Takes hours for my heart to calm down....

[sshazzam]

Hello,

36, Male... 5'9" 200lbs... not in bad shape, a little chunky. Been pretty physically active all my life. Used to climb telephone poles for a living just 3 years ago. Currently working a desk job.

Over the last couple years I have reduced my physical activity because sometimes it takes 2 to 8 hours for my heart to calm down to my normal level after doing moderate to hard physical activity.  My BP is typically 117/77 and my resting HR is about 72.  Dont drink or smoke.

Example... My father and I went on a leisurly 8 mile bike ride. An hour after I got home I noticed my heart was still beating pretty quick. I did feel a bit light headed and it seemed like all light was really bright. No chest pains but I did have a very very slight short of breath feeling. It ended up taking nearly 8 hours for my heart to get back under 95 BPM. It stayed about about 100 BPM for a good 5 or 6 hours. I did go to the hospital where they ran all kinds of tests on me and found nothing. I wore a A 30 day heart monitor but that showed nothing except once in a while my heart speeds up. No irregularities. Doc wrote it off as anxiety due to my divorce.


2 weeks later I helped a friend unload -mostly by hand- about 7 tons of concrete and dirt.  I was hot, dripping sweat and my heart seemed to recover back to normal quickly.

Months later, I started some light excercise and have been feeling great till one day recently I was doing some ab crunches with a 20lbs dumbell and when i was finished had a that little short of breath feeling again. Coincidentally I ended up having a chest cold 2 days later. So I figured it was probably related.  Now 3 weeks later I still have a tiny bit of congestion and a little bit of that short of breath feel when I lay down or if I am being physical, but I have been itching to get back into working out.

Went to the gym and did a moderate work out...heart seemed normal. Got up to about 143 BPM at my peak.
Sat in the hot tub for 10 or 15 min. I noticed a little pressure on my chest and notcied my heart was racing like crazy.
Once I got out of the water seemed like the pressure was gone but it took about 3 hours to be completely back to normal...but man I am freaked out. I still have a tiny bit of short of breath feel, no pain but it keeps feeling like my heart is skipping a beat or something. When I check I don't dectect any irregular beat.  Numerous EKG's have found absolutely nothing.

I have had anxiety for years and I have it 95% under control with lorazepam and just better living. I am constantly under stress... with the divorce not that far behind me, being a single father,  work, sick parents, new GF...

I guess I don't know where to go from here. Do these symptoms sound familiar to anyone?

Thanks for reading my novel!

-Stan

[Zachs]

I don't know why either, but when I started to have heart health related anxiety, hot showers/baths really seemed to make my heart race for no reason. I finally got over the hot shower anxiety by simply constantly telling myself that I'm okay. Your mind does many strange things when it comes to the fight or flight response resulting in panic attack or generalized anxiety disorder. Zach

[oceanminded]

Ask your DR. for an event monitor so they can catch the rhythm your feeling when you exercise. This way you can go about your normal activities and they can see what is going on. If they don't find anything wrong then you'll be put in the same category as many of us diagnosed as having a benign heart condition. Also, I've noticed that anxiety can even overpower most meds. I've taken all sorts of meds before yet the palps are still there. It baffles Dr's why and when some of us get palps for no apparent reason. It still remains a mystery unfortunately.

[sshazzam]

Here in lies the issue. I really feel like this issue is keeping me from leading a full life.
The other thing that freaks me out is that before I went to the gym I took my meds which knocks anxiety right out but it didn't seem to make any difference this time around. So that started making me think maybe there is a "real" reason for my problems.

[oceanminded]

I too have bad anxiety and heart palpitations (skipped beats). I guess if you've had all the tests done and everything is a ok then it must be the nasty anxiety. I would start a slow exercise program to see if your symptoms are anxiety based or not. Do some light cardio and work your way back into shape slowly. Also, for myself I notice if I'm freaked out about my heart, exercise can be brutal. You start to obsess about your heart rate, etc. All we can do is trust in God and our Dr.'s and try to live our lives to the fullest. Easier said than done at times.

[sshazzam]

Oh, 3 days before the bike ride I had a physical that looked great!