Heart palpitation is one of the most common complaints among cardiac clinic visitors. But, what is meant by the term “Palpitation”? It is the awareness of one’s heart beats. Normally, heart beats range from 50 – 100 beats/min, however, palpitations are felt when heart beats either decrease or increase than the normal range.
The most common type of palpitation is “Tachycardia”- an increase in heart beats. Sinus tachycardia is one cause of physiological increases in heartbeats. It is a normal response to fever, headache, toothache, abdominal pain, emotional stress, extreme emotions and excessive intake of caffeine or tobacco.
For this reason, palpitation can be classified as either benign or malignant. The Benign (Supraventricular tachycardia) is when heart beats originate from both atria above the ventricles and is only dangerous in rare cases. On the other hand, Malignant, which is known as (ventricular tachycardia) originates from the ventricles and causes severe symptoms like dizziness, severe chest tightness, black outs and fainting due to low blood pressure and usually medical attention is required.
Benign increase in heart beats may appear as paroxysm; which is the sudden increase of heart rate that may last for few minutes, hours or days. It may occur suddenly and persists for a long period of time. Moreover, an irregular and often rapid heart rate may cause symptoms like heart palpitations, fatigue, and shortness of breath. This type of palpitation is called Atrial Fibrillation (AF).
On top of all types of abnormal heart beats, Atrial Fibrillation is the most risky form of all palpitations. In fact, its causes could be organic due to diseases like hypertension, ischemic heart disease, hyperthyroidism, or rheumatic heart disease. On the other hand, non organic causes include excessive use of coffee, tea, and alcohol, extreme exhaustion, and insomnia (lack of sleep). When the case is acute and could affect the patient’s life; such as severe chest pain, very low blood pressure, or the inability to breathe, it may need urgent medical care in form of electric shocks or intravenous drugs.
When it comes to the less critical forms of AF, it usually requires other ways of treatment such as medications that normalize heart beats or control its rate; in addition to blood thinning drugs (Anticoagulants) if the AF has not returned back to its normal rate, and it is very important in such cases to seek immediate professional help.
Finally, and most important, adequate knowledge and awareness of heart health is a fair assurance of prevention. Everyone would surely agree that prevention is really far better than cure.
Dr. Alaauldeen K. Ahmed, MRCP, MS, FRCP
Consultant, Cardiology
International Medical Center, Jeddah
Dr. Alaa: Excessive coffee, tea or other stimulants could cause heart palpitation
Dr. Alaa: Excessive coffee, tea or other stimulants could cause heart palpitation
Book Review: ‘Padma’s All American’ Cookbook
- For her, the true story of American food proves that immigration is not an outside influence but the foundation of the country’s culinary identity
Closing out 2025 is “Padma’s All American: Tales, Travels, and Recipes from Taste the Nation and Beyond: A Cookbook,” a reminder that in these polarizing times within a seemingly un-united US, breaking bread really might be our only human connection left. Each page serves as a heaping — and healing — helping of hope.
“The book you have before you is a personal one, a record of my last seven years of eating, traveling and exploring. Much of this time was spent in cities and towns all over America, eating my way through our country as I filmed the shows ‘Top Chef’ and ‘Taste the Nation’,” the introduction states.
“Top Chef,” the Emmy, James Beard and Critics Choice Award-winning series, which began in 2006, is what really got Padma Lakshmi on the food map.
“Taste the Nation,” of course, is “a show for immigrants to tell their own stories, as they saw fit, and its success owes everything to the people who invited us into their communities, their homes, and their lives,” she writes.
Working with producer David Shadrack Smith, she began developing a television series that explored American immigration through cuisine, revealing how deeply immigrant food traditions shaped what people considered American today.
She was the consistent face and voice of reason — curious and encouraging to those she encountered.
Lakshmi notes that Americans now buy more salsa and sriracha than ketchup, and dishes like pad Thai, sushi, bubble tea, burritos and bagels are as American as apple pie — which, ironically, contains no ingredients indigenous to North America. Even the apples in the apple pie came from immigrants.
For her, the true story of American food proves that immigration is not an outside influence but the foundation of the country’s culinary identity.
“If I think about what’s really American … it’s the Appalachian ramp salt that I now sprinkle on top of my Indian plum chaat,” she writes.
In this book Lakshmi tells the tale of how her mother arrived in the US as an immigrant from India in 1972 to seek “a better life.”
Her mother, a nurse in New York, worked for two years before Lakshmi was brought to the US from India. At 4 years old, Lakshmi journeyed alone on the 19-hour flight.
America became home.
Now, with visibility as a model and with a noticeable scar on her arm (following a horrific car accident), she is using her platform for good once again.
Lakshmi is merging her immigrant advocacy with her long career in food media.
The photo of her on the cover, joined by a large American flag, is loud, proud and intentional.
The book contains pages dedicated to ingredients and their uses, actual recipes and, most deliciously, the stories of how those cooks came to be.
