Difficult of breathing, heart pounding and numbness of hands and foots.

Hi Stephen

The exact same thing used to happened to me, it's quite scary and worrying so I know how you feel.

First thing to determine is do you have any other illnesses or symptoms that seem unrelated to your heart pounding episodes? Also, what about you generally,for example what age you, what's your height and weight, are you active, do you drink or smoke?

From my experience I suffer a lot of digestive issues diagnosed as IBS, and one symptom that affects me most is bloating. I was told that my stomach bloats so badly that my diaphragm will push up against my lungs and heart, which gives them less room to operate properly, hence why I found it difficult to breath and why I could feel my heart beating against my chest. On top of that I have also been diagnosed with Anxiety, and I can tell you that anxiety can cause some quite alarming symptoms. I'm wondering if anxiety is causing panic attacks for you. My doctor explained it to me this way, my anxiety highlights anything that I feel uncomfortable or uneasy about, so for instance a pain I might feel in my stomach due to my digestive problems. Now this triggers a series of events, starting with panic first. Panic then causes a flight or fight response in your body which causes adrenal glands to start producing adrenaline. The added adrenaline then causes your heart to work harder and/or faster, and also causes the brain to divert oxygen from parts of the body that won't need it in a fight or flight scenario to area where is does, for example leg and arm muscles. If you are not using the adrenaline effectively, for example just sitting down while this is going on, then you will feel these flight or fight responses in terms of heart pounding and shallow breathing, it can also make you feel quite unwell. Now, when you have managed to calm down, your body automatically goes into recovery mode thinking the fight or flight situation is over, and will almost instantly want to rest to get back to normal. When I get these attacks, I initially get heart pounding / palpitations and shortness of breath, I also experience numbness and tingling in various parts of my body. When its over I go through huge yawning attacks and feel like I could just fall asleep right there and then.

You should take reassurance from the fact your ECG results are fine, doctors can tell a lot from these results, I've had three now in the past 2 years and they have all been fine. You've also had lab tests and X-Rays done, if there was a problem with your heart / chest, they would've found something. It does very much sound like you are experiencing panic attacks bought on by anxiety to me, trust me, it can make you feel that bad when it happens.

Hope that helps reassure you a bit. All the best!

Thank you sir! Especially replying to my discussion.  As of now my parents dont want me to go the hospital or to a doctor. 'Cause it's already 3x that doctor checked on me. And this feeling is very worried me alotz 'cause I'm not a smoker or a drinker. But I love exercise, they said that. It's just over fatigue or due to over workout in the gym. This symptoms start is when While I'm working out, and it's almost 3 weeks now that I feel weak and tired. Even walking it cause me to have a short of breath, palpitations. And it's very annoying because this is not me. This is not my life, I'm hoping the pyschiatrist help me about this. They alway say this is anxiety disorder. So thank you! I hope we'll get well. And sorry for my english, I wished you'll understand my explanation about this. Have a nice day!