Heart Palps...1 year anniversary

**CrystalChord** · 06-03-2010 01:23 PM

So, it's been a while since I've been here. When did the forums change??

Anyway, I've been having heart palpitations again. I feel them strongly in my throat (near the dip in my collarbone), and it takes a few seconds for my pulse to feel normal. When I check my pulse, it feels like my heart is not beating for a moment, and then it will start again. Sometimes I have no other symptoms, but I had one about ten minutes ago that felt like it was accompanied by a hot flash.

I am 21 years-old (soon to be 22 next month), 5'2 and overweight (about 205-210 pounds, ew), and I don't have a regular diet. Some days I'm eating vegetables and fruit because it's the only thing in the house, next thing I know there's nutella, cereal, and cheese everywhere. My mom and sister both have hypothyroidism, and I may get it as well (stupid genetics). Mother also has Type II Diabetes.

A little background: The palps started out of the blue about 6 months to a year ago, when I was laughing with my mother about half an hour after having a very stressful argument with her. I was also dealing with my hypochondria hitting me gale-force for some reason or another, and I was suffering panic attacks (which I still suffer from). I've posted almost every time this happens and it looks like they occur every two to three months for 3-7 days, I think.

I have no familial history (to my knowledge) of heart problems.

More recently my diet and stress levels have been hay-wire. I just came home from college, so I had finals to deal with and no meal swipes to eat with, so I was surviving on whatever was edible in my fridge (which was ramen, high in sodium, and Fruit 2-0 which has sodium something in it as a preservative). After I got home it was Wedding CENTRAL at my house, because my sister was getting married. We had nothing to eat in the fridge for a while, and then suddenly we had a huge rehearsal dinner, and the wedding reception (which I drank champagne, a cosmo, and half a sex on the beach at---and I usually drink 0 units of alcohol a day), and I've been thriving on junk food leftovers since the 29th.

Last night I had a friend over for the evening, and we nearly polished off a bag of blue corn Tostitos and a can of salsa. I also had a pint of Light ben and jerry's Phish Food ice cream. Today has been blue corn nachos with cheese salsa, and more cheese.

The only redeeming thing I've done is swap out icky sodas for polar flavored seltzer.

I'm trying to get on a low-sodium diet, and I take one "One-a-Day" women's multivitamin, one primrose oil tablet, and one Omega-3 fish oil tablet daily, or every other day at least. It's hard to reduce my stress and panic attacks, even when I know how to breathe and work through the issues facing me.

I don't drink a lot of water (at all), and I hardly ever get potassium or magnesium or iron in my system.

Does anyone have the same palpitations? If so, what did you do to fix them?

Is it possible that they are just a result of a poor diet and lack of excersize? Please help me on this one, guys!

**ItsASecret** · 06-03-2010 02:55 PM

Purely because of a lack of proper diet. I actually doubt they are real palpitations unless a real doctor has diagnosed you. Fear and stress can create problems in the body without actual real medical things happening. I would say get on the right track with a proper diet and exercise while also trying to get the hypochondriasis under control.

**Hopeless Dork** · 06-03-2010 03:03 PM

Anxiety and panic can create an accelerated heart rate. If you have an irregular heartbeat, palpatations can be brought on with excessive caffiene (chocolate, soda's, coffee, etc), lack of sleep and anxiety. See a doctor. They will likely have you wear a portable at home halter monitor so that they can determain if your palpatations are something serious and need medicine or things like that or whether diet and good health habits can control them. It may also be that you are fine and only think you are feeling palpatations and your hypochondria and anxiety are giving you symptoms that aren't really there.

But you will NEED to see a doctor, if they determain your heart is fine then you could take a deep breath and have less anxiety over feeling whatever it is you feel.

Lay off caffiene and be sure to get plenty of rest and please just see a doctor on this issue, for peace of mind if nothing else.

**CrystalChord** · 06-03-2010 03:21 PM

I'll need to talk to my mother, but she is very against me going to a doctor "for no real reason". Because I suffer from hypochondrasis, she immediately thinks that any and all problems I have are all in my head, even though I know something isn't quite right.

I've not suffered high blood pressure, and my heart rate can range from 66 to about 80 bpm depending on what I've been doing/how I am feeling. Right now it is 72bpm. I am trying to drink more water. Is it true that I have to drink 8 cups of water a day, plus another cup for every 25 pounds i have to lose? If that's the case, I need to drink 11 cups of water! I'm way under that; I'm lucky if I get three a day.

My boyfriend thinks that maybe I just need to burp and it's the gasses trying to get out of my throat, and while I do feel the need to burp, I don't think that's quite it...

Anyone know what I should eat to get more magnesium or potassium in my diet? I've heard that can help with palpitations too.

**Fae30** · 06-04-2010 08:59 AM

Well, I have had heart palpitations that started when I turned age 20... but since I didn't have high blood pressure, I had ignored it for years, until it started to disturb my sleep and got a little worse. I did see my doctor and she was very concerned, so she sent me to an heart specialist. From there, I was sent home with one of those neat portable at home halter monitors too! I say "neat", because I'm weird and felt like I was a cyborg for a day, so I was in nerdy role-play heaven. =p

Anyhoo, I found out that I have Mitral Valve Prolapse. I did have to change my diet of cigarettes and coffee... I have been smoke-free for three months now and have been without coffee longer. ;-)
So, it's good if you can see an doctor about this. It may be something serious or you may just need to change your diet.

**CrystalChord** · 06-12-2010 05:13 PM

It's been about nine days since I last posted, and I had another attack of palpitations today. I haven't eaten properly in the last few days because I have been busy and I stayed at a friend's place, and I also haven't had much water. Yesterday all I ate were some olives, cheese and some Phish Food Ice Cream, and today I had two eggs and two toast slices, but I also ate a lot of chocolate. I also slept on a hard floor last night and didn't get to bed until about 3 AM. However, I also may have costrochondritis or muscle strain. The left side of my chest has been aching recently. It's not a deep pain, it's like a shallow pain, when you've over-exerted yourself. I'm also constantly burping, and my throat feels tight. I sometimes wonder if it's just my throat contracting because I have gas bubbles or something in my throat, but then I can't feel my pulse at all for what should be the space of one or two heartbeats.

This is very scary to me, because it takes me a while for my heart rythym to be normal again. I'm going to see my OBGYN this upcoming friday but I don't know if I can talk to her about my heart problems. She's also my mom's OBGYN and she constantly blames EVERYTHING on weight so she might just say "Oh, it's because you're fat" and leave it at that. I know my weight is a problem and I am trying to fix it!

I just am very afraid of dying. I have a lot of things I want to do and these heart palps freak me out so badly that I'm worried I'm going to die the next day. It's been like that for a while now, where I just think "If I make it through this week I'll be fine," and every week I think that.

**Fae30** · 06-12-2010 06:09 PM

Well, an OBGYN can't help with issues of the heart, they only specialize in female reproductive organs. That's like asking an eye specialist about an infected tooth, when you really would have to see an dentist about teeth. :-/

It may be your heart, it may just be your diet, or it could be nothing at all. But the only way to find out, is to see an heart specialist. If you need a referral to one, you have to speak with your primary care physician, and they will gladly give you one. I'm pretty sure you won't die. Just see the right specialist for a check-up and it may be something simple, like cutting out sodas and other caffeinated drinks. :-)

**ItsASecret** · 06-12-2010 06:26 PM

Diet, not palpitations unless a doctor says so, need to up the anty on exercising, and keep trying to go see a professional about the hypochondriasis. You are not going to die remember?

**CrystalChord** · 06-17-2010 02:26 PM

Back again, and this time with more! I have been trying to drink more water, and I get at least 2 to 3 one-liter bottles of water per day. I have been taking multivitamin (Women's One a Day), a tablet of Omega 3 fish oil (upped it to two starting today), and a primrose oil tablet. The palps seemed to go away during my period, which ended on Sunday, but Sunday evening/Monday morning, they came back with a vengeance.

I have had at least 2-3 episodes per day (today it was about 4, and it's not even 4:30 where I am), where my heart seems to pause for one beat, starts up for another two or three, then pauses again, and then everything goes back to normal. I usually try to take a deep breath when this happens or cough. I have also been belching a lot (please pardon the rudeness) since I last got them.

My diet is now consisting of bran cereal, wheat breads and low fat turkey, Vitamin D enriched organic whole milk, fruits of any kind, and the occasional ice cream or junk food (though I try to limit that to a few spoonfuls or crisps). I would like to eat more bananas or avocados, since I have heard they are good for this sort of thing (full of magnesium and potassium) if a mineral or electrolyte deficiency is the cause. However, Mother also likes to eat them. A lot....

I also vaguely remember the palpitations getting far worse after the summer last year, especially in October, when my living situation at University was getting steadily worse. I had a heavy workload, 8am classes and an 8am work shift on the day I didn't have early classes, and I had three roommates who never, ever cleaned up after themselves in regards to dishes, clothing, papers, projects, game systems, etc. My stress levels were elevated and along with my anxiety about my health, it certainly didn't help the situation.

I have an appointment next Friday with my GP to get it looked at. I sometimes will have episodes lasting from a few days to (apparently) weeks of these palpitations and then have nothing wrong for a month or so. I've gotten so desprate for a solution that I took an epsom salt bath to see if that would even help a little.

These palpitations are so distracting and frightening, that I'm starting to wonder if I'll even make it to my birthday this July...

**CrystalChord** · 06-21-2010 01:12 PM

So, I haven't had the palpitations for a few days now, ever since I stopped using the Fish Oil pills and the Primrose oil pills. I thought that was what was causing them, and I was so happy that for three days I was normal again.

But just now, not five minutes ago, I got soap in my eye in the shower, and it was incredibly painful. Whilst trying to rinse it out, I could feel my heart going -beat-beat-*pause*-beat-beat-*pause*-beat-beat-beat-beat-*pause*...It was an attack lasting what felt like about a minute. Was it the extreme stress of getting soap in my eye and the pain I was feeling? Or is something seriously wrong with me?