When Should I Be Worried About Heart Palpitations?

Heart palpitations are not a cause for concern unless you also experience symptoms such as chest pain or pressure, difficulty breathing/shortness of breath, lightheadedness/fainting near-fainting spells, dizziness, excessive sweating, swelling in your leg, fatigue, weakness, confusion, anxiety, or symptoms persist or frequently return.

Heart palpitations are a type of irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia) in which there is a change in the heart’s sequence of electrical impulses. 

Most of the time the heart palpitations are not a cause for concern and they only cause minor symptoms such as feeling:

• As if you skipped a heartbeat
• The heart is beating faster than normal
• As if the heart is pounding in your chest
• Fluttering in the chest or neck

However, there are some types of arrhythmias that can be signs of medical conditions: 

• Tachycardia
  • Heart rate is too fast (in adults, more than 100 beats per minute)
• Bradycardia
  • Heart rate is too slow (in adults, less than 60 beats per minute)
• Atrial fibrillation (AFib)
  • Upper heart chambers contract irregularly
• Ventricular fibrillation (VFib)
  • Disorganized contraction of the lower chambers of the heart
• Conduction disorders
  • Heart does not beat normally
• Premature contraction (PACs and PVCs)
  • Early heart beat

See a doctor right away if you have palpitations and:

• Chest pain or pressure 
• Difficulty breathing/ shortness of breath 
• Lightheadedness/fainting near-fainting spells
• Dizziness
• Excessive sweating
• Swelling in your leg 
• Fatigue 
• Weakness 
• Confusion
• Anxiety 
• Symptoms persist or frequently return
• You have certain underlying medical conditions such as: 
  • Coronary artery disease
  • Congestive heart failure 
  • Cardiomyopathy 
  • Family history of heart disease
  • Abnormal heart valve
  • Heart attack
  • High blood pressure
  • Diabetes
• In severe cases, collapse and sudden cardiac arrest 
  • Cardiac arrest is a serious medical emergency and can be fatal. 
  • If someone you know is experiencing any symptoms listed below call 911 and get to a hospital’s emergency department immediately. 
    • Sudden loss of responsiveness 
    • No normal breathing (not breathing at all or gasping for air)