A Solution To My Nightly Tachycardia?
May 24th, 2007 by Rian | Filed under Miscellaneous.I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it here before, but for the past couple of months, when I go to bed, my heart beats really fast and very strong. I’ve been diagnosed with tachycardia a couple other times in my life - even when I wasn’t overweight. They’ve never found any actual physical problems with my heart, but I have begun to notice something myself. At night, I go to bed, and as I’m lying there, trying to sleep, I can hear and feel my heartbeat throughout my body. It sucks. But I’ve also detected that my heart actually seems to either skip beats, or take a quick pause after every few beats. It’s odd but I don’t know if I should worry about it. I mean, I’m working to get my weight down, in case that’s causing it.
Anyway… last night was the FIRST night I can recall in recent months that my heart actually didn’t do the fast, hard beating. I don’t know what may have helped it out, but I’m thinking it was one or a combination of the following: my cutting back/stopping drinking; the fact that I didn’t eat 6 hours before going to bed (for a change); and the exercise I’ve been getting.
I don’t know what fixed the problem, but I’m going to do all three of those things again tonight/today and see if once again, I don’t get the rapid heart rate!
Onto other news… I’ve lost another pound on the scale, and I’m noticing a difference in my figure, although very slight. Exciting! I’ll weigh myself again Sunday with the new number. Maybe it’ll go down a couple more by then.
Congrats on your continuing weight loss. I think I’d probably go to the doctor about the heart rate though… just to double check and make sure it’s nothing.
I have a tachycardia thing too - called SVT
I get an episode once every 2 years or so where my heart beat accelerates to about 220 beats/minute (usual bpm is 60-90). You can actually see my chest moving. It’s quite scary and uncomfortable. I know what you mean about hearing and feeling your heartbeat. It’s kinda strange to be so aware of internal organs isn’t it? I can’t do anything but be at the mercy of my heart during an episode and I turn quite white. I’ve had it all my life. I can get it back to normal by submerging my head in a bucket of cold water (or sink, etc) and holding my breath. Sometimes I have to do this for awhile before it slows down. Apparently the cold sends a shock to the heart and slows it down. Next time it happens i have to go to the hospital and get it recorded.
I went to the cardiologist recently to have it checked on when i was changing around my fitness program. Did you know they have heart monitors which you take home and can put on when you’re having an episode? Then they can actually see what your heart is doing. It might be worth seeing a cardiologist about it, just so you know what’s going on. It’s a bit of a hassle but the knowledge is worth it.
Perhaps your healthier lifestyle is helping. My cardiologist warns against binge-drinking, smoking, alcohol in general, caffeine and chocolate. I was like, “geez, can i at least go shopping?”!
Great news on the weightloss! Keep it up, gf!
My younger sister has SVT too. She saw a cardiologist & I believe she’s on medication to prevent episodes from happening. I would def. suggest seeing one though because they should be able to tell you the severity and if there’s certain situations that can put you at risk. Like my sister can’t fly in small planes because of the pressure, compression, or something like that, I believe it would make her heart explode. So like Bathsheba Freud, its good to have the knowledge and see a professional, because you never know.
Congrats on the weight loss and cutting out the drunk munchies. I def. had that problem and I put on a little weight over this semester that I’m working on taking off. I’ve cut out the drinking though, because I get chronic migraines and they were starting to get too frequent since I was going out & stuff. It def. helped.
yikes that’s really scary! I can see how it would worry you a little bit. I hope you are able to see a doctor or something so he can help you with the problem. Its probably not serious though because I’ve heard of a lot of people with irregular heartbeats.
Hope you’re ok!