
Normally you should not be able to feel your heart. Certain medications and recreational drugs, as well as some medical conditions like pregnancy, fever, anemia, hyper or hypothyroid, high stress or exercise, can unmask palpitations. The most common ones arise from problems of the heart. Often times patients describe the sensation as a rapid fluttering in the chest, flip-flopping in the chest or a pounding sensation in the chest or neck. Arfaat Khan is a board-certified cardiologist who sees patients at Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital and at Henry Ford Medical Center – Fairlane in Dearborn.Palpitations are a sensory symptom and are often described as an unpleasant awareness of the forceful, rapid, or irregular beating of the heart. Then, schedule an appointment with your primary care provider or find a heart expert at or by calling 1-800-HENRYFORD (436-7936).ĭr.

How healthy is your heart? Take the heart risk quiz now. “Go to your doctor and have it looked at, because there are certain conditions that can be really detrimental to your health.” “The main thing is, if you do notice heart flutter, you shouldn’t just let it go,” Dr. The best thing you can do, especially if heart flutter is interrupting your life, is talk to your health care provider. Some studies project that by 2050, this number could jump to 15 million. In more severe cases, if a patient is still experiencing heart flutter despite being on medication, cardiologists can perform an ablation, where surgeons cauterize those areas where flutters are happening.Ītrial fibrillation (sometimes called AFib) is the most common type of arrhythmia – any change from your normal heart rhythm – affecting roughly 3 million Americans. There are also medications available to control heart flutter, including blood pressure medications that slow the heart rate down and prevent premature beats.
CHEST FLUTTER SKIN
In addition, if you are physically active and in good health, you shouldn’t experience heart flutter – and if you do, it could signal something more serious, he says.īlood tests, ultrasounds and EKGs can be administered to more clearly view the heart and how it is working, and monitors can be injected under the skin for up to three years to evaluate heart activity. “If your heart flutter is accompanied by other symptoms, such as chest pain or other symptoms at a greater severity, it could be a sign of an underlying condition,” Dr. So how do you know when you should seek medical attention? But for some, heart flutter can lead to serious health concerns like stroke. As you age, heart flutter also becomes more common.įor most, it’s not life-threatening. If you’re dehydrated, have electrolyte abnormalities, suffer from conditions such as high blood pressure or an underlying heart issue, this could be to blame for your heart flutter. “Heart flutter is any abnormal beating of the heart which causes you to feel like your heart flopping around in your chest like a fish,” says Arfaat Khan, M.D., a cardiologist at Henry Ford Health. The duration of your heart flutter can also vary from once every 6 months to every couple of hours. In addition, you could experience only one beat that is off rhythm, or multiple uneven beats in a row. Heart flutter is characterized by premature beats that can come from either the upper or lower chambers of the heart, and symptoms can range from nearly non-detectable to sudden cardiac arrest in extreme cases. While arguably one of the most important muscles in the body, the heart can sometimes short-circuit itself through what is known as atrial fibrillation – or heart flutter. And by age 70, your heart will have beat more than 2.5 billion ( yes, billion) times.

Each day, it beats an average of 100,000 times, pumping about 2,000 gallons of blood throughout the body.
