Your heart typically beats around 50 to 100 times a minute. But certain everyday events can cause your heart rate to increase, including stress, exercise and caffeine consumption. This is normal.

Sometimes, however, a racing heart can be a signal of a heart arrhythmia, or heart rhythm disturbance. These abnormal rhythms make it difficult for the heart to pump blood throughout the body. Severe arrhythmias can cause the heart to “quiver” rather than beat effectively, cutting off blood supply to organs and resulting in death within minutes. Less severe episodes of arrhythmia can cause blood to pool in the heart’s chambers, increasing the risk of blood clots and stroke. Coronary artery disease or heart valve disease may destabilize the electrical system that regulates the heartbeat and cause unnatural rhythms.

See your doctor if you experience frequent episodes of a racing heart, especially if you also experience the following symptoms:

“It’s best to get to the hospital as quickly as possible, while you’re still having the symptoms,” says Stephen Sloan, MD, a cardiologist at Doylestown Hospital and Central Bucks Cardiology.

Once doctors determine the cause of the problem, they can treat abnormal heart rhythms with medications, curative radiofrequency ablation (RFA) or implantable devices such as pacemakers or defibrillators (ICD). These devices emit electrical impulses that regulate the heartbeat