Skipped Beats

[babejoemickey]

Well--I have written on this forum before and appreciate all the feedback about my heart palpitations, anxiety, skipped beats, etc. I have had them since I was 9 on and off and now I am 70. Went to the cardiologist in June and said I was "exceptionally fit". EKG, ECHO, Halter all good. I know exactly what is wrong with me. I am a very anxious person in certain situations. However in other situations when I try to help people with anything, I am reasonably calm. I have skipped beats which I can work through if I calm myself down but I am not always in a situation where I can do that. I have bouts of rapid heart beats which totally disable me since that has been happening since I was 9 also. I lie down and just wait until it stops suddenly. Sometimes quick, sometimes longer. I have tried it all. Xanax, Prozac, relaxation methods, doing various stuff with the vagus nerve, etc. Just to show you my situation, I am completely relaxed writing this post which tells everyone a lot about me. When I talk about my situation, it also helps me but I figure I got about another 30 years to go and cant talk that long about myself. LOL. I am very social , have a great family, love sports. I have been retired for about a year. These have happened more often since retirement, so there is a clue right there. (Not that they did not happened during my working and social times). They seem to get worse after eating now and I heard that could be related to the Vagus nerve again since it controls every nerve in our body. I read an article recently where nobody ever died from palpitations if they are cleared by a cardiologist. I am a relatively healthy

person other wise. Mental health illness also runs in my family so I am a psychiatrist's dream patient. LOL. Well that is my story. If anybody has a miracle cure for this, please let me know. If not, I have made it through 61 years with this condition, only 30 more to go:)!

[designguy]

Hello, since it sounds like you have ruled out any physical reasons for it, it could just be anxiety. Health anxiety is typically associated with an extreme need to be in control and to also not be able to deal well with ambiguity and uncertainty.

There is information on youtube about it, I particularly like the youtube videos by Paige Pradko, she also has an online health anxiety program available on her website. The way to deal with the anxious thoughts and feelings is basically the same regardless of what type of anxiety you have, i've found the DARE Anxiety book, youtube videos and phone app to be very helpful. There are also physical imbalances that can cause or contribute to anxiety so make sure your hormones, thyroid and adrenals are all functioning properly.

[Jeff1943]

I can't tell you what to do, only a doctor or consultant can do that. But I can tell you what I did.

For many years I would very occasionally get missed heart beats, always associated with periods of high anxiety. Then I developed fairly continuous missed beats, on average one beat it ten. A cardiologist told me not to worry: he could give me a few tablets to get rid of the 10% load if it worried me "but do you really want to be taking 4 more tablets every day?" I readily concurred.

Then on some online health forum somebody said that Magnesium Citrate tablets, 2 x 100mg once a day, can clear up irregular heartbeats. His cardiologist had recommended them and they worked.

So I followed suit and bought some. After a couple of weeks the irregular beats stopped. I continued taking the Magnesium Citrate then 4 months later the arrhythmia retured. I continued take the magnesium citric regardless and 2 months later the missed beats stopped never to return.

Probably doesn't work for everyone but it woeked for me.

[babejoemickey in reply to Jeff1943]

Thanks Jeff