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I am a 33 year old with no current medical conditions other than being overweight. Within the past 5 months I have been having what the cardiologist describes an an
. It's like a slight pause or hard that lasts at most for 3
's, an a stress test, worn a halter monitor, and had complete blood workup. I do not smoke, drink, or consume much caffeine. Everything has come out normal except the holter monitor noted a few extra heartbeats. My primary physician and the cardiologist believe that it is due to stress and anxiety. I have been taking Buspar for 5 weeks. I haven't been anxious prior to the extra heartbeat occuring, but it's still happening. I have always done some excessive worrying, but never really felt extremely anxious until I started feeling this. I think about this happening most of the day. Even though I've actually seen 3 different doctors, I'm still concerned that something else is wrong. I'm not sure what else to do, but I know that this is scary and is causing more stress and anxiety. What do you suggest? Is it really possible for stress to trigger this to happen?
Thanks.
In reality, what you are going through is quite common. Premature beats can be caused by caffine, theophylline (tea), and stress/anxiety among others.
The good news is that palpitations are NOT a sign of cardiac disease. Given your normal EKG, echo, and stress test, you don't have anything to worry about from a cardiac perspective. It is hard though. Once you start to fixate on the premature beat, it becomes a problem of its own. It is easy for us to say relax and don't worry about it, but you are the one having the symptoms.
Beta blockers can be used to decrease the strength of the hard beat after the pause, but beta blockers have their own problems. They can make you tired and you have to take a pill every day.
My advice is to try not to focus on the symptoms and move on. If you can't, consider a beta blocker under your doctors supervision.
Hope this helps
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