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Palpitations and Irregular Heart Rhythm, High Blood Pressure Still occurring after quit smoking/sugar/sodium
Greetings,
I'm a 22 year old male and in what I'd like to think pretty fair shape, 6'2, 185, below average body fat. For the past year or more I've had high blood pressure, the first time I noticed it was settling at about 150; I suppose in my youthful ignorance I blew this off. I'd been a pack a day smoker since I was 16 who drank about a gallon and a half of soda daily (insane sugar and caffeine) and almost exclusively ate fast food, I was fooled into believing that my lifestyle was unaffecting me by my toned and muscular physique and my employment in hard labor with regular exercise in addition to that. This all took a turn last week when I consistently three days in a row took my blood pressure at a local pharmacy and received mostly results ranging from 175-190 systolic, diastolic was normal.
I quit smoking,
I quit drinking soda.
I quit eating sodium
I've been taking Omega 3 fatty acids and began taking CoEnzyme Q-10's
The thing that's concerning me most is that before I quit all of my nasty, self-destructive habits and vices when I ran for not even a very long period of time my heart would begin to beat at (obviously) an accelerated rate, but then would start to beat erratically and arrhythmically, something to the effect of #,#, ###, #, , , , ##, #####, #,,, #, ##, #, # the premature beats didn't quite feel like Whole beats, if that makes any sense, and were usually rapidly followed by whole beats which didn't occur in any rhymic order for at times a minute or more. This happens when I exert myself in any way whatsoever, but usually when it involves lifting heavy weight and most prominently when I do pull-ups or run.
It's still taking place a week and a half after I have quit smoking, sugar, sodium and junk food in general, and my systolic blood pressure is still settling well above stage 2 hypertension. I don't drink alcohol, nor do I do drugs and never have.
This may be getting long winded, but these heart problems began to arise when I started having strange and seemingly random panic attacks around four months ago, my heart would race up to 200 or so per minute until I was capable of convincing myself that I was fine, these episodes prompted me to be way more aware of my heartbeat and have since stopped occurring as frequently. I went to the ER the first time this struck, a sonogram and EKG were performed and they didn't notify me of any irregularities with my heart whatsoever.
So what it boils down to is Panic attacks caused me to be more conscious of my heart and pulse, palpitations occurring in general and arrythmias occurring after exercise, extremely high blood pressure prompted me to quit doing bad things to my heart but those things are still occurring well after I stopped. No abnormalities showed up on my EKG or Sonogram, but the blood pressure remains and my heart does funny things after I exert myself.
Any clues? Thanks for reading, I know it was a lot.
I'm a 22 year old male and in what I'd like to think pretty fair shape, 6'2, 185, below average body fat. For the past year or more I've had high blood pressure, the first time I noticed it was settling at about 150; I suppose in my youthful ignorance I blew this off. I'd been a pack a day smoker since I was 16 who drank about a gallon and a half of soda daily (insane sugar and caffeine) and almost exclusively ate fast food, I was fooled into believing that my lifestyle was unaffecting me by my toned and muscular physique and my employment in hard labor with regular exercise in addition to that. This all took a turn last week when I consistently three days in a row took my blood pressure at a local pharmacy and received mostly results ranging from 175-190 systolic, diastolic was normal.
I quit smoking,
I quit drinking soda.
I quit eating sodium
I've been taking Omega 3 fatty acids and began taking CoEnzyme Q-10's
The thing that's concerning me most is that before I quit all of my nasty, self-destructive habits and vices when I ran for not even a very long period of time my heart would begin to beat at (obviously) an accelerated rate, but then would start to beat erratically and arrhythmically, something to the effect of #,#, ###, #, , , , ##, #####, #,,, #, ##, #, # the premature beats didn't quite feel like Whole beats, if that makes any sense, and were usually rapidly followed by whole beats which didn't occur in any rhymic order for at times a minute or more. This happens when I exert myself in any way whatsoever, but usually when it involves lifting heavy weight and most prominently when I do pull-ups or run.
It's still taking place a week and a half after I have quit smoking, sugar, sodium and junk food in general, and my systolic blood pressure is still settling well above stage 2 hypertension. I don't drink alcohol, nor do I do drugs and never have.
This may be getting long winded, but these heart problems began to arise when I started having strange and seemingly random panic attacks around four months ago, my heart would race up to 200 or so per minute until I was capable of convincing myself that I was fine, these episodes prompted me to be way more aware of my heartbeat and have since stopped occurring as frequently. I went to the ER the first time this struck, a sonogram and EKG were performed and they didn't notify me of any irregularities with my heart whatsoever.
So what it boils down to is Panic attacks caused me to be more conscious of my heart and pulse, palpitations occurring in general and arrythmias occurring after exercise, extremely high blood pressure prompted me to quit doing bad things to my heart but those things are still occurring well after I stopped. No abnormalities showed up on my EKG or Sonogram, but the blood pressure remains and my heart does funny things after I exert myself.
Any clues? Thanks for reading, I know it was a lot.
Congrats on quitting smoking!
It's the biggest risk factor for blocked arteries, I feel. You did the right thing.
I think you should just make an appointment to get a physcial and bring this up with the doc. You could see a cardilogist and get a stress test done to replicate the wacky rythym. They will be able to tell you what's up.
It's not possible to diagnose the arrhythmia based on the someone's description. It might fit a few but it's a guess. When I first went to a doctor and described my skipped beats, she thought they were PACs. Years later and a few other doctors telling me I had PACs based on my description, I was formally diagnosed with PVCs.
For the BP and if the arrhythmia is PVCs, the only thing I can think they will do is put you on a Beta Blocker.
If I had to guess, I'd say you've got some minor issues with panic/anxiety. This syndrome is also driving up your BP, and the higher BP is triggering the PVCs. A beta blocker could help with this cycle which sorta feeds on itself.
That said, I'm just some anon guy on an internet board, get advised by a doctor.
It's the biggest risk factor for blocked arteries, I feel. You did the right thing.
I think you should just make an appointment to get a physcial and bring this up with the doc. You could see a cardilogist and get a stress test done to replicate the wacky rythym. They will be able to tell you what's up.
It's not possible to diagnose the arrhythmia based on the someone's description. It might fit a few but it's a guess. When I first went to a doctor and described my skipped beats, she thought they were PACs. Years later and a few other doctors telling me I had PACs based on my description, I was formally diagnosed with PVCs.
For the BP and if the arrhythmia is PVCs, the only thing I can think they will do is put you on a Beta Blocker.
If I had to guess, I'd say you've got some minor issues with panic/anxiety. This syndrome is also driving up your BP, and the higher BP is triggering the PVCs. A beta blocker could help with this cycle which sorta feeds on itself.
That said, I'm just some anon guy on an internet board, get advised by a doctor.
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