Afib/Anxiety

Hi,

Just discovered this forum and was hoping to get some advice/assurance. Trying to work out if I’m suffering from Afib, ectopic beats or something else. I have been struggling with what I thinks is chest flutters/palpitations for the past few months (no sweating, chest pain etc), and have become super anxious about it, worrying I have a defective heart. My resting heartbeat when relaxed is around 55-60 bpm, but can notice an increase and strong heartbeat when I wake most morning or sometimes if I go to the loo in middle of night. This can some feel a little erratic but does feel somewhat regular but never really rises above 110bpm. On a few occasions over the past few months I have been lying in bed and feel myself get super anxious so automatically go to to test my pulse, also instantaneously my heart rate goes up and starts beating sporadically. But once I deep breath and count in my head this can then go to normal rhythm/beats in about 20sec to a minute. This was something I never really noticed when I wasn’t so anxious about things.

Also when at work (office job which is not at all stressful) sometimes (not every day) around 11.00-12.00 I usually feel a little flutter in my chest followed by some strong heartbeats but pulse again doesn’t go over 90bpm. Always around the same time which seems odd (possible sugar level dropping)

I went A&E just prior to Xmas when feeling super anxious and had a poor night’s sleep and had an ECG which showed an ectopic beat (PVC). This kind of made me feel a little less anxious for a while and not worrying about a heart defect. However, I couldn’t shake the worry, so I went to Dr. I had another ECG and blood test and ECG showed a normal heart beat and blood tests was all well in range and cholesterol ratio at 2.4. I mentioned to Dr I cycle 7 miles to work daily and am in the gym 5 days a week (cardio/light weight) raising heart rate to approx. 150 bpm and can recover extremely quickly. And feel my fitness has improved over past few months. I’m a on plant-based diet and a recent over 40 MOT put my heart attack/stroke risk at 2.2%. Dr obviously sent me away reassuring me that I have nothing to worry about.

For just over 1 week now I have been taking a large tablespoon of NowFoods Potassium Citrate powder in the morning with water and last week didn’t have any noticeable flutters during the days or during weekends. Did wake up though in the night with what felt like raised heartbeat and a little erratic, but this was the night prior to seeing Dr and also going for tests. Over past 2 mornings I have reduced the Potassium to 2 teaspoons and around the same time 11am-12 had a few noticeable flutters, so took a spoonful at work and these stopped for the rest of day. Also been taking a spoonful before bed and haven’t noticed any heart palpitations during the night.

Apologies for the super long post, in a bit of limbo in terms of what to do, have I got anything to worry about from a heart perspective as I seem to be doing everything right from a lifestyle perspective (apart from anxiety) . HELP ;0)

Cheers

Si

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