I doubt that Doritos have anything to do with it. It sounds as if you are getting palpitations. They can be a common occurrence, but they should go away. How long has this been going on? What Causes Them and How Should They Be Treated? Heart palpitations -- an unusual awareness of the heartbeat -- is an extremely common symptom. Most people who complain of palpitations describe them either as “skips” in the heartbeat (that is, a pause, often followed by a particularly strong beat,) or as periods of rapid and irregular heartbeats. While many people with palpitations can ignore them, others find them extremely disturbing and frightening, and often worry that they are about to die at any moment. Fortunately, the vast majority of palpitations are not associated with life threatening heart rhythm disturbances. When a patient complains to a doctor about palpitations, it becomes the doctor’s obligation to do two things: a) identify the cause of the palpitations, and b) provide optimal treatment for that cause.