unexplained symptoms

[stevencook2323]

Hello,
      I'm a 26 year old male otherwise healthy.  I drink on average 12 beers a day, which i know is not good for me, and on the weekends or get togethers more than that. For the past 4 years I've been having heart palpitations, and a 26 beat run of ventricular tachycardia.  EP dr thought it to be benign, 1 out of 4 EP's I seen wanted me to do the EP study and "possible" ablation.  As far as that goes and testing I've wore holter monitors, ekgs, stress test, stress echo, MRI of the heart, echos, blood work, all normal besides some PVC's, and that run of V-tach.  Now I'm going to go 3 months back.

3 months ago I started having slight headaches, and a weird taste in my mouth everynow and then. It has been getting constantly worse and now I have headaches occasionally and the bad taste in my mouth is there ALL the time, wife says my breath smells bad/weird sometimes with it, its really hard to explain the taste its just very unusual and feels like sometimes its coming from the roof of my mouth. It dont go away no matter how much I brush my teeth.  Sometimes when I go to wash clothes and I'm pouring the powder laundry detergent and I smell the powder, its almost as if you would put some of that in your mouth and it tastes like that all the time though. Thats the best description I can give of the taste. Since this has started about 3 months or less ago, I've also lost about 18 lbs unintentionally. My appetite is not good at all, just no desire to eat. I dont exercise or do anything so that cant be the cause.  I also recently developed these strange muscle spasms/twinges, and muscle cramps everywhere, this started about 3-4 weeks ago, before they started I was having muscle pains in my thighs, and calves, and it would switch from one to the other throughout the day.  I also get them in my arms, and sometimes feels like in my head. I get the twitches everywhere, legs, arms, eye.  And I have musle pains in my legs all day, mainly in back of calves. My urine is ALWAYS very clear, no color to it at all. I'm also constantly fatigued all day, no matter how much I sleep it seems like Im just worn out and tired.  What could all these symptoms be of?  Dr ordered blood work for thyroid,CBC,kidney,liver,electrolytes,B12 all was normal.   Waiting results of heavy metal screening blood work. Seems like my palpitations are getting worse also with it and my chest feels weird at times. Also have been getting like cold sweats and temporary nausea.  Just seems like all the symptoms are becoming more prominant and more often. The leg pain and the bad taste in mouth is the most constant. I know this is a list of things but if anyone has any ideas please let me know.  


I was wondering about peripheral neuropathy, or autonomic neuropathy that could be causing all my symptoms? As I'm sitting here writing this I keep getting intermittent pain in my left leg like on the left side of my calf, the pain will come on SUPER intense like the muscle is about to pop out and then last about 5 seconds and go away only to come back within like 5 mins or so.  Also when it comes on its like I can feel kinda like a tingling sensation throughout my body and into like the back of my head. Kinda electric like feeling. Also my appetite still hasnt improved, and i still have the strange/bad taste in my mouth.  Also the intermittent leg pain sometimes when it starts it will come on hurt real bad for 5 seconds, get the electric like feeling, and it'll start to subside and right before its completely done it will kick back up.  Its like it starts out kinda painful and slowly progressives to real bad all within 5-10 seconds and then goes back down from the intensity to nothing.  seems like this all might be linked from heart flutters, from intermittent leg shock pain from back of head, to bad taste in mouth and weight loss. Any ideas?

[stevencook2323]

no heart enlargement, blockages, scarring. or symptoms before? how old was he?  no long qt syndrome, brugada syndrome?

[Sidesteps]

PS - He also had nothing physically wrong with his heart post autopsy. I'm not meaning to scare you but please don't discount it.

[Sidesteps]

My husband died from VT...abnormal arrhythmia. His came on suddenly and took his life in less than 6 minutes as I tried to give CPR until medics came. I'm witness to how dangerous it is. It's nothing to mess around with.

[stevencook2323]

yes it was ventricular tachycardia that they said was caught. read up on vt with normal heart. google it and also read this

http://www.permanente.net/homepage/kaiser/pdf/66642.pdf


please let me know your opinon on the whole matter.  

thanks

[Sidesteps]

While reading your post the smell you descibed and what you said you tasted, sounded like a phenomenon that I've experienced when I was REALLY sick. My daughter has had this as well when she ran a high temp her body was burning energy to fast and it caused this. It's called Ketosis. It has a very distinct smell. You sometimes can smell it on your skin as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketosis

Due to all the discussion on your drinking level. This also popped up.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2564331/

I recommend you read it and pass the information on to your doctor's.

I wish you well.

[Lulu54]

SC- you can read about V-tach at the wiki entry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventricular_tachycardia

It can lead to sudden coronary arrest, so it is nothing to mess with.  Are you  sure the cardiac electrophysiologists said VT and not something else?

I have to concuer with everyone else here - the amount of alcohol you are consuming could very well be the cause of all if not most of your symptoms.  I trust you have been honest with your doctors about the amount of alcohol you take in.

good luck,
Lulu

[stevencook2323]

Willow2011,
          How come 4 cardiac electrophysiologist I've seen said that in a structrally normal heart VT can be a benign syndrome and not lead to any worse effects or chance of Sudden cardiac death than in the normal population of people who dont have it?  And you say it can? I'm just curious of where you get this information and what makes you think this?  Thanks

[willow2011]

I think Lisa is on target here.  Take some B12 injectable if you can get it.  The initial dose is 2000 mcg then 1000mcg per week for 4 weeks followed by once a month.  B12 tests are variable and patients needs/tolerances differ.  We medicate if the serum level is 400 or less.  Also Thiamine or B1 is frequently deficit in people who consume alcohol.  That takes care of the neurological side of things.  The bad breath could be liver toxins though I would expect your liver enzymes to be elevated.  Bob may be right about the yeast but you would most likely see it on your tongue.  The respiratory system after the liver and kidney systems filter toxins from the body.  Anyway the amount of alcohol you are consuming must be decreased.  Electrolyte deficiencies could explain the cardiac problems as well.  Of course you need to be under a doctors care until this resolves.  26 beats of VT is not benign.  VT leads to instant death!

[LisaJF]

Alcohol can cause B12 deficiency.  B12 deficiency can cause neurological symptoms.  Drinking 12 beers a day places you at risk for multiple organ damage (for example: pancreas and liver).  Drinking 12 beers a day also places you in the category of an alcoholic.  You have a problem that you need to take care of.

My suggestion without judgement of course would be is to get medication that will help you stop drinking alcohol Antabuse (makes you nauseated,etc.) to decrease the want or need to drink and join your local AA.  Do this for yourself.

Lisa

[COBOB]

First, there are some toxic effect from alcohol consumption.  It is good news that the liver panel is normal, but there are other effects like "Holiday Heart Syndrome," where alcohol consumption can cause cardiac arrhythmias.  Alcohol can also cause neurologic problems and cerebral atrophy.

There is also an issue when some people metabolize alcohol.  The liver turns ethanol into acetaldehyde (think:sharp, unpleasant, slightly fruity odor) using acetaldehyde dehydrogenase and then into acetic acid (think: smells like viniger) using glutathione, which contains high quantities of cysteine.  One problem may be that the human body has limited reserves of glutathione, so the acetaldehyde can hang around longer than it should.

It is also possible to produce alcohol and have this problem with never taking a drink of alcohol.  A trush infection (Candida) can produce alcohol and become part of the alcohol reduction process.  Anyhow, here is one possible source for some strange smells.

Most rapid cardiac rhythms are cardiac pacemaker issues or circus rhythms in the AV node area.  Have the doctors ruled out Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) with dependent circus movement tachycardia?   You might be looking at a couple of different issues or some type of weird tangential relationship like acetic acid changing blood pH lower causing cardiac irritability causing tachyarrhythmias, etc.

Blood pH is not done in a normal blood test, so this could be easily missed.

Bob

[tschock]

I would try posting this on the MS forum.

Most of these symptoms you are describing sound more like a neurological disorder such as MS.

These symptoms can also be linked to anxiety/depression.