Palpitations and fatigue - please help

[nimajnebsamoht]

Hi there,

I'm a 23 year old male student. I've been experiencing a number of sensations recently which are making a negative impact on my every day life. I am not used to this; I'm otherwise a very confident and successful individual. Most of all I've been feeling quite faint and distant all day every day - v fatigued, despite getting enough sleep and eating well. I feel like I'm in quite a severe haze all the time, shakey and disconnected.

I have palpitations regularly, and I had a holter monitor which confirmed a number of ectopic heartbeats. Not a huge amount, but I feel them strongly about 30 times a day, especially when recovering from excercise. My heart responds to excercise properly, my resting heartbeat is about 58. After excercise it seems to slow down in stages, and between each stage there's an ectopic beat. I don't know if this is because I'm worried about it or otherwise.

Other sensations:

My left shoulder has been feeling awkward & crunchy for about 18 months; my left arm and hand feels weaker than usual. My left hand also feels slightly cold/tingley,but only slightly. I notice my hand particularly as I am a musician who uses his hands daily.

I've had acid reflux -I'm on 20mg Omeprazole daily. I have chest pains, ectopic heartbeats,a tight & clicky throat (like asthma at night), and I've had a persistent wheezy high pitched cough for months. I feel generally twitchy.

What could all this point to? Please help - I'm now stress and anxiety-free having seen a counsellor for over a year, so I would like to know if there are any conditions / probems which these sensations could point to.

I'd really appreciate your help, many thanks in advance.

[itdood]

I figured out lactose intolerance accidentally.  I really liked to have cereal for breakfast, and started to blame the cereal for the GI distress (not the milk tho).  As I grew older the symptoms became more acute and a lot less vague.  In my early 20s I only had this pain, by my 30s I was having the pain plus other GI issues.  

Then I saw this commercial on TV for "Lactaid" milk for those that are lactose intolerant.  I had never heard of this, I didn't know people could have issues with milk.  The light bulb went off and I eliminated milk and sure enough, that was it.  None of my docs ever mentioned this, which is a shame because it's a lot more common than you'd think.

I'm of Italian descent and this is a common genetic predisposition.  My siblings have it as well.

Testing for it is possible but for me it was a process of elimination and an obvious improvement in symptoms.  I'm almost 42 now, and it's very obvious, if I accidentally eat something processed with lactose or milk solids I will have major GI issues.

What I think caused the chest pain was how the lactose would gas in my gut.  sorry to be gross.  The pain was "referrent" meaning it would radiate into other areas.

Rebound GERD is the heart burn I would have when the Nexium wore off.  As I was approaching my next scheduled dose, I had GERD like I never felt before.  It was a roller coaster.  I was only on it for 1 week when I decided to come off it and it took about 3 days to before things returned to normal.

[nimajnebsamoht]

Thanks for the reply, very interesting. How did you figure out you were lactose intolerant? I'd like to check that out for myself.

I don't understand what you mean by "rebound GERD" - I haven't experienced any of this, can you explain?

Cheers, hope you're well

[itdood]

Quoting each of your concerns:

"I have chest pains, ectopic heartbeats,a tight & clicky throat (like asthma at night), and I've had a persistent wheezy high pitched cough for months."

This all points to GERD.  

ectopics 30 times per day is a good day for me.   :-)      that's not many.  recovery PVCs (after you exercise) is common.  Search on google for more info on these, under "recovery PVCs".  You might not like some of the research but it is what it is.  My PVCs used to only be during recovery when I was younger, this has since changed for me.

Make sure you eat right, stop eating at a minimum of 3 hours before bed time.    I stop at 7pm

I had GERD issues for a while.  Started a prescription med and I hated the rebound GERD.  I got off that roller coaster ride.  I controlled it through diet and lifestyle changes.  Got off the coffee, soda, caffeine, ate apples when I did have GERD (this worked wonders). Oh, and no booze.  I have maybe 1 or 2 beers a month now and don't really miss it to be honest.  I used maalox for a bit to get me through.  This all also reduced my PVCs a lot.  I've had no GERD for the past few months after years of trouble.  

And in my 20s, when I had GERD undiagnosed, I got such bad chest pains felt like a truck was sitting on my chest and this pain radiated into my left arm, my neck, and my jaw.  Yea that's like most heart attack symptoms!!

Then, when i was 31 I finally figured out I was lactose intolerant.  Cut out the dairy and the chest pains were gone.  almost 10 years of that pain, it was that simple and none of my docs could figure it out.

I think managing GERD naturally is better than hitting it with PPIs.  I think PPIs set up a rebound effect that gets ugly, but that's just my humble opinion.