醫健百科

心悸猶如小鹿亂撞?分清良性心悸VS危險性心悸!

2022/10/31

雖然心臟無時無刻都在跳動,在正常情況下,我們不會感覺到心跳。但當在胸腔、喉嚨或頸部都能明顯地感覺到心跳過快、過慢或不規律的不適感, 便是出現了心悸 (Palpitation)。1 在靜止的狀態下,普通人的心臟每分鐘會有規律、平穩地跳動60-100次。2 少於60次為之過慢;多於100次為之過快。2 心悸一般會維持數秒或數分鐘,通常不會影健康。3

然而,心悸也可能是某些嚴重疾病的警號。2-4 若然遇到懷疑症狀,就不能掉以輕心。如果出現心悸時並伴有以下情況,應盡快求醫:1,2,4

  • 胸悶或胸痛
  • 呼吸困難、氣喘
  • 眩暈感,甚至暈厥
  • 異常大汗
  • 反復出現心悸,或心悸持續超過數分鐘
  • 下顎、頸部、手臂及後背上半部分感到疼痛
  • 本身患有心臟疾病或有心臟病家族史

 

良性的心悸:

引起心悸的原因眾多。以下情況引起的心悸,通常都不會危害健康,不必過分憂慮。1,3,5,6-8

  1. 進行劇烈運動後
  2. 脫水:血漿90%由水組成。當身體脫水時,血漿濃度上升會導致血液流動速度減慢,繼而增加心臟負擔,引起心率加快。
  3. 發燒:體溫達到38 ºC可影響心率
  4. 熬夜或缺乏睡眠
  5. 精神方面:壓力過大、過度焦慮或抑鬱
  6. 體內荷爾蒙變化:孕期、生理期或更年期
  7. 藥物刺激:哮喘藥物、抗生素、咳嗽或感冒藥等
  8. 飲食刺激:酒精*、咖啡因*(咖啡&茶)及尼古丁(吸煙)
*酒精:每日飲酒的人士,患上心房顫動(Atrial Fibrillation,簡稱房顫)的風險大增,主要表現為心跳過快及心率不規律。9 房顫可引發中風、血栓或心臟衰竭等。7
*咖啡因:調查顯示,本身心臟健康的人士,每日飲咖啡或茶,一般不會導致心悸問題。10 但對於心率不穩定的人士,飲用含有咖啡因的飲品後,心悸情況可能會更嚴重。

危險性的心悸

然而,其他疾病也可能會導致心悸1,5

  • 缺鐵性貧血
  • 低血糖
  • 心臟疾病:心律不正及心房顫動等
  • 甲狀腺激素分泌過多或過少,或其他甲狀腺疾病

留意,由心臟疾病引起的心悸,有可能會引致更嚴重的情況出現:3

  • 暈厥
  • 心臟衰竭
  • 中風
  • 心跳驟停

如何舒緩心悸?

舒緩方法主要視乎引起心悸的原因:

  • 劇烈運動引起:深呼吸有助心率恢復正常,慢慢吸氣最多5秒,再慢慢呼氣最多15秒。重複5分鐘,可有效降低心率和血壓。11
  • 確保每日攝取足夠水份。
  • 精神壓力引起:可通過練習深呼吸、冥想、瑜伽或太極等放鬆身心。8
  • 戒煙及控制攝入酒精/咖啡因等刺激物:若確定心悸是由刺激物引起,建議減少攝取量。12
  • 避免吃引發心悸的食物如: 高碳水化合物的食物(糖果、甜點、點心、麵包、意粉、白飯)、高鈉食物(罐頭食品、醃肉)、辣椒、朱古力14,15
  • 電解質失衡:血液內的電解質,即鉀、鈉(鹽)及鈣等失衡(濃度過高或過低),都會增加心悸的風險。攝入適量的電解質食物有助減少心悸問題出現:例如:香蕉、牛油果、菠菜、番薯、乾果、奶類及深綠色蔬菜。8
  • 避免高納飲食:過量攝入鈉會增加心悸的風險。建議每日的鈉攝取量應少於2,000毫克(約一平茶匙)。15,16

心悸會致死嗎?

在一般情況下,心悸不會危害生命。由食物、藥物、體內荷爾蒙及水份失衡等良性因素所引起的短暫心悸無須過分擔心。但當心悸是因某些嚴重疾病引起,就不容忽視。例如由心律不正引起的心悸,會有15%-20%機會導致心臟驟停(Sudden Cardiac Arrest)。17 因此,若無法確定引發心悸的因素是否良性,還是潛在疾病的隱患,都應盡快求醫,以免錯失治療的黃金時間。

參考資料:

  1. NHS. Heart palpitations. Available at: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/heart-palpitations/. Accessed 14 October 2022.
  2. 智友站. 心律不正. Available at: https://www21.ha.org.hk/smartpatient/SPW/zh-hk/Disease-Information/Disease/?guid=869fcb4f-b436-4109-8420-02194e4fd55c.  Accessed 17 October 2022.
  3. Mayo Clinic. Heart palpitations. Available at: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-palpitations/symptoms-causes/syc-20373196#:~:text=Heart%20palpitations%20(pal%2Dpih%2D,%2C%20they’re%20usually%20harmless. Accessed 14 October 2022.
  4. Amandeep Goyal et al. Palpitation. StatPearls. 2022.
  5. WebMD. When Heart Palpitations Are an Emergency. Available at: https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/heart-palpitations-emergency. Accessed 14 October 2022.
  6. WebMD. What Causes Heart Palpitations? Available at: https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/atrial-fibrillation/ss/slideshow-heart-palpitations-causes. Accessed 19 October 2022.
  7. NIH. What does blood do? Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279392/#:~:text=Blood%20is%20made%20up%20of,of%20dissolved%20substances%2C%20mostly%20proteins. Accessed 19 October 2022.
  8. Healthline. Heart Palpitations: 10 Home Remedies for Fast Heartbeat. Available at: https://www.healthline.com/health/how-to-stop-heart-palpitations. Accessed 19 October 2022.
  9. WebMD.Does Alcohol Cause AFib? Available at: https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/atrial-fibrillation/atrial-fibrillation-alcohol. Accessed 17 October 2022.
  10. Harvard Health. Caffeine unlikely to trigger palpitations in healthy people. Available at: https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/caffeine-unlikely-to-trigger-palpitations-in-healthy-people. Accessed 14 October 2022.
  11. Pramanik, T et al. Immediate effect of a slow pace breathing exercise Bhramari pranayama on blood pressure and heart rate. Nepal Medical College journal. 2010.
  12. Cleveland Clinic. Alcohol May Cause You to Develop Irregular Heartbeats. Available at: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/alcohol-may-cause-irregular-heartbeat/#:~:text=Develop%20Irregular%20Heartbeats-,Research%20suggests%20that%20having%20as%20little%20as%20one%20to%20three,type%20of%20irregular%20heart%20rhythm. Accessed 19 October 2022.
  13. Cleveland Clinic. Heart Palpitations After Eating. Available at: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/alcohol-may-cause-irregular-heartbeat/#:~:text=Develop%20Irregular%20Heartbeats-,Research%20suggests%20that%20having%20as%20little%20as%20one%20to%20three,type%20of%20irregular%20heart%20rhythm.  Accessed 19 October 2022.
  14. Healthline. Understanding Heart Palpitations After Eating. Available at: https://www.healthline.com/health/heart-disease/heart-palpitations-after-eating.  Accessed 19 October 2022.
  15. 香港食物安全中心. 降低膳食中的鈉和糖. Available at: https://www.cfs.gov.hk/tc_chi/programme/programme_rdss/FAQ_Sodium_Public.html.  Accessed 19 October 2022.
  16. Srinivasan, Neil T, and Richard J Schilling. Sudden Cardiac Death and Arrhythmias. Arrhythmia & electrophysiology review. 2018.