It's something like listening to Trance. A genre of chest thumping music, which maintains a tempo of 125 beats per minute steadily. Imagine when your heart beats like that continuously albeit for a minute or so. The inevitable conclusion, obviously, is that something is wrong with the heart.
Increased heartbeat is natural when someone is excited, frightened, anxious or exercising. The moment anxiety wears off or the person takes rest, heart beat returns to normal. But what if, it starts beating faster and faster for no apparent reason? Just like the steady beat in Trance music!
Modern living
Well! That does happen to many people and they call it palpitation, a condition which is being reported widely among youngsters and the elderly alike, thanks a variety of reasons, mostly attributed to the ways of modern living. It's not uncommon nowadays to hear about someone being rushed to hospital with the complaint of palpitation.
To put it simply, the erratic behaviour of the most vital organ could be due to a coronary blockage or the heart's intricate electrical system going haywire. The other causative reasons could be the heart being unable to pump blood with normal pressure, to compensate which the beat is increased, or endocrine causes like thyroid disturbances or even anaemic conditions too can trigger bouts of palpitations.
Cardiac arrest
A coronary blockage or a clot starves part of the heart of oxygenated blood damaging the heart muscle itself and it could lead to a heart attack, which could be lethal if not treated in time. (A cardiac arrest is different from a heart attack. Cardiac arrest, which could affect a healthy heart, simply means the heart suddenly stops pumping blood properly either due to heart's electrical system getting scrambled or for any other reason too).
Cardiologists say mostly people do not report palpitations as the episodes last for a few minutes. While there could be some benign inexplicable reasons causing palpitations, its better to undergo the coronary diagnostic tests.
“Having a block in the vessel is no big deal nowadays. We can treat them effectively, if only we know the condition of the heart. Sadly, people rush to hospital only when the situation worsens', rues Dr. Pramod Kumar Kuchulakanti, an interventional cardiologist in Yashoda Hospital. Not all people suffering from palpitations have clots in their vessels. Simply, heart's electrical system could have some problems, he explains.
