23 y/o male, recent PSVT, weightloss

[patrick390]

Hi All,

I am a slim healthy 23 year old male. Recently I have been suffering from a rapid heart rate in general, as well as what appears to be a sudden onset of rapid heart rate and rise in blood pressure (for short periods of time 5-20 minutes.. I'm not sure if it's called PSVT?). Three months ago I was 73kg, regularly exercises, eating whatever I liked and enjoying life. Now I'm 59kg, can barely exercise and have broken sleep and feel very tired.

I've only had about 3 episodes of the sudden onset of rapid heartrate, and all of these times I wasn't doing anything strenuous, and all have resolved within about 30 minutes. For example, my most recent one was when walking to the shops yesterday I was in the fruit market and suddenly my heart started rising. I thought nothing of it, but it kept rising so I immediately left the shop to find a seat. It peaked at about 165 bpm (I was wearing a heart rate monitor). I felt very uncomfortable, light headed, very weak (almost like a shock), and tightness in my neck, tingling in hands.

At the hospital about 45-60 minutes after my blood pressure was measured as 154/91. Another time when I went to the GP clinic shortly after this, my blood pressure was also up higher (it was checked 30 minutes after rather than 45). Therefore I assume that my blood pressure rises during these episodes. I can't tell you how high it would get, but I haven't exploded yet :P

I had a heart echo and many ECG's, all returning okay (except for the day I went shortly after my episode, that ECG made the doctor refer me to a cardiologist) I didn't really ask why but she said there was something worth looking into. Long story short the heart specialist she referred me to said my heart was okay (ECG + ECHO).

An important thing to note is that I have lost 14kg since December last year. This has been largely due to chronic dihorrea, which came after drinking dirty water on a hike. I have been tested positive for a parasite (blastocystis) so I think that has contributed to the weight loss. I have done barely any physical activity. I try to walk and do light stuff but my general rapid heart rate worries me (not the episodes). Sitting my heart is anywhere from 80-100, standing 90-120, walking around 90-120 bpm. My blood pressure is fine when I am relaxed sitting. The weight loss is also due to diet changes where I have removed grains and dairies to help combat this parasite.

My sleeping patterns are pretty shot, I take a while to fall asleep and wake up throughout the night, sometimes I feel like I get random beats while sleeping that are big drum beats BOOOM and then normal ones. When lying down I can feel my heart beat strongly in my stomach (probably due to weight loss?).

My blood tests didn't show anything amazing, my electrolytes seem to be normal, no strange white blood cell count. Thyroid seems okay.

I have a few lymph nodes that are up.. that's really all the symptoms I can think of. I don't drink coffee, alcohol, smoke.

My question to the community would be this: Do you think that my sudden onset of rapid heart beat and rise in blood pressure is dangerous? And what do you think is causing this? Are there any things I can do to stop it?

I get the feeling it might be:
- Severe weight loss
- Lack of sleep
- Diet changes?
- Malabsorption due to parasite?
- Added stress/anxiety from this whole ordeal?

I just want my normal life back and want to feel comfortable being in public.

I've heard about some pretty rare things like pheochromocytoma, but I'm sure it's a bit ridiculous to think about things like that?

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated greatly!

[patrick390]

Hey mate,

Thanks for taking the time to write a detailed response, I really appreciate it. Yea it sounds like anxiety, as I have been wearing a heart rate monitor when I go out so I'm constantly looking at my watch lol. My doc said the best thing would be to continue the activity as normal and use mind over emotion (probably lamen way to the cognitive therapy you were talking about).

I'm getting a holter monitor soon so I'll make sure to have my normal day while wearing it (sex while wearing a holter should be hilarious to write in the log book).

As of yesterday I've stopped checking my pulse :) I think this parasite has mucked my energy levels so I am more prone to being anxious when feeling light headed and stuff.

Thanks again for helping out.

One more thing, my doc noticed I had stopped doing normal activities like exercise, going out to the city with friends etc. last night I was going to cancel this performance at the opera house, but instead I took his advice and went even though I was in hospital the day before. I was nervous, and my heart did race, but I just ignored it (plus we were sitting in the front row and they were picking people to go on stage) so yea I had a lot of adrenaline and was nervous, but the more I ignored it the more it went away and then I really enjoyed myself. I can understand if you ever have similar anxiety with going into potentially scary situations- whether it be intense physical exercise/ travel whatever. But I did feel that throwing myself into that situation really healed and helped my anxiety. Good luck with everything! Let me know how you get on

[annoyed87]

by the way, what I mean by stop and start in a couple of beats
is like *funny beat* --(|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||)--- *funny beat* back to normal

where anxiety is more like |   |   |   |   |   |  |  |  |  |  |  | | | | | | ||||||||||||||| | | | | | | | |  |  |  |    |    |    |  

if you catch my drift.

[annoyed87]

this is kind of weird,

you've explained almost identically what I've been going through, you're in Australia like me, and I'm only a year older than you. It's bad that you're going through this, but it's good that there's someone to relate to!

that boom feeling, and your heart beat in your stomach, are palpitations. They can be you just noticing your heart beat, or it could be an ectopic beat (which are in most cases normal) I've heard of people having thousands of these a day who were considered okay by there doctors.

Your blood pressure changes every second is what the doctor told me, and it's the over all average of your blood pressure that counts, there's actually a phenomena called white coat hypertension, which is when the blood pressure rises slightly just because you know that the doctor is going to check it, so that gives you an idea of how quickly it can change. so blood pressure changes are generally okay unless of course it drops extremely sharply, which would make you pass out, if it kept going high after years and years and years, you could develop chronic hypertension, so stop stressing!. blood pressure tends to rise quite high when you're stressed as well, I remember my blood pressure wasn't far off yours when I ended up in the hospital one night after one of these attacks. In saying that changes like 20 or so doesn't seem like a massive increase to me.

to add regarding the pheochromocytomas, you're about 20 or 30 years to young to be in the risk category, which is about 1-100,000. so if it were to be real, you'd be a super rare case -_-
but don't take my word for it, ask your doctor, or a doctor here if you want to be sure.

the average sitting or resting pulse is between 60-100 so between 80 and 100 doesn't seem too bad at all, the best way to check your resting pulse is 1st thing in the morning, if you want your real resting pulse. when your standing and walking it's at between 90 and 120, don't forget that your body has to compensate for the fact that you've stood up or are walking!, and your blood pressure has dropped a bit when you stand up, because the blood that was pooling while you were sitting has suddenly been called to work in other parts of your body.

There's a multitude of factors that could be influencing your pulse and blood pressure;
How tired you are, time of day, temperature, how much food you've had, how much water you've drank,(temporary hypovolemia can cause transient hypotensive episodes so it's good to keep your fluids up if your blood pressure drops on standing). In saying that if it goes a bit fast when you stand up don't be too alarmed, this is called transient orthostatic hypotension, and it's known to cause short bouts of sinus tachycardia (appropriately so, because your body compensates for the drop in blood pressure by speeding your heart up temporarily) and it's common in people our age.

from what I've read the defining thing sensation wise between appropriate or inappropriate sinus tachycardia, and the other arrhythmia related tachycardia is that the appropriate tends to wind up to get faster, or at the very least, wind down. Where as arrhythmia related tachycardia tend to start and stop in a couple of beats. Other than that, the only way to be sure of what it is, is to get a holter or event monitor and try and catch the beat.

My sleep pattern is screwed as well, but I think it's the anxiety about it all that does it to us. I've read a study that suggests that being awake at late hours can increase anxiety levels in people, so who knows :/ even sleeping at irregular times can alter your energy levels throughout the day, but it could be because your worried about all of this.

As you said, you were tested positive for a parasite, and you've had a bad case of diarrhea, so that may also have an effect on your energy levels.

Now this is only a guess, but you seem like an anxious person to me, but with good reason, I know what it feels like to be checking your pulse a lot to see what's going on, and being worried that something's going to happen. I mean, you would've been checking in order to get those averages right? Perhaps you should talk to your doctor about the anxieties over this situation you've been having..

I see a psychologist and I'm doing CBT for it, it helps a lot. but yeah, if you're really concerned about those episodes, get and event monitor or a holter, or talk to your doctor or cardiologist about a way to see if there's any way to monitor while it's been induced, maybe by doing an exercise stress test? it could be nothing and just be anxiety, but if you're worried talk to your doctor about the options.


I hope I've been of some help.