Your heart beats 100,000 times a day, but you hardly notice it until you experience something unusual. Heart palpitations, that fluttering, racing feeling in your chest, can cause alarm. Fortunately, most palpitations are benign.
At Apex Medical Professionals LLC in n Fair Lawn, New Jersey, our medical team recognizes how unsettling these episodes can be. If you are experiencing frequent changes in your heart rhythm, we strongly advise you to seek an evaluation.
Here’s what we want patients to understand about heart palpitations.
Most of the time, temporary flutters do not stem from a structural heart problem. Every day lifestyle factors are most often the cause. These include:
Non-cardiac medical conditions can also disrupt this rhythm, such as an overactive thyroid gland and anemia.
Heart palpitations can be caused by various underlying conditions affecting the heart's electrical system and impacting rhythm or function, which can become life-threatening if left untreated.
These conditions include:
Conditions such as atrial fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia, or supraventricular tachycardia can lead to dangerous palpitations.
Problems with the heart valves, such as mitral valve prolapse or aortic stenosis, can cause palpitations by altering blood flow through your heart.
Heart disease, including coronary artery disease, myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle), or cardiomyopathy (disease of the heart muscle), can lead to palpitations.
Congenital heart defects or acquired structural abnormalities of the heart can disrupt normal cardiac function and lead to palpitations.
If you experience isolated, occasional flutters that resolve within a few seconds, they’re likely not harmful.
However, you should seek immediate emergency medical attention if your heart flutters are accompanied by the following:
If you’re concerned about heart palpitations, the team at Apex Medical Professional can diagnose the cause and provide a personalized treatment plan. Contact us today to book an appointment.
