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Constant Light Headed/Hot flashes

Where to start. About two weeks ago I was on the way home from Florida, when I had a very scary episode. I’m a 31 y/o male who stays in pretty decent shape. I was about five hours in when I started getting really light headed. This was accompanied by some hot flashes, clammy hands, racing heartbeat, and almost a sense of "out of body." I had to immediately pull over as I thought I was going to pass out. I had limited sleep the night before and took a 5 hour energy to help me out. I felt like that for about 15-20 minutes and then had my wife finish the trip. Once returning home a few hours later, I had that same exact episode. At that point I thought it was worth an ER visit.
         Upon arriving at the ER, my heart rate was a little elevated (around 140) for a few minutes, but quickly came down. They performed an EKG, and even tested my lungs to make sure I didn’t have a clot due to the long drive. They didn’t see anything. They also took some labs and came up with nothing. They chalked it up to no sleep, dehydration from the beach, pumped me up with some fluids and sent me on my way.
         Ever since that day I haven’t been right. Two days later I was back in the ER as the same attack came on again. This time they though it was more neurological. I was starting to have some tingling in my face, neck, and left arm. They did a quick scan and didn’t find anything. They ended up doing an MRI, and still found nothing. I've spend a few days with the neurologist going over different little tests, but he hasn’t been able to find anything. The next step is an MRI on my neck, and testing my blood for several deficiencies. They gave me a test for sugar, but it was fine. I've also been through a vertigo test, which they ruled out. They have also ruled out a mini stroke.
           As of today these are the symptoms I deal with on a daily basis.
1. Almost constant light headedness. If I walk too fast or drive, it gets a lot worse.
2. Episodes where I get tingling in my face, left side of my neck, and sometimes to my arm.
3. My heart will race a little here and there, but nothing like that first day.
4. There are times when I will get light headed, then get some hot flashes, and really feel like I’m on the verge of passing out.

         As I stated above, I stay in decent shape. It's nothing to run 2-3 miles in a day. I can’t even walk 100 feet without having to stop right now. It's starting to get a little scary for me. While I'd hate to find something wrong, I'm honestly open to that at this point. At least then I could move forward with treating it. Any thoughts?
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Avatar universal
Hi, I think I may know what your problem is.
I get very similar episodes all the time since a moment I had a similar experience like yours.
I think it may be panic attacks.
I get them so often, I will feel light headed, whole out of body feeling, my hands and extremities will go numb I will even start to black out sometimes. I get the fast heart rate, etc. and I have been to the ER so many times because of it always coming out ok.
I have studied and asked so many drs about my symptoms and it turned out to be panic attacks. Once you get a panic attack once it's very easy to get them again. The fear of it happening again will linger, even sometimes f you don't consiously feel like it, and it will happen again, and again, and again.
Because of this I actually developed a panic disorder where I get them daily.
I'm not sure if that is what you have but it sure spuds like panic attacks at least.
What could've happened was I know for me caffeine makes my heart race,
And it may have made your heart jump a little which automatically sent a tiny message from your brain(like I said maybe even subconsciously) to your whole body tellin you to panic. In the wild, animals get the fight or flight response which I'm sure you have heard of and thats pretty much what it is. Because as we are as humans we don't fight or run from lions trying to attack us so we can get that response from tiny little triggers.
So I really wouldn't worry about it :) I know that's a lot to say I still worry every time I have one but every time I'm ok and every time I go to the hospital ad I am ok.
Next time you see a dr you might want to mention it and see if you can get Xanax I was prescribed it my last hospital visit ad everytime I feel that any of those weird sensations I take one an ten minutes later it goes completely away those strange sensations don't seem so scary and pass like nothing.
One you panic about a tiny sensation you will have more weird sensations which will make you panic more and more and so forth.
I hope you feel better. And I hope that is what it is, it sounds like it.
You might want to check out a sight called
www.calmclinic.com
It explains panic attacks in full length there and may ease your mid.
I really hope this helps :)
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I had a neck MRI and an EEG that both came back fine. The only blood test they raised a flag on was high triglyceride, but they didn't think it was related. At this point I'm just in the dark.
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Avatar universal
I poisoned myself with caffeine once a long time ago and had the same symptoms.  - I had to cut out all caffeine for about 3 months!!  It took that long for my body to recuperate -  Spearmint or Peppermint (no caffeine) tea can help speed up the process a little.

I have to be careful not to overdo even chocolate as I feel drunk if I eat too much of it or if I drink too much coffee or tea or anything with caffeine.

       Needless to say, you probably will not be able to drink those energy drinks again.   My daughter ended up in the hospital because of an energy drink followed by an ice cold beer. (just one)  Her heart didn't know how to handle the upper with the downer.  She came close to a heart attack -  so please be careful and take care of your body.

Best wishes
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Avatar universal
You're welcome. Good luck with all of it. Eve
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Avatar universal
Yeah I cut all energy drinks out, along with most caffeine. I'm headed to a neck MRI and some more blood tests. I hope it gets figured out soon! Thanks.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal

Hi there,  I wish I could tell you what's going on, but I can't. What I did
notice though was that when the first episode happened, you talked about
not having been able to sleep the night before and so you had a
5 hour energy drink. I think you have to be really careful with these sorts
of drinks. I remember reading they have a lot of caffeine in them.
Too much caffeine is very hard of your heart. You might try eliminating
5 hour energy drink from your diet. Are you eating regular meals?
You know, breakfast, lunch and dinner with some snacks in between to
keep up blood sugar and also drinking lots of water. I hope you find the
cause of this soon. I wish you well. Eve
Helpful - 0
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