Heart Palpitations in teens?

[Matt_K]

Hey doc!

I'm a 15 y/o male, 210 pounds, 6 foot tall and have recently lost 50 lbs through healthy eating and exercise. Well, yesterday, I had a sustained (longer than 30 seconds, it was around a minute and 30 seconds) arrhythmia episode. I've only had two of them in my life, one was 5 years ago and assumed it was because I was so overweight.

I can't quite place my finger on why I had this one. I had been feeling dizzy earlier that day when playing basketball, and felt lightheaded afterwards. I ate two bowls of oats cereal and a bowl of pasta that day and started to feel chest pain (I thought I had just eaten too much, because I felt very sick).

Anyways, I realized I was going to be late for work and jumped up to get dressed, and as soon as I did my heart started beating rapidly fast (there was a normal-ish rhythm, though), most probably above 100 beats per minute.

I took deep breaths in and out and within about a minute and a half my heartbeat stabilized. However, I'm traveling to England in 2 weeks and I want to make sure this doesn't happen again while on the flight or anything, and I want to know if it's abnormal or dangerous.

Any help please?

[Michael J. McWilliams, M.D.]

It is hard to say what it was without seeing it a monitor.  It is important that you discuss the symptoms with your doctor.  if I saw you in clinic, I would check an EKG and do an echocardiogram (non invasive heart ultrasound) to make sure things look normal.  I take dizziness during exercise in young people very seriously and would advise that you talk to your doctor about it.  The only way to know if it is abnormal or dangerous is to do further tests.

I hope this helps.

[Matt_K]

The thing is, I don't have medical insurance here in America and since I'm flying to the United Kingdom in 2 weeks (where medical insurance is free) I thought waiting it out and seeing how my heart acts within those 2 weeks would be better.

Would you recommend I see a doctor immediately?

I was mostly just light headed when playing basketball, I think it could have been a bit of dehydration (I'm living in Arizona, and it's summertime). I'm not sure if they were linked, but I think I only got palpitations because of the anxiety of being late for work (I have a thing about organization and being on-time).

So basically: should I wait two weeks or see a doctor immediately?

[Michael J. McWilliams, M.D.]

these are questions i can't really answer the information that i have.  if you scheduled an appointment with a cardiologist, it would probably take at least two weeks to get in. Don't you have to schedule appointments pretty far ahead in england?

[LukeL]

While doctors frown on this, you could go to the ER and complain of chest pains. This way you would get an EKG, blood work, chest film and a doctor listening to your heart and lungs.  I know in Canada people can wait months to see a specialist, I would assume the same would hold true in England.

[Matt_K]

Not necessarily, I have an assigned doctor in England and so it takes about 3 days for a regular check-up, probably more though, if I wanted something like an EKG done.

The doctor in England gave me a simple check-up the last time I had a heart palpitation episode, but he just listened to my heartbeat with a stethoscope, and said everything was fine. Since then, everything has been fine up until yesterday, I've only had some odd 'large thump' heartbeats here and there, nothing that abnormal.

Just one more quick questions: I do a lot of cardio and weights exercises, so if I continue doing these will it affect the palpitations in any way? Should I lay off for a couple of days or something?

Thanks very much for the help so far!