The medical term used to describe a racing heart rate is tachycardia. The heart rate is regulated by the autonomic nervous system and cannot be controlled by the individual. They can slow the rate by becoming calmer, but they cannot control how slow or how fast the heart will pump. There are a variety of reasons that heart will begin to pump quicker than normal. Some of these are related to illness while others are related to the intake of substances.
Fever
Fever is an increase in temperature of the body above the normal 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. This increase can be in response to infection, athletic activity in the heat, overdressing or an inflammatory response in the body. Sometimes adults and children who are suffering from a fever will experience an increased heart rate as the body attempts to meet the increased oxygen demand from the cells operating at a higher temperature.
Pain
Although an increased heart rate has been used as an indicator of pain in individuals who are unable to express pain, researchers from the University of Sherbrooke, Canada, confirmed this finding only for men. In June 2005, in the Journal of Pain article, "Establishing a Link Between Heart Rate and Pain in Healthy Subjects: A Gender Effect," researchers exposed 39 volunteers to painful stimuli, during which their heart rate was recorded. Researchers found that men had a strong correlation between perceived pain and heart rate elevation, but women did not. The conclusion reached was that heart rate monitoring for pain experience was accurate for men but women would not experience the same heart rate increase with pain.
Illness
As the body responds to some types of illnesses it can decrease the oxygen supplied at the cellular level with a resulting increase of the heart rate. This increased heart rate happens as the body attempts to deliver more blood and oxygen to the cells. Two such illnesses are asthma and anemia. A person suffering from asthma will have a decreased amount of oxygen available in the lungs during an attack and a person with anemia will have a decreased amount of hemoglobin able to carry oxygen to the cells. The resulting heart rate increase happens because the cells are not supplied with enough oxygen.
Arrhythmia
This is the medical term used to describe a problem with the rhythm of the heart. Changes happen when the electrical impulses, which trigger the heart to beat, are not coordinated and function either too quickly or too slowly. Some reasons for arrhythmias include heart attack, coronary artery disease and cardiomyopathy. Arrhythmias which cause tachycardia include atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, supraventricular tachycardia, ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation. Some of these heart arrhythmias are benign while others are medical emergencies and should be treated immediately.
Palpitations
According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, palpitations are the sensation that the heart is pounding or racing. Sometimes it feels like a skipped heart beat and other times it may only be an unpleasant feeling in the chest. Palpitations may be the result of an arrhythmia or the result of anxiety, stress, overactive thyroid, hyperventilation, some types of medications or mitral valve prolapse. Medications that can cause this include caffeine, thyroid pills, asthma drugs, beta blockers, or medications to treat heart arrhythmias.
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