I keep having palpitations - does anyone know what reasons there could be?

[Yafta]

I'm at my wit's end about this. I started having palpitations about a year ago. on a weekly basis. The docs did a blood test and I was slightly anaemic. I took iron tablets and they went away for a while. Then they came back about 6 months ago. I finally went to the doctors on tuesday of last week. The doctor told me to stop drinking tea and coffee and to stop taking the iron. She said that if I wasn't very anaemic the iron would do more harm than good. She told me to come back in 2 weeks if they didn't stop.

Not only have they returned with a vengence but I am now getting pains, albeit very tiny ones, in my chest. I am phoning the doctors tomorrow for an emergency appointment.

I have tried looking it up on t'internet, but apart from having a heart attack it seems that sometimes the heart just does this. Can anyone shed any light on possible causes? Thanks.

Could be angina?
Taken from netdoctor: ''Angina pectoris derives from Latin and translates as 'tight chest'. It feels like an oppressive, heavy, crushing pain or a constricting feeling in the centre of the chest behind the breast bone (sternum) or on the left side of the front of the chest. The pain can radiate out to either one or both arms, more often the left. It can be experienced in the throat, jaw, the stomach and, more rarely, between the shoulder blades.
Angina is often brought on by:
physical exercise, psychological stress, extreme cold, a heavy meal.Once these trigger factors stop, the pain generally abates quickly, usually within 2 to 10 minutes.
What causes angina?
In most cases, the cause of angina is coronary atherosclerosis (thickening of the arteries supplying blood to the heart). These arteries supply the cardiac muscle with blood and therefore oxygen and nutrients.
Narrow coronary arteries reduce the blood flow to the heart muscle. This is usually noticed at times when the heart muscle needs more blood supply, such as during exercise.
The heart, when it increases its workload, will receive too little oxygen which causes pain in the heart. In severe cases this can also happen when the heart is at rest.
Angina can be aggravated by other illnesses including:a sustained fast heartbeat, anaemia (thin blood).heart valve diseases, such as severe aortic stenosis - a narrowing of the outflow valve of the heart.thickening of the heart muscle - hypertrophy - which can occur in patients with high blood pressure over several years.more rarely, a severe spasm of a coronary artery can occur even when the patient has relatively minor coronary atherosclerosis.

Yafta, go to your docs, it's the best thing rather than speculating, which can cause stress and make you feel worse :)
(BTW, my mum had symptoms similar to this but it wsn't angina, it was stress, causing panic attacks and anxiety)
Hope you're OK.

I get palpitations when my thyroid begins to play up,thats how i know i need to up my dose.

Thanks, I am going tomorrow and will insist they refer me.

Having read your post I am not sure about angina. It tends to come on when I am lying down in bed at night. I am definitely not stressed (apart from this problem!).

Nikiey, I keep coming back to my thyroid as the cause, but the doctors insisted they checked this last year when they did a blood test. Maybe I will get them to check again.

Could it be a form of panic attack?

Or a reaction to stimulants like tea/coffee/caffeine in chocolate/ some red wines (my doctor said this is a common one!)

I had a one-off episode of palpitations years ago -never found the cause but the doctor suggested the above and also stress, which you don't think it is.

Hope GP comes up with the answer

Ask what the levels were as they operate between x and y as normal, If my levels get to close to the high end of normal i begin to suffer and need to up my dose.

Thanks for your replies. The palpitations are when my heart is beating really fast. I sometimes think it is irregular. I had an ECG yesterday and that was normal, but of course it was not when I was having a palpitation. I think I need to have one of those 24 hour things to check.

Betty I have cut out caffiene completely (and that is hard!) so as to rule it out.

Nickiey I have decided that I will get them to give me the results of the last one. Thanks for that.

Thanks. I can manage to get really worked up at times about this, and forget about it at other times. I will push them for more tests I think.