Way before Covid I had a panic attack which led me to believe that my heart was not working properly. I got everything checked and it was all good but in the following months I regularly noticed irregularities which have since subsided. I'm almost sure that this was not due to any actual change but the main reason was that I was simply observing my heartbeat much more closely, feeling my heart racing etc. which was in turn actually making my heartbeat more irregular.
Of course your problem might be more physiological but I just want to point out that mind and body are closely connected and it's very difficult to observe such an effect and pinpoint it to a certain event (for example the vaccination).
That's not to say that's the case here, it's simply why, as the parent (and OP) also states (so I think we're all on the same page here, just adding another thought), research is important.
It is just stress...
NIH estimates that 31.1% of U.S. adults will experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/any-anxiety-disor....
I would encourage you to discuss with a licensed medical professional about which you are more likely to be experiencing.
What you say could be true if this person had experienced such events prior to vaccination as well.
Otherwise the probability of having a first episode of ectopic beats within 28 days of the vaccine is far less likely to be due to anxiety in the absense of previous history of anxiety, let alone one with rare symptomatology.
Anxiety also causes you to perceive normal bodily sensations, that you otherwise filtered out, with heightened sensitivity.
"With health anxiety there is the misinterpretation of discomfort and normal bodily sensations as dangerous. The body is very noisy. Healthy human bodies produce all sorts of physical symptoms that might be uncomfortable, unexpected, and unwanted, but not dangerous." https://adaa.org/learn-from-us/from-the-experts/blog-posts/c...
Add the context, and the potential for disinformation goes away: "Vaccines cause myocarditis, but overall at a lower rate than the disease itself. Additionally, the disease has many other, much more significant, risks that are mitigated by vaccination."
The point I'm making is that disinformation is a psychological effect. A statement can be factually true and still be disinformation ("100% of child abusers found to have consumed dihydrogen monoxide", etc.)
The problem with anxiety is that it leads to intense heart beating and your anxiety then leads you to assume something physically wrong with your heart. You don’t think rationally on stress!
I've been fully vaccinated since August.
edit: Spelling, wording
This story describes one diagnostic process for vax-induced myocarditis, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/05/what-its-like-to-hav...
Perhaps walterbell suspects your symptoms are related to blood clots and that is why he recommended a dimer. D-dimer is often used as a screening test when there is relatively low suspicion for pulmonary embolism. I can't say either way, but if you're most concerned about myocarditis a dimer would probably only muddy the waters imo. With your symptoms and a positive dimer you might end up getting a chest CT (you say you've already had some workup done, not sure if that was included).
Your best bet is probably to find another doctor or pursue further workup with your current doctor as there are a lot of nuances not easily captured through an internet discussion board. For all we know you may have asthma.
Ironically, if you are having panic attacks, a drug that lowers your heart rate may help treat them.
Thanks for the follow up!
Do you feel pain when this happens?
> then I have problems breathing normally
Does your breathing rate increase? (hyperventilation)
Next time this happens you can undertake a small test. Take 15 g of sugar in one go and see whether you experience an immediate improvement. This test will show whether the condition is related to decreased ATP production which is known to cause panic attacks in some people (false hypoglycemia). If you see an improvement from sugar then it means it is related (you can take a look at my other posts to see how to manage that).
Other tests that may be helpful for you: HOMA-IR, A1c, Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL), High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL), Cholesterol, Triglycerides, Gamma-glutamyl Transferase (GGT).
> Do you feel pain when this happens?
No, just weird unpleasant "squeeze" sensation in chest.
> Does your breathing rate increase? (hyperventilation)
Not sure but probably not. It makes me breath way deeper, but frequency seems the same.
If the hypothesis of a non-satisfactory ATP production applies to you, then this is the moment of energy production decompensation. It causes the feeling of a sudden and unexplainable "halt" in consciousness/breathing/muscle activity, after that you become very alert and subconsciously start racing the heart/lungs, feeling that you are not ok. Some people even feel that they may pretty much die.
But the exact manifestation varies from person to person. An example of a real-world situation is presented in [1].
> It makes me breath way deeper, but frequency seems the same.
This also counts as hyperventilation. It's either frequency increase, deepness increase, or both.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29139740
P.S. I will monitor this thread from time to time in the following months. Just drop a reply if I can be of further help.
In the initial stages, attacks do occur mainly under the mental/physical load. The condition slowly but steadily progresses to everyday attacks over several weeks/months.
In the later stages, attacks may even occur during the night when a person sleeps or tries to sleep. A person may have several attacks during the day at this point.
Asymptomaptic covid-19 is more worthy of study and effort to prevent it.
Can you really know that?
I’m still waiting on an echocardiogram after 5 months.
Are you confident that this is related to getting vaccinated?
I also got irregular heartbeats a couple of years ago (long before I got vaccinated against Covid), mine are called premature heart beats (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premature_heart_beat) and they're harmless as long as they stay under a certain of times per minute, according to my cardiologist (after extensive tests).
No vaccine should damaged an healthy person, and nobody should be forced to a treatment (Norimberga anyone?). We need more studies and data like this.
Why governments don't push for studies? I remember doctors and media denying AstraZeneca Blood cloths for months, before they added to the official adverse reaction list, finally.
Where do you get that idea? I mean, you literally are commenting on a study run by people involved in a government decision-making process.
"BRC. M.S.-H. is supported by the National Institute for Health Research Clinician Scientist Award (NIHR-CS-2016-16-011). J.H.-C. and K.M.C. are supported by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre. N.L.M. and K.M.C. are supported by the British Heart Foundation (Chair Awards CH/F/21/90010, CH/16/1/32013), Programme Grant (RG/20/10/34966) and Research Excellence Awards (RE/18/5/34216, RE18/3/34214). A.S. is supported by the Health Data Research United Kingdom BREATHE Hub. This research is part of the Data and Connectivity National Core Study, led by Health Data Research United Kingdom in partnership with the office of National Statistics and funded by United Kingdom Research and Innovation (grant MC_PC_20029)"
In what universe isn't this the government pushing for the study?
29.1.2021: EU approval for the vaccine is granted
~10.3.2021: first countries pause usage, EMA officially starts investigating.
18.3.2021: risk of blood clots is added to list of known potential side effects
so not even 2 months.
EDIT: and to pre-empt hair-splitting which list counts:
7.4.2021: moved from "potential side effect" to "known side effect". ~ 2 months and a week.
This seems unlikely, given the relative rarity of these events.
No vaccine should damaged an healthy person
Every vaccine ever created can have adverse effects on healthy people.
Why governments don't push for studies
You are literally commenting on a study.
I remember doctors and media denying AstraZeneca Blood cloths for months
Your memory is wrong.
> Your memory is wrong.
There are "fact-checks" still online claiming that AZ doesn't cause blood clots.
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/03/25/fact...
"Whether there is an actual connection is still under investigation and will be closely monitored as vaccination with AstraZeneca's vaccine resumes."
This is exactly what we should all expect to happen. I don't doubt for a second that there will be citable examples of doctors or media claiming that this particular vaccine did not—or was unlikely to—cause clots. But the statement "I remember doctors and media denying AstraZeneca Blood cloths for months" is clearly intended to misrepresent the actual situation.
"Whether there is an actual connection is still under investigation and will be closely monitored as vaccination with AstraZeneca's vaccine resumes."
I don't think so, you can still find the traces of it everywhere.
You can't deny the fact that the people in charge decided to misinform the public several times for specific reasons. It started with masks: people wanted to wear them and all the media was parroting that "there is no evidence that masks protect against COVID-19" (or was it called the "Wuhan virus" still back then?). While technically correct, it was against common sense and the aim was to limit the demand for masks used by healthcare institutions. Once they secured the masks, they turned 180 degrees and started to force everyone to wear the masks. What a great way to build credibility.
Regarding vaccines, more openness would be great. What we were promised was efficiency at the level of >90%. What we see now, after mutations and with time after taking the vaccine, the efficiency levels are much lower and it looks like - at least in some countries - people will have to take the vaccine perpetually 2 or maybe even 3 times a year in order to be able to work. In this case, we better study the possible adverse reactions well and assess the overall lifetime risk, especially for younger persons.
I received my 1st Pfizer vaccine in June and around 3 weeks after the vaccine I started experiencing frequent irregular heartbeats. Sometimes it was every day, then sometimes once or twice a week. I still experience ectopic heartbeat now (although much less frequently) as a result of the vaccine 6 months later.
I used to drink lots of coffee, but quit all caffeine in my life due to the risk to my heart! I reported this to the yellow card scheme, but I'm very glad to see more research being done and awareness.