20 yrs old with problems with heart rate and feeling weird H

sigmaxx6 · Newbie Joined: 02 Jan 2007 Posts: 1

Before I begin, I will honestly say, that I am a very anxious, stressed out young adult.

I used to be over 320 LBS, but recently decided to change up my lifestyle, and have lost a ton of weight(safely eating 5 meals a day and working out and eating consistently). I know weigh in at 248. I will admit that the weight loss has been kind of fast, as I weighed over 300 back in june. Anyways, over the past couple of months i've been feeling "off". Every single night, I would get severe heart palpatations and feel like my heart is skipping a beat. I have been to the emergency room countless times, and the only negative they could find is the I have a slight sinus arrythmia(benign). I've gone through all the tests - Echo-Stress-EKG,Holtor Monitor, and nothing shows up that is serious, but it feels serious for me. My blood pressure fluctuates, but unusually, stays in the range of anywhere between 90/60-115/80 and my heart rate is usually between 50-70BPM at rest. Sometimes dipping into the low 40's at night. The doctors are telling me that it's because I've changed my lifestyle and that my body is just adjusting to it's new self and thats why im having palpatations and slight arrythmias. I really can't say that during any of my attacks that I feel pain, I just kinda feel like i'm lethargic, or about to lose consciousness but never do. I do get headaches a lot and sometimes I freak out and think I might be having a stroke. The funny thing is that during excercise, I do not experience any of these symptoms. I do notice it takes a long time for me while doing cardio to get my heart rate down, but I don't feel sick or anything. While doing cardio, Sometimes my heart rate will go up to 200 and it takes about 5 minutes to get down to 100-115 bpm. I am on medications. I take Nefazadone 250MG, Clonezapam 1mg as needed for panic and synthroid for my hypothyroidism which as of the latest blood tests, perfectly normal. I'm terribly sorry for the bad grammar and spelling of this message but as of this time of writting im having a slight attack now. I took my clonzepam and it's not working. So if anyone can provide information, please do. Or ask questions and maybe I can have more coherrency when I've calmed down.

fynmun · Newbie Joined: 17 Jan 2007 Posts: 1 Location: Florida

I have the same problem. I'm on 0 meds though but I am severely stressed out and have daily anxiety attacks. When I walk up the steps my heart beats extremely fast and takes a bit to get down. My heart slows down crazy slow while I'm sleeping. When an episode happens I get extremely tired, usually forcing me to purposefully zone out in class or simply (if at home) take some tylenol and take a nap for an hour or two. I havn't had a huge weight loss (always been around 240-250 @ 6'). But for lifestyle, I've always been prone to stress, etc. My highschool life was filled with it, so I've gotten use to it. Now in college at a hyper-paced school it's become more frequent. This has been happening since I was around 16ish. Today, I've had around 5 episodes...a new record and I'm starting to have another one I believe...Just to let you know, you're definite not the only one if that give you any comfort at all. I've also been in and out of the ER and to doctors all saying the same thing: "It happens to people your age..." I personally find this hard to believe especially since of it's frequence, but that's what they tell me. Anyway, good luck to you...

Will aka Fynmun

Guest · Guest

I was just looking for similar symptoms and i found your post. i too am a similar situation. i am 22 and i just got married about 6 months ago, working full-time, and still going to school, so the stress is at a new level. i too was really big, about 320, then i lost a bunch to around 250, but then yo-yo'd back up to 315 again. now howver, i have lost 25 lbs and still losing some. i have the same symptoms the feeling like my heart skips a beat, although the EKG registered nothing, and the emergency room found nothing, my heart rate was normal for me, 60-70 bpm and blood pressure the same, 120/76. i always feel lethargic when i am at rest, but not when i evercise or at work. sometimes i might be sitting on the couch and i get this weird feeling, almost like tired washes over me, i feel kind of clammy for a minute or two, then i goes away. i also sometimes get dizzy spells as i bend down and get up, sometimes if i just tilt my head quickly, and others like i am going to just fall asleep or pass out, but like you i never do. mostly i just always feel exhausted form the lower chest to the top of me head, i always feel like i can fall asleep. i wasnt like this 6-8 months ago whe i was exercising more regularly, so i too wonder if maybee the similar circumstances of stress and lifestyle change are just emerging. i am completely paranoid, i get that from my mother, and im sure the stess of that doesn't help at all either. so i try to put my faith in the doctors that they would see something if there was something wrong, and i have had a string of extremely good doctors so i just hope for the best. but your post provides some insight to how i have been feeling lately, stress blows. take it easy, Mark.

silverspoon65 · Newbie Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 2

This sounds a lot like me too. I am 26 yrs old, and my weight has gone from 280 lbs to 235 lbs all the way up to 325lbs, where I am now. I was having episodes similar to what you described, except my heart rate actually starts to feel faster while I am sleeping. Strange, right? Well, I went to the doctor about it... First they found out I had Lyme's disease. Then a thyroid problem (I am also on synthroid.) I have been to the cardiologist and I have normal everything. They think my blood pressure is high, but its around 120/80, going up to 130/85 sometimes which isnt too too high. My doctor put me on beta blockers after my resting heart rate was 100-120 for three days in a row. They have helped lower it to a regular rate of 70-80, but before these last few months, my normal was in the 60's. And if I don't take the beta blockers one day, it's right back up. No one has really been able to explain to me why my heart rate suddenly went up like this. And I frequently can't sleep, because I feel like I am having heart palpitations and that I am going to pass out. I live alone, and that really escalates my anxiety because I am afraid something might happen to me in my sleep and I wont be able to get help. I sleep with my cell phone by my side, and I clean up my house every night in case I have to call 911 and the paramedics come. (Dumb, I know, but I do it anyway.)

One thing that I am really hoping will help, and might help all of you, is that my cardiologist had me tested for sleep apnea. I am still waiting for the results, but if you have sleep apnea you stop breathing in your sleep. This causes your blood pressure and heart rate to increase. Many people fall back asleep without realizing they woke up, but some people will wake up with a panicky feeling and cant get back to sleep. The treatment is a really unattractive face mask that you sleep with that blows air into your nose and or mouth, but supposedly the benefits are almost instant. I hope I dont have sleep apnea, but if I do, I hope the treatment really works and stops this. But people who have thyroid problems and people who are overweight often have problems with sleep apnea, so you may want to ask your doctor to schedule a sleep study for you. You can reply to this if you want to know more about what that is like. Hope that helps.

Torpid_X · Newbie Joined: 29 Sep 2007 Posts: 3

Hi, I'm 36 and have gained 60 pounds since I quit smoking (240 now) and diagnosed with high blood pressure and high blood sugar.

I have been experiencing similar symptoms also. It only happens when I fall asleep or start to fall asleep. I am having an attack right now, I had a yawning attack before I lied down and fell asleep, I woke up with one of about 4 recent episodes.
I also have gas with belching and a slight nausia,

I do feel as if I stop breathing and (for lack of a better description) "falling" feeling when I start fall asleep that snaps me awake (this has been happening more often with less severe or none of the other symptoms (heart palpitations, faintness, etc.) since my first attack. If I am having a serious episode I feel like I could pass out and or die. (like right now), as I type I am noticing some tunnel vision, which is probably related to blood pressure but I have no way of monitoring it.

being scared that this is a heart attack, the first thing I do is take some aleve, (I also live alone) and look for someone to tell. I have not had to go to the emergency room as of yet...

...and the episodes seem to last about an hour or so. are we all suffering from some undiagnosable (new) disease or type of poisoning? I can never find information that includes all of the symptoms, and this is the first time I found this post and the first time I realized having a yawning attack first.

could it be diabedies?, heart disease? stroke? cancer? carbon dioxide poisoning? excessive mold exposure? or just plain panic attack

I don't think I have been exposed to lyme disease myself and I have had recent bloodwork that was normal except for blood sugar (though I don't know what they look for in a routine blood sample).

has anyone noticed any of the other symptoms that I mentioned? I may go to the emertgency room right now as I am having slight pain in my heart.

Torpid_X · Newbie Joined: 29 Sep 2007 Posts: 3

I forgot to mention, I have been carrying the excess weight for about 4 years now,

I meant carbon monoxide poisoning, though it could be dioxide also.

and the pain in my heart went away after belching several times.

Torpid_X · Newbie Joined: 29 Sep 2007 Posts: 3

Hope this helps someone looking for this info, I tracked my problem to medication side effects after a recent dose increase. In my case welbutrin sr, the lower dosage only effected me once in a while (at random) and I wasn't able to connect the two.

Check your medication side effects if you take any.

harmonyplz · Newbie Joined: 22 Aug 2008 Posts: 1

I am 31 years old. I am slightly overweight but nothing severe. I am a smoker and I drink but not in excess.... I have been burdened with this problem for over 5 years... I really just want to find out what it is. It sounds as though all of you do too. So what do we do?

My problem started one day when I was in yoga...I was relaxing and all of a sudden I had pressure in my chest and then shortness of breath. I left Yoga and got in my car to go home. I felt as though I was going to pass out while driving so I pulled the car over to wait to see if the feeling would pass. Then it happened a few days later while again I was relaxing watching TV...except this time I also noticed numbness around my lips and fingertips.. Then it started happening often just before I fell asleep or at the bridge where one is just about to sleep...it felt like I was falling...or losing conciousness and I wasn't breathing...I sat up and gasped for air. It was terrifying.

I was about 25 and my life was very stressful as most young adults lives are. My mother freaked out when I told her and she made me go to a few doctors...I had test after test...same answers..."to young to be having a heart attack...stop smoking...etc..." Finally after all the tests came back to say I was healthy they passed it off to an "anxiety disorder or panic attacks" and prescribed me an anti-depressent anti-anxiety pill. I took them for about two years and I have to admit that the attacks happened less often however they didn't stop completely.

My problem with their diagnose was every time I had had an attack I was resting or relaxing or about to fall asleep. I never had an attack under a high pressure or high stress situation...so it just didn't make sense to me that I was having panic attacks. Also I am a very chill person I am not intense and tend to take everything in stride so I just didn't by the whole anxiety thing...

Now its happening almost every night and a couple of times through out the day... it is getting more scary and I feel like I am going to just stop breathing or die.... I am researching on the web to find some kind of answer... and I have found many many stories just like mine with the same kind of conclusion....no one knows what this is!!!

So what do we do? Who do we go to? How can we help ourselves?

I am going to the doctors again next week and I am going to insist they look more deeply into this issue... there has to be an answer somewhere..

If I find anything out I will write back... good luck to you all...

20 yrs old with problems with heart rate and feeling weird H

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