Palpitations

I have had a really stressful week, my car is playing up after only four months so engaged in a fight with the garage over the cost of the investigations, fell out with my son and daughter inlaw and banned from seeing grand daughter, then I had a bleed behind my right eye so am now under the local eye clinic for investigations and dealing with a constant 'snowstorm'in front of my eye which is affecting my vision, to day i have felt like my heart is racing ten to the dozen which is making me feel so anxious.I know its probably due to all the stress of this week but it is scaring me. Anyone else had this happen to them due to anxiety???

flakesofjam Glad to hear you've found out today what's happening and that you'll be seeing a cardiologist. My experience taught me that sometimes you need to chase things up otherwise they can slip through the net.

Re travel insurance I used Good to Go for a reasonable premium. Also at one stage I excluded the risk from the policy with another company to reduce the premium.

Re modern anticoagulants. They are much more convenient but I was put off switching from Warfarin because at the moment there is no easy way to reverse their effect in the event of an accident or emergency surgery. With Warfarin vitamin K is used. Also much less is known about their long term use.

Mine started with continual atrial flutter, which is why they did the shock treatment. Later I was diagnosed with bouts of atrial fibrillation. As it is the biggest cause of strokes I'd advise anyone with regular bouts of palpitations to take it very seriously and get it checked out. Yes, it can be tricky catching it on a 24 hour heart monitor, but they will also do 48hour and 7 day monitors. Don't feel you are wasting anyone's time. A friend ended up being diagnosed with AF after a stroke. He was lucky and got his speech and movement back after a few years, but a stroke can be devastating.

My description of AF is that it is like a bag of wriggling worms!

I have also had SVT and this can be cured by pretending you are giving birth to a 12 pound baby - preferably while sitting on the loo just in case!

Hi - I've just come back from holiday with the same problem, (AF) and the isurers do want to know all the details - then they add a considerable sum to cover any extra risk - I had to pay an extra £108 for 3 weeks. I doubt if they would refuse cover unless you are over 75 - they just charge you more.

Thanks all. Just rang surgery as had heard nothing. Apparently a letter has gone off today & I will shortly get an invitation to book an appointment with a cardiologist. After reading all your comments I'm glad to be seeing one as would rather get to the bottom of things than just take medication.
Off to stay with my sister for a couple days, I guess I will have to forego our usual evening Prosecco !

squirrel

seillean that's correct you can't edit.

Sorry, can't comment on the OP x

Sorry! The lateness of the hour has obviously scrambled my brain! In the above post please read 2006 for 1996 and 2005 for 1995.

It doesn't seem possible to edit a message. Is that correct?

I was diagnosed with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) in 1996 but had had palpitations for around a year before that. 24 hour monitors don't help unless you have an episode while wearing one! I found I had several triggers - alcohol, caffeine (in tea as well as coffee), lying on my left side. eating/drinking anything very cold, anxiety, excitement, any infection, tension - I couldn't even watch Wimbledon! I was getting the impression that the GPs thought it was all in my mind. Eventually I conveniently had an episode which started in the GP's waiting room and it was recorded on an ECG.

You haven't said if your GP gave you a diagnosis. If it is PAF, causing a raised and irregular heart rate, treatment is usually rate and/or rhythm control medication and an anticoagulant. My PAF didn't respond well to drugs and over the next 12 months I had an echocardiogram (to check the structure of the heart, particularly the valves), a thyroid function blood test, and an angiogram. In 1997 I had the first of 3 ablations. The last was in February 2015. I still take 4 drugs including Warfarin but for the last year have been free of AF for the first time since about 1995. Along the way electrical cardioversion (shocking) was arranged a couple of times to end long episodes but I reverted to sinus (normal) rhythm spontaneously. On the one occasion I was shocked (two attempts) it actually made it worse. I had cardioversion by IV drugs a couple of times and that worked well.

I hope this helps and doesn't discourage/depress you. Everyone's different and you should take it a step at a time. The suggestion of magnesium is probably a good one to discuss with your GP though not all medics are open to such ideas. Too late for me I found this site www.afibbers.org/ It's a mine of information and Hans Larsen strongly advocates magnesium, potassium and taurine www.afibbers.org/afibsupplements.htm There seems to be evidence that standard blood tests don't necessarily show when levels in the body are low.

Good luck!

I find Allclear are excellent for travel insurance for my heart problems (LQT and valve). Much cheaper than I thought it would be. Have used them several times now.

Ask your doctor if you may take magnesium.
I had all the tests and Dr. was going for
betablockers, I did research and asked
him if I could try magnesium first.
He said yes.
250-500 mg magnesium.
It worked.

I have had ectopics on and off for years. I was advised to drink only decaf. I don't always and often find proper coffee brings them on. I also find Levothyroxine can make them worse. I'm on 100 mcgs a day and this seems to work for thyroxine levels so I just have to put up with the ectopics. My doctor has always been reassuring and I've had the 48 hour tape a couple of times.

I've been taking Levothyroxine for many years, always the same dose of two tabs one day, three the next with twice yearly blood tests to gauge amount of thyroxine in my body. The last blood test last November was good. In December this fluttery, quick, heart beat started, about 2x a day. Visited GP and had an ECG. This showed normal heart rate. But another blood test showed too high a level of thyroxine which GP said was, or could be causing the palpitations. Instructed early last week to drop dosage to two tabs every day (rather than 3 on alternate days) and so far palpitations have disappeared. So maybe that's a clue for other people?

I'm fairly new on Gransnet so hello everyone.

Palpitations are scary! A trick to help stop them is: take a deep breath, hold it and bear down from your shoulders. Hold the breath as long as you can. The breath holding and pressure is designed to get your heart back into its proper rhythm. I've been getting very occasional palpitations since my late thirties and I agree it's NOT nice.

I have palpitations which I am fairly sure are caused by anxiety , also a kind of` rolling` heart beat sometimes which is hard to describe.
I wake in the night with palps and feel as if I am going into a panic attack , if I get up and make a drink I can usually get myself together .
Very unpleasant !!

Hi all. I've had Supra Ventricular Tachycardia (SVT) - which is Latin for jolly fast heartbeat - since I was 13. Oddly enough it always goes at the same rate which is 238 beats a minute. If you peer at my chest... and plenty do, as I'm 38 FF... you can actually see it !

It usually stops of its own accord - though episodes often last for 18 hours or so. My record is 36 hours !

I'm 64 now, and a couple of years ago it started banging away on an almost daily basis, so the medics sent me to the John Radcliffe, where they did an AV nodule ablation.

Basically this is a wire through the groin and up into the heart which zaps away the faulty bits. They found three.

For a few weeks everything was fine, but then the ticker got up to its old tricks again, and I was also diagnosed with atrial fibrilation (AF).

How can you tell the difference ?? SVT is a boomp, boomp boomp feeling, whilst AF is like a butterfly wings beating in your chest.

I've done 50 years with SVT.. so don't worry. I lead a pretty normal life, go to the gym, and have never, ever had probs with travel insurance. And yes I always declare SVT and now AF.

Oh and squirrel5, my cardiologist was dishy too !

I have also had bouts of arrhythmia,was referred to cardiologist, had an echocardiogram, which thankfully was ok, 7 day ambulatory monitor,and prescribed bisoprolol 2.5mg,felodipine(as have hypertension).and one of the new blood thinners which requires minimal monitoring, and touch wood ,problem much better.I found most travel insurance companies will insure you provided you declare all ,and obviously pay more,as Lucky girl rightly said. I saw my cardiologist this week for routine check, he says it is a common problem,the only thing is ,he was so handsome and dreamy eyed ,that I almost had a palpitation just looking at him!!
I

I have AF,and on Digoxin,Wafarin and 7.5 Bisoprolol,still get
very irregular heart beats,but was told nothing else they can do.

They will insure him, but they will require him to declare the problem and they will up the premium.

Interesting reading all your comments as hubby is having a 24 hour monitor & an ECG next week for an irregular heartbeat. Have any of you had problems getting holiday insurance with this ailment? Due to go on holiday to USA in 2 months, he has travel insurance but I'm starting to panic in case the insurance providers don't want to continue to insure him.

Palpitations can also be caused by anxiety. I experienced them shortly after my retirement and they are so scary!!!! I was fitted with a 24hr monitor, also had an electrocardiogram done and saw a cardiologist. After each treatment i felt more reassured that nothing was wrong with my heart and by the time i saw the cardiologist they had stopped completely. I felt a bit of a nuisance taking up valuable appointments but was informed i had done the correct thing and my local GP was right it was all due to the change in lifestyle, and my body and mind adjusting to it all. I experienced one the other night but that was after spending a stressful evening chatting to my daughter about issues going on in her life, so i know now that was anxiety causes mine. I have also changed to decaff coffee as i too heard caffeine can cause them and i am a big coffee drinker.

Making a suggestion which might be useful to flakesofjam, over 10 years ago I had a similar problem and was diagnosed with an overactive thyroid. It seems that a large number of people are put on hrt and other meds when this is their problem but gps haven't asked for that particular test. Symptoms of overactive thyroid. Palpitations, racing pulse, sweats, anxiety, losing weight, tiredness.

I got palpitations when good ng through menopause found caffeine made it worse so drink decaf now .

Shocking the heart ( Cardioversion ) is only an option if you are in this abnormal rhythm all the time if it's only intermittent, and the rest of the time you are in Sinus (normal) rhythm then there is no point.
Medication is usually a good option.
You need an Echocardiogram and blood tests to see if there is any underlying cause and possibly a referral to a Cardiologist.
If you feel that wine or coffee is aggravating your symptoms I would switch to decaf coffee and avoid the wine

I was diagnosed with heart arrhythmia and had the shock treatment. It worked but only for a week and then it came back. I was given a beta blocker and an anticoagulant. I found wine and dark chocolate seemed to set mine off, but they happened anyway. The attacks got longer and more frequent and the drugs didn't seem to control it so I had the ablation procedure at St George's in London. It worked. Brilliant hospital. Arrhythmia is the biggest cause of strokes. I think you should ask your GP to refer you to a cardiologist and you should be on an anticoagulant. Not just aspirin. Doesn't have to be warfarin with all the blood tests. There are more modern tablets nowadays.