What Causes Episodes Of Palpitations In A 60 Year Old?

Posted on Thu, 15 Sep 2016

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 15 Sep 2016 Answered on

Wed, 5 Oct 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : 60 year old male kind of hard to explain and seeing doctor for it and all basic tests like blood and ekg are normal instant heart rate from normal to 155 bpm a lot when doing heavy lifting hot days riding my bike or just doing nothing..been doing this for years now even sitting waxing my car sometimes lasts for as long as 6 hours befor going to 130 bpm then it will always kick back to normal no symptoms at all other than what I'm doing at the time...no light headedness no chest pains ever no breathing problems infact I can still keep going while its still beating at this high rate with no problems I have checked my blood pressure during this and has been mostly normal to low like 98 over 70 but never high I'm still waiting for the dr's to give me more tests but so far just monitoring like BP and such .

Answered by Dr. Ronald Schubert (47 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Palpitations

Detailed Answer:
Thank you for contacting HCM with your health care concerns

I am sorry to see that you are having episodes of fast heart beats. This makes me concerned about atrial fibrillation. I would recommend that you have a holter monitor which is a heart monitor you wear for 24 hours and it records every heart beat for the 24 hour period. Hopefully it will capture one of these episodes so we can diagnose the cause. To reduce your risk of irregular heart beats I would recommend avoiding caffeine and alcohol.

If you develop lightheadedness or chest pain during these episodes see a medical provider immediately.

I hope I answered your question. Please contact us again if you have any additional questions

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Ronald Schubert (20 minutes later)

Had it done and showed nothing but then again I didn't have a fast heart rate at that time ..I hardly ever drank coffee and I quit what I did and I don't drink thx anyway

Answered by Dr. Ronald Schubert (2 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Palpitations

Detailed Answer:
The next time you have the palpitations I would recommend going immediately to an urgent care, ER or even a fire station with EMT. They can then put you on a heart monitor and see exactly what is going on. I think this would be acceptable or having another Holter monitor done too.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar