Heart Palpitations

Basic Facts

  • Heart palpitations are feelings of having a fast-beating, fluttering or pounding heart. 
  • Stress, exercise, medication, or a medical condition can cause them.
  • Heart palpitations are often benign, but sometimes can be a sign of a significant rhythm abnormality.

Heart palpitations can feel like your heart is:

  • Skipping beats
  • Fluttering rapidly
  • Beating too fast
  • Pounding
  • Flip-flopping

You might feel heart palpitations in your throat or neck as well as your chest. They can occur when you're active or at rest.

 

 

Often the cause of your heart palpitations can't be found. Common causes include:

  • An abnormal heart rhythm
  • Extra heart beats
  • Strong emotional responses, such as stress, anxiety or panic attacks
  • Depression
  • Strenuous exercise
  • Stimulants, including caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, amphetamines, and cold and cough medications that contain pseudoephedrine
  • Fever
  • Hormone changes associated with menstruation, pregnancy or menopause
  • Too much or too little thyroid hormone

 You might be at risk of developing palpitations if you:

  • Are highly stressed
  • Have an anxiety disorder or have regular panic attacks
  • Are pregnant
  • Take medicines that contain stimulants, such as some cold or asthma medications
  • Have an overactive thyroid gland (hyperthyroidism)
  • Have other heart problems, such as an arrhythmia, a heart defect, previous heart attack or previous heart surgery