this is going to be long, so ill try to do as best as possible...im a pro athlete (10 months per year 2x2hr prectices per day), im 33 years old and been having heart problems or the past 6-7 years...at first it was just hard pounding when i was laying down..i have never noticed that before...then after a year or so it progressed into harder pounding when i practiced..like before i had to press my neck to find my pulse while checking it, now i can pretty much "feel" it with my whole body all the time im under exercise...anyays, after about 2-3 i noticed that the hears has began "skipping" sometimes..it was first at resting, then it started whe i had high excitements (sex, near car incident), and finally the past 3 years it has began happening on high heart rate 170-180 during practice...last year dureing the game i went into atrial fibrillation, and actually had to do electro conversion in the hospital...all these years i went to the cardiologists who told me ther ewas nothing wrong...after a-fib episode they discovered that i had extremly high (250!) upper blood pressure under effort, and gave me some medicien to take...my resting heart reate was 140/70 45-50 bmp...after mediceine under effort the BP dodnt go higher than 200...anyways the heart still "skips", but now only during the games which is where i probably use most adrenaline...also i noticed that sometime my heart goes into "skipping" mode when i try to breathe in hard or lift my hands above my head, which is exactly what happened last night at practice...every time i tried to take the deep breath or had to lift my arms high (often since i play basketball) the heart would go into pre atrial fibrillation as i call it cause it lasts only 5-10 seconds and then returns to normal beating, only last night it kept happening for 10 minutes so eventually i had to stop...now im worried because it has never happened in practice like that before...one skip or two at most...something is definitely wrong..doctors told me before that it could be adrenaline induced or pinched nerve which sends heart a signals...parallel to all this i have had neck problems which i wrote about a year ago in the spine section...the mri didnt find anythhing wrong with the neck structur, but i still have some sensations on my face and a general feeling of a "weak" neck...all this doesnt help my basketball, so being 33, im thinking of quitting it all together...does anyone have any of the problems or any info of what might be going on, i would appreciate it...tnx for reading...i know this is kind of jotted down so if u have any questions just ask :)

oh yeah...4 cardiologists said that my problems are stress related...i think what i need to do is some kind of spine/neck strenghtening routine (i do weights, but no matter how much i lift the neck areajust doesnt seem to get stronger) and some stress relieving routine...any tips are appreciated :)

Hi there...I am also young and in good shape....29, 110 pounds (female). I also have the 'pounding heart' at times at a very fast rate, and also many palpitations (skipping beats or pvc's). I, as well as my doctor's, were surprised to find that I do have a heart condition. It's called 'mitral valve prolaplse w/regurge' and it can only be seen through a test called an echocardiogram which is an ultra sound of the heart. Have you had this yet? If not, i am very surprised. MVP w/regurge is actually common in athletes (don't know why) and if you are as active as you are, it CAN be very serious. If you have not had an echo, please ask your cardiologist for one. This is something they should have already done. Ekg's are not reliable because they often come back normal (mine have always been normal!). Don't ignore your body or your intuition. Mvp is usually not life threatening, but can be in athletes....i am not trying to scare you! I just really hope you get this test. I use to work on a cardiac unit in my local hospital and many of my patients were young and athletic. SO being in shape is not a guarantee that nothing is wrong. Also, my symptoms are increased with strenuous exercise....i hope this gave you some information and at least gives you something to discuss with your cardiologist....let me know if you can!! Lil'Pea :wave:

hello...thank you for your concern...yes i have had an ultrasound of the heart at least 3 times (3 different doctors) in past 5 years and they said everything was ok...i think i pretty much had everything done, besides stress test (i think thats the one when they inject you with something to make your heart go faster to see if it has any irregularities)..so i also had 24hr heart rate monitors and did ekg and ergomety...they didnt find anything unusual...without blood pressure medicine my top blood pressure value was high like i said, but when i was on medicine the pressure was within normal...heart skips still happend so it kind of worries me...i know by just thinking about it im making it worse, but i kind of cant help it , since it is a heart, and not some other less important organ...anyways thanks a bunch for replying...im going again to the doctor tomorrow, and ill see what he will say...

Well, Ihope all goes well at the doc's....have they mentioned putting you on something called 'beta blockers'? It regulates your heart rate and also your blood pressure. They are very sedating at first, but after a couple weeks you feel much better! That is what I take now. They are used for many different types of things though and not just what I have. Basically, its just a med that slows the heart rate and blocks the stress hormone from affecting the heart (which is how it keeps the heart rate steady). I am glad to hear that you have had an echo and all was well. WHat a relief! :bouncing: I was really worried!

Well, good luck at the doc's tomorrow! :wave: Lil'Pea

well i went to the cardiologist again and he said that the only thing they cen further do is measure my heart electricty or something which is an invasive procedure...he also said that they would not let me back on the court if they thought there was even a remote possibility for something to happen...also he said that he would resort to beta blockers as a last resort since he feels that they would impare my physical condition...do you get any irregular heartbeats now that you are on beta blockers?...anyway last night i played a game and felt ok...of course a couple of times i fealt my heart skip/flutter and obth times happened when i was swallowing, so that reflex somehow trigers the hear to beat irregularly...hmm...it has happend before like when i would drink some water during practice...i feel almost like something is touching my heart at the time...the other posibility was that somehow my vagus nerve is getting irritated on all the movement and then sends irregular signals...oh well...ill keep posting on further developments...i guess i shouldnt think about it, cause it probably just adds on to all the symptoms...tnx again for replying :)

well, I get very few palpitations now that i am on beta blockers. When I do get them, they don't last long. I am getting them once or twice a week as opposed to 5-10 per minute. Quite a difference huh?? :) I admit that the side affects at first were very daunting....nothing serious, jsut major fatigue. But after a couple weeks, I felt much better. Please do keep posting on further developments...i am curious to know what is causing this. It does sound as though you are seeing a good doctor who is checking out all possibilities. That is refreshing and rare. The vagal nerve response is an interesting possibility. Funny story to share: when i was in the hospital getting my problem diagnosed, one of my closest friends was my nurse (i also worked there)...as a joke, they decided to have her come in and say that the doc said i couldn't go home until they tested my vagal response...which involves a finger up the heiny!!! I just looked at her in shock and said "YOU have to do it???" She said 'yeah, i am your nurse'....well what was i suppose to say?? it was doctors orders right? lol :eek: Then i hear laughing from behind the curtain, and my other fellow employees come in saying 'you were actually gonna LET her??'....guess i am gullable! :p

Anyhow, talk to ya later! Lil'Pea

My mom has had A-fib for YEARS. It started when she was about 40 yrs old and very healthy. She was put on Norpace and some other drug that starts with an "L". (I can't remember the name of it)
She is almost 70 now, and in the past three yrs it has gotten worse. More episodes lasting longer and so on. She had to change her medication because the other ones were no longer working.
She is going to a wonderful new doctor and her new medicine is working. After a slew of testing, they finally found something that works and she has not had an episode for three months. Her doctor told her that even though it's scary, it's usually not life threatening. I hope your doctor can help you.

yeah the worst is whan it starts happening during a game where my heartrate is between 160-180...the feeling is horrible...hopefully i won't have to be put on beta blockers, as the doctor said they will hinder my performance...he said the best thing is to stay relaxed as much as possible and not to make pause longer than one day in between hard practices...also go to bed before 11-12 and get at least 8 hrs of rest :)

Lil'Pea...you are not gullable, and even though your friends thought its a hramless joke, if they had their heart skip about 10 times within a minute, i bet they would not even think of making a joke out of all that :)

thanks again for replying

Hi there, I just wanted to check and see how you are doing? Have they found what is causing your problem or thought of a treatment for you? I hope that you are feeling ok. Let me know if you have any updates! :wave: Lil'Pea