“It felt like my heart flipped in my chest,” “I skipped a beat,” “it suddenly started pounding”—many people have experienced these sensations at least once in their lives. Some become alarmed right away, while others attribute such situations to stress, fatigue, or too much coffee. Although these signals from the heart are often harmless, experts warn that sometimes they can be the first sign of a more serious health problem.
What causes heart palpitations?
Medically, these extra or premature contractions are called extrasystoles. Doctors reassure us that occasional palpitations are usually completely harmless and are a sign not of heart disease, but of our lifestyle. The main external factors that make the heart more sensitive:
- Stress and emotional anxiety
- Fatigue and chronic sleep deprivation
- Excessive consumption of caffeine or alcohol
- Electrolyte imbalance (for example, a deficiency of potassium or magnesium after intense physical exertion)
If these sensations occur only occasionally, it’s enough to adjust your daily habits, get more rest, and ensure your body’s mineral balance is maintained—and the palpitations will go away on their own.
When Do Heart Palpitations Become a Warning Sign?
Although most heart palpitations are benign, in some cases they can signal serious disorders of the heart’s electrical system—arrhythmias (such as atrial fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia). According to doctors, you should be concerned and seek help from a cardiologist if your heart skips a beat:
1. It occurs frequently and does not go away for a long time.
2. It occurs during physical exertion or immediately afterward, and the heart takes a long time to return to a normal rhythm.
3. They occur alongside other symptoms—such as shortness of breath, dizziness, weakness, or chest pain.
The biggest problem is that a short-term electrocardiogram (ECG) performed in a doctor’s office often lasts only a dozen or so seconds. Since arrhythmias are insidious and occur in episodes, the heart may beat perfectly rhythmically during a standard test, leaving the problem undetected.
How to Detect Arrhythmias? The Benefits of Long-Term Monitoring with ZIVE
To accurately diagnose arrhythmias, doctors prescribe continuous heart rhythm monitoring. Here, medical advances offer a far more convenient and effective alternative to traditional, cumbersome hospital devices—the Lithuanian-developed ZIVE ECG Holter monitor.
Here’s why ZIVE is an indispensable tool for anyone experiencing heart “flutters”:
- Long-term monitoring at home: The device records every heartbeat for up to 7 days without interruption. This dramatically increases the likelihood of “catching” rarer arrhythmias or those that occur only at night.
- Artificial intelligence analysis: Advanced HEART-AI algorithms automatically recognize more than 20 different types of heart rhythm disorders. You don’t have to guess—the technology accurately identifies abnormalities.
- Symptom Log: As soon as you feel a heart skip, you can mark it in the ZIVE smartphone app. This allows you to see later exactly how your subjective sensation corresponds to your heart’s actual electrical signals at that moment.
- Ready for a Cardiologist’s Consultation: After the monitoring session, a detailed and standardized ECG report is generated. You can send it directly to your doctor, who will immediately see the full picture and be able to prescribe precise treatment without additional wait times at clinics.
Occasional heart palpitations (extrasystoles) are often benign, triggered by stress, fatigue, or caffeine, but persistent, symptomatic, or exercise-related fluttering can signal serious arrhythmias requiring investigation. The ZIVE ECG Holter Monitor offers a long-term at-home monitoring solution that uses AI to detect arrhythmias and generate comprehensive reports for cardiologists.