Heart Palpitations or Pauses
For the last couple of days I’ve been having strange heart issues. My heart goes… beat, beat, pause… BEAT, beat. Maybe every 10 or 20 beats I get an irregular one. This has been disconcerting to me to say the least. Well as I’m driving in to work yesterday morning it was particularly bad and I was actually worrying enough to start some research into it.
I did a little Google research and found many descriptions of this phenomenon. Like just about any physical symptom it can be caused by a number of different and completely separate things, and may or may not be a serious issue depending on how often and what other symptoms are present… like dizziness, high beats per minute, etc.
I haven’t found any good explanation about why I might have started to get them the last few days. I’m not stressed (at least I don’t feel stressed… although I did start working again), I guess my caffeine intake has increased and my potassium intake has decreased (bananas). For many months I have been having protein shakes with a banana and blueberries in it, but recently I started eating a lot more eggs and went away from the banana shakes. Maybe this had some unintended side effects.
Knowing a little bit about how the body functions, my first thought was being deficient in potassium as this mineral is highly important in regulation of your heart beat. Also being in very good shape with no other issues present and the condition happening out of the blue and for a few days also points to a lack of something in the diet.
So my first order of business was to eat a banana. This did seem to help within an hour or so, and I haven’t felt them since. Was it a coincidence and would have gone away on it’s own anyway, or did something in the banana… most likely potassium… do the trick?
Either way I’m going to cut out some of the coffee and just do green tea at work, plus make sure I get my regular banana each day in a shake. There are two parts of the body I just do not want to have problems with… my heart, and my brain.
So if you are having weird heart beats, eat a banana it just might help. If the banana doesn’t help, go see your doctor.
Popularity: 24%
Here I am - Life adventurer, father, artist and more :). Want to know more? 
darlene
13 Oct, 2008
Hey you. I really enjoy reading your posts. I was talking with you another site. You one on heart palps. Well, it very well may have been from lack of potassium however, the first sure sign is leg cramps to let you know that your potassium is low. I get a lot of palps myself but mine is mostly from stress. I am so high energy and rush, rush, rush at work all the time that when I finally get home and lay down my heart does funny things all the time. PVCs they are called. Can be harmless most of the time but they can also lead to V-Tach which is a life threatening condition if they happen too frequently. Again great journals! Talk soon!
Julia
4 Aug, 2009
I get the heart issues quite often and a lot in my pregnancies. It is indeed going to be an issue with potassium since I’d been taking a diuretic to get the swelling in my feet down.
By the way, what a handsome man you are.
Josh EMT-B
16 Oct, 2009
Without a proper ECG to compare your concerns to, this may be rather vague… All, however, deal with the electrical conduction within the heart and the contraction of the cardiac muscles secondary to the electrical activity. Pre-Atrial Contractions (PACs), Pre-Junctional Contractions (PJCs) and Pre-Ventricular Contractions (PVCs) are contractions that come too early from different parts of the heart. All of these contractions will have a compensatory “pause” after them to allow the heart to resume the proper contraction rate. There are many different causes for each of these and you should see your Doc just in case… The way you describe the rhythm as “beat, beat, pause…” makes me think of an electrical block known as a Second Degree – Type One Heart Block which would cause the heart to “drop” beats every so often, yet these would be more regular and more than likely not come and go with factors such as stress. Darlene is correct about the PVCs possibly leading to V-Tach or V-Fib, both of which are lethal rhythms. None the less, go see your Doc and get a real diagnosis.
Inspired Robin
9 Feb, 2010
I hope everything turned out well for you. However, if you or anyone else really does feel like something may be wrong then see a doctor right away. Our health and our lives are too precious to chance.
jeff
9 Feb, 2010
You know, this would be spot on advice in an ideal world. However, we live in a day of modern day witch doctors who rattle their chart over you and prescribe you the local remedy of the day (pills) instead of really being an advocate for health.
My advise is to do some diligent investigation on your own through the web. It’s quick and easy. This requires you have enough intelligence to take everything with a grain of salt and get enough sources to be fairly sure of your findings…
Of course if you kill yourself by taking my advise, then you missed the point of being intelligent enough… and thus cancel out my advise. haha.