Cardiac Arrhythmia: Premature Heartbeats

Cardiac arrhythmia is a condition of the heart, where the heart either contrasts or beats in an irregular pattern. At one time or another, you may have learnt to put a finger on the side of your neck or the carotid artery to check the heart beat and if it is functioning right. Usually, you can feel a regular pattern in how your heart beats as you count it. But during an arrhythmia the pulse of the heart beat is irregular either too fast or two slow.

There are many types of arrhythmia which we see the patients for, but we would like to explain the most common of these for which we see patients on a regular basis: premature heartbeats. Premature heartbeats are just that – when the heart beats comes in a fast manner, i.e. a contraction that comes early and breaks the normal rhythm of the heart beat. It causes the succeeding heart beat to come in a faster manner and become stronger, and it’s this beat that people suddenly feel.

The sensation can be alarming. We get calls from people who feel different things: including the irregularity of a single beat, occasional beat or a series of running beats. The beat generally comes and goes, even though a feeling – a thumping, fluttering or even a quick pain – can be scary indeed.

Having premature heartbeats are generally accepted in our practice especially for women and during menopause. There’s no link to family history which would tell a person that they would experience them. Power boost drinks seem to cause arrhythmia in excess and along with it caffeine in general can be a trigger along with nicotine, anxiety and hot flashes; keep in mind that, these are not always an obvious cause.

If you feel these symptoms we would like you to come to our health center and get it checked out as soon as possible. We will perform an EKG and check the source of the irregular beats are originating, either the atria, the two upper chambers of the heart, or the ventricles, the two lower chambers of the heart.