Took pills, non-stop heart palpitations that won't go away

Just want to let you know this is rather complicated and a very long post, I don't want to waste anybodys time but would certainly appreciate any advice or opinions. I'm not a druggie but rather a 21 year old male and I run my own business.

Back in late December I started to take what are called "nootropics" or amino acid and other pills to increase mental performance, focus and clarity. Heard about this from a friend of mine. I've been having some serious productivity issues. I have ADD and wanted to try something more natural vs taking ADD medication, this turned out to be a very bad idea. I was taking a combination of drugs for 2 weeks with no heart related issues however when I added what is known as Piracetam is caused very bad prolonged heart palpitations for 8+ hours. I went to the emergency room and they acknowledged my blood pressure was 180 and heart rate was extremely high although didn't tell me what, they didn't do anything because they had no idea what the problem was. I ended up driving home and the attack episode went away a day later.

The night before I took Bacopa Gold and 500mg of L-Tryptophan
Woke up and 2 hours after doing so I had: 100mg DMAE, 500mg L-Carnitine (alcor), 1200 Omega 3, 100mg Rhodiola.

About 2-3 hours after taking that I then took 2g of Piracetam and Alpha GPC choline 600mg

About an hour later my heart started to pump extremely fast and I started to have uncontrollable muscle spasms and shaking, the kind you get when you are cold. I then started to have electric shocks in my heart.

Over that same week I went back to the emergency room another 2 times, they ran an EKG a total of 3 separate times, a complete blood analysis and didn't find any problems other then my electrolyte and vitamin d levels were a little low. The 2 times after the first incident I went to the hospital, it was 1 time because I had a caffeine drink and a 3rd time it was because I had a bowl of pasta. Subsequently for the next 2 weeks I had heart palptations/blood pressure increases randomly and after eating a wide variety of foods (too many to really pinpoint it on any specific thing). On Christmas day I went to a party and with my lack of control and lack of any symptoms at the time I decided to try some alcohol, didn't have too much but I noticed about 30-60 minutes later I had another attack which lasted for about 2 hours and it was pretty severe, obviously I haven't touched that since.

So now it is over a month since the first attack and I'm happy to say that things have gotten a little better, I can drink caffeine with no attacks(just tried it once to see if I would get an attack, not daily) however I am still feeling irregular heartbeats on a daily basis. A week ago they did a holter test but they are still waiting for ther results back. I'm 99% confident they are going to see irregular heartbeats throughout the day. I have tried just about every natural cure and remedy I could find online. So far one of the supplements I was actually taking before, L-Carnitine I decided to try again and that decreased the amount of attacks I have been getting but didn't stop them, taking around 1MG a day. I've also been taking hawthorne, coq10, omega3, potassium, multivitamin. To minimize any potential that these attacks are initiated from any of the supplements I take daily I have tried varying changes from not taking any supplements at all to taking some and not others, no change I made to vitamin regimen has had any noticeable effect other then the L-Carnitine. I also tried Apple Cider Vinegar, however in my case similar to magnesium(below) it actually caused heart palpitations for a few hours.

I've also tried taking Magnesium citrate which I had an attack as a result of that. At the moment of this post I am suffering from another attack because I decided to try a bath in bath salts(filled with magnesium chloride). Almost instantaneously I started to have major heart palpitations to the point where I could feel my lip moving from the blood flowing through my head. I thought this just might be my body absorbing it and it might eventually calm down so I decided to sit in there for a total of 8 minutes and then got out. I measured my blood pressure and heart rate. It went up to 138/77 with HBM at 93. This is certainly within safe levels but among recently was what I would consider a more severe attack. Luckily the high heart rate only lasted for a mere 20 minutes as I measured it 10 minutes after the first test and it dropped to 117/75 with HBM at 65. I have a very accurate blood pressure monitor. Needless to say I'm not trying Magnesium again as on 2 separate incidents it caused an attack. I am confident this is not anxiety and sitting in a bathtub full of magnesium should help to prove this. I felt very relaxed but the heart palptations came on suddenly and violently. In fact the Drs prescribed me Xanax and I took one yesterday and it actually CAUSED heart palpitations, albeit was the first time it caused heart palpitations, but with taking it previously I can't say it ever stopped heart palpitations but rather just made me "not care" about the heart palpitations I was experiencing at that time.

Another thing I have noticed is that some nights my heart rate and blood pressure drop significantly and I start to feel tired. The lowest I have ever seen my blood pressure go to was 96sys, 56dia, 52 HBM. When I saw it this low I decided to get up and walk around as I know anything below 60 is potentially life threatening. Luckily the only symptoms I ever experienced with this low heart beat was tiredness, likely because I am so young.

Other times during the day I will get so tense, I will get tingling sensations throughout my body which is usually a precursor to an attack, I would say its adrenaline being released but they tested my Thyroid multiple times to ensure it wasn't hyperthyroidism. Another doctor thought it might be pheochromocytoma which was a good guess but after a blood test for it, turned out a no. Whatever is causing this started from the pills I was taking.

Since this is such a long post I had to take a screenshot of the other paragraphs: http://i.imgur.com/Cw1Xe.jpg

[DeltaDawn23]

Get off the pills, get to an EP cardiologist and let them help you.  Hawthorne can cause irregular beats.   I don't know if you meant a blood pressure or a  heart rate under 60 is dangerous.  You don't want your blood pressure to go much under  the 90's, but a heart rate in the 50's is not a problem, but may make you tired.  You are playing with fire with all these different concoctions you are taking and it could have life-threatening consequences.  You should not be self-diagnosing.  Good luck.

[michellepetkus]

Yes, I am with Dawn, stop all the pills.  And did you by some chance stop taking ADD pills?  You could be having some sort of drug interaction problem or drug withdrawal issue.  Or it could be the pills are messing your stomach up which is in turn affecting the vagus nerve which is affecting your heart.  I would say get off the pills and see your GP for a complete blood panel to see where you are unbalanced in the needed vitamins and minerals.  It is possible one of the pills is causing an over abundance of magnesium or a severe deficiency in another but hopefully once you get everything out of your system and things more in balance you will resolve your heart issues. Sometimes too much of a good thing isn't good either.  Take care and keep us posted on how you are doing.

[curmudgen]

From your posting paragraph 10  direct quote .......
"Whatever is causing this started from the pills I was taking. "

Take the advice from previous posts including your own....  get off everything except for prescription medication....  you are overloading your systems with unproven remedies to ailments you don't have.....

[systemchip]

I haven't been taken the pills for over a month now, thats my concern. I originally thought, okay this was a bad interaction I had to taking these pills and it had some sort of synergistic affect. But the very fact I continue to have heart palpitations randomly and from various things I eat or drink is what concerns me. Since it has been over a month since I took the pills, you would think it should have cleared from my system by now. So it seems either the initial attacks either caused permanent damage or just put something off balance, but it doesn't seem any of the most common reasons for heart palpitations are the answer.

It's just hard to live now, the fear that I might of caused permanent damage to myself, especially at such a young age is devastating. I guess since the issue is so complicated there isn't anything else I can do to try and fix it and I'll just wait for the holter results and echocardiogram. Thanks again.

[systemchip]

The echocardiogram and holter test results show that I am "within normal range" as was described by my doctor. I still feel irregular heartbeats on a daily basis though and I had another racing heart incident after I tried marijuana again, heart rate went up to 148 and then steadily dropped back down to normal levels over a period of 2 hours. (Obviously not trying that now) Being so young and not being able to drink or hang out with my friends is tough honestly. Perhaps the initial incident went away but it gave me anxiety and perhaps that is still causing the daily irregular heartbeats, I'm not sure.

[michellepetkus]

I think your body is trying to tell you to stay away from that stuff.  That said, just because you can't drink doesn't mean you can't hang out with your friends.  You don't need a crutch of booze to have a good time.  It is all in your head.  So go out and live it up without the booze and you will be the only one who feels good in the morning.  The irregular beats may not stop but they could subside or you may just simply stop noticing them.  Take care.

[Kim_1970]

I can relate to what you are doing and trying to "naturally" help your health. I have tried magnesium, gaba, theanine, b stress vitamins, ac vinegar and zanax and valium for relief from my rapid heartbeat spells. Also tried yoga. Nothing worked including the sedative. My best day was when I ended up in ER and they told me it's nothing I did that caused it.  It was not the food or drink or shower or the stress  and  that I have an arrhythmia called  SVT. All this time I thought it was something I did.  
I have learned that there are triggers for it though.
I would quit all supplements if I was you, also would not drink alcohol. . I have had no booze for 6 months. Also I have read here and agree that stress does make these things worse.

Did you have an episode while wearing Holter?

Hang in there and like everyone tells me, try not to worry.

[systemchip]

Yes I had irregular heartbeats and an attack when I had the holter so I am really surprised to learn that it came back within  normal levels. My symptoms closely describe Atrial Fibrillation attacks that come and go and originally were triggered by simple things like pasta and sugar but it seems that it is only triggered by marijuana, alcohol or caffeine at the moment which I'm happy that it doesn't affect me more than it does but I'd still like to have that freedom. I will also occasionally still get heart palpitations and daily irregular heartbeats and some days are better than others. I suppose all I can do is wait and see how things improve