signifiance of heart palpitations

[maddy]

Could you please tell me if there is any signifance to the amount and hardness of heart palpitations.  

I am a 38 year old female who suffers from heart palpitations almost daily.  I usually have between 10 - 20 skips or strange sensations in my heart per day.  Sometimes the skips are REALLY hard.  I have no heart disease and a completely normal heart so I am told not to worry.  

My question is 10 - 20 abnormal beats a lot during one day and is there any significance to how hard the skips are.  I am told a lot of people just ignore the skips but I can't believe they can do that when they are so intense.

Thank you for your time.

[chris]

I'm a 19 year old male and have been suffering the odd heart palpitation daily for about 8 years or so. It started gradually getting worse over the years, sometimes once a day it would feel like my heart was going crazy and skipping or giving extra beats in the time period of about 15 seconds. I would just get up and walk around, then I would be fine. This week has been really bad, in the past few days, these palpitations have been happening almost constantly during the day. There are periods of about 3 hours or so where I will be ok, but the rest of the time, particularly when I go to bed or wake up my heart will start skipping  beats like crazy and it feels like I'm going to die. There has never been any pain involved or pressure. Just basically the  very uneasy sensation of my hear skipping beats. This really scares me, I have had 3 ECG's and so far they have been fine. I don't smoke, drink alcohol or anything with caffeine in it. I am very concerned over this. I find my self feeling my chest and praying that it starts to beat regularly again. I find that when I am in a situation where there is a lot of adrenaline (like an ER visit) my heart seems to beat normally with not palpitations or at least very few of them. I have a bit of stress in my life, I am a part owner in a small business, had my mom pass away earlier this year and just crashed my car the other week. I don't know if this is related or not. Right now I'm wondering if it is safe to go to sleep with all these palpitations and if I'm going to wake up in the morning. I have also suffered so called "panic attacks" off and on in the past few weeks. At first, I thought it was just my blood sugar level because I was feeling very dizzy and felt like I was about to pass out. During this period, my heart rate might have been fast, but there were no actual skipped or extra beats. For all I know, these might not be panic attacks but somthing more serious, this is all up to my doctor I guess. Right now I wish I had a degree in medicine so that I knew what was going on and how to make myself feel better. If anyone has any suggestions on what I can do or even ask my doctor, please let me know. I am very fustrated over this and want to prevent or fix the situation. My email address is: ***@****

I would greatly appreciate any advice that anyone has, thanks for your time, Chris.

[chris]

I'm a 19 year old male and have been suffering the odd heart palpitation daily for about 8 years or so. It started gradually getting worse over the years, sometimes once a day it would feel like my heart was going crazy and skipping or giving extra beats in the time period of about 15 seconds. I would just get up and walk around, then I would be fine. This week has been really bad, in the past few days, these palpitations have been happening almost constantly during the day. There are periods of about 3 hours or so where I will be ok, but the rest of the time, particularly when I go to bed or wake up my heart will start skipping  beats like crazy and it feels like I'm going to die. There has never been any pain involved or pressure. Just basically the  very uneasy sensation of my hear skipping beats. This really scares me, I have had 3 ECG's and so far they have been fine. I don't smoke, drink alcohol or anything with caffeine in it. I am very concerned over this. I find my self feeling my chest and praying that it starts to beat regularly again. I find that when I am in a situation where there is a lot of adrenaline (like an ER visit) my heart seems to beat normally with not palpitations or at least very few of them. I have a bit of stress in my life, I am a part owner in a small business, had my mom pass away earlier this year and just crashed my car the other week. I don't know if this is related or not. Right now I'm wondering if it is safe to go to sleep with all these palpitations and if I'm going to wake up in the morning. I have also suffered so called "panic attacks" off and on in the past few weeks. At first, I thought it was just my blood sugar level because I was feeling very dizzy and felt like I was about to pass out. During this period, my heart rate might have been fast, but there were no actual skipped or extra beats. For all I know, these might not be panic attacks but somthing more serious, this is all up to my doctor I guess. Right now I wish I had a degree in medicine so that I knew what was going on and how to make myself feel better. If anyone has any suggestions on what I can do or even ask my doctor, please let me know. I am very fustrated over this and want to prevent or fix the situation. My email address is: ***@****

I would greatly appreciate any advice that anyone has, thanks for your time, Chris.

[John]

I'm 49 I have had heart palps everyday now for the 2 past years -they sometimes make me cough, i'm sometimes light headed and get a headache from it. I do find that when I get them the most, I also have an upset stomach and have to take an antacid.I drink coffee everyday and drink sometimes on weekends I have a sister that has the same thing.Any ideas  ?

[James L.Kee]

Three years ago I started with palps everytime I would awake.  My Dr. had did a holter and put me on 240 mg veapamil once daily.  EKG showed a thickening of the left wall of my hert.  Stress test OK.  I only have palps which always end up in a flutter when I awake. I can fall asleep on a couch or just doze and will wake up with paplps or flutter.  Dr. does not seem to be concerned.  My quality of life is not good.  I am always afraid the flutter will not stop and I always get up and move.  This will stop the flutter.  My normal at rest heart rate is 56.  Same as my fathers.  I am 65 years old.  Staying off cafeine and chocalate decreases the severity of the palps.  Something as I awake triggers the flutter.  Adrenaline??  Anyone with similar problems.  Will flutter cause a stroke if I let it go.  I take one aspirin daily.  Sometimes I feel a sensation in left cheek, no weakness, just a sensation. Help.

[maryann]

I have had Atrial Flutter and palpitations for 30 years.  I was tried on several cardiac drugs and finally doctors settled on Inderal.  I was on Inderal and Digoxi for about 20 years and developed asthma which doctors felt was started by the Inderal.  I suffered a lung hemorage and was taken off Inderal and was put on another round of drugs without much success.  I would get palpitations nearly every day and had many trips to the ER and wearing a holter monitor up to 3 days at a time with nothing really showing.  My doctor put me back on Atenonol and I am still having palpitations and have now developed panic attacks because of it.  I get palpitations when I eat, when I drink any alcohol, if I eat anything sweet, if I walk up a flight of stairs, if I have to go to the bathroom.  This is consuming my life and on top of this situation I find that I cannot get off of the Atenonol because of the negative effects it has had on my adrenaline.  If I hear a noise my heart races and I shake for hours.  I need some health and am not getting it from my cardiologist.

[Gary]

I have had heart palpitations since I was about 13 years old and am now 39.I still have them and have been to the doctor several times.I have had all the tests and everything is normal.It helps to know there are others out there with the same problem.I don't like them in fact I hate them.