My heart is acting funny?

Question

I'll be sitting around doing nothing for say the length of a movie, and suddenly I get this fluttering fluid feeling in my chest, and I feel my pulse and its beating real rapid. Which feeling that makes me panic a little and then I start to get short of breath and dizzy. What could be going on? I know I should see my doctor, I'm just wondering what it might be first.

My cholesterol was fine when it was last tested, but I do consume a large amount of caffeine.

My pulse wasn't always high, but now its normal to be near 100 or 110

I'm 24, I am overweight, and I have polycicistic ovarian syndrom. Other then that based on my body type, my doctor told me before that I WASN'T at risk for heart disease, diabetes, or stroke. So thats good.

Answer 1

I would go and see your doctor. Two heart conditions come to mind. First is SVT or SupraVentricular Tachycardia. You heart will start to beat rapidly with a rate well over 150 beats per minute.Some of the symptoms include shortness of breath, nausea, dizziness and palpitations or being able to feel your heart beating. With some people, SVT occurs for a short amount of time before it stops on its own. Others have to go the the Emergency Room and get special medicine to slow it down.

The second is Rapid Atrial Fibrillation. It too is a rapid heart rate condition, but the difference is the regularity of the heart. The SVT condition will have a heart beat that's regular. Atrial fibrillation is irregular. Similar symptoms but this one makes you prone to having blood clots. If formed and pushed out into the body, one can have a heart attack, Arterial occlusions, DVT, pulmonary embolism or a stroke.

While you are waiting for your doctor's appointment, try to cut out caffiene, smoking, diet pills and any herbal pills (if you do any of these). I hope this helps. Feel free to email me if you have any other questions.

Answer 2

Kellie - It helps to know a little bit about your age and medical history, but it sounds like you may be having some sort of tachyarrhythmia, meaning a fast, abnormal heart rhythm. The most common types would be a supraventricular tachycardia (which often reaches heart rates of 160bpm or more), atrial flutter (typically a heart rate of about 150) or atrial fibrillation (which is distinguishable from the other two because it is very irregular; in a young person, the heart rate can get up to the high 100's).

Fortunately, none of these are really acutely life-threatening, but the problem does need to be diagnosed and treated. The first step is to find out what is going on with your heart. If the rhythm persists for long enough, you should go to the ER where they can see what your heart is doing. If the rhythm only lasts for brief periods, you will probably need a portable heart monitor that you wear for one to several days (a Holter monitor or an event monitor). This will allow your doctor to review your heart rhythm afterwards and see what your heart was doing when your symptoms occurred.

If you do, indeed, have a tachyarrhythmia, the first step is usually to start a medication (most commonly a beta-blocker or a calcium channel blocker) to try and prevent these rhythms from recurring. However, depending on the specific type of rhythm or if the medication is not successful in preventing these episodes, there are procedures that a specialist can do (see RADIOFREQUENCY ABLATION) that can potentially abolish the abnormal rhythm for good.

Your cholesterol level is unlikely to be related to the funny fluttering feeling. However, consuming a lot of caffeine definitely will increase your risk of developing any of these abnormal rhythms. I agree you should cut back on caffeine until you find out what the problem is.

UPDATE: Based on your age and medical history, all of these are actually pretty good possibilities. The person below mentions the increased risk of strokes with atrial fibrillation. This is true (atrial fibrillation does not increase risk of DVT however), but at your age, the risk would still be too low to need blood thinners. However, aspirin may be advisable IF it turns out you have atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter. It would be to your benefit to make an appointment with your doctor relatively soon.

Blix - I agree panic attacks are a possibility, although if the fluttering feeling in the chest happens first and THEN the shortness of breath and dizziness occur, it is more suggestive of an arrhythmia. The monitor would help to sort that out.

Answer 3

Have you had a cold?
Could be nothing and only mean that you need to do some sports.
If you feel fine when doing things like walking, climbing stairs or riding bike then all you need to do is getting active.

But if all this happened shortly after you have had a cold and fever - there could be an infection of the heart muscle or the heart valves.

In this case your life is at danger and you should get medical attention ASAP.
The longer you wait the harder it would be to cure infected valves and you even might need a heart surgery.
I dont want to scare you... just be really really careful.

Answer 4

I have had this happen about 8 times over the last 2 years, and it sounds EXACTLY like a panic attack. You don't always have to be going through something stressful right at the moment you start feeling this, it's typically because of the stress your body feels inside. It could emotional stress, physical stress from being overweight, or a combination of both.

You should see your primary care physician and go over your symptoms with him/her. I started taking a prescription a few weeks ago for panic disorder, and my check-up is in two days.

Seriously, please see your doctor. If he/she doesn't think it's a panic disorder, they will want to test you for other things.

I wish you well, girl!!

Answer 5

Might be MVP(mitral valve prolapse).I have the same condition.One of your valves doesn't close completely and blood keeps coming through it.It's nothing to worry about though,lots of people have this condition and they'll never even know it.I'd suggest you go see a doctor just in case.There's also a possibility it's Panic Disorder.Symptoms are quite similar.In a word you get panic attacks.Could be down to stress.

Answer 6

Yours sounds a bit more serious with the shortness of breath and dizziness, but this happened to me a while back and it was caused by too much caffeine in my diet.

Answer 7

finally any well being subject you have could desire to be stated along with your generic practitioner. I could desire to assert regardless of the indisputable fact that that i would not panic over it. that's no longer that uncommon while you're laying on your decrease back. It sounds such as what those with sleep apnea adventure in basic terms you're experiencing it jointly as unsleeping. while you're worried approximately it happening jointly as you sleep, be useful to sleep on your edge with adequate pillows to prop up your head so as that your airway would not crumple. As for the heart beat, it is not uncommon to experience that once you're airway is constricted or limited. you're pulse accelerates to furnish oxygen on the comparable fee it replaced into previously your air have been given decrease off. while that happens you may commonly experience your pulse in places inclusive of your neck and wrist. ingesting water will in all probability help to. I have no technology to diminish back this up, yet i'm getting some thing comparable while i'm dehydrated so attempt getting some water. wish this facilitates some.

Answer 8

Its the caffeine I would bet. You need to see a doctor to say for sure that there is nothing eles going on. But if you are sitting still and this is still happining I would bet on caffeine!
STOP IT!

Answer 9

It is best not to seek medical advice on the internet. Please see your physician as soon as possible.

Answer 10

maybe high colesterol