Hi, I am new to this forum but what a fantastic resource, extremely helpful advice.

A little background - I have had ectopics for 9yrs, mainly isolated but sometimes I get runs which last for a few seconds. I have had several ecgs, 2 echos, 2 stress tests, 2 holters. The only time they captured a run was on my first stress test when I had a run of 4 pvcs.

Anyway, lately I have been having very scary episodes of runs of palpitations lasting 4-5 seconds max, but they have been accompanied by a quite sudden and severe head pressure, like the blood rushes to my head and I feel like I'm about to pass out. I have not passed out yet but as you can imagine these episodes scare me so much.

I only saw a cardiologist last week and he said the head rush was an anxiety response, but I simply can't accept this diagnosis because I'm certain that the palpitations themselves are causing this headrush.

My fear is that these headrushes are putting me at risk of a stroke.

I usually get a headache after a run like this.

Please could you tell me whether this is the case, and whether I need to do anything to lower the risk?

Many thanks for your time reading this

Thanks RLR, your reply has made me feel better about this problem.

I find it difficult to believe that the head rush is not a blood pressure thing because the pressure sensation in my head is so intense at the time.  It leaves me with a headache too. Can you explain why this event would cause a headache if not related to blood pressure?

Thanks again

The headache occurs as a consequence of the sudden vasodilation which follows the vasoconstrictive reaction. By example, when we give nitroglycerin to patients suffering angina, they commonly cite a rather striking headache as a result of the rapid vasodilation that the medication produces.

It's not harmful and does not place the patient at risk. You also need to realize that blood pressure in the form of hypertension is called a "silent disease" specifically because its symptoms cannot be felt.

What you sense in the way of symptoms many times cannot be simply extrapolated via common sense in a cause-and-effect relationship,  mostly due to the sheer complexity of human physiology and more precisely how the body functions. In other words, one might presume that pressure in the head and neck is a direct consequence of high blood pressure since the effects of volumeric pressure can be demonstrated and observed in other contexts than human physiology. Therefore, it would be reasonable to conclude that the same principal is a work when you experience a sensation of pressure in the head and neck. Unfortunately, this rationale is seldom accurate to any degree whatsoever.

People can develop vascular headaches, but they are not associated with pressure in any context, merely pain. Again, the concept of pressure is detected in an entirely different context than what you are attempting to extrapolate to other-world examples such as a balloon for instance. You must realize that for vessels to actually produce a pressure sensation against the inner walls of the skin or skull to produce a swelling effect, the vessels would have burst long before that could ever take place. Do you see my point? What you feel is not a direct relationship with what is actually taking place.

You'll be fine. The pressure has absolutely nothing to do with your blood pressure.

Best regards and Good Health