Palpitations? Skipped beats? Worried.

[vitriolic]

Hello, I am a 20 year old male who has recently (about 3 weeks ago) started getting worrying symptoms to do with my heart. Every now and then, I'll feel a fluttering feeling in my chest, and more recently when the flutter happens, I'll take a light breath for air as a reaction to it. Sometimes I feel like my pulse is a little bit slow for one or two beats too, but this is seperate to the fluttering feeling (I check my pulse quite a bit during the day). My mother has been diagnosed with an ectopic heartbeat and I am very health anxious (so a lot of symptoms may have been worsened because of that). I've been to a doctor and gotten an ECG and been told by heartrate is entirely normal, Blood pressure great and cholesterol etc. is fine. Any ideas?

[Catherine S]

Hi there...palpitations, as these ectopic beats or missed beats are referred to are quite common, as are the heart flutters you describe. Alot of people on the forum experience them..myself included for many years (started in my 20s) and have more or less learned to live with them. I'm now 60 and a few years ago was pescribed propranolol (a beta blocker) for raised BP but they actually helped with the missed beats as beta blockers stop adrenaline from affecting the heart too much.

Ectopic beats can also be caused by stimulants such as caffeine, nicotine and alcohol and I swopped to decaff tea and coffee for that reason. I also gave up smoking 12 years ago, but sometimes drink more than is good for me! Stress can bring them on too. My own doctor suffers with these ectopics and heart flutters and he also takes beta blockers so at least he understands how they can make me feel when I get a bad run of them, which thankfully doesn't happen too often these days. Ive had various tests over the years but all have been clear. Sometimes there just doesn't seem to be any reason for them.

There is also suggestions of a connection between the digestive system and the heart meaning that if there is a stomach problem then the heart can be irritated via the Vagus nerve. There are threads about this on the forum if you look it up. Its quite interesting. The stomach is sometimes referred to by medics as our second brain as it can be so easily upset by emotions and can then irritate other parts of our body too.

Hope that helps a little :)

ISB x