Nutrition Health Chat: Tuesday, Dec. 8th, 5-6 PM Eastern. Learn how vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients affect your health. Free live Q&A. Join us!
Member Comments are provided by individuals and reflect their personal opinions only. Under NO circumstances should you act on any advice or opinion posted in this forum. ALWAYS check with your personal physician before taking any action regarding your health! MedHelp International and our partners, sponsors and affiliates have no obligation to monitor any comments posted on this site, or the content and/or accuracy of such exchanges. MedHelp International does not endorse the views of any user.
Heart Disease (Expert Forum)
Re: Symptoms related?
This forum is for questions and support regarding heart issues such as: Angina, Angioplasty, Arrhythmia, Bypass Surgery, Cardiomyopathy, Coronary Artery Disease, Defibrillator, Heart Attack, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Mitral Valve Prolapse, Pacemaker, PAD, Stenosis, Stress Tests.
Re: Symptoms related?
by karen__0__0, Jan 01, 1995 12:00AM
Posted By karen on June 14, 1999 at 13:54:32
Hi~ I'm a 28 year-old female who exercises daily. I was diagnosed this year with bradycardia, which the doctor is unsure if it's caused by fitness or whether it's sick sinus syndrome. He put me on 400mg Theophyline/day to try and raise my rate, as it does cause dizziness and fatigue. My normal resting rate is in the low 40's, and sleeping it drops into the low 30's. I do wake up every morning with a raging headache, which a sleep doc told me is from lack of blood flow to the brain.. Increasing salt intake has helped manage the dizziness. A stress test, echo and holtor monitor all came back ok, although on the stress test my rate dropped from the 160's back into the 50's within about 50 seconds.
Lately, for about a month now, I've been experiencing daily headaches, along with increased fatigue and lightheadedness. I feel like when I move my eyes or head it takes a second to focus, which generally leaves me feeling sort of woozy and sometimes nauseous. Also, I got a pretty bad nosebleed about a month ago which is recurring daily when I blow my nose (usually in the morning). The fatigue is the worst part - working out has become nearly impossible since I don't feel the energy to get my legs going let alone sustain them long enough to get my heart rate up. The doctor does not want to pursue a pacemaker since I am so young.
My question is - if the bradycardia is indeed sick sinus, how long would it take to get worse and are these the kind of symptoms I'd be seeing? Thanks.
Hi~ I'm a 28 year-old female who exercises daily. I was diagnosed this year with bradycardia, which the doctor is unsure if it's caused by fitness or whether it's sick sinus syndrome. He put me on 400mg Theophyline/day to try and raise my rate, as it does cause dizziness and fatigue. My normal resting rate is in the low 40's, and sleeping it drops into the low 30's. I do wake up every morning with a raging headache, which a sleep doc told me is from lack of blood flow to the brain.. Increasing salt intake has helped manage the dizziness. A stress test, echo and holtor monitor all came back ok, although on the stress test my rate dropped from the 160's back into the 50's within about 50 seconds.
Lately, for about a month now, I've been experiencing daily headaches, along with increased fatigue and lightheadedness. I feel like when I move my eyes or head it takes a second to focus, which generally leaves me feeling sort of woozy and sometimes nauseous. Also, I got a pretty bad nosebleed about a month ago which is recurring daily when I blow my nose (usually in the morning). The fatigue is the worst part - working out has become nearly impossible since I don't feel the energy to get my legs going let alone sustain them long enough to get my heart rate up. The doctor does not want to pursue a pacemaker since I am so young.
My question is - if the bradycardia is indeed sick sinus, how long would it take to get worse and are these the kind of symptoms I'd be seeing? Thanks.
Related discussions
-
Bradycardia - Tired of being confused. (1 replies):Hi! I've posted here before - you all are so helpful, I...[more]
Dear Karen,
It's pretty unlikely to be sick sinus syndrome at your age and theophyline is a rather unusual treatment for bradycardia in an adult. I would suggest seeing a specialist in adult internal medicine for additional testing. Perhaps you are hypothyroid or less likely have an autonomic disorder. In any case a good internist should be able to sort it out and refer you as needed. Best wishes and let us know what they find.
I hope you find this information useful. Information provided in the heart forum is for general purposes only. Only your physician can provide specific diagnoses and therapies. Please feel free to write back with additional questions.
If you would like to make an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center, please call 1-800-CCF-CARE or inquire online by using the Heart Center website at www.ccf.org/heartcenter. The Heart Center website contains a directory of the cardiology staff that can be used to select the physician best suited to address your cardiac problem.
Thanks for the input. They did do thyroid tests which came back normal, along with a sleep study to rule out sleep apnea causing the fatigue. Also normal except that, like I said, the sleep doc noticed that my heart rate drops pretty low overnight. We're in the military, and when my primary care doc here on base got the report from the cardiologist, he referred me to internal medicine at the base hospital. That doctor said she's reluctant to agree with the cardiologist's diagnosis of sick sinus because of my age. She gave me the choice of proceeding with an EP study or montitoring every six months with a holtor monitor. She strongly advised the holtor route so that's what I agreed to. I've got another three months before I'm due for that. What is an autonomic disorder? Thanks! K.
I forgot to mention - not that it matters from what I understand - my grandmother had heartblock 4 years ago for which they put in a pacemaker. She had a sister who died in her teens from some heart related difficulty (I don't remember what.) My mom has mitral valve prolapse (I don't, just some insignificant leakage from what the heart doc said) and my sister was diagnosed with a murmur, ironically enough, when she was about my age...does all that constitute a genetic thing?
Follow Ups:
Symptoms related? CCF CARDIO MD - CRC 6/16/1999
(0)