My heart skips a beat for no apparent reason.

[Jbeaule]

Hello everyone, I am a middle aged man of 41 and I am a bit overweight.  Starting in 2012, I used to jog over 50 miles per week and my resting heart rate was in the low 50s.  I used to work a lot (16 hour shifts) from home but would always exercise.  My heart started skipping beats in 2014 and I started having panic attacks.  At first, once a week but at my worst, they were 4-5 a day.  I quit my job, took a couple months off, meanwhile I stopped jogging because I feared it would cause my heart to skip beats and launch me into another panic attack episode.  Then I moved to another city.  When I moved, I had to carry heavy items over a few hours and for a couple of days after I had moved, my heart skipped a beat every 30 seconds or so.  Everytime I would get an adrenaline rush, I could feel my heart beat like it was about to explode and that pounding in my throat.  After a few days, the skipping subsided and became rarer, usually 10 times a day now.  Sometimes, it goes away altogether for days but always comes back.  I saw a doctor and my EKG says I am fine.  I have mild high pressure but I am terrorized to pick up jogging again as everytime my heart rate goes up, I get scared and everything spirals down and it ends up in a panic attack.  I tried to hit the gym last year and was into it but unlike back in 2013, I couldn't do more than 3 repetitions, separated by 5-10 minute breaks because everytime I lifted something, my heart would skip a beat.  Then my heart rate would go up and driving back home would send me into 3-4 panic attacks back to back.

I also noticed that the last few times I went jogging, my heart rate would stay in the 90s for 2-3 hours after which didn't happen in 2012.

So now I am terrorized of making any physical effort and I don't know what to do.  Doctors tell me my heart is ok but I don't believe them because I feel like crap everytime do something physical.

Now, by feeling like crap, I mean the heart rate, the thumping, heart skipping.

No heart flutter (I used to get those but they havent happened in over 2 years now and they didn't last longer than 2-3 seconds at a time), no shortness of breath, no dizziness, no chest, neck or arm pain.

Now I don't know what to do.  Any kind of sport scares me.  I need help.  Thanks.

J.

[achillea]

Your heart has been checked out medically and found to be healthy apart from PVCs.  But many times in your post, you refer to panic attacks caused by awareness of your benign extrasystoles or PVCs.  So your real problem is not the heart.

It is panic.  I've experienced this myself, and I can tell you that treatment of your panic attacks--and your fear of having even *more* panic attacks--will give you your life and good health back.

Make an appointment with a counselor or preferably a psychiatrist who specializes in anxiety and panic.  Seeing the right kind of doctor is the key to overcoming this problem.

[Red_Star]

Excerpt from Anxiety Guru - How to Stop Heart Palpitations...

"A heart palpitation is an abnormal beating of the heart AND your heightened awareness of your heart beat. Palpitations can cause your heart to beat fast (tachycardia), slow (bradycardia), flutter, or to even have ‘skipped’ heart beats (PVCs).

Heart palpitations can be caused by electrolyte imbalances, adrenaline, anemia, heart disease, arrhythmias, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), and of course, anxiety disorders. There are more causes, but the ones listed are common."

To read more...

http://www.anxietyguru.net/how-to-stop-heart-palpitations/

[Red_Star]

I have heart rhythm issues when my magnesium goes down. And this magnesium loss can be due to anything from stress to eating sugar.

"Heart palpitations, “flutters” or racing heart, otherwise called arrhythmias, usually clear up quite dramatically on 500 milligrams of magnesium citrate (or aspartate) once or twice daily or faster if given intravenously.- Dr. H. Ray Evers