How the heart influences what we perceive and fear • Hacker News Board

Re: How the heart influences what we perceive and fear

#21

Post by voisin » Fri, Jul 17, 2020, 5:09 PM UTC

Is this an acute awareness of your heartbeat or is it that your heart beats more intensely?

I ask because I used to have panic attacks and I would become suddenly aware of my heart beating faster than normal but my heart rate monitor showed it was not, and my blood pressure monitor showed I was still normal - it was effectively only my awareness that was out of whack for whatever reason. I was turned on to meditation and can count on one hand the number of times I’ve had these panic attacks in the last year.

Re: How the heart influences what we perceive and fear

#22

Post by nonbirithm » Fri, Jul 17, 2020, 5:09 PM UTC

I have had this exact feeling regarding my heart for a year and a half and until now felt nobody understood.

For me it is constant chest pain that comes and goes essentially whenever it wants. It is quite varied and never fails to keep worrying me with its novelty. Sometimes burning, sometimes squeezing, sometimes stabbing. Been to the doctor and ER dozens of times. No diagnosis. And it isn't even correlated with anxiety as far as I can tell, although the anxiety only makes it worse. Sometimes NSAIDs make the pain unbearable. Sometimes they don't.

It doesn't even make sense because as far as I understand the heart isn't innervated, so why is the pain always on the left side of my chest?

I went to urgent care and they reported my cholesterol levels, etc. were excellent.

It's so terrible because the heart is critically tied to our ability to continue living through unconscious action, and so anything regarding it feels completely out of control in the moment. Meaning your instant death is out of your control. Now have that on your mind for 365 days and see how it feels.

So after spending dozens of times trying to figure out if something's wrong with my body, seeing as it's probably trying to send some sort of signal, and completely failing to come up with an answer, what else is there left to do? Worry about dying every single day?

Early on I got so many palpitations I was sitting in bed holding a heart monitor on my chest until 3 in the morning. This was when I was 23 and started to regret all the life decisions I had made in college to feel this awful and scared about my health that young. Today if I get like three palpitations in the span of five minutes I'll be completely unable to keep focusing on work and go off trying to manage the anxiety in the hopes of not dying.

If anything it's pushed me to eat more vegetables and such, but I don't know if it will end up helping.

Re: How the heart influences what we perceive and fear

#23

Post by kingkawn » Fri, Jul 17, 2020, 5:17 PM UTC

If you do get a VT you can gently massage your carotid arteries in your neck until help arrives.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2737783/

Re: How the heart influences what we perceive and fear

#24

Post by marz0 » Fri, Jul 17, 2020, 5:22 PM UTC

Have you tried supplementing with magnesium? Seems to help a lot of people with anxiety, including myself. There also seems to be a link between low magnesium levels and heart rhythm issues.

> The risk of heart rhythm problems with low magnesium levels is particularly high in people who also have low potassium levels. [0]

[0] https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/ask-the-doctors-...

Re: How the heart influences what we perceive and fear

#25

Post by throwaway_USD » Fri, Jul 17, 2020, 5:24 PM UTC

>I know it's slightly off topic, but just be happy if you don't feel your heart beating...

When I was a kid I used to complain of episodic pains I would get in my heart, and as a child I described it as feeling like lightning shocking my heart. After some testing I was pretty quickly diagnosed with supraventricular tachycardia.

I feel pretty grateful as I never had to have a heart monitor, take meds, and as far as I can recall the last episode was sometime in high school (maybe 20 years ago), I hadn't really thought about it in a long time, but you made me realize now how bizarre it was to "feel my heart".

Re: How the heart influences what we perceive and fear

#26

Post by x87678r » Fri, Jul 17, 2020, 5:31 PM UTC

I have something similar. If you hook me up to an automatic EKG it will say I'm having an infarction right now. Makes me want to stay away from ERs as they'll put me on some treatment for heart attacks without thinking.

Right now the extra stress and weight gain gives me much worse heart palpitations. Its hard when that happens to relax when you have to think whether something serious is finally happening or just another blip.

This stuff is just supposed to work.... never had to worry about any health stuff when I was a teenager.

Re: How the heart influences what we perceive and fear

#27

Post by troughway » Fri, Jul 17, 2020, 5:39 PM UTC

Aside from VESs; isn't a strong heart beat that you can feel (and sometimes hear if someone puts their ear to your chest) a sign of a healthy heart? I'm not talking about fast palpitations, but rather feeling your heart through your chest wall, albeit at a regular, steady rhythm.

Re: How the heart influences what we perceive and fear

#28

Post by yalok » Fri, Jul 17, 2020, 5:39 PM UTC

When I experienced somewhat similar symptoms, I ended up stopping to consume any caffeine (was mostly tea for me), and significantly reduced sugar - and started feeling much better.

Other things that helped was regular exercise, with good cardio load, and getting enough sleep.

Hoping in God and the eternal life definitely helped with the anxiety part.

Hope you feel better.

Re: How the heart influences what we perceive and fear

#29

Post by rootinier » Fri, Jul 17, 2020, 5:50 PM UTC

Wow, I'm surprised how many replied and have similar experiences. There are a few things I'd like to add, because I did learn some things in the last 7 years since it started.

- Cognitive-behavioral therapy did not work for me. The thing is, as soon as your heart wants your attention, you're submissive. I talked a lot with psychologists, but it didn't get better.

- Running to the ER and being dismissed with good blood samples helps. But only for a limited time.

- Stress is very bad. Not long ago I had a very arduous business call with a former co-worker and I felt one extrasystole after another. As if my heart would want me to calm down ;)

- SSRI (e.g. Escitaloprame) are really powerful. They did not cure my extrasystoles, but they prevented things like panic attacks. Side effects are note worthy though, you pretty much lose a lot of your sexual energy.

- and if you're into medicine, SSRI may also produce new cardiac problems, such as QT-interval prolongation. It's a vicious circle.

In the end, I think, the heart is much, much more than a muscle. I always hope that someday I'll find a doctor who gives me the answer I'm searching for so long, what exactly is causing all this.

Re: How the heart influences what we perceive and fear

#30

Post by rootinier » Fri, Jul 17, 2020, 5:56 PM UTC

Fast, constant and rhythmical heart beats are nothing I worry about. Extrasystoles are pretty much one heart beat out of the normal rhythm (coming from the ventricle in my case), followed by a pause (compensatory pause). Your heart basically stops for one beat, and then resumes. And this pause feels really uncool.