Cause - Heart Palpitations And Scar Tissue After Heart Surgery?
Blog Topics: Heart Palpitations; Causes; Scar Tissue After Heart Surgery; Help
Most of us are blissfully unaware of the heart’s steady thump as it contracts and relaxes nearly 100,000 times a day. Sometimes, though, you may notice that your heart has unexpectedly started to race or pound, or feels like it has skipped a beat. These sensations are called heart palpitations. For most people, palpitations are a once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence. Others have dozens a day, some so strong that they feel like a heart attack.
Most palpitations are caused by a harmless hiccup in the heart’s rhythm. A few reflect a problem in the heart or elsewhere in the body. Sorting out worrisome palpitations from the harmless ones isn’t always easy. Doctors can be quick to attribute them to anxiety, depression or some other emotional or psychological problem. Although sometimes that’s exactly right, it’s important to first rule out harmful heart rhythms and other physical causes.
Cause Of Heart Palpitations
Palpitations are extremely common. Although most people shrug them off, they worry countless folks enough to consult a primary care physician or cardiologist. Different people experience palpitations in different ways. You might feel as though your heart is fluttering, throbbing, flip-flopping, or pounding, or that it’s skipped a beat. Some people feel palpitations as a pounding in the neck; others as a general sense of unease.
Some palpitations appear out of the blue and disappear just as suddenly. Others are linked with certain activities, events or feelings. Exercise and physical activity can generate palpitations, as can anxiety or stress. Some people notice palpitations when they are drifting off to sleep; others, when they stand up after bending over. The list of possible causes is long.
Trouble from above. Some palpitations are the result of premature contractions of the atria. When the heart’s upper chambers contract a fraction of a second earlier than they should, they rest an instant longer afterward to get back to their usual rhythm. This feels like a skipped beat, often followed by a noticeably forceful contraction as the ventricles clear out the extra blood they accumulated during the pause. These premature beats are almost always benign, meaning they aren’t lifethreatening or a heart attack in the making.
Trouble from below. Early contractions of the ventricles, the heart’s lower chambers, can also cause palpitations. Single premature ventricular contractions, or a couple in a row, aren’t usually a problem, unless they are accompanied by symptoms such as fainting or shortness of breath. Runs of them one after the other, though, are worrisome because of the possibility that they might degenerate into the deadly cardiac chaos known as ventricular fibrillation.
More Causes Of Heart Palpitations Including Scar Tissue
Problems with the heart’s timekeeper, called the sinus node, can cause palpitations. Another possible source is a breakdown in synchronization between the upper and lower chambers. Scar tissue in the heart from a heart attack or other injury can lead to palpitations, as can valve problems such as mitral valve prolapse.
Palpitations come and go. They are usually gone in the doctor’s office. That makes pinning them down a joint effort. One of the most helpful pieces of information is your story of how your palpitations feel, how often they strike, and when. The more details you can marshal, the better. When you have palpitations, try to gauge your heart’s rhythm (is it fast or slow? regular or irregular?). Do you feel lightheaded, dizzy, or out of breath, or do you have chest pain? Are you often doing the same thing when they occur? Do they start and stop suddenly, or fade in and out? Your description of your general health, what you eat and drink, the medications you are taking — don’t forget to mention herbs and supplements — and your family history are also essential.
A physical exam can reveal telltale signs. When listening to your heart, your doctor may hear a murmur or other sound suggesting a problem with one of the heart’s valves, which can cause palpitations. He or she may also find a thyroid imbalance, signs of anemia, low potassium, or other problems that can cause or contribute to palpitations.
An electrocardiogram (EKG) is a standard tool for evaluating someone with palpitations. This recording of your heart’s electrical activity shows its rhythm and any overt or subtle disturbances, but only over the course of 12 seconds or so. Your doctor may want to record your heart rhythm for longer to identify the cause of the palpitations.
Most of the time, the exam and EKG don’t turn up any problems. If your palpitations aren’t accompanied by dizziness or other symptoms, if you don’t have a valve disorder or other structural problem with your heart, and if sudden death or other problems aren’t lurking in your family tree, that usually means the palpitations aren’t signs of impending doom.
If your palpitations come with chest pain, your doctor may want you to have an exercise stress test. If they come with a racing pulse or dizziness, an electrophysiology study using a special probe inserted into the heart may be in order.
What to do About Heart Palpitations
Searching for an underlying cause of palpitations holds out the possibility of halting them. The solution may be as simple as cutting back on caffeine or correcting anemia or a low potassium level, or as complicated as a procedure to destroy a small patch of cells inside the heart that gives rise to erroneous beats. Often, though, even the most thorough search doesn’t turn up a fixable cause.
Drug therapy isn’t necessarily required. Sure, there are several medications that beautifully suppress premature atrial or ventricular beats. But they tend to have unwanted side effects, and can cause more serious rhythm problems. Several older studies have shown that they may even shorten life compared with no treatment. For some people, a beta blocker or anti-anxiety medication can ease the problem without causing a new one.
If you have unexplained palpitations, start with the simple things first: Try cutting back on caffeine, or giving it up altogether, to see if it is contributing to the problem.
Stress and anxiety are two other key triggers of palpitations. A two-step approach can help here. Meditation, the relaxation response, exercise, yoga, tai chi, or other stress-busting activities may help keep palpitations away. If they do appear, breathing exercises or tensing and relaxing every muscle group in your body can ease the panic or anxiety spurred by palpitations that sometimes feeds into creating more of them.
Although doctors often say not to worry, it’s hard to follow that advice when your heart is pounding in your chest and you’re afraid the “big one” is imminent. Talking about your experience with others in the same boat can be very helpful. The Internet is rife with support groups.
To learn more about “Heart Palpitations - What Can You Do?” click here.
Keep on tickin,
Adam
Adam Pick is the author of The Patient’s Guide To Heart Valve Surgery, a unique book which integrates the clinical facts of heart valve surgery with the personal experiences of an actual heart valve surgery patient. This special book was designed to minimize stress and enhance the patient’s recovery. To learn more about Adam’s heart valve surgery book, click here.
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