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Is this a form of heart palpitation?

7 replies

lljkk · 23/12/2012 12:23

It definitely isn't heart racing, it's the opposite I get. I used to have a sudden brief heart beat slow down at random moments. Years ago I looked it up, found loads of people online had same thing. It had a special name, was considered harmless, just annoying. But now it's changed, more like shakes with slightly pounding heart but no change in number of heart beats. Which Now I can definitely tie it to caffeine & alcohol.

So I think it now counts as a kind of palpitation, because of the pounding feeling of the individual beats, right?

I suppose I will go double check with GP, though I expect it to be wasted errand at best. Even if they send me for tests they won't find anything. Or GP will be unalarmed, shrug if I say it's an occasional slow down & just tell me to experiment to figure out how to manage it. Or simply instruct me to stop all caffeine & alcohol (fair enough, but boo hoo).

Any experience or expertise still appreciated. Forms of caffeine sensitivity are rampant in my family so this all comes as no surprise, but still annoying.

OP posts:
OhYouMerryLittleKitten · 23/12/2012 12:26

It does count as a palpitation. You probably ought to get an ECG from the gp and yes, the best thing is to stop caffeine. However, from bitter experience I'd wean yourself off it rather than go cold turkey!

lljkk · 23/12/2012 12:35

I think cold turkey easier (sniff).
My grandfather had to stop eating chocolate, even. Maybe I'll at least wean slowly off of that.

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UnderwaterBasketWeaving · 23/12/2012 12:47

going cold turkey on caffeine gave me awful headaches. I got back on it and cut down slowly instead!

Do it slowly!

lljkk · 23/12/2012 12:50

How much caffeine (cups of whatever) were you consuming at your peak? Have you gone right down to zero or do you still have the occasional chocolate/whatever?

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OhYouMerryLittleKitten · 23/12/2012 15:12

I was having around 6 cups of tea a day. The occasional coffee. I had to stop because of severe tachycardia (200bpm) I stopped cold turkey. I felt dreadful beyond belief as well as the heart stuff I also ended up with the headache from hell.
I will have been caffeine free since Jan this year. a couple of times I've had it accidentally and within 20 minutes I get the jitters and my hr goes up. I do have a bit of chocolate though :)

knackeredoutmum · 23/12/2012 18:53

If you are going to continue to be worried about it then see the gp and they will do a heart trace and maybe refer you to the hospital as well.

If you wont carry on worrying then cut out the caffeine and see what happens in a couple of weeks.

Mine started without warning, and I noticed it almost disappeared within less than 48hours of cutting out caffeine.

Now I can happily have one normal coffee and one tea a day with out the "palpitations", the rest must be decaff.

Mine felt like a fluttery bird for a second or so, then back to normal. At its worse it was beat flutter beat flutter beat flutter etc so rather scary!!

lljkk · 23/12/2012 18:56

Mine is more like sudden strong slow beats, more recently accompanied by a "shakes" feeling. I don't really relate to the fast heart beat thing.

I will resolve to cut most* caffeine & booze and see how it goes. Not sure about chocolate, though I might struggle going cold turkey on that one. :)

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