Okay, welcome to the forum. I've read your complaint.

It's important for you to understand that the palpitations you are experiencing are not originating from within your heart, but rather the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the compliment to the sympathetic nervous system.

You can sort of think of the sympathetic nervous system as the accelerator pedal for your body. When you undertake any type of activity that requires physical exertion, the sympathetic nervous system increases its dominance and physiological changes take place in order for the body to successfully meet the challenge. In other words, things like heart rate and respiration speed up or accelerate.

When the challenge is terminated, the parasympathetic represents the brake pedal and through actions of certain nerve impulses like the vagus nerve, things like heart rate and respiration slow down. You need to be aware that the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems also have another function. Whenever you are confronted by something this constitutes a threat or that frightens you, the sympathetic nervous system engages to a significant degree and prepares the body to either fend off the threat or escape from it. It is a genetically pre-wired response in all humans and increases survivability. In other words, the sympathetic nervous system stimulates production of adrenaline, increases heart rate and force and generally prepares the body to best defeat or escape from the threat to your well-being and safety. All mammals respond similarly.

Once the threat has passed or has been defeated, the parasympathetic nervous system becomes dominant and slows production of adrenaline, slows the heart rate and force through stimulation by the vagus nerve. This collective process is known as the fight-or-flight response.

So here is what is happening in your case; you believe the palpitations to be originating from your heart and therefore suspect that it is a symptom of heart disease or imminent cardiac event of some type. It is causing you be afraid or fearful. The brain does not differentiate between a real threat and a perceived one, so it responds likewise in all instances and the fight-or-flight response that I've described to you is engaged. What you are sensing with your heart is stimulation by the vagus nerve because the nervous system is experiencing mild dysregulation. It is sending signals to the heart inappropriately, but understand that it has no ability to stop your heart. It is merely introducing a signal that is superimposed over the normal pacer signal within your heart. It varies in the way you experience it because it arrives to the heart during various stages of the cardiac cycle, but the source is always the vagus nerve and it's entirely harmless.

Just so you're aware, we don't need to see this type of dysrhythmia in order to determine the cause and your ECG did not turn out negative because the palpitations were not recorded. We're looking for things on your ECG that you're entirely unaware of and it's only your personal interpretation of the test and how it functions that is causing you such concern. If there were something wrong with the electroconductivity of your heart, we know precisely where to look and what to look for, with no attention at all to the presence of the palpitations which we know to be benign but are being entirely misinterpreted by you as a sign that something is wrong.

You are frightened because of irrational beliefs which are actually formed around the absence of the required medical background to understand what is actually taking place. The physiological changes taking place with your body in response to your fear are being construed by you as symptoms of heart disease or other problem.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Unless you have a strong family history of hypertension, then it's most likely that you are experiencing stress hypertension rather than a primary form of the disease. Understand that beta blockers do not inhibit the palpitations you are experiencing. The drug is designed to reduce cardiac force and preserve a stable heart rhythm but is not capable of inhibiting a parasympathetic response such as is introduced by the vagus nerve that causes the palpitation. Once you are able to establish the underlying cause for your anxiety, your blood pressure will return to a normal baseline.

There is nothing wrong with your heart. Only you believe that to be the case because you have elected to perceive the palpitations as a sign of danger. In actuality, you are creating them as a consequence of your fear that something is wrong.

You also need to know that the properties in cannabis can produce panic syndrome due to changes in the nervous system which occur during consumption. I won't lecture you on health habits, but if you're concerned about your heart, I'd think twice about practices which can produce irreversible effects and truly increase risk to your health. It's your choice.

Best regards and Good Health