Palpitations Every Day

cgnet, have you had a twenty-four hour Holter monitor?

@cgnet Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect!

I am sure that many of us have gone through times in our lives where we feel anxiety and not sure of the reason. While we wait for others to tell us their journeys, here is mine. From the symptoms you describe, and the testing you have gone through, have you tried any relaxation techniques? Have you done any journaling, noting triggers that might cause the palpitations? Do you find you don't want to participate in your life as you knew it, for fear of those palpitations? That was me. But I had to learn to step out of my comfort zone, and talk myself down from that anxiety, figuring out what the base cause might be. A new or uncomfortable situation was often the culprit. Have you reached out for therapeutic support in talk therapy?
Ginger

I’ve had heart monitors done three times. The last one I did was for five days.

Thanks for sharing!

I’ve done some therapy, but not a lot. I’m sure I need to focus on that more. I’ve also tried some anxiety medication, but that never really helped. They gave me some side effects.

I think I have a fear of palpitations happening all the time that it’s always on my mind and if it’s not, subconsciously, I guess I’m thinking about it. So I’m telling you it’s literally 24/7.

I’m very sorry that you’re having such a difficult time, I was curious if you ever had covid…I ask because I had the same symptoms for two years after a covid infection. I found many people who had the same problem but all of them had been infected at some time. I know how stressful it is to feel your heart rate going up and getting tested only to hear that there’s nothing wrong, on a positive note it’s good news but what is going on. I hope that you find the answer to your concerns and continue to get some well deserved help with this situation.

If a cardiologist has found nothing wrong what I can offer may help. Meditation deep breathing decreasing the stimuli you are exposed to caffeine reduction monitoring use of devices. I havd a Samsung Galaxy 4 watch which measures my stress levels can do an ekg measures my steps heart rate variability. It also measures the number of hours I sleep and the restorative quality of my sleep. I can have palpitations too but I have no cardiac issues other than hypertension so my nervous system has become over reactive. I also have to rely on dialectical and cognitive behavioral therapy principles . Also I have to limit political discussions or not engage at all. Some members of what is left of my family of origion can be dysfunctional so I take responsibilty for when how or if I have contact with them.

How awful for you! This sounds really serious. Find another doctor and tell him everything you just wrote. Also get a home blood pressure machine and take your blood pressure every time you feel your heart racing. Keep a record of it and show it to your new doctor once you find one; or just go back to the old doctor and show the record to him.

As for the dizziness, try and determine what brings it on. I have dizziness also and it is triggered if I have to look up. When that happens, I just stand or sit still and look straight ahead and it will go away.

The other thing I would suggest that you do is pray. Just talk to God like he's your best friend and he is! Tell him everything that is going on and ask for his help. You will get the help you need. Pray often. It's very comforting. I will say a prayer for you also.
I wish you the best.
PML

@cgnet
How tall are you?

My teen son (15) has all of the symptoms you mention. He has ADHD, takes methylphenidate for it, has a bicuspid aortic valve birth defect found by an echocardiogram (have you had one done by a cardiologist?), and high anxiety. Anxiety and depression plus OCD runs in both sides of the family. My son is over 6’ tall and slim (about 158 pounds). He is also still growing.

When my son gets up fast, his heart pounds and he gets lightheaded/dizzy. It seems like POTS but he also has Raynaud's which is a blood vessel valve spasming. He did have Covid 2 times but did not get the mRNA injection due to his heart defect. Covid/mRNA spine protein can damage endothelial cells lining blood vessels and may have something to do with your symptoms as well as my son’s.

Like you, my son gets anxiety just thinking about his heart, feeling it beat hard/palpitate, his veins in his arms fill up and drain visibly with raising/lowering arms (gravity). He gets very nervous/anxious when he goes to the doctors and hears his own heartbeat on the monitor. He also gets nervous when he gets his blood pressure taken.

Due to my son’s age, I haven’t put him on antidepressants/SSRIs due to risk of suicidal thoughts. He most likely will need to consider them in the future as both his father and I need to take them. Which medications have you tried? It can take a while to find one that works for you with minimal side effects and sometimes it takes a combination of medications to work (I am taking Zoloft/sertraline and Wellbutrin/bupropion currently and it took over 1.5 years to find this combination that works for me now).

I have a psychologist working with my son on breathing/thinking techniques that help him calm down when he is at school and starts to panic/have high anxiety due to his heartbeat.

My son takes magnesium at night to calm him down and uses melatonin to help him sleep when needed.

He plays video games and watches videos on his phone a lot which may add to his anxiety and have talked with him about reducing screen time (his cardiologist also recommended this). He doesn’t drink caffeine at all so that is not an issue.

Have you had full bloodwork to see if you have any deficiencies or toxicities? How is your thyroid and iron levels? How are your liver/kidney function?

My son’s cardiologist told my son to make sure he has salt in his diet and to drink a good amount of water to make sure his blood volume stays up. I also learned that he needs electrolytes in his water so his body retains the fluids (has sodium, potassium and magnesium in the LMNT electrolytes he takes). I also understand you should have about 50% of your weight in ounces of water per day. For example, if you are about 140 pounds, you should strive to have at least 70 ounces of water per day.

My son uses white noise/hepa filter/fan at night to help him sleep and his room is really dark.

I can tell you that since he started drinking water with electrolytes, gets up more slowly and gets mental health therapy, his anxiety/OCD/panic has reduced significantly. He needs to work on getting more exercise and getting outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine more often as I know this will also help him manage anxiety and sleep more deeply.

did the monitor capture frequent rapid heart rate episodes

I was going to say something similar. I'm 6'5" and the doctor told me heart palpitations and afib are very common in tall people. My "regimen" includes drinking something high in electrolytes every day (I chose unsweetened coconut water), and taking 25 mg of metoprolol ER but ask your doctor before using a medication.