What Causes a Fast Heartbeat After Eating?
A cardiologist explains why eating can cause your heart to beat fast.
Ever experience a fast heartbeat soon after eating?
There is a specific reason for this.
Fast Heart Rate After Eating
“This is normal, assuming it is not overly fast or occurring with exertion right after eating,” says Robert M. Davidson, MD, a cardiologist with SignatureMD.
“The blood volume is shifted to the intestine after eating, and can result in a faster heartbeat, especially if you are somewhat dehydrated.
“However, it should normally be only slightly faster than normal. If it is a great deal faster, it might be due to an abnormal heart rhythm.”
Eating raises the body’s energy demands. Your metabolism is actually faster after you’ve eaten.
This doesn’t mean that if you want to lose weight, you should eat a lot to speed up your metabolism.
But anything that increases the body’s energy demands is, not surprisingly, going to speed up the heart rate.
The body must work to process incoming food. This is why you should not eat a full meal before exercising, because the body’s energy will be focused on metabolizing what you just ate.
The best time to eat a full meal is AFTER intense exercise, when the metabolism is accelerated.
Next time you find that your heart rate is fast after eating — but not abnormally fast — consider this a normal reaction to eating.
Dr. Davidson is with the Division of Cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, and has been practicing for 30+ years. Areas of specialty include coronary artery disease, heart attack and palpitations.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: ©Lorra Garrick
Heart Rate Over 100 a Few Hours After Intense Exercise Normal?
Sudden Fast Heartbeat when Turning to the Side in Bed: Causes
Heart Doctor Explains How Stress Causes Chest Pain
Do you keep suffering from chest pain and trying to convince yourself it’s from stress and anxiety rather than a looming heart attack?
Chest pain is frightening, because one of the causes is a heart attack or pending heart attack, yet a common cause of chest pain is also anxiety and stress, or panic attacks.
First of all, let’s be clear: This article is not about angina. Angina involves heart disease, and typically, stress and anxiety will cause or aggravate chest pain in a person who has angina.
But what about a person who does not have heart disease, or at least, has not been diagnosed with such?
Perhaps this individual’s calcium score is zero, which very likely means the absence of heart disease.
So what’s going on if they experience chest pain from anxiety or stress?
“Chest pains caused or aggrevated by stress should always be evaluated by a physician,” says Robert M. Davidson, MD, a cardiologist with SignatureMD.
This way, a pathological condition can be ruled out. In the healthy person, it is “generally not well-understood” just what the mechanism is behind chest pain resulting from anxiety or stress, says Dr. Davidson.
“Several possible and established mechanisms include coronary artery spasm (probably rare), esophageal spasm — more often associated with eating, or reflux; in some cases, due to an associated sudden increase in blood pressure, associated with stress; and sometimes in association with hyperventilation due to stress.
“If the pain is sharp (as opposed to heaviness or pressure), and/or is very brief (seconds or less), or is associated with tenderness in the area of pain, it is not likely to be heart related, and is probably not serious.”
Erratic, deep inhalations that occur in the midst of a heated, high charged argument can cause chest discomfort that’s related to forceful expansion of the ribcage from the combination of gulping in enough air to subsidize the exertion of high emotions, and the exertion of spewing out long strings of words in one breath to get your point across or dominate the other person’s speaking.
Dr. Davidson is with the Division of Cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, and has been practicing for 30+ years. Areas of specialty include coronary artery disease, heart attack and palpitations.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
Causes of Fluttering Heartbeat After Lying Down
A cardiologist explains what can cause palpitations or the feeling of skipped heartbeats after you lie down.
So you get into bed and are ready for the night’s sleep, and only a few minutes later, your heart suddenly skips a beat or flutters.
You’ve noticed that usually when you feel a skipped beat or fluttering — palpitations — it’s very soon after settling into bed for sleep. Why is this?
The cause of a fluttering or seemingly skipping heartbeat, soon after getting into bed, is anxiety and stress.
Image: Dreamstime Chrisharvey
After all, the minute your head hits the pillow, you may become inundated with the stress of all the things you have to do the next day.
“Yes, this is usually the cause,” says Robert M. Davidson, MD, a cardiologist with SignatureMD.
“Also, it is easier to feel your heartbeat when lying down and it is quiet, especially if you are lying on your left side.”
Now that we know it’s usually stress and anxiety, fretting about the next day’s tasks, that causes palpitations or fluttering, just what is the mechanism behind this annoying phenomenon?
“It is due to an increase in both adrenaline, released from the adrenal glands at times of stress, which has a direct effect on the heart, and to an increase in involuntary nervous stimulation of the heart (the sympathetic nervous system), which also stimulates the heart,” says Dr. Davidson.
“Both of these stimulants are part of the normal adaptive response to stress, the fight or flight response, which causes the heart to beat faster and harder,” adds Dr. Davidson.
So here’s how it works:
You’re overwhelmed with anxiety and stress either about the next day’s tasks and/or what happened earlier that day.
The body gears up for a fight or flight. Modern man’s fight or flight response is identical to that of primitive man’s, even though the source of stress and fear is different.
Modern man’s source of fear is how to pay for Junior’s braces, job troubles, car troubles, mounting debt, etc.
Caveman’s stress was chasing after animals to catch them to feed his family, or fleeing from animals wanting HIM for dinner.
Shutterstock/Memo Angeles
The body responds the same way to ancient and modern stressors, and this includes alterations in pulse.
“But in people who are subject to arrhythmias, these responses can cause extra heartbeats, and sometimes a more sustained arrhythmia, such as PSVT or even AF,” adds Dr. Davidson.
PSVT is paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, a sped-up heart rhythm caused by abnormal signaling to the heart chambers.
AF is atrial fibrillation, another rhythm disorder characterized by sudden accelerated heartbeat.
So, does this mean that the next time you lie down for sleep and your heartbeat flutters or skips, you probably have a rhythm disorder?
Dr. Davidson says, “In most cases, it is either due to a faster and stronger heartbeat, but not an abnormal rhythm, or to extra heartbeats, which may cause a sensation of skipping and/or pounding of the heart.”
If this problem plagues you most nights, try this:
Do one minute of your hardest exercise such as squat jumps, squat thrusts, burpees, jump lunges, pushups or sprinting on your treadmill.
Dreamstime.com/ Tomasz Borucki
And I mean DARN HARDEST for 60 seconds, so that at the end, you’re gulping air.
This one minute of strenuous exercise will trick the body into thinking you engaged in the “fight” part of the fight or flight response.
The body will then release hormones that will oppose the stress hormones that cause your heart to flutter in the first place!
This approach may calm down your heartbeat, once your rate returns to normal after the exertion.
Dr. Davidson is with the Division of Cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, and has been practicing for 30+ years. Areas of specialty include coronary artery disease, heart attack and palpitations.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
Top image: ©Lorra Garrick
Fast Heartbeat in a Resting Healthy Person: Cause
“The cause of a fast resting pulse rate when all else is normal can be the result of many different things.”
– Dr. Ali Tabrizchi, DO, interventional cardiologist, formerly with Cardiovascular Associates of Maryland.
You may think you’re healthy, but the cause of a fast resting pulse could mean a serious problem.
You should not wait to make an appointment with your doctor.
Dr. Tabrizchi names possible causes of a fast resting pulse:
1) Dehydration
2) An underlying infection
3) A fast thyroid
4) Anemia
5) Over-the-counter or prescribed medications
6) Anxiety
7) Underlying heart disease
8) Exacerbation of lung disease
9) A blood clot in the lung
10) An allergic response to food, perfume or a chemical
11) Metabolic abnormality
As you can see, some of these causes are benign. “Two of the best ways to find the causes of a fast resting pulse rate are by doing a detailed medical history of the patient and by performing a thorough physical examination,” says Dr. Tabrizchi.
“These provide the doctor with the information needed to begin treatment. Of course, treatment depends on what is causing the abnormal pulse rate in the first place.
“In addition physicians treating the physical and psychological conditions, social counseling, in some cases, could be of help.”
In the above list, #9 is the most immediately life-threatening. Another name for blood clot in the lung is a pulmonary embolus or embolism.
These come from blood clots or deep vein thromboses elsewhere in the body, usually the legs, when they dislodge and travel towards the heart (veins carry blood towards the heart).
And on the way, the clot settles in the lungs, and it can kill within minutes of lodging there.
This doesn’t mean that if you notice a fast resting heart rate, that you should panic that you might have a pulmonary embolism.
If you do have a PE, you’ll likely be struggling to breathe and may also have chest pain.
Another cause of a fast resting heart rate is overtraining in the gym — but the elevation is outside of gym time.
Many people report an elevated heart rate for several hours after strenuous exercise.
Overtraining is when there is a lot of intense exertion but inadequate rest over a period of time.
Typically, the athlete has persistent soreness, mood changes, insomnia and has stopped making progress as a result of overdoing their training regimen.
Dr. Tabrizchi says, “Again, I can’t emphasize enough to seek treatment right away, because a fast resting pulse can be an indication of something very serious.”
Dr. Tabrizchi has performed over 30,000 procedures for diagnosis and treatment of heart disease. He has authored various published studies and has been named Top Doctor multiple times by Baltimore Magazine. Dr. Tabrizchi passed away in 2023.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: ©Lorra Garrick
Pain After a Filling: Dentist Explains All Causes
There are at least five causes of pain after a filling, says a leading dentist.
There are a number of causes for pain after getting a filling, besides the expected discomfort or soreness from the anesthetic needle injection itself, and perhaps from keeping the mouth stretched open during the procedure.
“Fillings are sometimes placed because a tooth is compromised. Part of the compromise may be visible, or seen only with an x-ray,” says Donald R. Tanenbaum, DDS, MPH, a board certified TMJ and orofacial pain specialist, and author of “Doctor, Why Does My Face Still Ache.”
Dr. Tanenbaum adds, “When a tooth is compromised its nerve may also be irritable, or become irritable after a filling is placed.”
That’s one possible cause of the pain.
The next, says Dr. Tanenbaum, is “when a deficit in an old filling is repaired, or a crack sealed, a previously non-symptomatic tooth may begin to hurt, prompting the patient to wonder if the dentist did something wrong.”
This is a common scenario: Patients indeed thinking that their dentist made a mistake somewhere.
However, Dr. Tanenbaum says, “Nothing was likely done wrong…a bigger problem just came to the surface.”
A third possible cause of pain is from a nerve in the tooth that’s inflamed or dying, and “may be more prominent after a filling has been placed.”
A fourth cause is “when decay is removed from a tooth, the nerve is partially exposed,” says Dr. Tanenbaum.
“There may be times when root canal therapy is recommended or a wait and see approach is offered to the patient.
In these scenarios, pain may arise in the tooth that is being watched; though there were good intentions, the outcome can lead to pain if the inevitable need for root canal therapy is put off.”
Finally, and nobody likes to hear this, but Dr. Tanenbaum says that there are rare occasions when the pain occurs for “no good reason.”
Maybe it’s from the cutting process during the filling procedure, or maybe the placement of the filling is behind the pain.
“There are actually a small percentage of patients who develop pain even after simple cleaning and the pain persists long after calming is expected.
“These problems likely relate to neural excitation and have an unexplained origin, but are more common in women and may relate to genetic factors that are now only being explored.”
Dr. Tanenbaum’s practice focuses on facial pain, TMJ disorder and sleep-related breathing disorders. He is the past president of the American Academy of Orofacial Pain and takes a multidisciplinary approach to his patients’ care.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
Why Your Teeth Are So Sensitive After Getting Fillings
If your teeth are sensitive very soon after getting fillings, this is to be expected.
That’s because this naturally sensitive area of the mouth was manipulated by the dentist.
Some post-procedure soreness or sensitivity is quite normal — as long as it goes away fairly quickly.
However, what if this problem persists for days after the procedure?
What’s causing this?
“Fillings today are more commonly tooth colored and not the metal fillings that were traditionally placed years ago,” says Donald R. Tanenbaum, DDS, MPH, a board certified TMJ and orofacial pain specialist, and author of “Doctor, Why Does My Face Still Ache.”
Dr. Tanenbaum explains, “In the placement process of tooth colored (resin) fillings, there are a number of steps that may cause transient sensitivity.
“This can include the chemical agents that allow for bonding (adhesion) of the resin to the tooth, the drying of the tooth before the filling is placed, and the trauma to the tooth that occurs when cutting the preparation.
“These factors can produce short-term sensitivity of a couple of days and are commonplace.
“Also, a filling that is left a bit high can produce some sensitivity, especially when exposed to cold fluids. This will resolve when the filling is adjusted.”
In the meantime to avoid the discomfort, you should eat soft foods and avoid cold foods (even if they’re soft), and also stay away from foods that are typically piping hot like soup, rice, pizza or other hot cheesy foods, and coffee from a fast-food diner.
Dr. Tanenbaum’s practice focuses on facial pain, TMJ disorder and sleep-related breathing disorders. He is the past president of the American Academy of Orofacial Pain and takes a multidisciplinary approach to his patients’ care.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: Freepik/wayhomestudio
Face and Jaw Pain Relief with Three Neck Exercises
These three neck exercises for facial and jaw pain come from Donald R. Tanenbaum, DDS, MPH, a board certified TMJ and orofacial pain specialist, and author of “Doctor, Why Does My Face Still Ache.”
Neck Exercise 1
Goal: Gentle stretch of upper neck muscles
Sit in a chair with your feet on the floor. Anchor your right hand under the chair.
Turn your head to the left and place your left hand on the back of your head.
Pull your head down, towards your left shoulder with gentle force.
Turn your nose into your armpit for increased stretch of the trapezius muscle. Hold 3-4 seconds. Relax.
Reverse the exercise and repeat on the other side. Repeat 10 times on each side.
Neck Exercise 2
Sit in a chair with your feet on the ground. Anchor your right hand under the chair.
Turn your head to the left and place your left hand across your left temple.
Gently pull backwards stretching your lateral neck muscle (sternocleidomastoid). Hold 3-4 seconds. Repeat 10 times. Reverse directions to stretch the opposite side.
Neck Exercise 3
Clasp your hands over your head, and pull your head down gently, chin to chest. Hold 5 seconds. Release. Repeat 10 times.
Remember to breathe throughout all of these exercises. You should not feel any pain as you move through the routines.
Posture is important.
“Though we do not feel that abnormal posture as an independent factor is responsible for the onset for persistent facial pain problems (just like bruxism often occurs without pain symptoms developing), it must be considered a risk factor when coupled with ‘a brain under siege,’” says Dr. Tanenbaum.
What he means by “brain under siege” is that which occurs to the brain when a person is overwhelmed with stress, anxiety or anger – literally letting negative emotions get the best of them.
Stress produces tangible effects to the brain and body, and the brain and body are intimately connected.
“Home programs to address postural strains can provide relief when routinely practiced,” says Dr. Tanenbaum.
Dr. Tanenbaum’s practice focuses on facial pain, TMJ disorder and sleep-related breathing disorders. He is the past president of the American Academy of Orofacial Pain and takes a multidisciplinary approach to his patients’ care.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
Can Dark Green Stools Come from Microscopic Colitis?
Could those eerie-looking dark green poops be the result of microscopic colitis, an uncommon inflammatory bowel disease?
I had a bout with microscopic colitis in 2010, and during that time, my stools occasionally were a dark green.
“Because MC diarrhea is associated with fast transit — it could cause green watery stool,” says John E. Pandolfino, MD, Director of the Esophageal Center, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and Associate Professor, Division of Gastroenterology at Northwestern University.
“However, it is usually very watery and should not have blood associated with it.”
Light and Medium Green Stools
These are the result of fast transit through the GI tract, and of course, fast transit occurs with microscopic colitis.
However, there is another likely cause if the color of your stools is a dark green.
I noticed that this, during my bout with MC, was associated with very recent consumption of spinach.
Upon close examination of my stools, I noted that they were intertwined with fragments of spinach.
I know this sounds really gross, but — think of this as good news, because this occurrence is totally harmless.
So yes, viewing this may not be for the faint of heart, but if you have microscopic colitis, it’s important to embrace studying what comes out of you so that you can learn about your body and be familiar with what seems normal and what seems abnormal.
Sometimes BMs take on the color, or tinge, of food that was recently eaten, and green foods such as spinach and asparagus are no exception to this.
Microscopic colitis is a chronic inflammatory bowel condition causing watery, non-bloody diarrhea, primarily in older adults.
It includes two subtypes: collagenous colitis and lymphocytic colitis, distinguished by microscopic changes in colon tissue.
The colon of someone with MC appears normal during colonoscopy, requiring biopsy for diagnosis.
Treatment often involves anti-inflammatory drugs like budesonide, with most patients responding well and achieving symptom control.
However, many patients report remarkable improvement by a change in diet, which includes learning which foods can trigger episodes of diarrhea and then eliminating those foods.
You don’t have to eliminate foods such as spinach just because they’re coloring your bowel movements dark green. Again, this is nothing to be concerned about.
Dr. Pandolfino’s practice covers a wide gamut of GI disorders including GERD, Barrett’s esophagus, benign and malignant tumors, swallowing disorders and esophageal disorders.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
Top image: Shutterstock/ShutterOK
Can Mental Stress Cause Microscopic Colitis?
Let’s take a close look at whether or not mental stress can actually trigger a bout with microscopic colitis.
To find out if stress of the mental kind can cause microscopic colitis, I consulted with John E. Pandolfino, MD, Director of the Esophageal Center, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and Associate Professor, Division of Gastroenterology at Northwestern University.
In 2010 and out of the blue (seemingly), I developed microscopic colitis (diagnosed via colonoscopy). Never before had I ever had any GI problems.
“The cause of microscopic colitis is unknown,” says Dr. Pandolfino. “However, it is associated with many different medications, such as NSAIDS and proton pump inhibitors.”
I had not been taking any NSAIDS or any medications for that matter. In fact, I had not taken any medications in the 12 months preceding my first day with microscopic colitis.
Dr. Pandolfino continues, “There is also an idiopathic form which means we are not sure what is causing the microscopic colitis — and it may be related to an autoimmune process or a hard to detect infection.”
Maybe this was why I developed MC, but to this day, I stand firm in my layperson’s conviction that it is NO coincidence that six and a half weeks prior to this condition, I received devastating news that turned my life upside down, and for the next six and a half weeks, lived in a state of extreme anxiety and stress unlike anything I’d ever experienced.
I also knew, though I was in denial, that there would be no resolution to the tumultuous circumstance that began six and a half weeks earlier.
So I have to always wonder if the emotional distress jangled things up in my GI tract, since emotions and GI function are intimately linked.
Dr. Pandolfino says, “Stress can make symptoms of microscopic colitis worse, as it can cause an IBS-like pattern on top of the MC and thus, stress reduction may help improve all GI symptoms.”
I did not have pre-existing microscopic colitis. The sudden-onset, watery and painless diarrhea had a very distinct appearance.
Plus, when my stools were more-formed during this time, they took on a strange appearance that I’d never before seen, not to mention that throughout the night, I’d feel “churning” in my stomach and was parched.
Getting up at 2 a.m., then at 5 a.m., to have diarrhea, was not normal for me.
And I’d have diarrhea soon after eating many meals; it was as though what went in, was now suddenly coming out in the form of creepy looking stools. (The upside? I knew that two killer brownies at one sitting would go right through me.)
Where did all of this come from? Stress?
Microscopic colitis has not received much research attention because it’s benign and not too common.
It’s really not known just how much of a role that stress plays with microscopic colitis.
Large-scale, objective studies concerning stress and microscopic colitis are actually difficult to carry out.
There have been a small number of studies seeking a connection between mental stress and microscopic colitis, and these have not shown a correlation.
The closure to the very stressful event in my life occurred two days before my colonoscopy.
Because my mind was all messed up due to the stress, I couldn’t shake the possibility of colon cancer as the cause of “something going on in my intestines.”
So between dealing with the mental stress and fear of colon cancer, I developed a second issue: a continuous cough.
Every several minutes I had to cough. Plus, speaking after being silent would trigger the coughing.
At the conclusion of the colonoscopy, the doctor said everything looked normal (MC was later confirmed from the tissue sample he had extracted). Upon sitting up in the exam room, I realized that the cough had outright disappeared.
Over the next 5-6 weeks, the signs of microscopic colitis dissipated and have never returned.
So, can mental stress cause microscopic colitis? A definitive answer to this question has yet to be determined.
Dr. Pandolfino’s practice covers a wide gamut of GI disorders including GERD, Barrett’s esophagus, benign and malignant tumors, swallowing disorders and esophageal disorders.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
Can Dark Green Stools Be Caused by IBS?
Many irritable bowel syndrome sufferers wonder if their dark green stools are related to their IBS.
Do you have IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) and are wondering if the dark green color of your stools is connected to this puzzling GI condition?
“The color of stool is predominantly determined by what you eat and the bile you produce,” says John E. Pandolfino, MD, Director of the Esophageal Center, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and Associate Professor, Division of Gastroenterology at Northwestern University.
“Green stool can be caused by a number of things, and most of them are benign and will resolve.”
So if the dark green color of your stools has had you worried, you now realize that this is most likely a harmless occurrence, especially if you have irritable bowel syndrome.
Dr. Pandolfino continues, “Theoretically, the stool becomes more green when bowel transit is a little too fast, and this can occur in diarrhea-predominant IBS.”
In addition to IBS-D, the following can cause bowel transit to speed up:
- Infection
- Food intolerances
- Anxiety or stress
- Excess caffeine
- Artificial sweeteners
- Inflammatory bowel disease
Dr. Pandolfino’s practice covers a wide gamut of GI disorders including GERD, Barrett’s esophagus, benign and malignant tumors, swallowing disorders and esophageal disorders.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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