As Seen on The Doctors

I was flipping through the channels this afternoon and (to my delight) caught a short segment about heart palpitations on the television show The Doctors (aka America's Medical Dream Team).

They had a young woman on the show named Sarah who complained of heart palpitations along with feelings of her heart racing, being unable to catch her breath, and feeling faint without actually fainting. The young woman was visibly quite scared.

The Doctors mentioned that the woman had an underlying cause that was most likely attributing to her heart palpitations. Want to take a guess of the cause?

If you guessed Mitral Valve Prolapse, you're right! I've talked a little bit about MVP before on my blog, but here's a crash course if you can't remember. Mitral valve prolapse (MVP) occurs when the valve between your heart's left upper chamber (left atrium) and the left lower chamber (left ventricle) doesn't close properly. When the left ventricle contracts, the valve's flaps bulge (prolapse) upward or back into the atrium. Mitral (MIE-truhl) valve prolapse sometimes leads to blood leaking backward into the left atrium, a condition called mitral valve regurgitation.

Dr. John Kennedy on The Doctors, said that most likely the regurgitation was "tickling" or "irritating" Sarah's heart and thus the heart palpitations.

Sarah wore a 24 hour holter monitor and completed a 30 day event monitor for prognosis. The results were that even when she was palpitating she overall had a normal sinus rhythm. Sarah was going to be okay.

The Doctors urged her to lower her stress levels whether it be "trying a yoga class" or "reading a book."

Disclaimer: When watching The Doctors, if you are a woman, you may want to use caution when looking at Dr. Travis Stork (a former Bachelor on ABC's The Bachelor). He has been known to make a woman's heart start palpitating.