Categories

6 Common Symptoms of Tachycardia

Extreme Heart Palpitations

Heart palpitations are marked by extremely fast heartbeats that you usually become aware of. Your heart can feel like it is racing, fluttering, or pounding loudly and violently against your chest.

Most heart palpitations have benign causes [1]. Hormonal changes during menopause or pregnancy, strenuous physical activity, and alcohol consumption are some of the most common causes of heart palpitations. Occasionally, palpitations are indicative of defects in the heart.

Tachycardia [2] feels like heart palpitations, only it is more intense. It is also potentially more life-threatening. You have no way of determining if your heart palpitations have exceeded the stipulated 100 beats per minute. What you should do is contact a doctor immediately if your palpitations seem unexplainable or often occur with symptoms like dizziness and shortness of breath.

Shortness of Breath

Shortness of breath is an uncomfortable condition that feels like you’re not getting enough air [3] into your lungs. It can leave you struggling to draw in more oxygen in quick successions, sometimes taking the next breath even before you have completed one. It usually happens after physical exertion, but it may happen outside of this context. In such cases, it can be caused by underlying health conditions, such as heart or lung problems.

Tachycardia happens because your heart is working much faster than it should. Even though the heart pumps blood more rapidly, it often does it at a rate too fast to be efficient. The supply of oxygenated blood to many parts of the body reduces. Sometimes even the heart gets starved of oxygen. The body tries to compensate for the shortage of oxygen by drawing in more air.