Discussion Board

One of my friend's husbands recently woke up in the middle of the night with his heart racing. He was not having trouble breathing, but could get not get it to slow down. His wife took him to emergency. They did all the tests on him, but found nothing. All of a sudden, the rapid beating just stopped. I do know he has high cholesterol, diagnosed a few years ago but other than that, he says he is healthy. Not overweight, in his 50's. Then about 2 months another friend woke up in the middle of the night, her heart was racing also. She got up, sat down in a chair, thinking it would stop but it didn't. She is overweight & I know she has HBP. She finally decided to wake her husband to take her to emergency when it just stopped. I dont think it came back, I haven't talked to her for a few months.
Are these the same thing? What causes this?

Thanks for any input.

Jan

Info on tachycardia: http://www.mayoclinic.org/tachycardia/causes.html


The only times I've ever experienced it was when I took certain drugs--Nyquil, as it turns out, has that effect on me (haven't taken it for many years as a result).

I had this happen to me once. Doctor chalked it up to menopause.

They gave it a new fancy name. I can't remember what it was now. Sounded like that to me, too, but they insisted it wasn't. Maybe my other friend's was, dont know if anyone had taken Nyguil or anything like that.

Oh, well, I was just curious.

Jan

I had wondered about sleep apnea as well, my friend's husband is not overweight, but my other friend is. If I was to say anything, there would be some reason why it is not that or anything else.

Lately if I say anything, it is always met with no, my situation is different. A year ago another friend developed kidney stones. It just happened on McDougall boards someone had posted asking about kidney stones, so of course I mentioned what had been said. She was so in denial, she told me that hers were different & they were hereditary. Okay, whatever. So she goes thru all this pain, finally had to go have one of them blasted, I think. Well, heck, she has insurance.

Jan

that's tachycardia. I have it, and have had that exact same thing happen to me one time, where I woke up with a heart rate over 230 bpm and it was over by the time i got to the ER, though if I even walked down the corridor, my heart would go up again into the 190's which the attending physician was able to observe. I was obese at the time, but the cardiologist said obesity isn't a factor.

I went through a bunch of tests, and my heart proved extremely healthy, except there is a little cluster of nerves, which normally send the pulse signal out through the entire heart muscle and back to the nerve center. It takes about a second for that cycle to complete.

In my case, the nerve impulse sometimes doesn't go all through the whole heart, but recycles very close to source, so the heart picks up a very rapid rhythm. edited to include one of the bullets from EtEselle's posted info: •Abnormal electrical properties of groups of heart cells that would be me I had it once when pregnant and I got too warm, and once out of the blue in the middle of the day, and the one time in the night where it woke me up and pretty much freaked me out.

Other than that, I do sometimes get a little "biddy-biddy-bump" skip in my regular heart beat, but haven't had anything like it in ages.

Thanks Buns,

It is weird, they gave me this other name, at least that is what his dr's said it was, but not tachycardia. I have had actually 3 times in my life, where I was under unusual stress, that I woke up in the middle of the night & had the same thing, my heart was racing so fast I felt like I could barely breathe. So I got up out of bed, started splashing cold water on my face, forced myself to stay calm & it went away, slowly but surely. It is scary & I think I was hyper ventilating. One of my friends suggested taking something like Tylenol PM, because that would help me relax, it did, but then I was so sleepy when I would have to get up. But it did help get me thru those periods. My dad used to hyper ventilate. He would get so scared, he thought he was having a heart attack, but he had to breathe in a paper bag. I told that story to my friend & she said, hope it wasn't a plastic bag. But that was before plastic grocery bags, a long time ago.

Jan

Tachycardia is just a generic term for a rapid heart rate. When they analyze the EKG, they can decide whether it's atrial fibrillation or many other things. There are different treatments for different types of tachycardia.

If its tachycardia, i used to get that way back in the days of eating the SAD way and smoking. Since giving all of that up, I rarely if ever have an episode. Sometimes too much salt in the way of soy sauce can get me, but otherwise, I don't get it anymore. If I do get it, a few thumps on the middle of my chest usually stops it, along with some water.

My Mom suffered for years from that and is on yet more medication for that. She eats the SAD way. She used to wake up to the rapid heartbeat and it would go on for hours. She spent many days in the emergency room from that until they told her it was tachycardia.

I would add, to the Mayo list above, as an additional cause of fast heartbeat--infectious disease such as Lyme disease or tick borne infections. Possibly other infections that get into your tissues like strep.

I have had this heart racing problem, as have many people who suffer from Lyme disease, it is one of the many problems that develop. Mine has diminished significantly from treatment with antibiotics. In fact, I don't think I've had an episode in several months.

As for sleep apnea, you DON'T have to be overweight to have this. It is a reasonable thing to test for. I was tested for it when they were trying to figure out what was wrong with me, but I apparently don't have any sleep apnea. However my doctor told me that one of his patients, a young woman, very athletic, non-smoker, turned out to have sleep apnea and she didn't fit the standard profile at all. (I'm sure diet would have something to do with it too, but my doctor is not a McDougaller.)

I've heard some people have had that happen and it was a panic or anxiety attack. Most of the time it happens during awake time, but there are some who wake up suddenly with heart racing. At least that is what they diagnosed it as and when they went through an anxiety program the attacks stopped.

What is an anxiety program?

This morning at 3:30 am, my usual time for waking, I sat up on the edge of the bed and realized that my heart was beating both very fast and very irregularly. I knew what it was, generally speaking. I have had two other episodes, though one was diagnosed as tachycardia plus arrhythmia and the other one as atrial fibrillation: http://anti-itisdiet.blogspot.com/2007/ ... ation.html

I thought that by deep breathing I might be able to get it to settle down. By 4 am, I knew that was a failure and called 911 (I don't have a car) and went to the ER in this small town's hospital. Their diagnosis was simply tachycardia. (I could feel the irregularity subside as I waited in the ER briefly.) It peaked at 150 bpm but has now settled into 120 bpm, from the ER to now, about 12 hours later.

The ER physician tested my blood and found no proiblems except a possible anemia slightly out of bounds. She said she would ordinarily ignore it, but noted it on the report to me and my doctor as something to follow up. She ruled out thyroid problems. (Not a sign of it she said.) However, I was definitely dehydrated. I have not been thirsty, so maybe my thirst-detector isn't working or I have been ignoring it -- probably the latter. (I have since then started drinking 1 cup of water per meal and 1 between meals, for a total of six per day.)

She tried two approaches: a water drip, which failed to stop the racing heart, and then an injection of valium, which also failed to stop the tachycardia.

The final ER recommendation was to live with this until Monday morning and then go camp in my doctor's office until she can see me.

I am able to walk, somewhat slowly, and climb stairs, very carefully. My appetite is ferocious as usual, and I can think clearly.

My BMI is 18 and I don't consume any stimulants (a common cause) such as tea, coffee, alcohol, street drugs, or certain pharmaceuticals. Perhaps my doctor's further research will uncover a cause -- even though three hospitals have not.

The important issue for me is what is the cure for this now chronic condition? A drug to suppress the heart rate, or is there a version of cardio rate conversion that will reset the rate, as was done for my afib?

P. S. -- Thank you to all who have contributed to this thread. I have learned about some possible causes, which I can discuss with my doctor.

I have the same conditions. What is most important is the diagnosis. There are about six things that can cause this and one of them is not harmful and there is not much you and do. That is what I have. So after EKGs and stress tests and eco’s the Dr. said I just have to live with it.
The good news it does no harm just scares the hel>>> out of you.