What causes a sudden rise in the heart beat?
Patient: I ve recently become concerned about my heart. I m a 21 year old, 5 8, 175 pound woman and consider myself decently healthy. I eat well when I can although I do make poor food choices. I am also not very active as I work at a call centre and sit at a desk all day. I don t drink as much water as I should. I have also been smoking marijuana consistently for 6 years, mostly through a glass bong with at least 1 perculator. Within the last 2 years I have been smoking something called poppers , which is a layer of tobacco from a cigarette with a layer of marijuana smoked through a bong. It creates a strong headrush and intense feelings of relaxation, causing me to want to lay myself down as if it was overwhelming my body like heroin (I have never done heroin but I have seen people react that way to it before) I know it is very bad for me because the carcinogens from smoke is obviously bad, especially cigarette tabacco that s mixed with marijuana and only filtered through water, but I want to know what it s doing to my organs and body functions in the long run. The problem is that I don t think there have been many studies on poppers because it is a relatively new and still underground method of smoking marijuana so its hard to find reliable information. Recently my heart has been occasionally feeling strange. I will be relaxed either sitting or standing and breathing and I will breathe out slowly, then feel my heart almost lump up and beat in my throat, it scares me and I take a deep breath in to counteract it, and for a second I almost feel like its going to stop beating. Then its all good again. What s happening to my organs and why is my heart doing this? Thank you for taking the time to read this and reply! Doctor: Hello , The heart beats you are feeling is because of the ill effects of poppers on your heart as the tobacco would make the heart pump stronger and faster giving you the symptoms you have described.  As you have truly said that the effects op poppers haven't been studied however all the ill effects  of tobacco applies here ranging from hypertension , stroke , heart issues , lung damage to various cancers . Also the effect is compounded by weed . It's not wise to use poppers as the sudden surge in body metabolic is not good . Regards