Irregular heartbeat...please help?!?

Sometimes i can feel my heart beating faster than usual, or feeling irregular. This usally happens at night or in the late evening. I cant go to sleep as i can feel my heart through my chest beating irregular, and to be honest its very frightening at times.

I have already had one echo scan in the past 2 years, on the NHS, and when the results came back everything was fine. (The NHS were very vague about the results). But i was told that my heart was faster than compared to others.

I am only 21 years of age and female and i dont smoke-neither have i ever been a smoker so this isnt a factor. But i am worried as there has been a history of heart attacks in my family and strokes throughout the generations and ive lost alot of people very close to me due to this. :(

My symptoms are; irregular heartbeat, slight pain/numbness in my top left hand side of my chest (the pain/numbness occurs only sometimes) and feeling dizzy.

Please could someone give me some advice?Thankyou! Helen x

Additional details:

I usually experience irregular heartbeat i would say, once a month, maybe a little more. It usually happens before i go to bed.

I also strangely find that when i have had a couple of glasses of wine, i am more likely to get an irregular heartbeat and slight numbness in my left hand side of my chest- like i have tonight.

I am not an excessive drinker but i drink socially with my friends.

I thought it may be a panic attack to start with, as i have suffered from these in the past, but i am not anxious or in a situation for a cause of a panic attack- i am in bed!

It is now 5.48am in England and i have been up all night :(

I got sleep from 10pm until 12pm then woke up, and it the irregular heartbeat started then. And ive been awake ever since :(

Has anyone else experienced this problem? Is it stress related perhaps?

Helen xx

Get it checked out straight away. A while back, I developed arrhythmia and occasional tachycardia, which had the same sort of symptoms. That was when I was just 16, I'm now 27. I was put on medication and am 100% fit and healthy now.

Out of interest... do you ever find you are very shaky/dizzy when you wake up? That was one of my symptoms and it used to terrify me before I was diagnosed.

Please don't be scared to go to the doc about it, it may well be nothing, but better to be safe than sorry. It's always scary when there's a possibility that you MIGHT have a heart problem, but there are painless treatments that work wonders. I was very frightened when it happened to me, but the problem was easily solvable with medicines.

Sounds to me like you should see your family doctor. You might do well to have a heart tracing (ECG - or EKG if you're from the USA) and possibly a thing called a Holter monitor - where you wear the ECG leads for 24hrs and have the electrical impulses recorded over the time.

In the meantime, you should probably avoid caffeine (coffee tea cocacola) and alcohol which are known to provoke rapid heart rates.

Have a look at the wiki page below

you should see your doctor, and explain the symptoms. There are monitors that you can take home, and wear for 24-48 hours. They can record your heart rhythm durring that time, and then the doctor can look at those rhythm strips for abnormalities. It is usually called a Holter Monitor. I wouldnt be too worried tho- do you take alot of caffiene? Any medications? There are lots of reasons that can cause an irregular/ fast heart beat, and most are benign.

If You are concerned about heart attacks and strokes why not find out WHY they had them(overweight/high blood pressure/ lack of exercise/ too much fat/ alcohol...etc.) and do what YOU have to do to NOT be that way...much better than having tests and worrying...Stress whether self induced or externally generated is NOT a productive way of dealing with this sort of stuff...meditation and yoga would be much more helpful...

probably it's nothing, could be caffeine side effects if you are a coffee drinker. then again it's never a bad idea to take care of your heart. maybe you should get a few opinions if you can. ask around. but don't go into the clinic with any preconceived notions. trust what the doctor has to tell you but don't let them pander to your inner hypochondriac ;-)

i have this same problem too.
it usually happens when i stand up after lieing down for a while ,when anxious or through lack of sleep.
why dont you try to get healthy ,maybe take vitamins l and exerciise a little each day i find these these have helped.
you may be anaemic or even have low blood preasure .

You say you thought it was a panic attack.. It IS. I have been there. Whether you are in bed or not.. When you think about something a lot and it scares you, it makes it worse. I have been there. You are noticing things, and then getting scared. But it worries you because of your family history. Just try not to think about it when it happens, that's what I used to do. I self-cured my panic attacks, and now I hardly ever have them.

i too experience similar symptoms to you. a few years ago i had heart palpitations and called in to my local hospital. they kept me in for twelve days. i was sent to newcastle's freeman hospital where they specialise in problems like this but they weren't 100% sure of the cause but thought it might be rogue tissue in my heart causing the two main chambers to beat out of sync because one of the two electrical impulses took a slightly different path. they did lots of different checks though and said it was in good shape otherwise so that gave me confidence and the panic attacks i was suffering before don't affect me now. i still wake up occasionally with a racing and pounding heart and also have the odd palpitation but i don't let it worry me. they call me in to check me over every so often. i recommend you get looked at too.best of luck.

baby you visit a specialist in medicine as soon as possible and dont take suggestions from others

I first experienced this symptom when I was twenty one and the Doctor I consulted said that he had them as well and not to worry.I am now seventy two and still get them now and then, usually stress related, once you notice them you tend to focus on them. See your doctor, chances are that they are not anything serious but get it checked out just to be sure.