Heart Problems

[sptpr]

In November of 2000 I became sick over the weekend and had a very high fever.  That Monday I woke up with bad chest discomfort and went to the ER where I was monitored and was told my Troponin was elevated.  I had a stress echo which the cardiologist said was beautiful and believed it was a false positive.  My EKG was completely normal and the pain went away within a few hours from when it started.  A week later I went to my family doctor and complained that I couldn't stop feeling my heart beat.  He did an EKG and it showed a flipped T-wave.  They sent me right to the hospital and subsequently admitted me after taking an x-ray(normal) and a creatine kinase test which was normal.  I had a nuclear stress test and another echo and the cardiologist said everything was great.  A week later I had a heart catheterization which was perfectly normal.  EF was 69.  Since then I have seen probably 15 cardiologists who have never done anything because they said everything was normal despite having a pounding heart and a feeling that my heart is constantly excited.  My last echo was in March of 2003 which was normal again with a holter, which was normal.  I just had another holter about a week ago which showed 15 PVCs and nothing else.  I am currently 34yrs old and have been very active in strength training during this whole ordeal and haven't had any problems with working out.  My last leg workout suddenly triggered PVCs on a daily basis and I don't know why.  I have supplemented with 100-300mg of COq-10 and 300-1000mg of Hawthorn to try and protect my heart.  Any idea what's going on?

[stlcard1521]

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[Rosa parks]

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[stlcard1521]

Hawthorne could be making them worse; I'd talk to a doctor or pharmacist about that.

Palps are often triggered by anxiety.... from actions youve taken like ordering those herbals and reading through your posts you sound like you may have a lot of anxiety... try to relax and not focus on them so much. i know its hard, but you have to realize theyre harmless. if you quit worrying about them so much youll notice them less and they may occur less frequently. the only miracle cure out there is to come to terms with them, then theyre not so bad. dont let them run your life. good luck.

[sptpr]

Luke L,

I have been extremely concerned that the COQ-10 and Hawthorn have damaged my heart. I have exceeded the daily recommended doses, not significantly I think, but ever since this episode I had in November 2000 I thought my heart was working too hard so I took COQ-10, Hawthorn, and Fish Oils to try and help my heart.  I ordered these supplements through two well-known doctors, Dr. Julian Whitaker and Dr. Stephen Sinatra, who are both practicing MDs.  They have been in the business for over 25 years and continue to practice cardiology and provide a holostic approach to treating conditions instead of relying all together on drugs.  They both have websites that you can check out and are strongly in favor of COQ-10 for optimal heart health.  Since none of the doctors I met with gave me anything for my heart I felt I needed to do something to overcome the problem I was having, namely the pounding heart beats and intermittent tachycardia.  I'm sure some of it was due to being anxious and I did develop an awareness of my heartbeat, so I think all of this together made me very unstable.  I hope that I haven't done any harm to my heart considering that in light of taking these supplements nothing has gotten better or worse in the last five years.  I have maintained my fitness level and never noticed any problems.  Hawthorn is supposed to have multiple benefits to the heart, one of which is increasing the force of contraction.  Maybe that's my problem.  I stopped taking it altogether about seven days ago.  Both COQ-10 and Hawthorn are used extensively in treating heart disorders yet I'm concerned it may have caused one for me despite my tests being normal.  That last cardiologist I saw didn't think too much of it and as I mentioned in my previous post, I had another holter monitor which didn't indicate any problems.  Also, the x-ray I had recently at the ER was normal, as far as no enlargement of the heart.  The cardiologist also listened to my heart and didn't indicate any problems (ie. murmurs).  He has scheduled me for a stress-echo this Tuesday which I'm frightened of because I'm afraid it will reveal something bad.  I just tested myself on my treadmill the past two days and was able to run for 30 minutes with relatively no problem, considering I don't ever do aerobic training, so I didn't expect to be running like a gazel.  I did push myself pretty hard and did very well.  I hope all goes well with this upcoming test.  I will be staying off these supplements from now on.

[LukeL]

While I am not a doctor in a healthy person you would actually want to lower the force of a heartbeat. By making the force of a heart beat stronger the odds are you will feel it more often. A beta blocker works by lowering the heart rate, BP, and force of each beat so the heart has less of a workload. In fact some studies have shown that long term use of beta blockers can actually help heal the heart.

Also beta blockers have been around for decades and people have been on them for decades and the side effects are low or minimal and the long term risks are very low as well and the benefits outweight the risks involved.

Discuss this with your doctor.

[LukeL]

You may want to try going on a low dose beta blocker. I am currently on Toprol XL and now I may feel 2-3 palpitations a week if that. Ask your doctor about it. Also with that many referals and doctors reading your reports the best thing to do is move on and ignore them. I know this is easier said then done but its the truth. One doctor may have missed something but the odds of over a dozen cardiologist and probably many many more internsits and med students missing something are as close to zero as you can get.

I myself just requested a 4th EKG in one year and had it read by a 4th cardiologist for his opinion and he even told me there are more important things in life to worry about.

[Cleveland Clinic]

sptpr,

thanks for the post.

You have palpitations which can be caused by things like PVCs or PACs. This is a pretty common problem.  The only thing abnormal is the troponin which you initially had. This may have been a false negative, but may have more likely been a bit of myopericarditis which can be associated with acute viral illnesses which you were experiencing.

In the absence of any other heart disease which has effectively been ruled out by your normal studies there is nothing further to do, and you should be reassured by all of your normal findings as there is no long term negative prognosis associated with these findings.

good luck