Palpitations every day for over a month

[CreatingHavoc]

It's driving me insane. Sometimes they continue for several minutes without stopping but I'm having probably over a hundred per day at this point. Have had an ecg at Drs plus ecg and bloods at A&E and had no palpitations during the ecg both times. Waiting for a 24hr monitor for further investigation but it could be ages. Apparently the waiting list is up to a year here!

Some days are worse than others. The last couple of nights have been particularly bad. I'm wondering if they're hormonal as I'm 40 and my period is due in a week. They seem to be worse after I've eaten, particularly if I have to do anything afterwards. In fact they were triggered a month ago by a hypo I had due to missing a meal and haven't had a day without them since.

I can sometimes get the really bad ones to calm down but they're so stressful it's difficult. Propranolol makes me dizzy so I use it as a last resort. I do have a hiatus hernia and reflux that is flaring at the moment so I don't know if they are related? They often get worse after a meal or getting up quickly or bending down a lot. Weirdly my tinnitus always gets bad as well and I feel lightheaded. No obvious chest pain other than the usual hernia/reflux. Would love some advice as my GP won't refer me to a cardiologist until the 24hr monitor is done, despite a family member having a heart condition.

Can you get access to an Apple watch? You can use them to monitor heart rate and then print out for the doctor.

I was you two years ago. (Down to the hiatus hernia!) Had them daily. Ask to get your iron checked. I kept upping my hrt thinking it was hormonal when all along it was low iron. They've pretty much gone now & went as soon as I started taking a supplement!

I’m no help but it’s interesting as I’ve also had them for the last couple of weeks, particularly after eating, definitely at night when getting into bed and during the night.
I actually wondered if it was associated with a virus or something as I’ve also been very tired but exercising doesn’t cause them to be any worse at all?

Having read the message above I do also have low iron so perhaps that is actually the reason. I hadn’t put two and two together..

Do you vape?

I had palpitations for months. I could actually see the palpitations in my chest.

I had started to vape, maybe about a month before they started, to help me stop smoking. I stopped vaping last month and not had a palpitation since. I didn't put two and two together until I stopped vaping.

I hope it's something as simple as that for you OP.

I had similar and it ended up being a benign ectopic heartbeat (harmless apparently). Mine occurred at night and also if I hadn't eaten for a while. Hopefully something like that.

It could absolutely be related to your hernia, OP. Look into gastrocardiac syndrome. It’s an old fashioned term but it’s real. Reading about it might give you food for thought.

My friend is getting palpitations. The hospital has advised her to curtail her caffeine intake and it's made a difference to her.

That's really interesting.

I had this. Went to A&E and everything, they were that scary, I ended up having a 3 year tracker placed in my chest.
No pattern was found but my periods starting getting more sporadic way before menopause. Turns out in my case it was low progesterone.

I have very similar symptoms to you, down to the reflux and I also get pulsatile tinnitus in my left ear (can hear my heartbeat).

I've had multiple investigations with cardiology including echicardiogram and a few different 24hr ECGs over the years. They can see the ectopic heartbeats on the tape but say they aren't anything to worry about. I was diagnosed with sinus tacchycardia. My HR goes really high on standing and I think I basically have POTS but the cardiologist doesn't like to diagnose it apparently...

Anyway, just to say that I know how scary it feels. Even though I've been thoroughly checked out and told there's nothing to worry about it such a horrible feeling. I am hyper aware of my heartbeat a lot of the time and sometimes get runs of ectopic beats like one a minute for half an hour. I've been told they're not worrying unless I have more than 10 ectopic beats in a minute!

The problem is that once you start worrying about it and noticing them you get anxious and stressed and this males them happen even more.

I havent heard about a link with low iron. I've not had it raised as an issue on blood tests but I don't eat a lot of meat and my periods can be heavy so definitely something to think about.

Also dehydration definitely makes them worse and I'm not great at drinking enough water.

@Konfuzzled that's odd about the 10 per minute thing because I've had several episodes where my heart is all over the place non stop for several minutes. So definitely way more than 10 per minute! Still, nothing picked up yet so none the wiser. I've ordered a proper heart monitor from boots as I'm so stressed about them all the time, which doesn't help I know. Hopefully I'll get some answers from the monitor.

Thanks for the suggestions of low iron. I'll start my supplements again. Thought I'd got it back up to a good level but my periods are very heavy so maybe it's dropped off again.

It could also be low progesterone. I've been considering getting the coil but keep putting it off.

They are horrible, and exhausting. I get constant palpitations sometimes at similar times to what you mention; when my period is due, low iron, dehydration, too much caffeine, and when I eat gluten or lots of sugar (I'm not coeliac). Certain things especially, flour products etc.
Taking magnesium definitely helps. They are really horrible and after day after day of them it does feel really exhausting and I feel really unwell. I also get them more when I am coming down with something or am unwell.

@thenewaveragebear1983 do you get them where your heart is seemingly out of sync for minutes at a time? I had to go and lie down last night because they just wouldn't stop. Eventually they calmed down to where I was getting one every minute or so. But they are there as soon as I wake up in the morning and during the night too. They really are so exhausting.

Mine went away when I started HRT - I went into early menopause aged 37.

As others have suggested I found iron and magnesium helpful. I also find a react to sugar so have cut back on carbs/sugar and alcohol. On the occasions when I have those things (going out for a meal) then I nearly always notice palpitations afterwards...

@renomeno that's strange as I noticed they get worse after sugary stuff and carbs too. There's so many possible causes that it's hard to know what the issue is.

I get them after eating, very tired or dehydrated. They mainly started after some gastric problems this summer. As @SerenityNowInsanityLater says I think mine is linked to my ongoing Gastro issues . Look up Cardiologist Dr Gupta on you tube. He gives a good explanation.

What do you mean by palpitations? It's a phrase that means different things to different people.
Generally it means an awareness of heartbeat.
I have SVT which can make my HR go up to 200bpm or higher.
Ectopic beats are quite normal but most people are not aware of them. When you notice them you would probably call them palpitaions, they are not usually considered an abnormality.

Things that trigger mine are infection of any kind and over heating.

You can contact the consultants who deal with POTS directly- my DD went to one privately which wasn't as expensive as I thought it was going to be - he then put her on his NHS waiting list while all the tests were carried out.
It took about a year- his name is Dr Gall - he was amazing ! This was pre Covid though - he discharged her when he had a sudden rush after Covid . The POTS UK website is very good .

Thanks, that's really helpful. I have thought about this but not sure it's worth it as even though I don't have an official diagnosis (well, my official diagnosis is sinus tachycardia with orthostatic intolerance which is basically the same thing) the treatment the cardiologist is giving me is the same as I would have for POTS. It's just that sometimes i would like the POTS diagnosis as it's easier to explain to people!

@Poffy so my palpitations are very much like a skipped or weak beat followed by a strong beat. Sometimes it's just a flutter. I bought a heart monitor yesterday that picked it up and said it was Supra ventricular ectopy, likely premature atrial complexes. But recently I've been getting long runs of these that are very concerning. Normally they occur just one or two by themselves but lately my heart seems to get stuck and will be all over the place for minutes at a time. I have propranolol 10mg as and when needed but it didn't help that much last night tbh.

So far this morning I've had about 20 or so that have mostly occurred by themselves or in runs of of 2 or 3.

If you are worried you can send away for a private 24hr monitor, they send it to your home, you put it on and send it back and a cardiologist looks at the report. It's about £250 so don't know if that's doable for you.

I have exactly the same thing OP and have had it for years. Daily skipped beats, often several per hour. My heart does a wonky little dance (not fast, just really wonky) for a few minutes immediately after eating a stodgy or sugary meal, or if I perform any physical activity after eating it's like my heart totally forgets how to do its thing.
I've had my heart checked over a million times, cardiologist confident it isn't POTS, my vits&mins are well in range, they've basically concluded it's gastrocardiac, likely linked to reflux and it's my vagus nerve firing off at the wrong times (and it's harmless, in my case, just bloody weird and annoying).

Do you ever notice you feel you need to burp during/straight before or after a palpitation? When I told my doctor this, unsure if it was linked at all, he was like "ah, yeah, I know what this is"

I've found that blowing out through your mouth really hard, coughing hard, bearing down like you're trying to fart (I don't recommend doing this one in public, just incase), helps a lot during the wonky episodes. It's meant to reset/stimulate the vagus nerve or something or other, and it does regulate my heartbeat more often than not.

@spiritgoat I think this is what I have too. It's very frustrating trying to get to the bottom of it. I had over 150 palpitations yesterday (I tracked them with a counter on my phone) and all I get from the Dr is 'you have to wait for the 24hr heart monitor before seeing a cardiologist. Take propranolol and go away'. 😞