Lately, I have woken in the night with my heart racing. This has been happening once or twice a week, sometimes lasting an hour, leaving me a bit light headed and feeling sick. I've ruled out too much caffeine, and wonder if anyone has experienced similar symptons? On most (but not all) occasions I have had a hard running training session the previous evening, but don't know if this is a pure coincidence. My heart rate is fine running. I'm a bit stressed at work, but nothing out of the ordinary. Any thoughts??
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Its probably nothing to worry about, but its not something you should treat lightly.
One of the top fell runners in this country recently died as a result of a heart problem he didn't even know he had. This was a guy who could run a marathon in under 3 hours off road with 9,000 feet of climbing in it. He was like .....fit.
For what its worth my view is that if your heart is playing funny tunes its trying to tell you something. Yes perhaps its only "lay off the coffee/booze/fags" or somesuch. On the other hand perhaps its trying to tell you that a wheel's coming off.
It takes 30 minutes out of your life to get it checked out by your GP......
Hey Vrap - you're the tame(ish) Doc round here whadya say ??
I suffered with an irregular heart beat for months without seeing anyone. I eventually saw a specialist and he told me how common irregular heart rythums are and that mine was prob down to stress and worry, the more I worried about my heart the worse the prob got !!!
I was given a 48 hr ECG so they could monitor my heart over a period of time which enabled him to tell what would trigger of an episode, he also offered me tablets which i refused.
I was told my heart was healthy and I had nothing to wory about, and within days of having that reasurrance the irregular rythum started to subside.
Do you wear a heart monitor when running ?? get one .... they are brilliant for making sure you don't excerice out of your heart rate limit.
Also don't let simons story alarm you ... lets face it ... you could get knocked down and killed by a bus on the way to the docs !!!!!
circa 100: faster than you might expect at rest - recent xs exercise (including effects of adrenaline), stress, caffeine, alcohol, fags etc
100-120: ditto
late 130s+ - 140+ perhaps I should be going to A&E to get this on record
I would guess commonest cause of irregular heartbeat in this readership would be:
a)sinus arrythmia - awareness of the normal beat to beat variation with respiration - more the youngsters
and b)exercise-related ventricular ectopic beats -heart skips a beat the a big one steps in after a pause - again possibly exacerbated by stress and the other factors but usually quite innocent
Both fast heart beats and irregular heart beats can't really be fully evaluated without said 48hr tape - so I agree don't get fobbed off
Waiting till next routine appointement is usually ok - unless you're having funny heart beat at the time
I don't currently run with an HRM, but have been thinking about it of late. Can you recommend a model? May have to drop subtle hints to my sons, what with Christmas coming up and all.
Let u know how it goes......NB
I have in the past suffered from this type of reaction. In my case it was entirely stress related. Stress is a very funny thing and can effect everybody in different ways, for example the nighttime racing heart was how mine started. Once I knew it was stress, (thanks to good GP) I then used to get muscle spasms in my back instead which have now moved to cramps in my calves!
I guess it's got to come out somewhere eh? You might like to try one of the herbal stress relievers like Kalms before you go to bed and see how you get on.
Best of luck at the docs, hope you don't get fobbed off.
Space-Monkey - When my heart is racing, it is going so fast I can't count it. I'm surprised it can go so fast for so long. At least an HRM would give me facts. Ta NB
No I wasn't aware of exactly how stressed I was at the time, I had managed to suppress the outward signs quite nicely and felt that I was dealing with it OK. Does your brain race at the same time as your heart, life flashing before you? this may also indicate that it is stress or something similar?
Sounds like a good GP, hope nothing nasty turns up in the tests, best of luck.
Good luck with all the test and congratulations on being so fit !!
When the palpatations get really bad, i find holding my breath and putting natral pressure on your chests help to bring your heart rate down a bit !!!!
Julia, thanks for the tip. I tried laying on the floor and raising my legs above the level of my heart but that didn't work! I also tried to slow my breathing down, again to no avail. At least I've got something else to try next time....NB
About 7/8 years ago (before I started running)I went through a spell of several months of having bad palpitations especially in the night. I remember waking up many many times with rediculously pounding heart and associated anguish. Being scared of doctors as I am I put off going for some time but eventually recognised that I needed to sort the problem out. Went to see the doctor who checked me out and began telling me a story (which I do not know to this day whether it was true) that Linford Christie was reknowned for having a very irregular heartbeat and basically there was nothing wrong with me. Funnily enough after receiving this reassurance they disappeared. I did not consider myself stressed at the time but it is not always apparent to you and the reality in my case was that I had worked myself into some kind of negative spiral whereby I had convinced myself that I was ill and therefore I was. Anyway, here we are 6/7 years later and having just completed my first marathon last week although funnily enough last night I woke up with palpitations...I think that was something to do with the volume of chinese and alcohol I had last night (always a bad mixture for me that one!)
Interesting reading as I too have had palpitations over the last 7-8 years on an off and on basis. They were the original reason I bought a heart rate monitor and have measured 230bpm before now.
The conclusion that my wife and I have come too is that they usually occur when I have been paticulary stressed and worn-out, and the like. One morning she took me to hospital and yes anything to do with a heart complaint they see you straightaway and call for a specialist.
On that occaision I spent the night in for observation (ECG, etc) but they found no problems. They said it was probably the combined effects of stress, work levels AND the red wine consumed the night before!
I started running again a couple of years ago and have not had any "attacks" since that time, even after a very heavy work schedule during the summer. I put this down to the fact that running relaxes and de-stesses you and at the same time builds energy levels.
The heart rate monitor has to be one of the most important training tool for anyone who is remotely interested in weight loss and/or performance. Natural Blonde, if you have not already bought one I would highly recommend it, learn about its uses from one of the many books on the subject (or better still from one of the many articals on the net - including Runners World). You do not have to spend a fortune on one, if all you want is a heart rate reading with an upper & lower training zone prices can start from about £40 ish.
I hope you will be able to treat and understand the reasons for your own "attacks" as easy as I have been able to.
Happy Running
Tiffer
Regarding the advice on HRMs, I am seriously thinking of getting one, and my local gym is going to let me try out a couple of models to see how easy/hard I find them to use, what the functions are etc.
Glad you could find a reason for your attacks - hopefully I can do same. Thanks - NB
The red wine issue was something that the doctors were quite serious about, as when I mentioned this in the hospital it was almost "oh that will be it" type of reaction. And I also remember that it was a cheap table wine at a dinner dance, I am sure that it would have contained a certain amount of additives of various kinds.
Now, I only drink organic wine which eliminates those nasty additives.
Hope your results are positive
Tiffer
have been struggling .I thought it was my level of fitness so did nothing about only train harder.I
read in 220 that if your not sure about breathing and other similar symptoms go get yourself seen by the doc.
i went today, 3 months on and countless miles on my running and i have found i have asthma
and a heart murmur!i have just got upto doing 6/7km runs and was looking forward to doing my first 10km next sunday but the quak suggested i don't do anything until i have had some test's done. Has any of you fit people out there got a murmur,and how does it affect you?
Only the cardiologist can say whether any individual has this or not, but indicators include: does it come on at night (or when resting)? when stressed? after drinking alcohol?
Lots of good web resources on AF for anyone who thinks they may have it. Try http://www.vagalafibportal.fsnet.co.uk/vmpaf_faq.htm or http://www.yourhealthbase.com/atrial_fibrillation.html
PS HR Monitors can be pretty useless for AF suffers as an irregular rhythm throws them off completely. I gave mine away.
A visit to the doctor produced no serious signs of disease but he said my cholesterol was fairly high and blood pressure was high to go with it. A beta-blocker tablet was prescribed and I was told to reduce fat content in my diet which I duly did.
The happy news is that since that time there has been no re-occurrence of heart beat irregularity at all even though I now do running and gym work.
Anyone else had a similar experience?
Palpitations - extra beats, skipped beats or a very fast heart beat can be very worrying. However in my experience they are nearly universal, just about everybody will have an episode at some time. Yes, i've had them as well.
Thankfully, they are usually nothing serious but seeing your GP for an examination, some blood tests and an ecg is a good idea.
Sadly, some young fit people do die suddenly from undetected heart disease. Usually this is a problem with the heart muscle called Cardiomyopathy.
But here's the thing: in all the hundreds of people I have seen with palpitations, none of them have turned out to have this condition and none of them have suddenly died of a heart problem. I have picked up cases of Atrial Fibrillation which as Doug has said is a condition that needs specialist advice. But the sad fact about Cardiomyopathy and the sudden death syndrome is that it is usually not preceded by any symptoms.
The point I'm trying to make is that the experience of palpitations is very common and nearly always nothing serious. Loads of fit young people will have them as the response to this thread indicates.
As for murmurs, well it depends on what sort of murmur. There's quite a few types so more info required, but again there are loads of fit runners with perfectly innocent heart murmurs.
Oh and please don't feel you need to cry to get me to do something. Just asking usually works.
eamonn
Thanks for your posting, what you say is quite reassuring especially as you will obviously understand it from a runners point of view.
Cheers
Tiffer