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Irregular Heartbeats for Over 20 years.

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Posted 1/5/2011 10:21 PM (GMT 0)
Here's a strange one for you--!  Wondering if  anyone can relate...or had anything like this!

For over 20 yrs.......having irregular beats-!   Been Dx...w mild 'mitral valve prolapse'...but....what REALLY bothers me---is these irregular beats...that come in "clusters"---!

I've had ...MANY "event" monitors...over the years....(maybe a dozen or so) echos...etc---& caught the "nasty" ones....on the monitor--!  Dx...with SVT.....lomgest "runs"...I get...are...8...9 beats or so--lasting...at most 4 or 5 seconds!

Have a great neuro....here in Philly---& while I was in Beverly Hills...saw a terrific...."electro-cardio"---!

The 'general consenus"...is...these things are 'benign'...!  (Tho..I FEEL...like I'm gonna die!)

Last time I saw my neuro...(3 weeks ago)--he said.."Rob...your heart is structurally fine!!" 

OK.....HERE is my "NEW"...issue!

Last year...after  bout w flu--came down with strange neuro musclular symptoms..(cramps...fasics...etc)---My neuros here..gave me tests,,,(MROs...EMGs....etc..)--ALL normal-!

Went to Mayo Clinic..in Minnesota...TWICE last summer!  Best neuros around...more blood tests...emgs...MRIs......!  Normal....My Dx...is ? Benign Peripheral Nerve  Hyperexcitabilty....(PNH)--thought caused by some antibodies! eyes

Anyway---TO THE POINT---!

Since getting these symptoms....it "SEEMS"...like my irregular heartbears are more frequent....& different--!  Saw my neuro----Told me this condition would NOT affect my heart! confused

Asked my Cardiologist--he said...same thing--! confused

To ease my mind...he ordered.....an event monitor....for 2 weeks...(waiting for it to come)--HOPING to "catch"...these...."new events"...& see what's what!

OK---my question......has ANYONE here===ever had...a neuro issue...that affected your heartbeat?

Could this just be the "stress"...of my neuro condition..?

I should add......when I eat Dark chocolate.....I get more of them-!  (caffeine..??)

PLEASE--someone get back..(to ease my mind)--BOTH neuros AND cardios...gave assured me---my neuro issue..would NOT affect my heartbeat-!!

Get back---Thanks--Robert wink

Edit:  I gave your post a title.

Post Edited By Moderator (stkitt) : 1/6/2011 7:35:41 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 1/6/2011 2:09 PM (GMT 0)
Of course foods can cause arrhythmias! Ask an allergist.

I get tachycardia and other arrhythmias from eating anything with sulfites. I kept a food log with symptoms after eating anything, did challenge testing under my allergist's direction.

I usually, but not always, get stomach upset (reflux) after eating the suspect food first, this then triggers the heart. Recently I ended up in the ER needing adenosine rhythm conversion after a 5 hour bout. But the chocolate was delicious! (OK, just a taste from now on, after that experience!)

The condition is called cardioesophageal reflex, aka linked angina. My gastro doc and heart doc had never heard of it, but there are scientific studies. I think they still don't believe me, but if I avoid my food sensitivities, all acquired from eating too much processed food, I don't have the symptoms.
Posted 1/6/2011 6:39 PM (GMT 0)
I've been getting irregular heart beats all my life and have had my heart checked for it many years ago. Once I carried a monitor around for 24 hours. They found nothing.

Then one day, while I was hooked up to a heart monitor to get a colonoscopy, my heart fluttered and it showed up on the monitor. I was taking prednisone at the time.

No one thought it was a big deal. A lot of people get irregular heart beats.

I get irregular heart beats more frequently when I'm taking medicine, consume caffeine, am sick, am anemic, am feeling nervous, or don't get enough sleep...

If your doctors do not find anything wrong with your heart, then I wouldn't worry about it:

"A heart flutter, or arrhythmia, can be worrying, but it often happens when there is no other sign of heart disorder. It is quite common in older people. Symptoms can include heart palpitations, dizziness, fainting or breathlessness."

http://www.ehow.com/facts_7354982_heart-flutter.html

If it worries you, then just don't do those things that make your heart beat irregularly.

Post Edited (subdued) : 1/6/2011 11:43:57 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 1/6/2011 9:39 PM (GMT 0)
Most of the time the docs are right, but not always.

I had reflux + tach and other arrhythmias for a couple of years, finally complained enough that a cardiologist gave me a stress test and sonogram. Diagnosis was I was "just out of shape." A couple of months later I had my usual symptoms and it suddenly progressed into a heart attack.

After getting a stent I was expected to get better. I passed another stress test a few months later and was pronounced fine. But I didn't feel fine, could barely walk across a level parking lot. I told a different cardiologist that "I felt like I was going to have another heart attack." Magic words! He did another angiogram, placed another stent. This time I really did get better.

Occasional palpitations are nothing to worry about. If they follow a distinct pattern, like something is triggering them, or if they are getting bad enough to be a real problem I would say so.

Event monitors are not infallible, especially the ones that radio in events when you push a button or maybe once an hour. I've had several. The ones using radio signal are on cell phone frequencies. If you live in a poor reception area, as I do, the signals they send are often not received. The companies count a day if they receive even one signal from the monitors! The 24-hour-ones often don't catch anything important in just one day.

Even when I went to the ER with my 5 hour attack I wouldn't have been believed that my rate was 165 most of the time, except that I had been measuring it on my little baby home device every half hour (bought after the heart attack). A nurse recorded that rate just after I walked in, or they would have just let me sit there in agony for who knows how long. It slowed to 120 - 140, where the doc wasn't worried at all.

Do you know how to do Valsalva maneuvers? Look it up! You can usually stop/break the rhythm yourself. Coughing often works too. My cardiologist gave me a few atenolol tabs to carry with me. I chew one up, chew an aspirin too when an event goes more than a few minutes.
Posted 4/1/2011 4:26 PM (GMT 0)
What a fluke! Just reading this A.M. about someone who has been suffering with esophageal spasms (on another forum). They were talking about an irregular heartbeat that showed on the EKG. Thing is, I've been following your thread from 2005 on DES because our son is encountering esophageal spasms.
The fluke is, he has also been diagnosed with MVP and also, following his last horrible TWO NIGHT episode of DES, he landed in the hospital. They discovered pericarditis, inflammation of the tissue surrounding the heart! Not to confuse you, but the MVP diagnosis was years ago, prior to the severe DES symptoms.
I am throwing this out there because of a suspicion that the two are closely related because of the very close proximity of the heart and esophagus. Just sayin...
Are you still getting the esophageal spasms too?
Having just discovered magnesium as a possible solution, and because of the months in between episodes of DES, it could be awhile before we know if it has helped. Might I suggest that you go the nutritionist route? tnfred34 posted his ideas on the DIFFUSE ESOPHAGEAL SPASMS thread.
Will keep you posted on any further developments since you and our son seem to be following some similar patterns.
Posted 4/1/2011 11:08 PM (GMT 0)
spazzedout

I am sorry to read of your son's problem with diethylstilbestrol. What a tough deal that he has  Mitral Valve Prolapse and pericarditis.

I am a bit confused re the DES and why your son has been on this drug.  Not knowing his age I am thinking perhaps PCa ? 

Hope all turns out ok for him.

Kindly,

Kitt



 

Posted 4/2/2011 5:35 PM (GMT 0)
Drug? There is no drug. We are going to try natural remedies i.e. magnesium to see if we can get him balanced. Possibly his ions are out of wack. It is exciting to learn from a professional medical website that low magnesium is a probable cause of DIFFUSE ESOPHAGEAL SPASMS.
Because heart and esophagus are both smooth muscle, and reading of WOTAN's issues with both involuntary muscles, there is reason to believe the two are related and most importantly, both could possibly be remedied with MAGNESIUM.
Posted 4/3/2011 7:42 PM (GMT 0)
Good Afternoon,

DES: abbreviation of: Diethylstilbestrol

DES:  abbreviation of:  Diffuse Esophageal Spasm

In medicine there are many abbreviations that stand for more then one thing. My fault for misunderstanding your use of DES.

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