Heart rhythm, scary...

I get palpitations, have done for many years now on and off, i have had occasions where i have had them last for a week every hour i got them..

I have had many ekg's, wore 24 holtor monitor, had an echo done, last month i wore a 28hr holtor monitor, had my adrenilin gland checked, thyroid etc... (getting results from 48 hr, adrenilin on 5th jan)..

Any way yesterday i was fine untill i ate a macdonalds, i had 4 chicken selects (simular to kfc) and large fries plus an orange juice!! Within 10 minutes of eating this i started getting skipped beats (i think beat beat beat pause beat beat beat)...

When i got home i took my pulse and it was around 100 bpm (my normal is 70-80).... And i was getting these skipped beats every few minutes, i tried to take my mind of them, but they kept on coming from 3.30pm till 9.30pm .. .. By 8.30pm i was in a complete panick as i was looking up on the internet, and seen a few posts about etopic beats causing svt..

Do you think the salty macdonalds caused these?

I can not eat a chinese without my hart racing and getting simular reaction as above..

What can i do? I am pretty scared, anyone else suffer simular? Can food really cause this? What about svt?


And what goes through my mind is the monitors i have worn pick up etopic beats but not the ones i get when i not wearing, so how can they say i am fine?

Thanks for any advice, reasurance you can give me..

[Mom2four85]

Arrythmia's are scary that's for sure, and leaves us wondering when we feel them how can nothing be wrong?

Sounds like you need to have an event monitor where you push a button when you're feeling symptoms.  I haven't had one, so maybe someone who has, can explain it a bit better.  I think there's 30 day ones, so that will cover a good time frame to see what's going on.

Some people do have reactions to certain foods, I'm not one of them so I can't say on that end.  

[cindy707]

I know for sure anything caffeine related will set any of us off but it sounds like you may need to look at what you were doing immediately prior to eating at mcdonalds and the chinese food.  Were you in a rush, super hungry, eating fast, excited?, pushed for time?  Any of these things would naturally set you off but the food you explained in my opinion would not EXCEPT remember that salt def. increases your blood pressure and o.j. has ALOT of sugar in it again a stimulant.  Chinese food comes w. soy sauce definately salty.....lots of variables here.  Our pulse rates within normal limits are anywhere from 60 to a little over 100 and that includes at rest so you sound like you're within those limits.  Whatever you do don't panic or give yourself an anxiety attack because you'll def. raise your BPM then.  Try taking a moment when it happens to calm yourself down and distract yourself so that you won;t think about it.  My heart doc says the worst time for any of us is when we go to bed at nite and its quiet and we have too much thinking time on our hands and we concentrate way too much on what is happening in our bodies where in the daytime when we are active we rarely notice it unless its exreme.  If in doubt call your doc i always say....they're free on the phone just be prepared, write down all of your questions so you can end this wondering game once and for all.....good luck to you and Merry Christmas................