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What Causes Constant Heart Palpitations?
Question: Just needing some reassurance this evening. Have had a normal holter, ekg, echocardiogram, stress test and blood work but have had pretty intense palpitaions the last few weeks that feel like my heart is flipping over in my chest. It feels pretty intense, comes out of nowhere, only lasts a few seconds but stops me in my tracks. As often as i have this i cant accept that they are benign. So scared!
Brief Answer:
These look like to be due to anxiety. Non-cardiac cause.
Detailed Answer:
Thanks for the consultation at my virtual clinic HCM!
I have carefully worked through your case, and can well realize your health worries. Being your physician, I will take care all of your medical concerns today and will put my best efforts to get you out of this situation.
You have the palpitations that don't have a cardiac etiology and are there due most probably to anxiety. Other reason may be caffeine (energy drinks, caffeinated drinks, beverages, chocolates, cigarettes and other illicit drugs that may act as cardiac stimulators).
You need to stay strictly away from the above probable causes. Control your stress levels and manage how to accept the realities of life. Yoga, meditation, aerobics and a lot more exercises like stretch exercises have helped a lot of my patients in this regard.
Take a good night's sleep and keep a balance between sleep and work hours. Take food in time and don't make abrupt changes in timetables of your sleep wake cycles. It is because it disturbs the normal circadian rhythm of the body and you are then more prone to get the palpitations and racing heart.
Take a light meal and never stuff your stomach. It will help a lot.
The physical activity goal for you is 10,000 steps everyday at a healthy pace. Changes and improvement in your health will be obvious to you in a couple of days.
You will soon be OK as you have benign problem in reality as there is no test to show up some cardiac anomaly right now. Holter monitoring gives us very precise results and skipping is almost impossible for any construction or pumping defect of heart. Echo never disappoints you for detection of a wide variety of heart functions. Stress test is the champion test to screen for any Coronary Artery disease. You were OK on all of them. So please sit back at ease and act upon the advice. For now I will not suggest you even any antidepressant too as you don't need that yet. Lifestyle modifications is the gold standard medication for you right now.
Hope I answered all of your questions. Let me know if you have further clinical concerns or doubts. I will be more than happy to get back to you with expert opinion. Please don't forget to give Five Star rating to help me assist my patients in a better way; and, please don't forget to 'Close This Discussion'.
For any disease you have, a timely follow-up is very necessary regarding the treatment efficacy and to see if there is a need to change the treatment options. So keep a follow up to see how you doing (Always write down my name in the start of your questions at HCM & I will be with you in no time).
Regards!
DR. XXXXXXX HANIF
USA
Follow me on my Healthcare Magic google+ profile: XXXX
These look like to be due to anxiety. Non-cardiac cause.
Detailed Answer:
Thanks for the consultation at my virtual clinic HCM!
I have carefully worked through your case, and can well realize your health worries. Being your physician, I will take care all of your medical concerns today and will put my best efforts to get you out of this situation.
You have the palpitations that don't have a cardiac etiology and are there due most probably to anxiety. Other reason may be caffeine (energy drinks, caffeinated drinks, beverages, chocolates, cigarettes and other illicit drugs that may act as cardiac stimulators).
You need to stay strictly away from the above probable causes. Control your stress levels and manage how to accept the realities of life. Yoga, meditation, aerobics and a lot more exercises like stretch exercises have helped a lot of my patients in this regard.
Take a good night's sleep and keep a balance between sleep and work hours. Take food in time and don't make abrupt changes in timetables of your sleep wake cycles. It is because it disturbs the normal circadian rhythm of the body and you are then more prone to get the palpitations and racing heart.
Take a light meal and never stuff your stomach. It will help a lot.
The physical activity goal for you is 10,000 steps everyday at a healthy pace. Changes and improvement in your health will be obvious to you in a couple of days.
You will soon be OK as you have benign problem in reality as there is no test to show up some cardiac anomaly right now. Holter monitoring gives us very precise results and skipping is almost impossible for any construction or pumping defect of heart. Echo never disappoints you for detection of a wide variety of heart functions. Stress test is the champion test to screen for any Coronary Artery disease. You were OK on all of them. So please sit back at ease and act upon the advice. For now I will not suggest you even any antidepressant too as you don't need that yet. Lifestyle modifications is the gold standard medication for you right now.
Hope I answered all of your questions. Let me know if you have further clinical concerns or doubts. I will be more than happy to get back to you with expert opinion. Please don't forget to give Five Star rating to help me assist my patients in a better way; and, please don't forget to 'Close This Discussion'.
For any disease you have, a timely follow-up is very necessary regarding the treatment efficacy and to see if there is a need to change the treatment options. So keep a follow up to see how you doing (Always write down my name in the start of your questions at HCM & I will be with you in no time).
Regards!
DR. XXXXXXX HANIF
USA
Follow me on my Healthcare Magic google+ profile: XXXX
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Prasad
Dr. XXXXXXX Hanif.
Thank you for the feedback. I am going to give your recommendations a try!!! Is cardiac arrest proceeded by these kinds of palpitations? Do they trigger ventricular vibrillation?
Thank you for the feedback. I am going to give your recommendations a try!!! Is cardiac arrest proceeded by these kinds of palpitations? Do they trigger ventricular vibrillation?
Brief Answer:
Not necessarily...
Detailed Answer:
Welcome back. I hope you doing better. You are always welcomed for any health queries you have.
If we look at the causes for ventricular fibrillation, it isn't actually due to such prior issues. That is altogether a different issue and has a different etiology related to the conduction system of the heart.
These kind of palpitations due to anxiety affects the heart for sure but not an obvious/and/or primary reason for cardiac arrest in its sole discretion.
No they can't trigger ventricular fibrillation without other concomitant comorbidities.
Hope I answered all of your questions. Let me know if you have further clinical concerns or doubts. I will be more than happy to get back to you with expert opinion. Please don't forget to give Five Star rating to help me assist my patients in a better way; and, please don't forget to 'Close This Discussion'.
For any disease you have, a timely follow-up is very necessary regarding the treatment efficacy and to see if there is a need to change the treatment options. So keep a follow up to see how you doing (Always write down my name in the start of your questions at this forum & I will be with you in no time).
Regards!
DR. XXXXXXX HANIF
USA
Not necessarily...
Detailed Answer:
Welcome back. I hope you doing better. You are always welcomed for any health queries you have.
If we look at the causes for ventricular fibrillation, it isn't actually due to such prior issues. That is altogether a different issue and has a different etiology related to the conduction system of the heart.
These kind of palpitations due to anxiety affects the heart for sure but not an obvious/and/or primary reason for cardiac arrest in its sole discretion.
No they can't trigger ventricular fibrillation without other concomitant comorbidities.
Hope I answered all of your questions. Let me know if you have further clinical concerns or doubts. I will be more than happy to get back to you with expert opinion. Please don't forget to give Five Star rating to help me assist my patients in a better way; and, please don't forget to 'Close This Discussion'.
For any disease you have, a timely follow-up is very necessary regarding the treatment efficacy and to see if there is a need to change the treatment options. So keep a follow up to see how you doing (Always write down my name in the start of your questions at this forum & I will be with you in no time).
Regards!
DR. XXXXXXX HANIF
USA
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Sonia Raina
Dr. XXXXXXX Hanif
One last question. I have noticed i get pretty good runs of pacs/pvcs when changing postion. For instance nearly everytime i squat down i get them. And many times when i first sit down or lay down my heart will have the fluttery feeling followed by a 10 second period of skips and pauses before it gets back in regular rythmn. I also have flare ups around the times of hormonal changes in the body. Nearly always get them a few days before my cycle and very often during intimate times with
my husband. Does any of this sound normal with palps? And do these kinds still tend to be benign?
Thanks again
One last question. I have noticed i get pretty good runs of pacs/pvcs when changing postion. For instance nearly everytime i squat down i get them. And many times when i first sit down or lay down my heart will have the fluttery feeling followed by a 10 second period of skips and pauses before it gets back in regular rythmn. I also have flare ups around the times of hormonal changes in the body. Nearly always get them a few days before my cycle and very often during intimate times with
my husband. Does any of this sound normal with palps? And do these kinds still tend to be benign?
Thanks again
Brief Answer:
This is all benign and normal adjustments of heart according to activity!!
Detailed Answer:
Welcome back and thanks for the consultation at my virtual clinic!
Let me keep my discussion simple without going into complex Physiological processes governing all of your feelings.
Our cardiovascular system works not blindly. It has got a superb feedback control mechanism which not only assess the heart rates, but also the pressure of blood being generated and the volume of blood pumped with each cycle of the heartbeat.
When you are squatting , have hormonal changes, start an activity, lying down, standing, indulge in intimacy and all other activities, heart's controlling feedback mechanisms get into action and start to manage the working of heart according.
The problem should have been considerable if there is more demand but your heart isn't getting able to accelerate and fulfil that demand of the body for appropriate blood.
In anxiety, the heart beats are felt more than usual to the patient herself. If these had been some abnormal beats due to some underlying cardiac disease, your heart evaluation must have picked that up as aforementioned in my previous answers.
Is there some disease other than heart? :-
YES---Thyroid disease is also one of the reasons for such kind of abnormal looking heart beats. To rule out that you need to go for Thyroid Profile Testing. Management goes accordingly. And if no thyroid involvement then your treating physician may go for Atenolol for palpitations we are discussing about.
Hope I answered all of your questions. Let me know if you have further clinical concerns or doubts. I will be more than happy to get back to you with expert opinion. Please don't forget to give Five Star rating to help me assist my patients in a better way; and, please don't forget to 'Close This Discussion'.
For any disease you have, a timely follow-up is very necessary regarding the treatment efficacy and to see if there is a need to change the treatment options. So keep a follow up to see how you doing (Always write down my name in the start of your questions at this forum & I will be with you in no time).
Regards!
DR. XXXXXXX HANIF
USA
This is all benign and normal adjustments of heart according to activity!!
Detailed Answer:
Welcome back and thanks for the consultation at my virtual clinic!
Let me keep my discussion simple without going into complex Physiological processes governing all of your feelings.
Our cardiovascular system works not blindly. It has got a superb feedback control mechanism which not only assess the heart rates, but also the pressure of blood being generated and the volume of blood pumped with each cycle of the heartbeat.
When you are squatting , have hormonal changes, start an activity, lying down, standing, indulge in intimacy and all other activities, heart's controlling feedback mechanisms get into action and start to manage the working of heart according.
The problem should have been considerable if there is more demand but your heart isn't getting able to accelerate and fulfil that demand of the body for appropriate blood.
In anxiety, the heart beats are felt more than usual to the patient herself. If these had been some abnormal beats due to some underlying cardiac disease, your heart evaluation must have picked that up as aforementioned in my previous answers.
Is there some disease other than heart? :-
YES---Thyroid disease is also one of the reasons for such kind of abnormal looking heart beats. To rule out that you need to go for Thyroid Profile Testing. Management goes accordingly. And if no thyroid involvement then your treating physician may go for Atenolol for palpitations we are discussing about.
Hope I answered all of your questions. Let me know if you have further clinical concerns or doubts. I will be more than happy to get back to you with expert opinion. Please don't forget to give Five Star rating to help me assist my patients in a better way; and, please don't forget to 'Close This Discussion'.
For any disease you have, a timely follow-up is very necessary regarding the treatment efficacy and to see if there is a need to change the treatment options. So keep a follow up to see how you doing (Always write down my name in the start of your questions at this forum & I will be with you in no time).
Regards!
DR. XXXXXXX HANIF
USA
Note: For further queries related to coronary artery disease and prevention, click here.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Vaishalee Punj
Answered by
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