“I see patients, often who tend to be from a marginalized group, who have been told they have anxiety and that’s the issue but they’ve actually had a rhythm problem for decades,” Robinson says. If you go to a doctor and they don’t take your symptoms seriously, it’s a good idea to advocate for yourself and get a second opinion. While anxiety alone can cause palpitations, Robinson stresses that dismissing palpitations as a symptom of anxiety without an exam or further testing is a bad idea. (And yes, this can sometimes be hard to tell apart from heart problems.) Palpitations caused by anxiety are often accompanied by other anxiety symptoms, such as a sense of impending doom, stomach upset, feeling tired and having trouble sleeping, and even trembling or sweating. There’s a laundry list of things that can cause palpitations: Dehydration, drinking too much caffeine or alcohol, smoking or using drugs (including marijuana), exercising, or having a fever or respiratory illness. There are many things that can cause your heart to feel a little off, some of which are mild and a few of which are more serious. Less common is feeling them during mild activity, like walking or cleaning around the house. “A change in rhythm can resonate more and use the chest and the chest wall as a drum,” Robinson explains.įeeling palpitations during exercise is also common. It’s more common to feel palpitations at night when the body is at rest, especially if someone is lying down on their left side, which brings the heart closer to the chest wall. “Some people describe it as a salmon flipping around in their chest,” Robinson says. For some people, their heart may feel like it’s beating faster or stronger for others, it may feel like it’s flip-flopping or skipping a beat. What heart palpitations feel likeĮveryone feels palpitations differently, according to Robinson. “The general public doesn’t need to screen themselves for palpitations to see if they have COVID,” Robinson says. Unfortunately, that damage means that they could be at risk for serious heart problems in the future. That’s because, so far at least, most people who get palpitations and are sick with COVID-19 have already been hospitalized, Robinson says.Īccording to her, about a third of COVID-19 patients who are hospitalized also incur some level of damage to their heart muscles, meaning they aren’t just having benign heart palpitations but they actually have developed an arrhythmia. The more accurate answer is: it probably won’t happen to you. Older adults, for example, are more likely to have an actual arrhythmia. It’s also important to note that these percentages vary according to different demographics. “About 50% of the time when people go to a doctor it ends up being normal rhythm, 20% of the time it’s extra beats, and the remaining 30% are actual arrhythmias,” Robinson says. However, sometimes heart palpitations are actually from an arrhythmia where the heart beats faster or slower than normal, follows an irregular pattern or has extra beats.Īrrhythmias are something to watch for because they may point to an underlying medical condition and may mean there is an increased risk of stroke or other cardiac events down the road. Since most of us don’t go about our days hyper-aware of what our heartbeats feel like, just the act of noticing them can cause alarm. That heightened awareness means you may perceive a change in your heartbeat that is actually normal and doesn’t signify any underlying health issues. The issue is whether or not they represent an arrhythmia,” she explains. “Palpitations can present as simply a heightened awareness of your heartbeat. Melissa Robinson, a cardiac electrophysiologist at the UW Medicine Heart Institute who specializes in treatment of arrhythmias, also known as heart rhythm disorders. In many cases, heart palpitations aren’t actually an increase or decrease in heart rate, says Dr. What heart palpitations areĭoctors consider a normal heart rate to be 60 to 100 beats per minute. Here’s everything you need to know about heart palpitations - including when they’re a sign of something serious. Plus, you think you saw somewhere that COVID-19 can cause heart palpitations. You’re trying not to worry, but it’s your heart, after all, so you’re starting to feel kind of anxious. Maybe it feels faster or harder than usual. Maybe it feels like it skipped a beat or added an extra beat. You’re sitting at home at night, maybe watching TV or checking your phone, when suddenly your heart feels weird.
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