I am a healthy 37 year old woman, who went through surgical menopause two years ago. [Other than many repeated viral illnesses in the past six months] I am at an ideal body weight, I exercise 3-4 times weekly, and I don't smoke. I take Premarin and progesterone daily.
This past winter, after suffering a fairly severe flu, I began to experience what has been diagnosed as inappropriate sinus tachycardia for the first time. For the 37 years prior, I never had any cardio issues whatsoever. Then I suddenly began to experience unexplained bouts of rapid heart beat and shortness of breath. At first my symptoms abated when I increased my estrogen replacement, only to return again in a more severe form about two months later. I began to have bouts of rapid heart beat and "skipped beats" daily from about 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. -- bothersome enough to prevent me from being able to do anything, with a BP of about 150/95 during these episodes. Advice to just ignore it really wasn't helpful -- I was too short of breath during the episodes to be able to really function. Chance in diet, relaxing, completely avoiding caffeine, alcohol, etc. made no real difference.
I have run the gamut of tests, holter monitor, echocardiogram, stress tests, VQ scan, blood work, pheo testing -- all has come back normal. Event monitors captured my rapid beats and premature beats. Now I am taking 25mg of Toprol each day, which seems to really help, although I still feel the side effects a bit -- sleepiness, etc.
Two questions:
1. Does anyone have any idea as to what causes this condition to begin in the first place? I'm very frustrated by suggestions that it "must be stress" in the absence of an obvious physical cause. I know myself well, and stress is not the answer, nor is caffiene, alcohol, etc. Could a virus have triggered this? If so, is this type of condition generally life long, or time limited? I somehow feel either hormones or a virus must be the underlying culprit. My doctors seem more interested in just treating the symptoms and not getting to the cause, and I haven't been able to find any info on origins of inappropriate sinus tachydardia.
2. My cardiologist advised me to continue to exercise as much as possible. When beta blockers slow the heart rate, does that bar the aerobic benefits of exercise?
Thank you so much!
Julie