A lot of people worry if they experience or have ever experienced palpitations. Palpitations are said to be related to stress and feelings of anxiety and panic attacks. So are palpitations dangerous.

A palpitation is when you experience a fluttering heart or a fast pounding heart rate that is in the chest area or sometimes can be felt in the throat or neck. Palpitations are said to be mostly harmless but can be very frightening and if you experience them, than you should be medically checked out in order to exclude any serious reasons for the palpitations.

my own experience of palpitations

I have been a sufferer of palpitations for many years. In my situation my palpitations are not related to any triggers at all and they occur infrequently with sometimes month’s in-between each one and the next. My palpitations are also not related to stress or exercise or anything in particular.

I could be just sitting quietly, and I can suddenly get a feeling like I have a lump in my throat. At the same time I am made acutely aware of my heart, because it is beating very fast. It will beat at over 220 beats per minute which is double my normal heart rate. It feels very unpleasant and makes me feel dizzy and sickly. The fast heart rate palpitation lasts for about 10 minutes and sometimes longer. When I have a palpitation, I just take some deep breaths in and out until it stops. My heart rate does not gradually slow down it just goes from speeding to being perfectly normal again straight away,

what I did about it

When I first experienced palpitations I remember feeling very frightened, thinking that my heart was going to stop any minute. I arranged to get medically checked out, to exclude any heart problems. After numerous heart tests and heart scans I was finally given the all clear. At one point I had to wear a monitor to track my heart rate for a while. As my palpitation have never happened, when they could be monitored, it was difficult for the heart consultant to know exactly what the cause of the fast heart rate was.

Apparently my palpitations are caused by some random electric impulse that starts off the fast heart rate. It is not controllable and can happen at any time and there is no treatment for it either. I had a diagnoses of having a supra ventricular tachycardia and told that if the episodes did became more frequent to be referred back to the heart department. Although one of the doctors said that I might want to think about taking a small dose of aspirin daily, but was a precautionary measure. I came away from the consultation with mixed feelings. After all I had no treatment for my palpitations on the other hand I had been given a thorough heart MOT so I was reassured that my heart was healthy. Still at the back lot my mind I do know, that a fast heart rate is certainly not a healthy thing to have occurring even if so infrequent.