiovascular disorders and diseases, especially those with acute coronary artery disease.
- People with heart valve disorders
- People with congenital heart disease
- People who have recently had heart and chest surgery
- People with heart failure
- People with thyroid dysfunction;
Both hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism can be associated with a poor heart rate.
These people are at risk for a type of tachyarrhythmia called AF or atrial fibrillation, during which the patient's resting heart rate will be between 100 and 180 beats per minute.
- Caffeine consumers
- Nicotine users, smokers
- Consumption of drugs and many medicinal and herbal supplements.
Keep in mind that anemia, fever, illness, lethargy, and dehydration may also be accompanied by palpitations, but generally no more abnormal manifestations. People with a family history of heart disease with tachycardia should also be very aware of the symptoms.
When to see a doctor?
In the following cases, you must immediately go to a well-equipped medical center or call the emergency room:
- If you feel tremors in your chest
- Excessive fatigue
- Decreased appetite
- sweat
- lethargy
- Lightheadedness
- Vertigo
- Nausea
- Chest pain
Delay in going to the emergency room can have very serious consequences
Complications of arrhythmias
Possible side effects include:
Cardiac arrhythmias are associated with the production of clots in the heart. These clots can leave the heart and travel to the brain and kidneys. If these clots get stuck in the thin arteries of the brain, a stroke occurs
- Incidence of heart failure:
A heart that has had an irregular heartbeat for a long time is more likely to fail
- Fainting
- Atrial fibrillation rhythm or AF
Doctors sometimes refer to skipping heart beat as heart palpitation surprises.
Possible causes
It is said that the cases below cause you to have an increased heart rate and sometimes skipping heart beat
- Insufficient sleep
- Drink plenty of caffeine
- Heavy sports
- Drinking too much alcohol
- Tobacco use
- Psychological stresses
- the fear
- Use of amphetamine, cocaine, heroin
- Pregnancy changes
- Changes in menopause
- Changes in menstrual bleeding in women
- Medicines such as:
- Weight loss pills
- Common cold pills
- Antitussive drugs
- Asthma sprays
- Drop in blood sugar
- Low blood pressure
- Food allergies
- Acute coronary artery disease
- Heart valve disorders
- Congenital heart disease
- Heart failure
- Hypertension
- Recent heart surgeries
We said that in addition to these cases, underlying heart disorders can also lead to tachyarrhythmia and provide Skipping heartbeat.
Seven causes of skipping heart beat
Sometimes doctors classify the causes of skipping heart beat into seven sub-categories
- Hormonal changes:
- Monthly period in women
- Pregnancy
- menopause
- Psychological stimuli:
- Anxiety
- Stress
- Panic attacks
- habits and lifestyle:
- Consumption of alcohol
- Tobacco use and smoking
- Heavy sports
- Inadequate sleep and sleep disorders
- Consume a fatty, spicy and bulky meal
- Taking illicit drugs such as cocaine
- Arrhythmias with increased heart rate (tachyarrhythmia)
- Atrial fibrillation
- Medicines:
Respiratory sprays for asthma
- Salbutamol
- Ipratropium bromide
Antihypertensive drugs such as:
Antihistamines:
Antibiotics:
- Erythromycin
- Clarithromycin
Antifungal drugs:
Antiperspirants:
- Underlying heart problems:
- Cardiac valve disorders
- Mitral valve prolapse
- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathies (in which the thickness of the heart wall increases and the output of the heart decreases, and therefore compensatory tachycardia, followed by skipping beat)
- Heart failure
- Congenital heart disorders
Problems and disorders such as:
- Anemia
- Fever above 100/4 degrees (38 C) Fahrenheit
- Hypoglycemia
- Increased thyroid activity or hyperthyroidism
- Dehydration of the body
Diagnostic strategies and measures
To check for tachycardia or heart palpitations, the following steps are performed based on the individual's condition.
- ECG
- Echocardiogram
- Holter monitoring
- Treadmill testing
Treatment
The type of treatment and medical intervention will be completely dependent on the type of arrhythmia and the underlying cause of tachycardia.
If a person experiences an increased heart rate and skipping beat following stress, relaxation techniques and stress management techniques, deep breathing, yoga and meditation are very effective in controlling symptoms. Sometimes it is necessary to use the guidance of a psychotherapist.
If the presence of an underlying disorder in the heart is the basis for tachycardia and skipping beat, treatment of the underlying disorder is necessary.
In arrhythmias that are accompanied by an increase in heart rate, some types of arrhythmias require urgent treatment, and the sufferer will need to take medication for life to prevent recurrence of the arrhythmia.