Hi there your symptoms are what i get and most people on here .I totally know the fear it brings it really is awfull but like rlr will tell you they are totally benign .It usually caused by anxiety and stress .Beleive me i have had totally terrifying palps and ended up in hospital but they always come back harmless.i hope this helps a bit kind regards molly

I get so scared so I have hardly been outside a door in 14 days, I'm calling often to my husband that he must come home because I'm afraid. I dare not be alone when he is at work and I'm afraid to be alone at home with my son at 7 years, because what if I fall on. often I become short of breath, maybe this will be worse because I get so scared

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

The reason that you are so frightened is because you do not understand what is actually happening to you, together with some misconception about how we interpret an ECG. When we evaluate an ECG, we're looking for the underlying reason for changes in heart rhythm. Contrary to what most patients believe, capturing the events themselves are a secondary concern. We don't need to see them in order to determine their nature. In other words, if there are elements in the ECG which suggest an underlying problem, then we are focused upon resolving the underlying problem and not taking strides to merely reproduce the changes in rhythm as the subject of the patient's complaint. If the elements of an underlying cause is not evident on the ECG, then the changes in heart rhythm can only represent a benign cause. Nothing else.

The benign palpitations that you are experiencing are the result of inappropriate vagus nerve stimulation as a consequence of anxiety and they do not have the capacity to place you at risk of any type of cardiac event whatsoever. Like many who suffer the events, your fear is that they will cause your heart to stop, or the palpitations will become worse and incapacitate you in some regard. Neither of these scenarios is possible in any context.

Many people can also experience vagus-induced palpitations as a consequence of GI disturbances as well. This is because the vagus nerve innervates the GI tract as the pneumogastric nerve. Difficulties such as abdominal gas or air trapped in the lumen of the intestines, constipation, duodenal stasis, splenic flexure syndrome and a host of other common causes of GI discomfort can increase the potential for vagus-induced palpitations to occur.

Palpitations of this type are not a sign of heart disease and are more the equivalent of a muscle twitch elsewhere in the body. Remember that the heart is a muscle as much as it is an organ.

You're going to be just fine and absolutely nothing is going to suddenly befall you as a result of experiencing benign palpitation events. You have to counter the irrational fear being produced by the events with sound logic that they are not originating from the heart at all, nor do they have the capacity to interfere with the heart's performance and ability to do its job for even a second.

You're going to be just fine. In more than 40 years as a physician and specialist, I never once even heard of a patient subcumbing to some type of cardiac event or other health crisis as a result of experiencing benign palpitation events.

Best regards,

Rutheford Rane, MD (ret.)