Skipped beats/flutters exercise [Archive]

isybelle

01-06-19, 13:03

Hi

Not been on here for a while.

2 solid months of health anxiety (after a fairly calm few months) and I'm now having palpitations! Skipped beats or glittery feeling.

They happen when resting but also during exercise if I'm walking up a hill. It's almost like I think "this is steep bet I get a palpitation" and boom it happens!

Saw GP who said it was anxiwty sent me for ecg which was fine had no palps during the test though!

Saw 2nd GP who said anxiwty, I asked for a stress test or 24 hour monitor and he said it's not necessary as I'm having no other symptoms e.g. dizziness, breathlessness when it happens

Anyone experienced this?

Cyrus

04-06-19, 05:08

Oh yeah, I experienced something very similar quite recently! I read an article online about a rare syndrome that I found scary, and I basically convinced myself I had it. After a week or two of intense worry, I started getting very frequent heart palpitations. They'd feel like either a flutter in my chest (like two beats when there should've been one), or a pause followed by a thud. On my worst days, I would get hundreds! This freaked me out really, really bad, as I thought it couldn't possibly be normal. I spent a few nights wide awake in terror because I was getting so many palpitations and was certain I was a goner.

Well, an echocardiogram, EKG, and 48 hour Holter monitor later, turns out my heart is completely fine. The palpitations have subsided immensely since I've been reassured, and now only pop up when I'm feeling particularly anxious or stressed, and occasionally when I haven't slept well or haven't eaten enough. All sorts of things can trigger them, but most of the time, they're totally harmless. With retrospect, I can see now mine were obviously brought on so severely by the extreme health anxiety I put myself through.

I got them occasionally during exercise/movement too, and thought I was done for. But they never caused any other symptoms for me either. I'd get chest tightness sometimes, but I'm 99% sure that was from the anxiety. I strongly suspect your palpitations will subside once you stop worrying about them (easier said than done, I know!) and maybe make a few lifestyle changes (like cutting back on caffeine, getting enough sleep, etc.). Of course, you can always get a second opinion and push for a stress test and whatnot if you're very concerned, but this is a common issue. If your EKG was all good and you have no sinister family history, chances are high that you're fine.