What Causes Sudden Onset Of Hard Heart Beats, Weakness And Dizziness?

Posted on Sat, 10 Dec 2016

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sat, 10 Dec 2016 Answered on

Sat, 31 Dec 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : Hello. Yesterday I was sitting at my computer when suddenly my heart started beating very hard. I could see it beating through my stomach and wrists and could hear it, although it was constant and did not fluctuate. I then became weak and dizzy, I felt tingling in my feet, and the core of my body felt hot. My feet felt cold on the outside, but hot on the inside. Along with these symptoms I experienced profuse sweating. This lasted about one hour, after which I felt weak the remainder of the day. Could too much caffeine do this, or I also took a thyroid supplement for the first time the day before. Could this be a cause?

Answered by Dr. Ilir Sharka (5 hours later)

Brief Answer:
I would explain as follows:

Detailed Answer:
Hello!

Welcome and thank you for asking on HCM!

I carefully passed through your question and would explain that too much caffeine or a thyroid supplement could be related to this clinical scenario.

Anxiety or a cardiac arrhythmia could also be the causes of such symptoms.

Coming to this point, if these episodes keep repeating, I would recommend consulting with your attending physician and performing some tests:

- a resting ECG
- complete blood count for anemia
- blood electrolytes for possible imbalance
- thyroid hormone levels for possible thyroid dysfunction.

An ambulatory 24-48 hours ECG monitoring would help examine your heart rhythm for a prolonged time and exclude possible cardiac arrhythmia.

Meanwhile, I would recommend avoiding caffeine intake, as it can trigger this clinical scenario.

Hope you will find this answer helpful!

Kind regards,

Dr. Iliri

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar