How to know if your heart beats is an arrhythmia

You know this feeling. When you first see a crush and your head starts to spin, your palms sweat and your heart starts to beat a mile.

Is this love? Or… arrhythmia?

The truth is, this could be both.

“Yes, it’s love,” Samer Saouma, MD, cardiac electrophysiology medicine at Northwell Staten Island University Hospital, told The Post. “But be aware that even around your lover, there are a lot of skipped beats that can be a sign of heart rhythm disease.”

“When these feelings become prominent or related to pals, dizziness or fainting, they can represent something more serious,” he explained.

“Card conduction diseases, heart blocks, sinus lymph node dysfunction, premature ventricular contraction and other arrhythmia are important treatable conditions.”

Arrhythmia is an abnormal heart rate that occurs when the electrical signal telling the heart to be beating does not work properly. This can cause the heart to beat too fast – a disease called tachycardia or too slow – called bradycardia.

The normal resting heart rate in adults is 60 to 100 beats per minute, with a lower heart rate, which usually indicates better cardiovascular health.

However, certain situations (such as exercise, excitement, or situations with your beloved) can naturally make your heart beat faster.

“Our brain and heart are connected through the autonomic nervous system, and any emotion or excitement can produce a skipped rhythm or multiple fast beats in succession,” Saouma explained.

The jumped heartbeat, also known as Patt, usually doesn’t have anything shocking — technically, it’s not even “skip”.

“When you feel a beat that skipped, the most common thing is because the heart beats too early, the heart squeezes too early, and then pauses a little to make it feel like a skipped beat.”

So, how do you know if this is love or arrhythmia? First, context is key.

Is your heart beating or skipping the rhythm due to an emotional experience, or does it happen even when you are relaxing or falling asleep? Is it a brief feeling or a persistent one?

If the problem pops up when you relax, some regularity occurs or lasts for a while, it can mark an underlying heart disease.

According to Saouma, other disturbing signs are “frequently skipping beating, prolonged pals or trembling, dizziness, drowsiness, breathlessness, shortness of breath and little chest pain.”

If these episodes become “frequent, prolonged, more intense,” Saouma said, maybe it’s time to see a doctor, and he can use an electrocardiogram (EKG) to determine the cause.

“Experts are treating various heart rhythm disorders to keep you alive and in love.”