Heart Fluttering and Smoking - Smoking Cessation Message Board

madsci · 11-02-2004, 01:49 AM

I am not a smoker, but I do smoke an occasional cigarette or two on the weekends. Recently, I have noticed that if I smoke a few cigarettes within a few days, the following day I experience what feels like occasional heart flutters. For example, this past weekend I smoked a cigarette on Friday and one on Saturday, and most of the day Sunday I had these odd feelings in my chest like my heart was fluttering (I even had these feelings in my sleep, I was dreaming about it - weird). So, I was wondering what this is and if it is bad for me. I assume this is some sort of short nicotine withdrawl, but can that happen after two cigarettes in two days?? Also, it's important to know that I have a minor heart disorder diagnosed from birth called Aortic Stenosis which is a small narrowing of my Aortic heart valve. Would this put me at a significantly greater risk or be related to these flutters? If anyone knows anything about this at all, I'd really appreciate hearing. Thanks.

Tobias · 11-02-2004, 07:07 PM

if your symptoms trouble you, why not pose your questions to your PCP or cardiologist? In the meantime, perhaps you'd gain some insight into your disorder by reading about it. You can google it yourself (put the phrase aortic stenosis in parens) or a suggestion to start would be this hit from Nat'l Institutes of Health National Library of Medicine's encyclopedia entry on the disease:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000178.htm

In my humble but worthless opinion based on what I know about the deleterious effects of smoking on the body, I'd say smoking even "one or two on the weekend" is not a good idea. For a couple of reasons. The first: there's always the possibility that that one or two can turn into a daily habit that's hard to break; The second: nicotine speeds up your heart rate. Do you really need that?