Palpitations

[EarthMother]

I've been having one of those weeks, that just seems to accompany more palpitations and it's been "driving me crazy." I just ate a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, came upstairs to work on the computer and BOOM that awful feeling in my chest and throat. It really snags our attention, makes us sit up and take notice ... and unfortunately for me it sends these really icky peptides through my system that just scream DOOM, DOOM, DOOM.

So I did a little google search on "ectopic beats and feelings of doom" just to see if there was anything out there and I came across a board that had a WONDERFUL post. Ofcourse we don't know who this person is, and I can't really say it is anything we haven't heard before. But this post puts it all in one place in a really nice way.

For those of us who have been asking ... why do I get palps after eating? why do I feel so awful about these palps? Well here's one answer!

Hope someone finds it as comforting as I did. I plan on printing this and putting it UP ON MY WALL!!

READ ABOUT HOW PALPITATIONS OCCUR"

Posted by RLR on Dec-17-04, 09:16 PM (CST)

Thought I would visit your site and post a general response for anyone suffering from palpitations, racing heart, pounding heart and similar issues.

It's always a good idea to have your primary care physician or cardiologist examine you for underlying causes if you experience frequent episodes of palpitations. But once an examination has been performed and the sypmtoms are considered benign, then it's important to understand a little about how these occurances come about and what they really mean. Many times as physicians, there simply isn't time to address the more important point of peace of mind for the patient. Sad, but the waiting rooms and the schedule is full and we're slave to time and contemporary practices of medicine.

In the case of benign palpitations, we need to underscore the importance of several things that are occurring, all of which are normal and none of which are life-threatening in any manner.

Think of the central nervous system as a sort of two-lane highway in this instance, signals going both ways. One direction is the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible in a way for making us alert and responsive, making the heart beat in relation to the demand and even kick things into high gear when we're frightened and need to be on highest alert. The parasympathetic nervous system sort of does the opposite. It tones down those high responses when required and keeps things quiet and balances regulation in a way.

There are many, many nerves responsible for this highway, but the most important for our discussion here is the Vagus nerve. It is called a mixed nerve because it regulates and stimulates many different organs to act, including the bronchi, heart, lungs and intestines. This is very important for you to understand how it relates to your life on a daily basis. First of all, and very importantly, this highway represents the autonomic nervous system, meaning that it runs all by itself without any effort or thought on your part. It is, however, responsive to the environment. Let's use and example to break it down even further for purposes of illustration.

Have you ever heard of someone describing a frightening experience and literally say "it made my heart skip a beat!" Well, that's a very accurate statement indeed. You see, when our sensory modalities, eyes, ears, touch, smell and other senses detect a change in our environment, they automatically send signals to the brain and our nervous system swings into action one way or the other, either to calm us or to bring us up to high alert. In order to accomplish high alert for example, our blood pressure is raised, our heart races or pounds, our breathing rate is increased and even our intestines will perform their functions if necessary to prepare us for possible fight or flight. In the case where no threat is present, the parasympathetic nervous system works to bring us back down to normal and the heart slows down, our blood pressure descends, our breathing returns to normal and our intestines calm down. Sound familar? Does the fact that the Vagus nerve being connected to all these organs make you wonder about your responses that seem out of your reach and control?

Here are the facts to know and keep close at times where you feel panicked from a racing heart, palpitations, pounding heart, flushing sensations, dizziness, shortness of breath or tightness in the chest, a lump in your throat, tingling in the hands and other extremities and a whole long list of symptoms.

We are creatures of evolution and regardless of how cultivated and socialized our environment has become, our bodies nevertheless maintain those basic automatic responses to that environment through use of our nervous system. This point is illustrated to show you that many thousands of years ago, threats to safety represented something entirely different that which we experience today, but nevertheless we respond to our environment based upon the way we perceive it. So many things like stress can trick our nervous system into jumping into high gear.

More importantly, the Vagus nerve is responsible to a large extent for causing all the trouble simply by doing its job well. The more we learn about our health and our bodies, the more we can become concerned and even overwhelmed and worried about its ability to do all those marvalous things daily that keep us in good health. So much so, that based upon the complexity we more tend to doubt its precision rather than trust it.

Let me illustrate how easily we can become overly focused on a perfectly normal bodily process and actually make matters worse without justification. If you eat a rather full meal and the intestines begin having difficulty digesting that meal, discomfort and bloating from indigestion can cause stimulation of the intestines in a rather abnormal manner. Guess what nerve responds to this irritation? THAT'S RIGHT! The Vagus nerve. The Vagus nerve fires due to inappropriate stimulation no differently than when we hit our elbow in just the right place and the median nerve sends a shooting pain all the way to our hand, with considerable discomfort. The important difference is that we must remember that the Vagus nerve is a MIXED nerve and it has connections to other areas of the body. Guess which connection is relevant here? RIGHT AGAIN! The heart. The Vagus nerve sends out a signal to the heart which is steadily beating away and doing its job when all of a sudden this wayward electrical impulse arrives. Well, it gets added in with the present stimulation and we feel it as a disruption of the normal sinus rythym of the heart. A PALPITATION! This funny sensation gets our full attention because the heart is our main pump and we don't want anything to even hint at a problem there. But it's not a problem. In fact, it does absolutely no harm. Some people even can feel it in their throat when it occurs. Guess where the Vagus nerve is also a factor. GO TO THE HEAD OF THE CLASS! The throat. We sense it as a lump or tightness and it can often send some folks into a panic because they initially feel like they can't get enough air or that their throat is going to close off. Breathing increases and folks feel that they can't get that deep breath that they need. Again, the lungs are affected too. But it's merely a sensation and will never cause any actual harm. EVER.

As you might guess, the instant worry and panic induced by those sensations only makes matters worse and the nervous system is stimulated even further. So when a palpitation is felt, folks suddenly sit up and give attention, they become scared. Remember what we said happens when we become frightened? RIGHT! The nervous system responds automatically and not necessarily the right way. It only knows to respond to stimulus automatically.

Many people experience palpitations due to indigestion. Once the palpitation occurs, most folks shift their body position and are alerted to the sensation. Indigestion often shifts and the nerve can either be stimulated again or the palpitations may cease due to a lack of inappropriate stimulation. Stress is another even more potent predictor of palpitations. Practically anything we conciously do, and some things that we don't realize that we do out of habit like excessive worry and stress, can cause irritation of the vagus nerve and other nerves for that matter. It's only important for you to realize that inappropriate stimulation of a nerve with subsequent ectopic heartbeats(beats where they don't belong)are as harmless as the instance where we hit our elbow in just the right place. Think about it, we hit the median nerve in our elbow and it causes intense pain to the degree that we often don't know whether to laugh or cry. But we don't suddenly start thinking that it is going to cause impending threat to our lives simply because it's our arm and not our heart that has been irritated by the stimulus. But in reality it is no differnt from a physiological standpoint. A palpitation is the result of an inappropriate stimulation of a nerve. Nothing more.

In all my clinical experience, I have never once, even once, witnessed or even heard of an occasion where benign palpitations have brought about the slightest degree of bodily harm. Never. So it's very critical for you to understand that your body will react to stressors and palpitations are a likely event to be dealt with, but you shouldn't worry that it means impending doom at all. Sure, they scare the **** out of some folks, but because they don't understand what is happening to them, they panic.

The key to knowing the causes and prevention is important. Hormone dysregulation can cause them. Just ask a pregnant mother or menopausal woman. Over-eating can cause them. Stress can cause them. Lack of exercise and the liberal use of caffeine, chocolate and other stimulants can cause them. Anxiety and depression can cause them. And yes, illicit drugs like marijuana and cocaine can certainly cause them. There are many causes and these are just a few. Your body will work just fine. In your lifetime, your heart will beat several million times. The fact that it skips a beat or two in that entire time should not worry you in the least. The human body is a marvelous and wonderful complex system that works incredibly well. It is true that some folks get sick, some even die, from diseases. That's a fact. But palpitations simply don't even reach anywhere on the list. All that we're exposed to about cardiovascular disease makes us overly vigilant about how our own hearts are working. You need to relax and use this information in a careful and prudent fashion. If your doctor defines your palpitations as benign, then jump for joy and get on with your life. I work in a tremendously large complex where patients who are truly ill get far worse news. Never take your life and health for granted. Cast aside your worries about those silly and annoying palpitations. They are indeed a nusiance, but you needn't ever worry that they indicate impending harm.

So take a deep breath and sigh of relief, grab those car keys, head for the mall and do some shopping and smile. You've got the whole rest of your life ahead of you to plan and focus upon. Let your body do its job. It won't let you down. And if you do happen to get a pesky palpitation or two from time to time, just relax and get on with it. They're harmless and that's a fact.

http://www.toppup.com/htdocs/dcforum/DCForumID1/357.html

[geneva]

WOW EM, what a great article and explanation...thanks for sharing.

[KathyP]

Hi EarthMother;

That was a great explanation. It really put palpitations into perspective. I get them all the time. Thanks for sharing!!!!

[Merrill]

thank you thank you thankyou!!!

That's terrific; I'm glad you shared this!

best,

merrill

[Miriam Poorman-Knox]

JUST ANOTHER "NORMAL REACTION" FOR US DYSAUTONOMIACS!!!! IT IS SO AMAZING HOW COMFORTING IT IS FOR US TOO JUST KNOW THAT THIS IS WHAT IT IS!!!!! THE VAGUS NERVE I ONCE KNEW ALOT ABOUT< NOW IN MY FOG AS WITH ALL THINGS I GET IT THANX MIRIAM

[Guest tearose]

That was good reading. Thank you EM! I too will print this one for the pots binder.

be well, tearose