The other night, I was alarmed to feel my heart pounding so hard. I was not stressed, I was not physically overexerted. In fact, I had just spent a couple of hours reading in bed and was feeling totally relaxed. That is why I was quite surprised when my heart just started pounding so hard that it seemed that I could feel my heartbeat all over my body!

This, of course, prompted me to look this symptom up on the Internet. I didn’t really feel any other “scary” symptom so I didn’t think to go to the doctor. Yet what I have found is faintly alarming. I might have tachycardia.

Tachycardia is defined as a condition wherein the heart rate is more than 100 beats per minute. That night, my heart was beating at about 130. A minute ago, just sitting here and typing, I counted 118 beats per minute.

What are other symptoms of tachycardia? The Mayo Clinic lists down the following:

• Dizziness
• Shortness of breath
• Lightheadedness
• Rapid heartbeat
• Heart palpitations — a racing, uncomfortable or irregular heartbeat or a sensation of “flopping” in the chest
• Chest pain
• Blackouts
• Visual problems
• Fainting (syncope)

I have had 6 out of the 9. This is scaring me. Yet I just had an ECG several months back and they said that there was absolutely no problem with my heart. Maybe I am just being paranoid?

Let me delve a little more into this and look at the possible causes of tachycardia. I’ll share in the next post.