Asthma and heart palpitations

Palpitations describe awareness of a heartbeat that feels fast, forceful, irregular, skipped, or fluttering. Exertion and the body's stress response during difficult breathing can make the heartbeat more noticeable. Reliever inhalers can sometimes cause a brief racing feeling or tremor, especially if more doses are taken than prescribed.

Other possible contributors include caffeine, nicotine, fever, low blood sugar, anaemia, an overactive thyroid, dehydration, or a heart rhythm disorder. The sensation alone cannot identify the cause. Its timing, regularity, duration, triggers, accompanying symptoms, and relationship to inhaler doses guide assessment.

Stop strenuous activity, sit somewhere safe, and check whether asthma symptoms are also present. Follow the prescribed asthma plan for wheeze or breathlessness, but do not take extra inhaler doses solely to treat palpitations. Avoid caffeine, nicotine, and decongestants until the cause is clearer, and drink fluids if dehydration is plausible and you can swallow safely.

Write down when the episode started, what you were doing, whether the rhythm felt regular, medicines recently taken, and associated chest discomfort, dizziness, or breathlessness. A clinician may examine you, review medicines, check an electrical heart tracing, or request blood tests based on the pattern.

Call emergency services if palpitations occur with severe breathing difficulty, chest pressure or pain, fainting, near-fainting, confusion, blue or grey lips, new weakness, or symptoms that remain intense while resting. Do not drive yourself if you feel faint or severely short of breath.

Arrange a prompt appointment for a first unexplained episode, repeated attacks, a clearly irregular heartbeat, symptoms brought on by exertion, or a pattern that follows reliever use. Continue prescribed controller medicine while awaiting advice unless a clinician directs otherwise.

Ask whether your inhaler dose and technique could contribute, which over-the-counter products or stimulants to avoid, and whether heart monitoring or blood tests are appropriate. Bring every inhaler, tablet, supplement, and a record of episodes. Explain whether breathing trouble comes before the palpitations, follows them, or occurs independently; that sequence can help narrow the cause.