You are currently viewing Can Anxiety Cause Your Heart Palpitations?

Can Anxiety Cause Your Heart Palpitations?

  • Post category:Medical
  • Post author:
  • Reading time:6 mins read

Do you have old or elderly people at home? Do you have heart patients at home? If your parents or grandparents have issues, make sure they do not suffer from anxiety or stress. Often you must have come across elderly people in your house who run out of breath very soon. Even if they climb up some stairs, they feel exhausted, start painting, and sometimes even sweet profusely. All of these occur due to a weak heart.

There is no denying the fact that we live in an extremely stressful world where we barely get time for self-care. As a result, we fall ill much before we start aging. One of the most common emotions that people experience during giving a speech, viewing a result, or undergoing an operation is anxiety. All those anxious episodes in your life a temporary but they can have a long-lasting and damaging impact on your health.

Many people have no clue about how anxiety and stress can impact the health of our hearts. One of the potential and impactful effects of extreme anxiety and stress is heart palpitation. Sometimes this palpitation occurs even without your notice. In this blog, we will share with you how anxiety and heart palpitations are connected. So, without further delay, let’s get started with the details of the blog.

Response to Anxiety

Whenever you experience a stressful event or land in a stressful situation, you get anxious. So, in a way, anxiety is a response to a perceived threat.  For a better understanding let’s take an example. When there is a hurricane outside in your community, you will notice some children shivering in fear and even rolling themselves under the bed. This extreme fright may be due to their thought of a monster that looks like a hurricane in their minds.

However, anxiety does havoc not only on your mind but also on your body. Whenever a person is suffering from anxiety The autonomic Nervous system in his body automatically activates. It is also known as the flight or fight response. The function of the autonomic nervous system is to monitor and control the functions of the lungs, heart, digestive tract, and other important muscles of the body. Since the autonomic nervous system works involuntarily, you barely understand when it gets triggered due to stress.

Individual response

As we know, every individual is different. Therefore, the response to anxiety and stress for each person will be different. What makes you anxious may not bring the same level of anxiety to your friend and vice versa. At the same time to reduce the level of anxiety, the kind of treatment that works for you will certainly not work for your friend. You may become cold and petrified out of anxiety to dance in front of the public while someone else may take it very casually. 

Whenever you are in any stressful situation, you may experience heart palpitations. This is when you know that the autonomic nervous system in your body has been triggered. Some of the other common symptoms of anxiety leading to heart sweating Rapid breeding trembling muscle tension gastrointestinal problems and feeling extremely exhausted. Sometimes due to anxiety, you may feel nausea and start vomiting. Fainting is the worst case of anxiety.

Other causes of anxiety

Some of the other potential causes of heart palpitations include the following:

  • Alcohol

When you have too many drinks at night, it can put your heart racing. People who are occasional drinkers or who can handle their drinks will not experience anxiety. However, the ones who generally do not drink are sure to experience anxiety if they drink a lot in one go. Drinking excessively can sometimes lead to a fluttering heart.

  • Caffeine

Indeed, caffeine is one of the most powerful aspects of keeping you awake and energetic all the time. But drinking too much caffeine or products that contain caffeine can exhaust you and put you under a lot of stress leading to palpitations in the heart. Whether you will have heart palpitations after drinking three cups of coffee varies from person to person.

  • Chocolate

When you eat too much chocolate in one go it can lead to palpitations. Not only chocolate but eating exercise food, especially at dinner time can lead to qualifications and a fluttering heart. Also chocolate is a great energy giver, make sure to eat it in moderation.

  • Medication

Some medications and drugs can trigger heart palpitations. If you notice your medicine contains pseudoephedrine, try to avoid it as it can cause palpitations in the heart. Sometimes, these palpitations can extend to dizziness and nausea as well.

How to diagnose anxiety?

You can experience anxiety occasionally. Some of the common events of anxiety include a job interview, when a plane takes flight or lands down, or during surgery. Whenever you experience anxiety during these times you do not need to worry about it. Neither do you need to rush to a doctor. You need medical assistance only when the anxiety becomes extremely overwhelming and distracts your normal course of life.

When a person experiences anxiety or stress frequently, that is when you need to visit a doctor. Sometimes it becomes difficult to find out the cause of this stress. Some people experience anxiety but cannot figure it out. If you are suffering from anxiety disorder a doctor, can you with proper medication and therapy.

For diagnosing your anxiety disorder the doctor first undergoes a physical examination. He tries to figure out if you are suffering from any thyroid disease respiratory problems heart disease breeding trouble or withdrawal from alcohol drugs. Sometimes the doctor even asks you to undergo some blood tests and related other medical screenings to suspect the actual cause of anxiety. At times, the general physician refers you to a mental health professional who can guide you in the best way. To reduce anxiety, yoga, and meditation work amazingly.

Conclusion

As we already know now, your anxiety is one of the major causes of heart palpitations. To keep the stress level and anxiety in check you can visit a mental health care professional or counselor at regular intervals. If you have a habit of overthinking, you can practice some activities to stay fit both physically and mentally.