why does my heart beat so fast?

Hi I have been going through the same for the last 5-6 years. Once my heart beat was 130 p/min and i was rushed to the hospital but all the ECG reports were fine. I had low Vitamin-D in  my body and i thought may be that could be one of the reason as without vit-D food is difficult to digest and hence the heart rate increases, but still with vit-D my heart rate would increase... with certain foods it is too much, it happens when i've slept less, when i lie down, whenever i eat food!  Last month i was detected with panic attacks. My problem is i am allergic to all drugs and cannot take any medication!

Finally i went for Christian Counseling! It was amazing! i was dealt with very very deep hurts in my life from childhood. It was like going through my unconscious mind, do repair & maintainance work with the Word of God & stitch back! it was like a spiritual operation! i dealt almost for a week on each subject like 'rejection', 'hurts', 'fears' etc and had to forgive many people who hurt me the most...it was the most difficult task!  it was worth it as since i started this counseling i have never got a panic attack and my irregular heartbeats are being reduced. I'm now convinced that i have to clean my heart and heal its brokeness with the love of God! I'm on the way!  God bless whoever reads this and are convinced too!

I am 15 years old, and it started to happen today. I worked out by running. I was breathing heavy and my heart rate was really high, or at least it felt higher than when i normally run. After around half and hour later, when my body cooled down, I felt normal and sat down to eat ,and about 5 min. later I had some water,when i had that it was room temperature water,but it felt ice cold when it went down my throat. Then I could feel my heart pulsating very hard. My entire chest was moving, and I could see my shirt moving. I had pain starting from my throat down to my stomach. I thought it was gas at first, but it was kind of weird that my heart was beating so hard. I couldn't eat my food anymore. It was almost like i was cramping, because when i stood up and stretched my abs, the pain went away a little and i felt some gas coming. The weird thing is i just ate some food right now, and its happening again. I will go see a doctor tomorrow and post up again. Im confused so i just looked this up. i see a few similar things posted here about what happened to me. Since this doctor is a family friend i trust him to not to be corrupt and intentionally give me medication that has prob. has nothing to do with what is happening. I will try to post what happened at the doctor later. it may just be gas, but my heart went crazy so i dont know.

I haven't read all of the posts and I don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet but this sounds a lot like some form of dysautonomia.  I would definitely look up the different types of dysautonomia and see if you have any of the symptoms.  It is a commonly over looked condition and it can't be diagnosed by looking at someone's blood or performing an EKG while they are lying down.  The reason your EKG is normal is probably because your doctor is not measuring your heart beat while you sit up or stand.  Try to visit a cardiologist or ear,nose, and throat doctor, you might need a tilt table test.  Hope this helps:)  p

Hi, I have a friend who had a resting heart rate of 120 bpm.  The doctor found out she had an over active thyroid.  She has to take medication for it but is essentially all better.

I'm 21 years old and I have the same issue - hard and fast heart beat... Just sitting, laying down and sometimes after eating.. I just googled this cause it has started to freak me out.... I have quite a lot of caffeine in diet soft drinks and it started after I ate some pizza for the first time in a long while the other night..... I think my body is telling me to not eat that but keep in mind I'm Not over weight.... Definitely not anxiety Or stress. The key things I picked up from others is eating pizza and that the majority are the same age (20's) And that going to the doctors will be a waist of time.

I'm 24, a bit underweight, blood pressure slightly on the lower side - I started having palpitations and rapid heart rate about 2 months ago. Did EKG and it came back fine. My heart starts beating fast for no reason, when I'm lying down, eating, watching TV, and especially after taking a hot shower, it can go up to 150bpm. I have had occasions when it goes up to 180bpm and they lasted about 30-40 mins. I have since tried not to take a 'so-hot' shower and it did help a bit. Doctors are not sure what's causing this problem as well.

Possible temporary hack of a fix in bold:

So I read the first few pages and the last one, same thing here. This has been happening to me since I was 11 probably, for about a few minutes (I think longest was 20?) every several months. I narrowed it down to this: when I inhale just as I stand up from sitting or crouching or some sort of 'compressed' body state and inhale deeply at the same time. Then the heart goes nuts and beats who knows how fast, and I feel dizzy and even though I breathe normally I feel short of breath. I think this is because it drops the blood pressure rapidly for a moment and does something to the heart (this might be why people usually get it after eating maybe since we mostly eat while sitting down for a while and then get up suddenly afterr).  The reason I think this is the cause is because the opposite -usually- works to stop it. One deep inhalation, holding your breath and going from standing to a crouched ball which should pulse high blood pressure the other way I guess [not a doctor, speculating here and can't guarantee any results though, and if you explode or something I'm not liable here]. When it stops the heart seems to make a one loud THUMP and then it goes back to it's normal beat all nice and easy. This usually works, and somehow I feel it working when it dislodges whatever is stuck... but sometimes I need to do it a couple of times.

Now here is the funny: when I was little I read in some old medical guide on a shelf at home about this and it had something with either the valves getting stuck open or temporarily inverting so that flow was unrestricted between some parts of the heart. The other funny was my grandma dragged me through several doctors and nothing ever showed up on anything. So the problem is I don't remember what the book is nor the name of the problem and it was not in English to start with... but I do remember that the only permanent fix mentioned was valve replacement and it said it's not worth the trouble because usually this is not life threatening... also I think that's where I got the inhale and sit down thing from too, not sure...

So anyone have any idea based on this additional info? If anyone tries my fix also post whether it works for you so folks can know to try or disregard completely.

Looks like I found it; I seem to get the bit about the valves wrong and the cause seems to be electric feedback instead of actual physical action on the heart but everything else seems to hold true. In any case I give you Supra-ventricular Tachycardia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supraventricular_tachycardia
And it seems that the holding your breath and scrunching up (which actually causes you to force-exhale) are called vagal maneuvers
I guess you can try them (at your own risk ofcourse) and if they work directly then you know what to go to the doctor with.

Good luck everyone!

Hy I'm 28 years old the all sound I heard from you guys I went Through it for a 3 years, so my advice to you guys first thing who ever smoking quit right away with no single Excuse second thing's whene u fell your heart start jumping go wash your face with a cold water don't get panic just try to calm and relax and try to breath slowly as much you could do and don't go to bed after eating don't lay down after eating get rid of coffe tea dr Pepper and finly Alcoholdint drink it never ever. And good luck every body let me know .

hi i was 14 years old when i went to the hospital and my heart rate was 183 palpation a min. In my life time i was very abused and all ways in  a tramadict situations. for over 5 years now i been diagnosed with high anxiety and panic attacks it took me a good two years to grow out of it its not all the way gone but i know i can control it it took me a long time to overcome and control. And still when i go to the doctors and i get my bp and my heart rate checked its high. but i know its just because i worry about whats it going to say ! I went years with being afraid to go places go to school be away from my house being in hectic environments. When there is a bunch of screaming going on . if anyone has any questions ***this post is edited by moderator *** *** private e-mails not allowed*** Please read our Terms of Use

Ok, so, I came to this website b/c I was going through the exact same things as you guys.  I'm only 23; doctors have always said I'm very normal/healthy.  Anyway, usually after I've been sitting for a while or when I'm in bed (I also noticed a trend of something stressful happening earlier that day, like watching football tonight!), my resting heart rate goes up, I usually get nauseous, I start to become aware of my body & every little ache & pain, I panick & think I'm going to die.  I've called the ambulance twice; been to emergency room once & doctor twice.  Both the emergency room doctor & family doctor said it was anxiety attacks.  Like a lot of you, I didn't believe them & kept thinking it was something else. 

Ok, so now, looking at all of these posts, here are the trends I see:

1. We're almost all young (I see a range of 13-30) & at least fairly healthy

2. Almost all our doctors are telling us it's anxiety attacks

3. Almost all of us got tests (like blood & EKGs) that came back normal

4. Almost all happened after eating or lying down for sleep (in other words, when we're not really stressed)

5. Almost all get panicked b/c this hasn't happened before (maybe our bodies just went through a change)

My conclusion? 

Maybe if all these doctors are saying it's anxiety attacks, then we should believe them!  It's anxiety!  Some were saying that doctors don't care, but the doctor I went to genuinely seemed to care about me, and she said the same thing.  I think using the term "anxiety/panick attacks" is a problem b/c most of us don't "feel" anxious at the time.  The word seems too extreme & we think there's something wrong with us!  But, as you can see, this is happening to a lot of people; you're not alone or crazy!!  Maybe this happens at night as an accumulation of all the stress of the day, and we just didn't realize it.  So take heart (no pun intended, lol).  It's going to be ok!  As one post said, "Look back at all the times these have happened & realize: you haven't died yet!"  I think for almost all (if not all) of us, this is not serious or deadly. 

Here is what I think is the best plan of action:

1. Talk to God! 

He is our Creator; remember that He loves you passionately!!  I have found the biggest turn-around happened when I prayed earnestly to God and just poured my heart out to Him.  "Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus" Philippians 4:6-7.  And also, if you haven't already, make things right with God through Jesus (you can find out about him in the book of John in the Bible).  He died to help us in our helplessness against sin & failure, to change us for the better, to heal us, to be our Friend, Father and Guide.  There's absolutely NOTHING any of us can do to save ourselves.  We ALL blew it, and the only solution is to put our faith in Jesus.  Then we won't be afraid of death!  Once this happens, maintain your relationship with God through prayer and Bible reading (Prayer is just Christianese for "talk to God about anything that's on your heart").

2. Do see a doctor. 

You never know; it could be something more serious, but if they say it's anxiety & everything checks out, then believe them.  For those without insurance, I find CareNow or Concentra to be an affordable choice. 

3. Try to relax.

I think, when these episodes happen, the best thing to do is to take in a deep breath & hold it for a few seconds (as someone else posted), get our minds off of it & tell ourselves, "Ok, it's just another spell; I'm going to be ok" then don't allow yourself to think about it: read a book, watch a movie, listen to worship music or take a nap.

4. Take care of yourself.

We should be taking better care of our bodies, drinking more water & especially eating better.  As others have posted, we need to be careful about chemicals in our foods & eat more vegetables, fruits, grains, honey- all those natural foods that God intended to nourish our bodies.  In other words, I find that God's creation is more trustworthy than manmade stuff. 

And if you managed to read through all that, thank you! lol Sorry it's so long!

This did help (especially #1)! Thank you!

Hello all........My name is tina, i am 36 years old, and ive had these problems ever since i was 21, it all started when i was pregnate with my now 13 yr old daughter. I started to get very fast racing heartbeats, pounding. i use to be able to control it by lifting my arms above my head straight in the air, well that only lasted a few years, that no longer works, the last few times it has happened ive been sitting on my knees and legs, leaning towared the ground with my arms crossed trying to put pressure onto my chest, and that was working for awhile also....that no longer works either. i woke up this morning with my heart racing and it didnt stop for an hr. now when my heart races it feels like my tounge and jaw has like a tightning feeling, does anyone have this also?? my doc says that i have hight blood pressure, and i have high anxioty, that thisa is what is causing all thing, ekg all them test come back normal. its a very scARY feeling when this happenes, now mine never starts after eating either, ill mostly happens when i lay down on my left side, or a lay down on my back, or even if im just watching tv. i never get shortness of breath, and never any pain, just alittle tightning in my jaw an tounge. if anyone could help me out please do so. the way mine starts is alittle different them most of you, thanks so much Tina!!

Hello I am fifteen and I think I have Tachycardia but unsure. I have all ways had a abnormally fast and hard heart beat. Its hard enough that I can hear it all the time(making it annoying to sleep at times) I don't take meds or drugs of any-sort. Its this way 24-7 and if I get going you can see my heart beat through my chest and stomach. It sometimes hurts if beating fast and I have had it all my life.

Ya, I'm 16 and one day during cross country It started beating really fast and I didn't know why, it did it for like 15 minuets, and it's gone to like everyday for only 30 seconds, and My dad works in a hospital laboratory and we have a ekg machine at home but we can never catch it. So no one knows what it it? Weird I think mine has something to do with heat. It goes really fast in the shower, not strong though, and it does it at basketball games. I feel light-headed and dizzy the rest of the day, and I don't know what to do about it.