Do I need to worry about these "Palpitations"
Posted , 2 users are following.
They happen regularly, most days. Some days I have none.
They last for 1-2 seconds each. It's like my heart skips a beat. Some of them are more forceful than others. Sometimes I feel a tight thud in my chest, others times I do not. Before, during and after them, I feel fine in myself, if a little startled afterwards.
They happen when I'm at rest, sometimes when I'm walking.
I'm 26 years old, and feel no shortness of breath, no dizzy-ness etc.
I notice they happen more frequently when stressed, especially when after eating.
Once, last November, I also woke up with extra beats. Like my heart was beating normally, but there were occasional extra beats, like duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-DUH-duh-duh-DUH-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-DUH-duh, This went on for approx 15 minutes. I felt OK during this...
A couple of times in my life, I have nearly fainted, because of what I believe to be heart problems,
I feel dizy before hand, within 45 minutes I feel my heart really slow, head spinning, vision loss. I do not pass out. Within 5 minutes I am OK again. Each time I think I've been to the toilet, poop, before it happens. It's happened 3 times, in 2007-8 (when I was 13/14) then once in August 2013 and once again in July 2014.
I am too scared to visit the doctor.
0 likes, 1 reply
charles61038 tomp94
Posted
Tom, by all means go to the doctor and have it checked out. Most likely your heart will check out fine. I went through the same thing as you describe... the awful palpitations, missed beats etc. Sometimes waking up from a good sleep with them. I've even gone to the E.R. and get checked out. They find nothing wrong. I went to a cardiologist who gave me an Echo cardiogram, a stress test, EKG and all turned out fine. I even wore a heart monitor for a whole month. Even though it did record the irregular beats, he told me they were benign and nothing to worry about. They just kept getting worse and happening for often. After several visits with the cardiologist who kept telling me there was nothing wrong with my heart, I decided to visit my primary care doctor. I get annual physicals and I had had one about 6 months prior. I just thought to myself something is wrong that causes these terrible heart beats. They were driving me crazy. I figured it must be some kind of chemical imbalance with my blood or something. So he checks me out again and told me my blood work was normal and nothing that would cause any irregular heart beats. He told me many times anxiety can cause those problems... which sort of sounds like what you are experiencing. So he prescribed a very low dose of Zoloft - 25 mg. He told me the regular starting dose was 50 mg, but he gave me the lower dose to start. Within 2 weeks, the palpitations had stopped. I went for a follow up and he upped the dose to the 50 mg. That was too much for me, so I went back to the 25 mg and it is working well for me. Just enough to keep the palpitations away. I get one every now and then, but nothing like I was having... so you should get your heart checked out to make sure there is nothing wrong there. Most likely they are from your anxiety. There is a good doctor on that has many videos. He is from York Cardiology clinic. You can google him and see some of his online videos about irregular heart beats. If nothing more, he will make you feel better about what you are going through. Good luck to you.