Heart Palpitations, could it be realted to GAS?!?

I've been searching through the posts, and can not find anything similar to what I am experiencing.

So here is my dilemma, this may be a bit lengthy, so I apologize in advance:

I am a 25 year old female, I eat very healthy, I follow an acidic-alkaline PH balanced diet, and drink tons of water. I try to stay away from a lot of dairy and a lot of gluten. I do not drink alcohol except for a very occasional glass of red wine with dinner, I do not take illegal drugs, I do not take any medication including antibiotics or even aspirin. I do not drink caffeine or take other stimulants.

I've always had a light feeling or sensation of "heart flutter" or heart palpitation. I can remember the first one arriving when I was about 16 during a very stressful situation at school. It didn't scare me then, and never has scared me all the times it's happened since then, maybe once every one to two years. I do have acute anxiety that I do not take any medications for, that I have dealt with since I was maybe 10-11 years old, and have always had good control over it.

about 5-6 months ago, I was sitting down eating dinner, noticed that I had a somewhat upset stomach - gas, bloating and gurgling. I had a very LARGE thump of a palpitation during the middle of a bite of food. It stopped me completely, really scared me and I rushed to the bathroom to splash water on my face and my heart began to race. It continued to race for a good three hours until I was so exhausted from the adrenaline pumping through me that I fell asleep. I starting having these palpitations more frequently after that night, maybe three of four a day. each equally as scary and I started becoming nervous of night fall because that's when it would happen. I wouldn't be doing anything in particular, just sitting watching a movie, or eating dinner, but they usually came late at night after about 8pm.

I went to the doctor many times, I've had everything checked from overgrowth of bacteria, to candida, I've had blood drawn for thyroid tests, I've had ekg's and heart monitors that never seem to pick anything up, but my doctor heard one through her stethoscope and said my heart is beating strong and healthy, it doesn't sound as if it's skipping a beat or if it's irregular, rather that it's pausing, she explained that the palpitation is occurring because something about my blood pumping too fast, so my heart is pushing it backwards to catch up so thats the sensation I'm feeling, but that it was benign and wouldn't hurt me. She said that I am perfectly healthy in all areas and that I have the basic symptoms of IBS, and there isn't much I can do for it, except maybe peppermint oils, teas, and relaxing, as it was stress related. BUT I never started feeling stressed out or anxious until I started having the palpitations, and I got the palpitations because I was stressed out about them...vicious circle.

So as advised I changed my diet I began taking magnesium, and other vitamins and minerals, I drink chamomile tea, ginger tea, take peppermint oils, and other holistic ways to eliminate my IBS symptoms. These have helped. I try to take them as regularly and often as directed.

I feel as though when I start to get a lot of gas build up, or a lot of gurgling and bubbling, my heart palpitations begin to flare up. Not necessarily coming from what or when I eat, but just when my IBS symptoms begin to flare up. Which is about every 4-5 days for about 2 days at a time. Then everything will cool down and I wont have symptoms of gas, or heart palpitations. Then about 4 days go by and they all begin again.

I'm wondering if there has been any study or anyone is having similar reactions to IBS, relating to heart flutters or anything?

I've also noticed that sometimes I'll get the palpitations from moving quickly, or bending over, also just thinking about it too much triggers them.

So I would like to know if anyone has any advice, or known remedies. Also if anyone has any known ideas on how to reduce them, or exercises you can do to prevent the recurrence?

THANK you so much for taking the time to read this lengthy post! I appreciate any response, even if just to relate...

I second dancinheart. 

Do some searching at the GERD forum and you may find some of my posts about tachycardia triggered by your stomach.  It's called cardioesophageal reflex or linked angina.  I've had it from gas, esophageal irritation and incipient diverticulitis with abscess.

You may also have a specific food trigger as I found I have.  Keep a food log for a month or two, noting date, time, exactly what you eat and drink, along with your reactions an hour and two hours later.  After you find some foods, you have to break them down to ingredients.  For me it wasn't the waffle, it was the maple syrup.  It wasn't the hamburger, it was the condiments.  You can also do "challenge testing" to figure out ingredients.

If you get a list of foods you can see if they are related by searching for the food with the term food allergy.  I found my entire list under sulfites.  If you can't drink wine or beer, or even more than a can of soda, that could be your trigger.

 

Thank you both for the information, I have never heard of GERD, so I will be looking into that definitely! My doctor mentioned nothing of the sort to me, so I will be asking her for information as well. As far as the tach - it only happened that one time because it scared me, my heart has never raced like that since then...if it does, it happens for a min or two and then slows immediately, but it hasn't happened in a couple months.

I noticed that the less processed foods and more veggies I eat, it seems to help quite a bit, I also gave up dairy for the most part and that also helps, but I will try keeping a food log and see if I can find the exact culprit.

I really appreciate your replies, it helps more than you know.
Thank you!

Since I have been reading on this forum and others, I have monitored my palps today and found they are related to my eating- been off caffeine for two weeks, changing over trying to get rid of the white refind sugars, and take CardioCentrum multivit., fishoil, eating nuts, and exercising 30 min. every day. I am on propanolol and baby asprin per day, including magnesium.

I feel as if I'm going in circles here. I have been monitoring and keeping a food log for the past couple of days, no heart palps as of yet, but I feel like keeping a food log may do no good, I eat pretty much all natural foods, I eat the same thing every morning, I have a routine to drinking my water, and usually I will only eat fresh veggies, fresh cooked meats, and I hardly ever have any refined sugar or any other types of "bad" foods. But even throughout the holiday, I ate things my family made, including pumpkin pie, pecan pie, stuffing, gravy, etc etc and noticed no heart palpitations but still had the gurgling, gas, and other symptoms.

I have been looking into the GERD and linked angina, and I just feel as if I'm not having those types of symptoms. It's just not clicking to me. Every once in a great while, I will have very minor acid reflux if I eat too much or have something that is very salty, but its been a very long time since that has actually happened. I do not have any chest pains, sometimes very light dull pains in my arm or atop my chest but I think that is anxiety messing with me, as it is never a feeling inside my chest its always an outer surface feeling.

I've been tested for all sorts of things including celiac, thyroids, candida, digestive problems, etc etc, and the best thing my doctor can come up with is IBS. She says she does not feel that I have GERD.

I don't know..I just feel very worn out, and like I'm running in circles to just find out that what I'm looking up or trying, is not what I have, and is not working.

Also a strange thing has begun to happen for the past three days and comes and goes very periodically through out the day. This may sound very strange and I have not yet consulted with my doctor as it just started...it feels as if my anus is buzzing... it's the strangest thing I have ever felt. It feels as if for about 2-3 seconds it buzzes, or like vibrates as if I'm passing gas, but I'm not. It startled me the first time because it felt as if I accidentally let gas pass, but then it started happening again and it just feels like a vibration or buzz or bubbling? I can't explain that either.

Also I don't remember if I mentioned before that I also have lots of twitching. I get muscles twitches, and spasms in various places of my body at various times through out the day. I feel it's more than a normal person's spasms. I'm also starting to notice a great deal of hair loss in the front of my hair line. It's noticeably thinner and I'm not sure if either of those things can attribute to any of the rest of it, but I felt I might as well mention it anyway.

I don't really know what to do, I'm only 25 years old, my doctor says I'm in great health and nothing is wrong with me physically except for the IBS. My heart is in fine condition, I'm sleeping fine, in fact it's my favorite thing to do because when I sleep I don't have to worry about whats going on with my body. I've never been one to dwell or freak out about things like this, but it's starting to get to me, because I can physically feel these things happening and no one seems to know what it is causing it.

I suppose the best thing I can do is to continue to keep a food log and see if I can find something that links up with food intake.
If anyone has suggestions on how to reduce the IBS, gas, bubbling, gurgling, etc please let me know.

Thank you again for all the replies...any other information is always greatly appreciated as I am always excited to see a reply.

I can only say I am so happy to have found this forum, I know I have IBS and GERD, but never felt the palpation's until the other day, and it scared me!! I did notice I had a lot of gurgling in my stomach but was not burping or not to be rude, passing gas..I also noticed with every gurgle i felt a palp. I do suffer from Anxiety, but I don't think the anxiety kicked in until I felt the palps. Not that I'm happy anyone else suffers from it but it does make me feel a little better to know I am not alone and crazy..lol..I read a post someone wrote about magnesium and gaviscon. Gas X also helps me. I ran to the pharmacy and purchased.. Centrum Cardio health, and magnesium. I also take zantac. Since I do take Prozac, i spoke with my pharmacist to make sure it was ok to take everything else. He mentioned palps are common with both GERD and IBS and recommended I try Oral Aloe, he said not only does it help but it does promote healing. I went to GNC and got it, it's inexpensive and the cashier said he uses it for erosion in the esophagus along with a change in diet. I got the berry flavor and it taste ok, just chill it and drink it fast!! I am willing to try anything, because as harmless as I have been told the palps are for me they are scary!! I try to understand that they come along with the IBS symptoms, like bloating, gurgling feeling. I hope I can make someone else feel a little better too!! Thank you to everyone who shares their symptoms!! HERE IS TO FEELING BETTER!!!!!!!

Post Edited (goingcrzylol) : 3/25/2011 3:52:11 PM (GMT-6)

Thank you Alcie, I have read a lot on people who have palps due to GERD and IBS, that is why I posted my story....I have even read under IBS symptoms and it says heart palps, i believe it is a vegus nerve that gets irritated. Thank you for your advice, it is appreciated, my dr. said my heart is fine. I have suffered from GERD really bad for a long time. I am 35 yrs old, I have lost 70 pounds , i was very overweight, my GERD has gotten better except when I of course eat what I'm not supposed, u know the temptations..lol....When I read about the symptoms other sufferers have had with palps due to IBS and GERD, it made a lot of sense to me. I really thought i was crazy!! I sometimes make myself so nervous about the palps, I think I actually bring them on.......I did post my story in both GERD and IBS as a new topic and hope to get some feedback. Thank you again!

Hi Everyone,
So I am the original poster to this thread, and I wanted to just update everyone.

I can now say that my palps are gone.

In my post I told you I was suffering with very strange bouts of gas, and diarrhea, also having lots of other problems along the way. I was told I was suffering from IBS and Anxiety by doctors, but I always felt like there was an underlying problem or that I was fixable.

First of all they were trying to get me to take Anxiety medication on top of IBS problems. When you're suffering from IBS or any intestinal problems for that matter you SHOULD NOT take any type of prescription medication unless you were previously taking it, or it's a life and death situation, but adding anxiety medication on to my already upset stomach made everything WORSE. It unbalanced my intestinal flora and made me nauseous, I was not having regular bowl movements for days at a time, and I was feeling EXTREMELY miserable, BUT I do believe I've found a cure for myself.

After being told twice that there was nothing I could do, just deal with my IBS and palps, and try to eat healthy yahta yahta, I quickly changed doctors again and again until I found one that didn't just write me off. My new doctor took the regular blood/stool/urine tests and said that all my results were coming up normal but that she wasn't going to write me off, she asked a lot of questions and finally suggested I look into holistic remedies because she felt I should not be taking the anxiety medication if it's making the original problem worse. She told me that possibly looking into doing holistic remedies I could over come my IBS easily. By that statement alone I have started to realize that many western doctors are not really interested in "curing" you, just interested in getting you to come back to pay for more drugs, appointments, etc. I don't know about you, but I don't want to have to take medication unless I really need it, and this time I really didn't.

I looked up holistic remedies for IBS and palpitations and began asking around and doing a lot of research with holistic healers/doctors/nutritionists etc. I found out that a lot of times palps, gerd, gas, and acid reflux can come from toxic build up's in your colon due to how we defecate incorrectly. Humans were made to hunch over and squat down to eliminate our bowls to help push everything out, but because we sit up-right on top of a toilet and eat a lot of junk foods all of it gets built up and stuck in our intestines causing a build up of bacteria ultimately causing things like gas, gerd, and palps.

*Please note that if you have a hiatal hernia or other complication like it, this is not the approach for you, and stick with your doctors advice*

I started with a natural colon cleanse called The Ultimate Cleanse to flush out any built up toxins I may have. I did a 2 week cleanse and within only a couple of days my gas, my palps, and my acid reflux came to a halt. I also started as advised on an all-organic diet, removing all processed sugars, breads, yeasts etc. For two weeks during the cleanse I ate raw and steamed organic veggies, eggs in any style, and low fat meats only. After the two week detox I started to introduce things back into my system but slowly. Now I continue to eat only organic foods that are not processed, and do not contain MSG, Aspartame, or other synthetic ingredients. I also stay away from sodas, instead I go for organic ginger ale, and I do occasionally drink coffee but only from organically grown beans. I do not drink dairy from cows milk because I've always had an intolerance with it so I use goats milk products or soy products instead. One thing I have added to my diet is an ancient fermented tea called Kombucha. You drink 1 bottle/12oz a day, which puts good yeasts, Vitamin B's, and live probiotics back into your intestines. It also helped me to start growing back my hair, and I feel less hungry and get less crazy cravings for high sugar/carb meals. I am happy to say that I am now palp and IBS free for 2 months. I have only had one very small palp about 2 weeks ago after indulging in a very heavy carb filled meal at a friends house that mostly likely wasn't organic products.

So I don't know about your situation or what you've tried or been told to do, but you may want to give some of this a try...if not all of it, just try a colon cleanse, because for me the colon cleanse was one missing ingredient. I had tried the yeast free diet thinking it was Candida, which was basically what I was eating during the detox; just veggies, eggs, and meat, and still I would get the palps and gas. After I was advised to try it again but organically, and with the cleanse is when it changed. It couldn't hurt to try it, and it may work for you too, because I seriously tried EVERYTHING I found information about. I went to see numerous doctors, had numerous tests, (and paid tons of bills) tried numerous diets, tried exercising 5 days a week, and took vitamins and minerals thinking maybe I was deficient in some area, and it just went on and on and on, and all the gas and palps were still there everyday. Now, I felt better with no anxiety, no upset stomach issues, I never feel bloated or sick anymore, and I feel like I honestly got my life back.

Here is a list of what I did, and the things that seemed to work for me, still I would advise that you talk to your doctor about the things I have done, and see if they would work with your medication or lifestyle, or even better try talking to a holistic doctor like this one: http://www.doctorajadams.com/CREDENTIALS2.html - she will answer your questions in email form as well! I also advise taking down a food journal, because it may just be one specific thing that is bugging you, but if you are like me, and you've tried eliminating certain foods, tried certain diets, and it doesn't seem to help, maybe this is the thing for you too:

Here is what I did & continue to do:

-Take an organic over the counter colon cleanse or colon detox kit once or twice a year as needed. (do not use more than 1 month at a time) until your bowl movements are back to 2-3 regular movements per day.

-During detox eliminate all processed foods, carbs, and sugars for at least 2-4 weeks; eating only organic veggies, organic meats, and organic antibiotic free eggs.

-Take a comprehensive liquid organic vitamin daily- found in most health/vitamin store.

-Try to stay away from too much yeast & alcohol during and after the cleanse. (beer, wine, liquor, breads, pastries, etc)

-After your detox period is over slowly introduce new things into your diet like organic breads - fruits - fiber cereals - oatmeal, one at a time 2 or 3 times a week at most.

-Exercise regularly - take a 45 min yoga class, do 30 mins at the gym, take a bike ride, or at least just a brisk walk up and down your street - 3-4 times a week.

-Eat only organic foods free of processed ingredients, MSG, Aspartame, pesticides, herbicides, hormones, antibiotics, etc.

-Drink 1 12 oz. Kombucha bottle a day for 1 month and notice a HUGE difference after or during your detox! (can be found at most organic food markets like Henry's or Whole Foods, or online at www.kombucha2000.com) Buy the brands made in dark brown bottles as it preserves the live yeast better. It tastes much like a sweetened apple cider, and it may be a bit strange and not what you're used to at first but after a few tries it's amazing!

Give this a try after talking to your doctor and let me know if this or something else has worked for you!
Best Wishes!

I read your story and you are not alone!!! I am on my third Doctor as you read my story, I had my first palpitation at about 16 years old also, I did not think anything of it, but back in 1993 I had my heart broke by this guy and the rejection was sooooo overwhelming that I loss 30 pounds in 30 days!!! This is sooooo true!!! after losing all that weight, I started having severe palpitations that no one would believe!!! I went to a heart Doctor told him what happend to me, he prescribed me these pills to set the rythm back, now I did not have any more palpitations until about 2 years ago, I was under alot of stress also, I will tell you that lately I've noticed that when I have a palpitation it is followed by GAS!!! I am telling you the truth!!! I am going to have a device put into my chest in April to moniter my heart, but I will tell you that, I am a 46 year old female and I am very Healthy also, never Drank or smoke!! I don't party, I get my rest, I donot excersice but I weigh about 179 lbs my height is 5ft 5 inches I also donot take any medications of any sort, so when I started reading your story I thought of myself only, but hang in there sweetie, You'll find a doctor do get to the root of the problem ok.

Hello David and welcome to HealingWell.  I am glad to know you have found the forum helpful and please do post any questions or comments you may have re your own issues.

Kindly,

Kitt

I get this 2. I'm 27 and i am average weight don't smoke hardly drink and i noticed one day at breakfast i had a weird feeling that came over me. As i try to ignore it i get a hard thud. I jumped i was so scared with that i had anxiety for a week in fear this would happen again and of course. It did. Me constantly thinking about it doesn't help!
Don't get me wrong i have had these flutters before but they never scared me like now. I sometimes feel like i have to cough to get right. It tends to help. I called the cardio dr i went to eval and she said its normal for ppl to have flutters.. sone ppl can feel them some ppl can't!

Ive had heart palpatations for 20 t years. Thought it was the smoking, the food I ate, drinking. Well none of that was it. Had them mostly sitting down or laying in bed. Anyways about 2 years ago I decided to lift wieght for exercise. I bought some deer antler velvet off the inernet and after taking them my palps completly stopped. So for almost 2 years I had none. I was finally excited after years of the torment of the pulps. Well about 3 weeks ago I ran out of velvet and thought I will get some later, well the pulps returned and for 3 weeks I was trying to figure out why I had them again, changed food, drink rxc, But ended up purchasing more southern cross velvet and in 2 days they stopped. hmmm dont really know whats in it but it truly works on pulps.

I'm very glad I found this little thread, and thank you all for sharing your experiences and symptoms. I've been going out of my mind trying to figure out what the hell is causing these attacks I've been having over the last 8-9 months, and I've identified with just about everything that's been mentioned here.

My doctor, he's a good guy genuinely, but I don't think he has the experience or knowledge to deal with the facts of hat I've been going through, which are constant anxiety, palpitations (which I've had for 12 years now), constipation and in some extreme cases, a feeling of dread and doom coming over me that literally feels like death taking over. He's referred me on to a psychologist and CBT training (cognitive behavioural therapy) when I've been telling him all along that I genuinely believe everything is linked to how I have difficulty maintaining a normal bowel movement, plain and simple. I normally go once every 3-4 days which I'm pretty sure is very wrong.