Hi, I'm new here. Already learned much just by reading old posts.

I've had an occasional heart murmur all my life...no big deal...lots of people do.

As of three years ago, I went on an exercise program of walking/jogging. I was about 20lbs overweight at the time and in reasonably good health. About a week or two after starting this regiment, I began to notice my heart skipping a beat...sort of. As I increased my walking/jogging to four miles a day...my heart had these palpatations at least every ten minutes and would last for several minutes. As I backed off my excercise, they began to lesson...till finally I hardly noticed them. I would never feel them WHILE exercising...it was only after. It was as if my heart didn't like becoming a stronger muscle!

I do take a lot of herbs...probably too many..and wondered if perhaps that could be the problem...I hope so.

I never have a racing heart...just these weird hiccups. I won't have insurance till next year but want to excercise. Actually I started walking and slight jogging and it happened again...after several days my heart started up again.

Thanx for any ideas...


Also...is their any online medical advice available?

Thanx very much,

Robin

Robin- Often skipped beats (a form of arrhythmia, which is basically a disturbance in the rhythm of the heart) are considered benign and of no clinical significance, except depending on how frequent they are, they can range from annoying to downright frightening.
I'd say have yourself checked out by a doctor as soon as possible, just to make sure nothing else is going on. If you're delaying this because of the insurance issue, then I was thinking that it might be an interesting experiment to lay off ALL the herbal supplements for a while to see if there's a change. If the skips stop you'll know it's at least ONE of them. Then perhaps gradually re-introduce them one at a time and see what happens.

By the way, why not give us a list of what you take. We might have some info on some of them regarding effects on the heart.

zuzu xxx

PS A good website for all things medical, including info about drugs, diseases, medical dictionary, encyclopedia, med resources is Medline:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/healthtopics.html

(this link has moderator's approval for posting)


[This message has been edited by zuzu8 (edited 06-21-2003).]

[This message has been edited by zuzu8 (edited 06-21-2003).]

Thanx Zuzu for answering my query.

I was thinking of giving up all of my suppliments for awhile.

They are:

Lecithin, calcium w/Magnesium and D, Vit A & E, Selenium and Silica. These are the ones I've been taking for at least three years. I've also recently just quit taking St. Johnswort which had been taking for three years. This was my first suspect. It's been two weeks since my last pill, and I still have the same symptoms.

My only other suspicion was the calcium. I've read in several places that calcium is a bit tricky...you can heve not enough and you can have to much...resulting in a sort of calcification of the heart muscle. I am sensitive to diffirent herbs/chemicals...especially minerals.

I really can't go to the doctor until I get insurance, which we plan to do beginning in January.

Thanx so much for the response,

Have a great weekend,

Robin

ps. I'm going to excercise regardless of my heart. If I die, I die. It's just a difficult idea to get used to http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif