Heart failure at 32? Scared!

[Mumma02]

I have been having a range of worsening symptoms all year. Current symptoms are now;
Pins and needles/tingling in hands and feets. Have woken a few nights with pins and needles in arms.
Dizziness/feeling off balance at times and also faint
Constant headache on one side
Have experienced episodes of feeling like I can't get enough air in my lungs...mainly has woken me from sleeping and now feel uncomfortable lying flat on back.
Recent onset of chest pains and ectopic beats.
Brain fog
Everything I've looked up now points to heart failure. I'm so, so scared. Have 2 young children. How common is heart failure at 32? I can't find many statistics online.
I have normal blood pressure and a good cholestrol level when it was checked 2.5 years ago. Went to a&e when I first experienced breathlessness and had about a 10 second ecg which was normal but doesn't give me much hope. I am about 2.5 stone over weight which I really need to lose. Had so many blood tests and everything has been normal so far. Does anyone know much about heart failure? Have gp appointment on Monday.

I am prone to panic and anxiety and these symptoms are ones that I've endured over the years

Thank you @Penny31 and @RavingAnnie the cause of mine has been put down to heavy periods. They were ridiculously heavy after the birth of my son 14 months ago but I've been back on the pill for the last 3 months which has made them much lighter so I thought my ferritin would have shot up, not down! I really hope all this just is the ferritin

One thing I would say it is often advised to check serum iron before supplementing as it is possible to have low ferritin and high serum iron. I am not certain why this happens. It possible your doctor has already checked this or you can test privately if you are concerned.

Op are you on combined contraceptive pill? I only ask as I had all the same things you described and changed to the mini pill they've now gone.

The pill was exasperating my health anxiety and the moment I thought I was breathless or faint or had pins and needles I'd go into instant panic mode and the symptoms became worse. Nurse said some women just don't tolerate oestrogen and it throws your hormones out of whack

I have these exact symptoms on a regular basis. So much so I was reading your op with horror. It is panic disorder and health anxiety. Fully diagnosed, treated by psychiatrist etc. It's far more likely to be that than heart failure.

I mean this in the kindest possible way but don't buy all these machines etc for home. If it is anxiety this will feed your obsession to check your body constantly. I've been there. Go to your gp and if they suggest tests let them do them. If they come back all fine then it's anxiety you need treatment for. Believe me the symptoms that anxiety can cause can be very frightening and very real

If it helps, I had similar issues when my ferritin was low. It is far, far more likely to be related to your ferritin than anything scary. You’ll probably need to take iron supplements for a while to get it up again.

OP, I suffer from all the symptoms you describe, last year I tarted to panic as my heart rate started increasing dramatically whist doing gentle exercise, I usually monitor my heart rate at the gym and one day I was just walking on the treadmill (not running) and my heart rate shot up very high, I went dizzy and had to sit down. Since then I have bought a heart rate monitor mainly to put my mind at ease and my gp prescribed me propranolol (beta blockers), these have helped a lot especially with the head aches and the fast heart rate, my gp suspects it’s anxiety related rather than heart related. I’m quite a anxious person and the type that’s always stressed and can’t sit still.

Honestly thank you all so, so much for all of your replies. You have made me feel better. I am a primary school teacher and will be teaching in the hub for keyworkers tomorrow...that should be my main worry...not endless health concerns. But like I said, I keep having new symptoms that I've never experienced before and they are frightening.

So it's gone down further since your periods have been lighter? By how much? It dies fluctuate (I check mine reasonably frequently).

It could be anxiety as others are saying but with ferritin that low I'd be very surprised if you weren't symptomatic from the low ferritin so I'd be working on getting that up either way.

Follow one of the suggestions above and retest in 3-6 months of consistently taking a decent amount of iron to see if it's going in the right direction.

Don't give up! 😊

I have a lot of these symptoms wirh both an underactive thyroid and also anaemia. Like others have said please ask them for your actual thyroid blood test results, don’t let them just tell you they’re ‘normal’ as different labs work to different ranges and there’s a lot of research to say ‘normal’ levels should change. Ideally you want a TSH of between 1 and 2. A lot of doctors I see think this is suppressed but it’s not. Anything much over 2 and I start to feel like I’m walking through treacle.

@Mumma02

Honestly thank you all so, so much for all of your replies. You have made me feel better. I am a primary school teacher and will be teaching in the hub for keyworkers tomorrow...that should be my main worry...not endless health concerns. But like I said, I keep having new symptoms that I've never experienced before and they are frightening.

It is frightening. I started becoming very unwell 3-4 years ago and was having all these weird and investing symptoms and apart from low ferritin initially everything was "normal". It is both frightening and frustrating becoming iller and iller with no "cause".

The likelihood is that this is fixable though. Get going on the iron ASAP and hopefully that'll start to work and you'll start to see some improvements soon.

*increasing not investing!

Anxiety sorry no quick fix. Counselling needed. Try mindfulness apps to calm yourself down.

Have you been tested for sleep apnoea, if you're waking up feeling "oxygen hungry"?

@Mumma02 I have health anxiety too and it can be crippling so I sympathise with you!

ALL of the symptoms you noted above are all classic physical symptoms of anxiety. Definitely see your GP (even just to put your mind at rest) but as PP said, you have to seek help for your mental health.

I used a combination of counselling and medication and it REALLY helped! Don't underestimate the benefit of talking through your worries and practicing the breathing techniques, they really do work.

You know that the worst thing you can do is google symptoms, subconsciously you will be looking for the worst case scenario and it won't help, it'll only fuel your anxiety and make you feel worse.

Took months for my ferritin levels to go up. Is your poo black yet?! That's the excess being excreted.

Please see your GP.

Advice to measure your BP and Spo2 is very stupid and potentially dangerous. You don’t know what to make of the numbers, and the worst thing to suggest to an anxious person is more monitoring they can’t interpret and can’t act on.

Please, please do not seek medical advice on here.

It is full of people whose confidence vastly exceeds their knowledge.

Why are you taking your blood pressure three times in one day?? I think you need to stop monitoring and diagnosing yourself and go back to your doctor.

Thank you for all of your replies. I do have health anxiety but for example this morning, I felt faint and off balance for hours. I thought anxiety symptoms only really occured in the midst of a panic attack, not last for hours on end? That's why I definitely think that there is an underlying issue.

Severe anxiety is overwhelming and the symptoms manifest themselves in many different ways and can be chronic. They are definitely not just contained to panic attacks.

The problem with anxiety is you are constantly on edge, so you hyperventilate almost all of the time, causing exactly the symptoms you describe almost all of the time.

Iron levels of 9 do appear to be on the low side.

My levels were 7 and I experienced all of your symptoms.

I was offered a transfusion but as I had a newborn at the time I opted for high strength iron tablets instead.

My folate was also very low. I was given high strength folic acid.

It took 3 months for my iron levels to return to normal.

Never underestimate how unwell you can feel with anaemia - when I had it a few years back I was gasping for breath, dizzy, ringing in my ears, exhausted.... Iron tablets and iron-rich foods sorted it eventually but it took a while.

I was anaemic again recently following heavy bleeding and subsequent surgery and for the last few weeks I've been dealing with all those symptoms all over again.

I was diagnosed with borderline anaemia yesterday after having heavy bleeding last Sunday (I have a thread in women’s health), I’m starting iron tablets and have to have bloods taken again in a month or so, I have been bleeding all weekend again so I suspect my iron levels have dropped again. I feel really tired and dust walking down the garden tires me out, walking up the stairs leaves me out of breath and my heart racing.