York cardiologist, Dr Sanjay Gupta discusses palpitations and how to work out if the palpitation represent a heart rhythm problem by tapping out the different beats. www.yorkcardiologist.co.uk.
Hello, my name is Sanjay Gupta and I’m a cardiologist in York. Today I thought I’d do a little video on the subject of palpitation. Palpitations are really common symptoms that I see in my clinic and majority of palpitations are not serious. The big worry when people experience palpitation is whether they may have a heart rhythm disturbance. Even if they have a heart rhythm disturbance, most heart rhythm disturbances are not serious. So, that’s a little bit of reassurance.
The first thing that I would like to talk about is what is a palpitation? I suppose palpitation is a rareness of one’s heartbeat to the extent that it feels abnormal. So, the hart could be beating normally but us sensed abnormally. Now, there are many normal causes of palpitations, so to speak. So, for example, if you were walking down a dark alley and someone jumps out suddenly, then that would cause palpitation; that would cause the heart to beat very fast and that would be felt as a palpitation. But that doesn’t signify a problem with the heart itself; the heart is just doing what is meant to do, it is beating fast in response to the adrenaline that is circulating around the body. Similarly, anxiety and stress can cause palpitation; caffeine can cause palpitation, people who drink a lot of caffeine; alcohol can cause palpitation; exercise can, obviously, cause palpitation. So, these are the plan that of sort of normal things that can cause palpitations which don’t signify anything to be worried about.