Palpitations - seem to start around 10pm every night?

[Ifeelmyheartbeat]

Hoping someone can help as I have a complicated history of hyperthyroidism, B12 deficiency and low iron. Iron is currently (as of last month) in good range and I had a B12 injection a month ago. Last bloods also checked thyroid and was low T4 and TSH but just in normal low range for both.

Palpitations go on for several hours and feel like they take my breath away a bit - am just sitting in bed, not doing anything stressful or strenuous. For the last week I have taken a low 20mg dose of proprananol (I weaned myself off them about 4 months ago when I thought I should after being on them for 2 years) which does seem to help. I am wondering if I should go back to taking them or if the low thyroid hormones might be the cause? Do I need to go to the Dr or, as I only recently did bloods, will they just say it's normal at 44?
Thanks for any advice.

If you’re taking propranolol on and off you need yo go back to your GP for a review of your meds. Explain recent tachycardia episodes to her/him.

Could be peri menopause. Mine were awful when I stopped producing oestrogen aged 37 due to autoimmune issues. I’m 44 now and been on HRT since then and I hardly ever have palpitations now. You should see your Gp and get an ecg done though as a starting point.

Sounds like you need your propanalol. You mentioned other levels but what was your vitamin D like? I had low everything after being hyper and though I'm in normal range with thyroid now, still get palpitations because all levels need bringing up. Definitely tell GP about it

What's your ferritin level?

I paid for a vit D injection after my thyroid normalised, as I heard it was often an issue, so about a year ago? I haven't seen specific levels for D or ferritin but I have been having shortness of breath when walking, which is usually ferritin for me actually. For the last couple of days I've thought I had an ear infection (no ear pain) with vertigo too actually. I think I thought I might just be having some sort of cold/ear infection but maybe it's all connected?

I’d ask what your ferritin level was on your last bloods. I had these symptoms along with chest pain and increased heart rate. I felt like I was dying at points. GP nor A&E had thought to mention my ferritin was 8 and then dropped to 5. When I begged for another set of bloods I finally found out. Low ferritin can also cause anxiety, which can cause palpitations/increased heart rate too, although you probably know this already. Also currently hooked to a 48 mobile ecg from cardiology, as a just in case. Since I started taking ferrous fumerate and supplementing more with iron rich foods, I’ve felt a lot better in comparison.

Of course it needs to be checked out with an ECG etc., but could it be digestion related? My very frightening palpitations turned out to be caused by silent reflux, where the stomach acid was irritating the vagus nerve.

In this case I don't think so, I wasn't hungry as I had lunch at 3, so hadn't eaten (actually now feel hungry now I'm thinking about it!) so I don't think it is digestion so many hours after eating?

I do think the ferritin idea has legs though - I am on multivitamins so I was hoping to have the bases covered, but maybe it's not strong enough. I will go back to the Dr on Monday and see what they suggest.

Thank you everyone. It's still banging away but I think I can try to sleep!

Me too. Horrible panicky palpitations, but since I’ve been on oestrogen patches, they’ve stopped. Obviously you have other health issues and I’m no doctor, but it’s worth exploring the possibility that this is an unconnected perimenopause symptom with your GP.

You can also purchase ferrous fumerate over the counter, just in case you don’t have time to see the GP. Try some meditation on Spotify or similar too. I never believed in it but it works wonders for getting off to sleep.

Thank you!
I did speak to her about peri-menopause actually when I registered - new doc as old one wasn't particularly great (hence leaving me on proprananol and not checking B12 levels despite it being a recurrent issue). Apparently the new surgery has a specialist in HRT as so many women move to them with symptoms! I'm going to take the idea more seriously I think, rather than worrying that it's thyroid or something I've already been checked for. I was a crazy lady with the hyperthyroidism and thought that was peri, so it's hard to think it's palpitations over the crazy hormonal rage and surges I was getting before. I need to lower my peri standards, perhaps!

I had this related to menopause. Monitoring showed benign ectopic heart beats. I was given propranolol which helped but the thing that has helped long term is magnesium taurate. There is a cardiologist on YouTube called Sanjay Gupta- York Cardiology who has done loads of videos about this sort of thing. I found him really helpful.

Interesting, I took Magnesium a few years ago and it did wonders for my sleep when I had insomnia - now possibly see that as thyroid starting to go nuts...

I'll look her up, thanks!

Why were you started on Propanolol in the first place? And what made you decide to stop taking them? One of the conditions it is known to treat is tachycardia. You could always ask your gp to switch you to bisoprolol which is a little newer than propanolol and has less side issues if that was your worry.

I know my palpitations are far more noticeable when my vitamin D is low, so it might be worth taking a regular supplement of that.

Yes I had irregular heartbeats with the hyperthyroidism a couple of years ago. I was a real fan until my hair began falling out around a year later and I began sleeping in the day, more noticeable after taking the one at midday. I know now I have pernicious anemia but at the time I put it down to the "calming" proprananol and thought it was probably my body's way of saying it was calming me too much now I was out of the woods with the hyperthyroidism. All through this I was seeing my old Dr and saying I was tired, sleeping 12 hours some days, tongue had swollen and had familial history of PA, but I was told a range of things, including that my bloods were fine, my jaw was just small and I should have an operation to make it wider to accommodate my newly engorged tongue (!). Nothing was ever mentioned about the meds being an issue and as I felt they were fed up with me after everything else and kept telling me to go to the dentist instead of them, I decided to lower the proprananol on my own. I was under the impression the only reason I was on it was for hyperthryroid and once I was stable from that it would be safe to slowly wean off.

I'll call my new Dr on Mon and see what they think.