For the past few weeks i'm experiencing some weird feeling in my chest, then suddenly out of nowhere i feel my heart racing.
Sometimes it lasts only for a few minutes, the longest episode was last week about 2 hours with a heart rate of 137+ just sitting there doing nothing!
No dizziness, no shortness of breath just a bit blurry vision during the longer episode....and of course my whole body is shaking with the beat.
I tried the valsalva maneuver, it doesnt work....a few hard cough then it subsides.

I experienced it again today in the afternoon, same heart rate 130+, maneuver does not work it even makes it faster...so i just lie down for a while and within seconds it drops back to 88 bpm. I happen to have a toy stethoscope so listening to my heart beat, yes it was fast but steady...no skipped beats present.
It's the after effect i hated the most, my chest feels tight & tiny sharp pain all over my back & pectoral muscles. Its like im out of stamina for the whole day.

Oh yeah i'm starting to get these symptoms after i started low carb diet & high intensity training. i tamed down on the exercise part up to just barely reaching anaerobic level & mostly stayed within cardio zone (150+) for 15-20 mins.


I'm 33, slightly overweight by definition (im trying to fix that currently...lol) and female.
Since starting my weight loss regime i've reducing all carbs, sugar, process foods, caffeine etc that is typically bad. Drink min 2 liters of water & try to get at least 6 hrs sleep I
Im a light sleeper btw so its hard to get deep sleep, sometimes i get rude awakenings from these pounding fast beats.
Oh yes my resting heart rate is within 68-73 bpm, greatly improves after exercising.

I'm usually a calm person & not prone to anxiety even how bad my life throw lemons at me. anything that does not kill me only makes me stronger.
I am yet to consult a doctor for this just because i hate going to the hospital, i cant stand the prodding & touching during medical exam....coz it does makes me nervous.

I dont think this considered as SVT either coz the heart rate was <150+


Have you experience these kind of thing whenever you started your exercise regime?

This post has been edited by speedfamgirl: Aug 14 2017, 04:57 PM

Nope, the most I ever faced is being out of breath after HIIT on the treadmill.
I suggest you consult your doctor before you encounter anything serious.

i asked my medic on board and tell them about all those symptoms. They think it must be the hormones & suggest i do some blood test.
My last medical was last month, where everything was pretty normal...
I asked my cousin who is a nurse, she thinks it might be my body still adjusting mode with the exercise. I used to be so sedentary & lethargic before starting HIIT regime.

I am still quite reluctant for check ups now & still monitoring my stats (using apps...lol. not the best way but at least a quick check daily).
BTW the pain become even more throbbing last night i get trouble sleeping. luckily today all ok.

I dont get palpitations during exercise though..i know how hard it feels to reach 130+ during exercise....but this one feels very different, like a shortcut to cardio while relaxing...lol.

Maybe you can read about autonomic dysfunction.


Symptoms of autonomic dysfunction
Autonomic dysfunction can affect a small part of the ANS or the entire ANS. Some symptoms that may indicate the presence of an autonomic nerve disorder include:
-dizziness and fainting upon standing up, or orthostatic hypotension
-an inability to alter heart rate with exercise, or exercise intolerance
-sweating abnormalities, which could alternate between sweating too much and not sweating enough
-digestive difficulties, such as a loss of appetite, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, or difficulty swallowing
-urinary problems, such as difficulty starting urination, incontinence, and incomplete emptying of the bladder
-sexual problems in men, such as difficulty with ejaculation or maintaining an erection
-sexual problems in women, such as vaginal dryness or difficulty having an orgasm
-vision problems, such as blurry vision or an inability of the pupils to react to light quickly
You can experience any or all of these symptoms depending on the cause, and the effects may be mild to severe. Symptoms such as tremor and muscle weakness may occur due to certain types of autonomic dysfunction.



Source:
http://www.newmindcentre.com/2017/07/auton...t-malaysia.html

Thanks for the links... i'll have a read

Although i did consult dr Google about my symptoms... its sounds like more towards anxiety attack since the aftermath is very real.

This post has been edited by speedfamgirl: Aug 16 2017, 07:56 PM

Hypertension or high blood pressure
That's almost certain

And blood sugar level

You are probably in ketosis.

https://thorfalk.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/a...diet-an-update/

Interesting...didnt know that.

Well the last episode came in after i ate more than usual carbs (fried noodles & king char kuey), plus a rather salty soup, when suddenly the next day i get that nasty palpitations. i guess my heart really hates carb right now

Let me guess. You eat clean and mostly vegetables? If yes, you eat way too low of your calory requirement. Too low mineral intake. You drink too much water.
You overexercise if you sustain near anaerobic continuously for 15-20 minutes.

Since you are a female, you should be having menstruation.

Your increased hearbeat is due to lack of iron to carry oxygen i.e. your heart works much harder.

Your body is so stressed. As you are slightly overweight, what is the rush?

How old are you? What is your height and weight?

Yes, im female & of course had my regular period.
Not that clean tbh, sometimes i sneak in a couple of crap like popcorn to curb hunger pangs.
I tried to eat more green vegetables when im at home, carbs like 2 slices of bread & small bowls of rice once daily. eat half boiled egg for breakfast.
My job most of the time are so sedentary, i only realized im in trouble after doing my fitness to work last month.
BMI at 31 (which is obese by the Dr's standard & company requirement). BP slightly elevated at 137/85... for the first time my resting HR at 102 both from the bp & ecg machine!! (but then i was a bit off just coming back from the sea & straight doing medical on the next day) so i was given a timeline to some lose weight before next appointment in Oct.

After 4 weeks of diet & HIIT i did lose 3kg & of course better appearance on the mirror...but of course it comes with side effects

Female has lighter bones and unless you are muscular, BMI 31 is a number you should reduce.

Are you a seafarer or working on offshore assets? Food is usually good, frequent and abundant.

Just go for medical checkup. Maybe you have hyperthyroidism

Yes i'm working offshore. i was a bit pissed due to the Dr just give me 1 year validity on my medical....it's such a wake up call, from 5 yearly reduced to 1 yearly.

Food not that good nowadays, terrible diet when going outstation to the jacket platform. basically all nasi goreng mi goreng.
everytime i try to eat into my old habit & bam, those nasty palpitations starts to wake me up from deep sleep!
Terrible bruised like pain in my ribs once it's starts racing more than 130+...but it does not happen during the tachycardia episode, only hours or the next day.
I'm going to monitor my situation for a few months...maybe my body is still adapting from the keto diet. worst come to worst then i'll do all my blood work in October.

This post has been edited by speedfamgirl: Aug 17 2017, 10:33 AM

Yes, anxiety or panic attack etc is part of ANS dysfunction issue

Do you feel tired after the palpitation?

yep, slight lethargic & feeling out of stamina..usually a day after a bad palpitation my middle back hurts so much together with tightness feel in chest front.
Muscles feels stiff when massaged.

Is this the first time you having it?

I started to get these weird stuff since a few weeks back.


And today even more weird episode happened!
My heart rate shoot up to 171 from 120+ after shower...remained there for 2 minutes.
It was captured by my fitbit band
I started to get shaky & cough reflect, then the rate drops to 92 within 2 seconds.

This is very new indeed...i know how hard to reach 170+ pulse rate during exercising, but a simple shower throws me into anaerobic zone...wow.
The after effect on this one makes my left eye blurry, slight numb in joints, frequent urge to go to the toilet & of course the thumping feeling.

Hmmm, this sounds like really random. Have you looked up on PSVT before?

Were you on any health supplements?
I once took glucosamine and that elevated my heart pressure and pulse rate for a week. I felt light headed after some exercise. Since then I stopped the intake, everything went normal.

Apart from Blackmore multivitamin & primrose oil, i dont have any medications.


Yea i did spend lots of time researching about PSVT since i get that weird fast heart rate...but for the previous episodes the bpm was waaay less to be considered as SVT....hence i buat bodo je.

I tell my medic this morning about my 171 bpm episode, he was concerned and urged me to go check up. even offered to send me back (and that means non emergency medevac which put a red stamp on my safety passport. i dont want that!). the thing needs to be checked (and its not easy to detect coz it happens randomly) & there's medication to lower the heart rate, and we talked about possible A Fib...argh! no way im getting all those weird heart problems

I refused to get checked because fear of the result & possible scrutiny...i still want to keep my job & thank goodness those things are brief & manageable. But my medic said it can get worse over time & may lead to complications.

Maybe it's just stress & lack of sleep...as im currently working night shift.

This post has been edited by speedfamgirl: Aug 25 2017, 10:21 PM

Discomfort in the chest area can appear as a result of many factors, so you should visit a doctor.

It gets worse if you keep getting it with the risk of weakening your heart. The frustration with arrhythmia is sometimes it's really difficult to diagnose

Yes coz its involved in the electrical part of things...apart from that i believe my heart was pretty sound mechanically.
I dont get any racing pulse episode since the last one...but now constant palpitations & erratic pulse change! one beat at 60 then next one 85, sometimes i can feel a run of 3 beats per second. this can last for many hours even during sleep.

I'm taking note on what i eat & avoid what can trigger them...still to no avail. i only slept like 5 hours daily during working night shift coz its so noisy.

Well despite all the palpitations im still as calm & still function like a normal human being (i've been feeling palpitation for years only recently it was more pronounced)...and pray hard i dont get tachy when i need to go outstation at a remote jacket.

Going to a hospital now is out of the question, i still have another week on board then another busy week for trainings & such, then back to crew change.
The only place i can vent out is to my medic & through this forum


Thanks all for your concern.

I am having a hyper BP case as of now. Over the last few days, I felt slight giddiness and went to see my doc yesterday. Found out my BP was 170/110. That put me in the hyper BP category. No choice but to take medication, in this case is Twynsta. Very fast acting and it went down to 135/85 this morning. Have to take and monitor for 1 week and see what happens.
Found out that if the BP is too high, blood vessels get ruptured and complications like kidney failure and stroke can set in. So if BP is too high, it is a cause for concern. In fact a diastolic reading of 110 as in my case, I should not drive.
I am a bit surprised at my readings as I am a very active person. I do jungle hiking every week. It is still a mystery why my BP spiked.

This post has been edited by funniman: Sep 5 2017, 01:49 PM

Whoa man...how old are you if i may ask? Hope you feel better now..

Having high BP is one of my worries since both side of my parents all have BP problems, and cancer too. Stroke are common in the family..but i dont know if they had any arrhythmia problems that leading to their stroke.
Touch wood i did not get any racing episode since the last one....fuh! hated it & hopefully it wont came back. maybe its some bad days & too stressed out of nothing.

I am 58 years old. The medication is working hard, my BP is now at 120/83. One pill a day. Finger crossed.

Last Friday, I went for a medical checkup on my own. Happy to say the lipid profile is good with slightly high triglycerides. Kidneys and Liver are good. I was so worried that the high BP would affect them. There's one problem they found. I have this aortic knuckle calcination, which means my aorta has calcium deposits. If it is too big, it might block my bloodflow and affect the BP.

Yesterday went to see cardio. Dr happy to see the medicine worked and prescribed for another 3 months. Told me nothing to worry about that aorta calcination as it is a aging process and he did a echo on me before. And I can go hiking again...if my BP is well under control. So far so good. Very stressed out week.

So glad to hear that all is ok with you.
Take good care of yourself & stay healthy

More than 3 weeks passed and now im fine...no more annoying palpitations & racing beats. Feel much2 better if I managed to sleep up to 7 hrs everyday. I guess the gruelling keto diet induction has passed...hahaha

Is that because you have drastically changed your lifestyle and diet?

Not sure...maybe, because i started to get pronounced palpitations in my 4th week up until the grand finale of being hit by random 170+ bpm tachycardia on the 6th week.
After the episode between 6th & 7th week i still feel a bit sensitive, intermittent left chest tightness that makes me slightly uncomfortable. Everytime i intentionally take more sugar, carbs & coffee it may caused some long flipflop flutter vibrator feeling for hours. its hard to fall asleep with all the discomfort.


Im now in my 10th week of diet, no more food sensitivity but that doesn't mean that i can fall off the bandwagon of eating clean. I look at the symptoms as alarm from the body remind me not to eat junk food.
As nasty as the side effects in the past, i think its worth the pain. I lost approx 6-7 kg & looking more presentable, my resting HR now within 62-65. I felt real good & more agile!

I dont do much HIIT nowadays, i find it getting harder to even reach 150-160 bpm for peak zones....which for me is kinda boring.


YMMV

Been having discomfort on the left side of my chest since past few days.. it's not pain but a bit of a dull feeling.. not sure is it related to Heart..

unlikely

Many times it is muscle pull. Think back over the past few days, did you carry any heavy things like flower pots or big pails of water?
But do you feel short of breath or dizzy? Blood pressure ok? If you do, then better go to see a doctor.

Were you showering in hot water?

i am referring to the health supplement reply a few replies above; i really cant understand why people in malaysia are so serious into supplements. people in the west mainly just keep to balanced diet and believe me that is good enough.

umm not that hot....lol
expect an elevated pulse rate but not that fast...besides the episode starts 20 mins after shower, im already cool down dressed up ready to go to work.

oh well the dark days... im glad that its only a one time incident.


oh yeah, if you got some kind of discomfort like trapped wind...maybe it's GERD or just badan masuk angin. go have a massage...at least it works for me

Maybe. When i wrote this post i was quite overweight & just started on HIIT with crash low carb diet...

Fast forward 7 months later i lose so much weight, and unfortunately basically stopped exercising
I dont have that much energy to do high intensity exercise due to just enough caloric intake daily. My kind of exercise nowadays was walking around doing chores or intense MOBA gaming (this one can make my heart races to 150+ bpm...hahaha)

Still have random tachy episodes during sleep with sudden spikes but not that high around 130+ bpm. only happens during ovulation cycle...which can be normal.
Otherwise caused by too much sugar stuff / too salty food or decongestant meds such as Clarinese (it has the amphetamines..no wonder).

ECG
TFT
Stress test
Holter outpatient if still indicated

Probably just panic attacks from a change of lifestyle. Your body needs about 3 weeks to adapt to any new diet or workout regime.. With exercise its important to listen to ones body.

I have a friend who had just lost alot of weight through cycling and was too obsessed with it. Riding even when hes having some random flu/cough. And guess what.. He was diagnosed with severe arrhythmia and had to have a pacemaker implant. Apparently some flu/cold virus had attacked his heart becoz of high intensity exercise while he was sick. Now he cant do any form of strenuous exercise..

If you are restricting on carbs, try to do more lower intensity aerobic workouts. Very low carb diet and HIIT cant be mixed. High intensity burns glycogen/sugar, if you are not fueling enough with carbs there wont be enough fuel. Your body will go into a stressful mode due to elevated stress hormones cortisol. Fuel your workout properly and restrict your diet when you are more sedentary.

Bathing with cold water is also proven to boost the immune system. Read up on Wim Hof and his breathing method.

This post has been edited by geno: Feb 13 2018, 03:44 PM

Hi thanks for the heads up. Im very much agree it's probably some kind of panic attacks the more i read about them. All of these was very eye opening coz i never attempt to lose weight before & didnt know the unpleasant temporary side effects... At least now i can be honest to people who plan on losing weight, my style.

Sorry to hear about your friend though...
Im actually not the one who's obsessed about exercise, but since i'm decided to lose the excess weight that's why i'm going all out hardcore on starting up my so called fitness regime. The company has this fitness challenge to promote healthy lifestyle every year & finally i managed to win. People said "no pain, no gain" but for me it's worth it. Now that im back to sedentary i'll be mindful on the carb/sugar intake & at least get enough sleep.

see doktor already?

No.

hahaha i guess its just panic attacks coz of sudden change of lifestyle. the more i reflect about it the closer the symptoms are....it was my first time yoo...that's why im quite surprised.
besides, im scared of doctors...trying my best to stay healthy so that i dont need them.

Sometimes the reason can be too much worrying and not doing active relaxation like meditation, yoga or qigong.