Causes of the heart stumble
The cause of a heart stumbling can be rooted in the heart itself, but it can also be caused by other physical or mental ailments. In most cases, however, a heart stutter is an isolated and rare event with no disease value and no specific cause. Heart rhythm disturbances can lead to the feeling of a heart stumble due to heart-related causes.
Extrasystoles, i.e. additional incoming heartbeats, can be perceived as such, as can ventricular tachycardia, a rapid sequence of extrasystoles originating in the ventricles, which, like its special form of “torsade-de-pointes” tachycardia, is potentially life-threatening and must be clarified immediately. However, heart stumbling can also occur in the context of other heart diseases such as myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle). In addition, blockages or pathological changes in the excitation conduction system of the heart are also a possible cause for the sensation of rhythm pauses.
Finally, diseases of the heart valves or cardiac insufficiency can also result in perceptible cardiac arrhythmia due to their disease mechanism. Causes that cannot be found in the heart are, for example, medications, drugs and other toxins. Nicotine, caffeine and alcohol have the potential to provoke additional heartbeats, so-called extrasystoles.
Quite a few other substances sometimes have an influence on the activity of the heart, and in the case of many drugs even without their desired site of action being the heart itself. Especially drugs used to treat arrhythmia have the potential to provoke them themselves. Patients under or after chemotherapy can suffer from arrhythmia due to the harmful effects of their medication on the heart.
Furthermore, a number of hormonal disorders are able to influence the heart rhythm, such as hyperthyroidism, which is often associated with tachycardia. Rarely are tumor diseases the cause of abnormal hormone production, which can then cause other symptoms in addition to changes in heart rhythm. Finally, heart stumbling can occur under physical and psychological stress, which is then either provoked by the physiological workload or caused by the autonomic nervous system modulated by the psyche.
