Double Beat/Shortness of Breath/Weak Heartbeat

[Theodore22089]

Please help. This post is long because I want to be as thorough as possible, as I have been suffering with these symptoms for a year with no diagnosis. I am grateful to anyone who takes the time to read this, and even more grateful if they can provide me with any helpful information.

I am a 22 year old collegiate distance runner and I have been struggling for a year with symptoms that have prevented me from competing or even training for a long period of time. Initially the symptoms began last April when I left my apartment for a run, and within the first few minutes felt like I was suffocating. I stopped running after only a few minutes because I couldn't get over this sensation of suffocation. Upon stopping I placed my hand over my heart and felt it beating not in its normal rhythm, but in what felt like a double beat so to speak (and I've also had my teammates and coach feel the irregular rhythm when it happens just so I knew I wasn't going crazy...they were freaked out by it too). The next day I went to the health center and when they took my vitals upon arrival, they found that my heart rate was 120bpm. They even asked me if I had run over, which I hadn't. They explained to me that I might have something called myocarditis, or an infection of the heart. They set me up for a stress test and asked me not to run until then. When my appointment came around, they had me do the whole stress echo protocol and told me I was completely healthy even though I was feeling the same symptoms. After the stress test I followed up with my team doctor and asked him to check my iron levels. We found that my iron stores were low (ferritin = 20) and I began supplementation. As soon as I began supplementing I felt a difference. I thought I would recover in no time. I was running between 80 and 100 miles per week and supplementing and feeling like I was getting better, and since this was in the summer, I was not racing at all. May, June and July went by and I was still supplementing (65 mg iron 3 times a day), however I would notice that on some of my faster runs...I would get back to my apartment and my heart rate just would not go down. It would stay at 150bpm for as long as an hour after a run, which is abnormal for me. Anyway, our season finally rolled around in september and as we began our faster workouts, I noticed that my heart started seriously double beating again, and I would get short of breath in those fast workouts and races (which usually last about 25 minutes). Now when I say short of breath I mean two things: 1. I felt as though I was suffocating and running out of air, and therefore needed to take a deep breath to fill my lungs (and often times I would be unsuccessful on the first breath and would need to slow down to take a deeper, satisfying one) 2. I was breathless. This you might say would be normal for anyone, even if they were well conditioned, to be experiencing while running. However, every time I ran with my team the entire season (even on slow, easy days) they would all be able to carry on conversations and I couldn't say two words without being out of breath. In October I had another stress echo. I completed the entire thing and doctors told me my oxygen saturation was normal and my heart rate was fine, and again I was told there was nothing wrong with me. I stopped racing after the fall, but still ran with the team during slower workouts and easy runs. I tried inhalers, I had lung function tests done, and while I was told my respiratory muscles were "a little weak" there was nothing wrong with my heart, and no medical professional could detect this double beat that I was experiencing. At the end of february I told my coach that I couldn't run through it. It wasn't getting better. So I stopped running, and haven't run for about five weeks. I also haven't noticed much of an improvement. While the symptoms seem to be much more manageable, I know they will just increase exponentially when I begin to do hard exercise again. Although I haven't been running, I have still been joining our team in our bi weekly weight room sessions, and notice that even exercises like chin ups and bench press and push ups  will cause my heart rate to spike and will make me short of breath. At one point, I was doing dumbell presses over my head and felt my heart pounding so hard I thought I would pass out. The past few days I've started running again, not far, just about three to five miles each day...and although I'm running at a very modest pace, my heart rate has been consistently between 180 and 200. I know max heart rate is around 200, so I don't understand why a regular easy run would cause my heart to beat as fast as it is. I haven't experienced any double beats in a while, but my heartbeat just feels so weak. It feels like it's not strong enough to pump blood and supply vital organs with the oxygen they need during exercise. I don't know, I just know that my heartbeat feels much weaker than it used to. There are a few other things that are important to list as far as my history goes (continued in next post).

[heyitisjustin]

You might have abnormal mineral levels (calcium, iodine, potassium, etc.) I'd get them checked out

[Duster43]

I've been going through the same exact thin your describing ... And I mean every thing ! Except you ran races but I played basketball .. I'm so scared to play simply because I get tired so fast , I've always been in shape , lifted weights , football, baseball ,basketball , wrestling.. I can't run from one end of my house to the other end without feeling like I'm going to die.. Can't get a deep breath .. I have to force a deep breath by yawning ..it's torture.. Been to every doctor pulmanary , cardiologists..all to no avail .. I tried lifting this morning ..heart palpitations like crazy so I quit.. And I'm short of breath as I type right now ..it ***** man ..good luck

[rawveg196]

hi,it seems there is indeed probs with the heart that that they cant seem to find.I have experienced this myself,iwent to the ER 4 times in one day ,i mean i was like gasping had all the test ,they came to the conclusion i have anxiety, '" yeah sure why didnt i think of that,maybe if i held your head in a bucket of water "" anyways they give me some little pink magical pills and send me home to die i thought.Wouldnt it be nice if we could be rich like Oparah surrounded by a full medical team and DR OZZ checking her out when she burbs.Back to your prob, take this with a grain of salt,you maybe need to change ur life style,and i know its hard but maybe long walks instead of runnig,we only have one heart and with your family history of heart probs,i dont know.I know of a young 18yr old who competed in triathalons he had the body of a bronzed god,im unaware if he had heart probs,but dropped stone dead during a race.Some times our brains are too powerfull and act sometimes to the detrement for the well being of our bodies.Anyways enough of my ravings i wish you all the best and pray you find a happy solution...God bless

[rawveg196]

hi

[Theodore22089]

I should also note that I have been supplementing with 65mg of iron 3x a day for 9 months. Doctors tell me my levels are normal, but to keep supplementing.

[Theodore22089]

First, there were only a few other occasions I felt these double beats and palpitations aside from during exercise. One was when I drank alcohol. I noticed that if I had a few drinks my heart would double beat, or beat so fast that it felt like it was going to beat out of my chest, or a combination of the two. Secondly, I got into a car accident on the highway this summer that could have been much worse than it was. When I crashed my heart was beating very quickly and I was experiencing the double beats again. I don't know if it was anxiety that caused my heart to double beat, or if it was simply anxiety that caused my heart rate to increase, which in turn caused me to experience the double beats again. Thirdly, I experimented with marijuana for the first time this summer. I didn't smoke it, I ate it in baked goods, and soon after I found myself experiencing the double beats as well as fainting four times, and vomiting (It may sound silly but I thought I was going to die from a heart attack every time I passed out). I recently found out my family has a history of anxiety disorders (which made me think the whole marijuana episode could have been a panic attack). At least two of my four other immediate family members have anxiety, and one is on medication for generalized anxiety disorder. My grandfather also had it, and one of my uncles has it as well. I told this to my doctor who told me to see a sports psychologist. I spoke to the sports psychologist over the phone, and she told me that she didn't think I needed to be treated by a sports psychologist because my symptoms sounded like they had something to do with panic and that any psychologist who specialized in anxiety could help treat me, so I have made an appointment with a psychologist who I have not seen yet. Another part of my family history worth mentioning is that we have a history of heart problems. My father had open heart surgery for the purpose of putting in a mechanical valve  in his twenties, and now takes blood thinners. He also had a severe stroke two years ago at the age of 47, atrial fibrillation being the cause. His father also has heart problems, although I'm not sure what exactly, and also takes blood thinners. We are also of mediterranean descent, and my mother has beta thalassemia minor (I know it's a genetically inherited defect and I'm not sure if it would affect recovery from something like iron deficiency, just thought it would be worth mentioning). It's been a year, and I'm becoming very hopeless, as I've been sent from doctor to doctor with no diagnosis.  Recently I have begun thinking that if I've gone through all these tests, and no one can find anything wrong with me, then it must be something mental...but I don't know. Again, the symptoms I am currently experiencing are:

Rapid heartbeat/palpitations: The past several times I have been to the health center, and have gotten my vitals checked, my resting heart rate is around 100. There have also been times I will just be standing still and my heart rate will shoot up to 150 for no reason at all. Alcohol seems to affect me negatively, and will give me palpitations and/or cause my heart to double beat.

Shortness of breath: It seemed that during periods of intense training, the shortness of breath was worse. I often felt like I was suffocating even during every day life. There was even one time in particular I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like I couldn't breathe while experiencing heart palpitations at the same time. The shortness of breath gets worse during exercise.

Breathlessness: Feel like when I talk, especially during exercise (even light exercise like walking up stairs), I cannot so much as speak my name before I run out of air.

I thank anyone who has taken the time to read this and give advice. I know it's long, but as I said earlier, I want to be as thorough as possible. Any helpful information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.