“I’m very worried doctor, I’ve got these terrible palpitations.”
Doctors often see patients who express this anxiety. What are
palpitations?
Palpitations are an awareness of the heart-beating either rapidly.
missing beats or thumping in the chest. We have all experienced
palpitations because they occur in everyday life. Emotion, exercise,
fever, stomach upsets, alcohol ingestion and anxiety all induce
palpitations and in none of these is the heart diseased. Indeed the
great majority of palpitations do not have any pathological
significance. The distinction between palpitations that occur
normally and those that reflect heart disease is not easy to define.
Palpitations caused by disease or disorder of the heart usually
persist for a long time, occur unexpectedly and are particularly
disagreeable as the rate of beating may be very rapid or very slow or
markedly irregular. These sensations are usually accompanied by
other symptoms such as sweating, faintness, chest pain, dizziness or
even loss of consciousness. These more disturbing palpitations
usually reflect an important upset in heart rhythm.