Any ideas?

[Rosebud_1976]

I have been having issues with heart palpitations for some time now. Sometimes my heart will feel like it's skipping beats or my heart will start to race out of the blue for about 10 seconds and then go back to normal. My body tenses up and after it's finished going crazy, I feel weak. I went to the ER a few months ago and the doctor said my EGK seemed normal and nothing looked too dangerous. The heart palps continued for a while after the visit to the ER so I did some research online and came across an article suggesting taking magnesium and drinking grape juice. It helped for a while but now the feeling of my heart skipping is coming back and at times my heart just starts racing. Im just wondering if this "heart racing" could be linked to anxiety or caffeine intake. I have bad anxiety and probably drink a lot more soda than I should. I dont have insurance at this time so it's hard to get in to see a doctor. Is there anything I can do or take to help this? This is so annoying and I think all this worry is making my anxiety even worse than it already is.

[Rosebud_1976]

Thank you and I really appreciate your response!  I do plan on seeing a doctor as soon as I can but until then I was just wondering if there was anything I could do to alleviate the situation for the time being. After my visit to the ER, I was put on a holter monitor but got no results back from the hospital. I was suppose to do a follow up with a cardiologist but financially couldnt do it right away. I'm sure that once I get in to see a doctor, they will redo all the tests again anyway. (Im hoping to get in next month) For now I will just keep taking the magnesium and cut back on the soda and sugary foods and see if that is what is causing these little episodes. I will for sure post and update to let you know what has come about all of this.

[MichelleP_3811]

Unfortunately no one here on the internet can diagnose you.  You really do need to be seen by a doctor.  That said, I will give you my thoughts.  The anxiety is definitely making whatever is going on worse.  Caffeine as well as chocolates and fizzy drinks may be adding to the trouble.   It sounds like you may have some sort of ectopics (pacs or pvcs) going on and some sort of tachycardia (fast heart beat) but I am not sure if the heart racing is truly an svt or if your anxiety goes up when your ectopics act up causing you to get simple sinus tachycardia.  Do you know how fast your heart is beating when you feel it racing?   Does it start or stop suddenly or does it speed up the more anxious you get?  It sounds like the little bursts of a fast heart rate may be true svt triggered by some ectopics or it could be runs of the ectopics or even just variations of patterns of ectopics.   But again what you truly have can only be discerned once it has been captured on a monitor or on an ekg.   Did they tell you in the ER what they captured?  Did you feel any of the racing symptoms or just your main palpitations/skipping beats symptoms while you were in the ER?  Can you get a hold of your records to see?  If everything you feel from time to time was captured while you were in the ER you really may only need to take those records to a doctor to get a better idea of what is going on, though he may want to run an echo to make sure your heart is structurally normal if you didn't have one of these while you were in the ER.  If you are having simple isolated ectopic beats like pacs or pvcs and your heart is deemed structurally healthy then the ectopics are of no real threat to your overall health.  Even if some of the racing feelings you are getting are runs of pacs or pvcs, or short bursts of some other svt, in an otherwise healthy heart, runs of ectopics lasting less then 30 seconds, especially if they aren't causing any distressing symptoms like chest pain or passing out, likely means whatever you are experiencing is more of a bother than anything else but again, only a doctor can give you that assurance.  And he likely can only do that after you have had the echo of your heart to see how well your heart works.  If that comes back normal then working on your anxiety and eliminating the foods and drinks that aggravate the situation will do wonders to help alleviate a lot of what you are feeling.   In any event, though it is likely what you are feeling is not of any real danger to you the fact that you are feeling these bursts of a fast rate it warrants in my mind further examination  You can try seeing if changing your diet and working on your anxiety helps but if these bursts continue I would really suggest getting a full workup with a cardiologist.  It is the only way to know for certain that what you have is nothing to worry about.  You likely are in no real health danger but only a doctor can say for certain.  So I would say check around to see what sort of medical assistance is out there for you.  I know there has to be some sort of assistance programs to help those who have no insurance.  Even if that means getting on some sort of payment plan it is really best you get a proper work up so you can have some peace of mind.  Take care.  I hope you can get this resolved.  Keep us posted on how you are doing.