Heart pounding keeping me awake!

Hi borderlyme,

Sorry you are having to go through this. It's very alarming, even though you intellectually know it isn't an emergency.

I found getting up and moving around and then settling to sleep in a recliner chair - or propping myself up in bed with a bolster under my knees as well -- really helped. I've heard that oxygen can help -- but it's a little hard to get a hold of that!!

Also, make sure your Potassium and Magnesium haven't gotten depleted. That can cause heart anomalies, in my experience.

The times I've gone to the ER have been more alarming than the symptoms!! But if you really feel that you are in danger, by all means get checked out.

My friend with Lyme had this issue and wore a heart monitor for a few weeks. They said she was fine, but she was really disturbed by it.

If oxygen helps, would oxygen supplements help? I've been taking drops of Oxygen Elements Max by Global Health Trax. It's supposed to help oxgenate the blood. It's a liquid that I add to my water so it's easy to take.

I hope you feel better soon. Those kinds of symptoms are really rough to live with.

I am so sorry that you are having to deal with this, Broderlyme! Although I've been blessed enough to not have to deal with any of the serious heart issues that be caused by these infections, I have dealt with the chest pains, pains from in between the ribs, and some pretty serious palpitations.

Several years ago I remember having palps that were so hard that they would shake the bed, and that scared me!!! I can remember not hardly being able to wait until they were over -I was even afraid to get out of bed - so that I could get to the computer and post on this forum asking about it!!

Fortunately we had some really great members back then as well and they were able to assure me that as long as I hadn't developed any other heart issues that it was just part of this disease.

I hope that you find out the same thing - that although it's scary, it's just part of this disease.

I do the same thing as Achievinggrace suggested whenever I have trouble with sleep -no matter what the reason. Get up out of bed, fix a nice cup of soothing chamomile tea, get into a comfy chair or couch with a nice soft blanket (as my house is usually pretty cool in the middle of the night), a good book -one that isn't tense- and read for a bit. Focusing on the book keeps me from focusing on what's going on with my body, and the tea helps me to relax just a bit more, and then I'm usually only missing about an hours worth of sleep that way!

This was one of my first symptoms, starting in 2006.  The holter monitor displayed them, but the doctor said they were beneign and not to worry and rx xanax.  The endocrinologist suggested beta blockers for what he said was perimenopause (I was 44).  Other symptoms being:  hot flashes, chills, myalgia, migrating arthralgia, headaches, plantar fasciitis, rage, anxiety attacks, suicidal ideation, derealization, brain fog, short term memory loss. 

After much googling I decided that I would treat my "perimenopause" with bioidentical progesterone cream.  I started out with a fairly low dose and after suffering some estrogen dominance issues my symptoms felt better.  Now I feel pretty good with a dose of about 150 mg per day.  Most doctors say that is too much, and that I need to cycle, but most of my symptoms have resolved, and they return when I decrease the dosage.  The wonky heart beat was the first symptom to recover.  20 minutes after applying progesterone I could feel it return from that "too fast, I must be getting sick" feeling, and the night time pounding stopped as well.  It also resolved the "flu-like" symptoms and rage/anxiety/derealization.

Gestational attenuation of Lyme arthritis is mediated by progesterone and IL-4 in a mouse model:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11390492

Progesterone: therapeutic opportunities for neuroprotection and myelin repair

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17659348

http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/15/suppl_1/1.full.pdf

I will be introducing myself on the forum shortly, but felt I had to reply to this question.

Perhaps you need to take more magnesium. How many mg. are you taking? Also, make sure you are not drinking any caffeine or chocolate as they would make my heart race terrible.

I hope you get some sleep tonight. It's so so important.

You know, B/L, I started to sleep well when I began the Yasko Simplified Methylation Protocol. It's pretty easy (and cheap) and involves folate and B12 supplementation with phosphadytlserine complex. You can google it. Quite literally, after sleeping VERY ERRATICALLY for 5 months (never more tha 4 hours a night), it got me to sleep almost IMMEDIATELY - this was back in early November - might be worth a try.

Here's a link - I use a regular multi-vitamin supp rather than the "neurological health formula" - http://cfsmethylation.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-get-started-on-simplified-five.html.

1. ¼ Folapro (made by Metagenics)
2. ¼ Intrinsi B12/Folate (made by Metagenics)
3. 1 or 2 HHC Neurological Health Formula
note: Rich recommends sensitive individuals start with ¼ and work up
4. 1 or 2 Phosphatidyl Serine complex (from Vitamin Discount Center)
5. 1 or more sublingual hydroxycobalamin tablets (Perque Activated B12 Guard)

Post Edited (yazzer) : 2/27/2012 1:13:26 PM (GMT-7)

B/L - I have been doing it as part of my regular treatment - it was first pointed out to me by my LLMD - I usually take all the stuff around dinner time in the evening - doesn't matter when or with what food is my understanding - I have been doing it since Nov 8th. It never caused a herx cuz the dosages are so low (1/4 tablet and the like). In fact, I felt much better after starting it but I don't know how much of that was attributable to the SMP...but I think it definitely worked to help me SLEEP very quickly.

Yes!! I can echo treehousemom too. I have heart pounding/racing and extreme sharp chest pains that worsen when lying down. I have started taking 250 mg and while I still get the pains, its much less often, slightly less intense and I think I'm gonna up my dose to 300-400 mg (I take 200 magnesium citrate or something by solgar) and 50 is in my multivitamin. It made me nauseated at first but now I'm used to it and ready to up that dose. Suggested is 400 mg per day.

The heart pains are insanely scary. I made an appt to see a cardiologist but it would have been out of pocket due to my crap insurance deductible, so I canceled it since I'm seeing an LLMD this week.

I thought I was the only one! Seriously, some nights, my heart is pounding so strongly and the pulse in my neck is so strong it makes my blankets and pillow move and crinkle really loudly too! And I've also had a couple episodes where I feel like I just ran a race even though I am laying down. But I don't have chest pain (I did for a while from heartburn. Seems obvious, but have you ruled it out?)

Here are my thoughts/advice from my ND:
1) Magnesium. Other people said it too. Apparently it can be really helpful. I only just started, so I can't say
2) If this keeps on/if I don't get better, she might consider that this could be babesia. But right now, she describes it as a mitochondrial dysfunction. Basically, your body is under siege and really stressed. Stuff doesn't work right. Your autonomous nervous system (which is supposed to lower blood pressure when you lie down) gets screwed up and backward. Support your adrenals and make sure you get B vitamins, fish oil etc. to try to help your body out.

Sorry I can't help more!

Calvin-Welcome to the message board. Glad you found us.

I assume you have or suspect that you have Lyme. If you know you have Lyme are you currently treating it and if so what kind of treatment are you doing?

I deal with some of those same issues. The heart pounding issue is most commonly related to Bartonella. The more my protocol is Bart targeted the more difficult my sleep becomes. Lack of sleep then causes bouts of nausea.

You may get more responses that target your specifc issues if you start a new thread. Need help with heart palps/ sleep/nausea. This site is great. People will share what has helped them and what you might try.

Take a few moments a read through the New to Lyme section. There is a lot of useful information.
Janet