I'm 24, could be lighter, relatively fit - used to weight train 3-5 days a week. 6m ago started getting feelings of a drop beat Whilst exercising. Felt it throughout my body thought it was weird but ignored it.
About a month after this started, mid workout (fairly intense) my heart raced out of control (harder than usual and a lot quicker with a feeling of increasing throughout), for about 5 mins+ after, I decide to go home and on the way home whilst resting out of no where, it started again really fast and increasing by the second, got really dizzy called 999 they didn't catch the rhythm.
Since then, I've been having random chest pains and irregular beats low beats, I've been told chest pains are probably GERD and beats are ectopic (after ECG and 24hr ECG and one of those machines that they use for babies).
Throughout the past few months they've become more regular 3/4 days a week and up to 4/5 on those days some time 2,3 after another . Then maybe once every 7-10 days I will have (within 10-25 seconds) 4 hard low beats In a row with various slightly fast irregular beats including pauses in between, it causes me to become slightly light headed and I have to breathe through it and debate whether I need to call for help as I'm worried that maybe it won't stop and go back to normal rhythm, also happens some time when pushing it in the gym.
After this I'm extremely cautious for a few days and am scared to exercise or drink alcohol (only drink socially) - it's ruining my life! All doctors I've been to seem extremely blasé about the whole thing and I didn't really have a bad episode whilst wearing the ECGSs.
I'm on 80mg slow release propanalol which does absolutely nothing pretty much. Don't drink ANY caffeine anymore other than decafe coffee.
I'm scared, I'm frustrated that it's taking so long to diagnose as I can't afford private and overall making me feel pretty low.
Does anyone know what might be going on or have any advice?
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Plogoh
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You could go on for years like me without catching any evidence. I had to wait until I had a lasting episode where an ambulance man captured AF on an ecg. I also had bursts of fast beats which were never captured despite a number of 24 hour monitors.
The reason I’ve managed to catch and be aware of my heart’s ectopic beats and other arrhythmias is because I bought myself a ‘Kardia’ device for my phone. Many of us on here have one. I recommend you buy one if you can afford £100( roughly) and have a smart phone. You will be able to catch and record what’s happening almost instantly.
In my opinion it would be £100 well spent for you to have a better idea of what’s going on.
They are. Obviously not the same as a multi lead ecg but extremely helpful. it will show P Q R S and T waves from 2 leads (your fingers on both hands) and show ectopics, beats per minute and all the other arrhythmias.
You can send an ecg off to Kardia for analysis (was £5, don't know if it's changed), print it off for yourself or send it in an email to a medical professional.
I get the symptoms you describe, mixed beats for a short time, quite regularly. I call it my heart's 'party piece'. If you can catch an episode on Kardia you can see how long the pauses are, because they are the important thing, longer than 3/4 secs is significant and certainly would make you feel as if you were blacking out. I don't worry myself because the episodes are very short and usually happen when I'm settling to go to sleep but when I was on Diltiazem they were much worse and that was why I had to stop the medication. You can't really know if the propanalol is doing anything without stopping it but I wouldn't do that without medical advice.
I hope the Kardia helps you sort out what the problem is but if your medics say not to worry then try not to, very difficult I know.....
Agree with Pat. It is accurate for AF. When you are having an episode it will tell you if it's AF. It will not diagnose other arrhythmias but it will produce an ECG trace that you can show your doctors. I found it very useful and so did my doctor.
Also, have you seen an EP electrophysiologist. They specialise in the electrics of the heart. You can ask to be referred.
Hi there, thanks for your reply, to be honest my doctors surgery are pretty crap. I don't even know if they have one of these to refer me to. I've been referred to a cardiologist (not the same as who did my ecg/24 hour, that was my GP surgery) he seems to not be bothered. When it happens it stops me in my tracks and can last up to 30 sec - so my issue is, how long does it take to start to take my pulse? Do I have to start up an app, wait for it to detect etc. It could have stopped by then is my only worry.
Re EP: you could ask the cardiologist to refer you - that is often the route to an EP.
Re Kardia: it does take a few seconds to get the app up and to get your fingers on the kardia sensors not very long but to be honest, if your episodes only last 30 seconds, I don't know. It would be tight!
Let's start with the weights. Three to five times a week is too frequent to let your muscles repair and strengthen. You're stressing your body and won't get the gains that you want. Some people who lift weights will drink a pre-training prep. that can contain taurine and other things that can elevate your heart rhythm. If that's you just stick to a good whey perhaps with BCAAs.
Do you have a heart monitor or app that will record your heart rhythm whilst you are training? I have a Polar RS400 that I set to a one second sample time. That said, apart from a cardiac nurse and a GP who was a runner, clinicians dismissed my print outs.
If this continues you need to have a seven day recording monitor fitted and a Bruce Protocol treadmill test.
Since I had a stroke my Consultant Neurologist said I shouldn't lift weights or do kettle bell swings. I am allowed to use a static bike or a rowing machine.
Yep. Completely quit the pre workout and barely drink protein powder either now, I'm waiting for the surgery to get back to me on a treadmill test (been two weeks so far) how does your polar work? How much was it? Can you monitor continuously. I'm thinking about getting a qardiocore.. but it's pricey. Only think is it might be worth £400 to speed things up!
After I posted, I should have asked whether you are doing isolation, compound, or functional exercises. The Bruce Protocol treadmill test is great if exercise is a trigger.
I bought the Polar RS400 back in the day when I was a runner but it still works well today. It uses a chest strap with a plug-in transmitter to a wrist watch type heart monitor. I then download it to Polar ProTrainer software on my computer. Unlike a lot of exercise heart monitors it doesn't appear to have a problem with AF. I only use it when exercising as otherwise it's easy to get obsessed, cortisol increases and your heart rate increases.
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