Premature beats, which are early heart beats, are a type of cardiac arrhythmia. It includes the following conditions: atrial premature beats, atrioventricular junction premature beats, and ventricular premature beats. The normal heartbeat is regular and the intervals between heartbeats are basically equal. If there is a sudden early heartbeat, it is medically called premature beat. Premature beats are caused by excessive excitability in a certain part of the heart. If a premature beat is caused by excessive excitability in one part of the atrium, it is called atrial premature beat; if a premature beat is caused by high excitability in the atrioventricular node or ventricle, it is called atrioventricular node or ventricular premature beat. What are the symptoms of premature beats? Premature heart beats sometimes have no obvious symptoms, but sometimes they can be accompanied by palpitations or a feeling of pause in the heartbeat. Frequent premature beats can cause symptoms such as weakness and dizziness. Usually, the heart cannot feel itself when it is beating. When a premature heartbeat occurs, you can feel the heart beating because of the strong contraction of the ventricles, and then you can feel the heart stopping because there is a pause after the premature beat. Some people may feel that their heart has swung, some may feel that their heart is about to jump out of their throat, and some may feel panic and discomfort. In addition, it may be accompanied by chest tightness, nausea, coughing, dizziness, and other discomforts. Are premature beats always a heart attack? The causes of premature beats are divided into two categories: functional and organic, depending on whether the heart is diseased or not. To put it simply, functional premature beats do not have any substantial pathology, but are caused by mental stress, fatigue, or the influence of related drugs. These patients only need to rely on mental regulation to relieve the disease, while organic premature beats are caused by coronary heart disease and hypertension. These two different types of premature beats occur at different times and are treated differently. After finding premature beats, do not panic and do not think that having premature beats means having heart disease. Premature heartbeats detected during physical examination or incidental examination can continue to be observed. Premature beats can occur in healthy people when they smoke, drink alcohol, drink strong coffee or tea, are nervous, or are overly tired. First of all, the cause of premature beats should be checked. If the cause of premature beats is removed and the disease that induces premature beats is cured, premature beats can be gradually eliminated. If you cannot find the cause of premature beats, you can go to the hospital for examination and diagnosis, and ask your doctor to decide whether you need to treat premature beats. If premature beats are due to heart disease, they should be treated actively. What are the misconceptions in the treatment of premature beats? Myth 1: Premature beats are cardiac arrests Premature beats are early contractions of the heart caused by abnormal electrocardiographic phenomena, i.e., the heart is instructed to contract early by parts other than the sinus node. No matter what kind of premature beats, the heart does not stop beating, but the blood pulsed out is slightly less than the normal beat, resulting in a weakened pulse, as if it had stopped once. In fact, this is because more blood was pulsed after the premature contraction than in the normal case, thus causing a decrease in the amount of blood pulsed due to the premature contraction. Therefore, premature beats do not cause the heart to stop. Myth 2: The frequency and symptoms of premature beats are related to the risk The risk of premature beats is determined by the severity of the primary disease and the tendency of premature beats to develop into malignant arrhythmias, not by the number of premature beats or symptoms. Some people have only occasional premature beats and feel uncomfortable with a heartbeat that goes to the throat. Those with symptoms may have pathological premature beats, and those without symptoms cannot be ruled out as pathological. Myth 3: Premature beats must be eliminated with medication. When premature beats are detected, it is usually difficult to judge the nature by yourself. According to the medical history and physical examination, the doctor will conduct x-ray, ECG and echocardiogram tests, and for those who have a family history of coronary heart disease and atherosclerosis risk factors, exercise test will also be done. If all of the above tests are normal, no treatment is required. If a heart disorder is detected, medication should be used under the guidance of a doctor. If premature beats are mainly caused by nervousness and anxiety or chronic insomnia, you should be relieved of your worries and use appropriate sedative drugs, which will help to eliminate premature beats. How to prevent premature beats? 1. Maintain a regular life and proper physical exercise, and do not stay up too late. 2. Quit smoking and avoid drinking a lot of alcohol, because smoking and drinking alcohol are the main triggering factors for coronary heart disease. 3, eat less stimulating food such as acid, spicy and other condiments, drink less strong tea or coffee, because these foods can make the myocardial excitability increased, triggering premature beats. 4, to maintain emotional stability, high emotional tension and ups and downs is the main cause of functional “premature beats”. 5. Go to the hospital regularly for medical checkups, and seek medical consultation once you find palpitations and missed beats. 6. Chronic patients whose premature beats do not increase after activity should participate in sports and cultural activities. 7. Those with severe heart disease or obvious symptoms must take anti-arrhythmic drugs. Such drugs should be taken as prescribed by the doctor, and attention should be paid to any adverse drug reactions during the medication.