Mardy Fish

I often like to highlight athletes, celebrities, and other famous people on my blog who suffer from heart palpitations. Mainly I like to do it to show that we're not alone. And that even the rich and famous get these pesky misbeats. And even the healthy and extremely fit, get the dance, too. Most recently I saw that Mardy Fish, a highly ranked American tennis player was extremely bothered by heart palpitations and even got a cardiac catheter ablation procedure to correct the faulty wiring in his heart. USA Today Sports covered his story online - Mardy Fish on Mend, Ready to Take on Wimbledon. Basically, Fish like so many of us sufferers, thought his heart might stop and rendered him unable to sleep alone for weeks. Even after the ablation, Fish "hasn't completely shaken the anxiety it caused." Oh, so true. That anxiety that accompanies heart palpitations is so hard to shake. With time, however, you can learn to accept that heart palpitations in and of themselves aren't dangerous. It took a long time to reprogram my brain to not freak out every time I got a pvc. Most of the time now I do a pretty good job of calming myself down and not working myself up about them. So Fish, you may not have won Wimbledon, but you certainly can win over the fear of your heart arrhythmia.

Post script: I thought it was very interesting that in the article it links to another one written about Fish recovering from a "Scary Heart Ailment." It's precisely language similar to that which gets people so freaked out about heart palpitations. I always wish they would give some reassurance to people that might suffer from something similar.

“I still got my rhythm...I still got it.”

My most recent comment (from the posting The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly) came from a fellow palpitation sufferer who in addition to PVCs and PACs has experienced bouts of atrial fibrillation. I have fortunately not experienced this condition, but it seems as Mr. Copacabana himself, Barry Manilow, has had his heart out of rhythm for over 15 years.

The following comes from FoxNews
By Colleen Cappon & Melissa Browne Weir
Published September 19, 2011

As a music icon, no one knows the value of being in rhythm more than the legendary Barry Manilow.

For more than 15 years, however, Manilow has continued his success while one critically important detail was out of rhythm—his heart. That's because he is one of the more than 2.5 million Americans living with atrial fibrillation or AFib.

AFib is a condition that causes your heart to race and beat out of rhythm. While some people with AFib may feel no symptoms, others may feel palpitations, shortness of breath, weakness and anxiety.

People often aren’t aware of many of the serious consequences of this disease, including permanent heart damage, heart attack, heart failure, stroke and death. In fact, many patients currently living with the disease may not know if their AFib management plan is addressing these important risks.

“The first time it happened to me, I was actually driving home. I could feel something strange happening; I wasn't jogging, I was singing, I wasn't jumping around at the Copacabana,” Manilow said.

With no risk factors and not knowing what was happening to him, he called his doctor to run some tests.

“I went to him, and he explained that this condition is called atrial fibrillation. He put me on a regimen of medicine and all, and for a while it calmed down. Then it started up again, and they had to go further for me,” Manilow said.

Dr. Marcus Wharton, director of cardiac electrophysiology at the Medical University of South Carolina, said Manilow isn’t alone with this problem.

“The majority of people who get it are over the age of 65, but it can hit younger people as well," Wharton said. "The number of people suffering from atrial fibrillation is expected double or triple over the next 10 years as the baby boomer generation ages.”

Manilow is now the patient spokesperson for Get Back in Rhythm, a national atrial fibrillation education campaign to encourage people to learn about the importance of managing the disease.

“I know these episodes are scary. It starts out very innocent, your heart skips a beat. And then it goes further and your heart starts going faster, beats faster and faster and faster, until you know there's something wrong," Manilow explained. "It's out of whack, it's out of rhythm."

Wharton said approximately 25 percent of people are have no symptoms at all and are not even aware that they suffer from atrial fibrillation.

"It can cause a change in exercise tolerance, fatigue, and so people think they are just getting old. It is important to see your cardiologist if you have any of these symptoms,” Wharton added.

Manilow said he is speaking out about his disease because of his fans.

“I worry about you guys who are not calling your doctors, who are going through this and who are afraid to go to the doctor or don't like doctors," he said. "You can't let this go, cause you're playing with fire, cause this could go to heart attacks and strokes. You've got to take care of this.”

Manilow reassured his ‘Fanilows’ that he is in great shape and feels well.

“I still got my rhythm… I still got it.”

To see if you are at risk for AFib, and to learn more about Barry Manilow’s story, log onto www.GetBackinRhythm.com.

As Seen on The Doctors

I was flipping through the channels this afternoon and (to my delight) caught a short segment about heart palpitations on the television show The Doctors (aka America's Medical Dream Team).

They had a young woman on the show named Sarah who complained of heart palpitations along with feelings of her heart racing, being unable to catch her breath, and feeling faint without actually fainting. The young woman was visibly quite scared.

The Doctors mentioned that the woman had an underlying cause that was most likely attributing to her heart palpitations. Want to take a guess of the cause?

If you guessed Mitral Valve Prolapse, you're right! I've talked a little bit about MVP before on my blog, but here's a crash course if you can't remember. Mitral valve prolapse (MVP) occurs when the valve between your heart's left upper chamber (left atrium) and the left lower chamber (left ventricle) doesn't close properly. When the left ventricle contracts, the valve's flaps bulge (prolapse) upward or back into the atrium. Mitral (MIE-truhl) valve prolapse sometimes leads to blood leaking backward into the left atrium, a condition called mitral valve regurgitation.

Dr. John Kennedy on The Doctors, said that most likely the regurgitation was "tickling" or "irritating" Sarah's heart and thus the heart palpitations.

Sarah wore a 24 hour holter monitor and completed a 30 day event monitor for prognosis. The results were that even when she was palpitating she overall had a normal sinus rhythm. Sarah was going to be okay.

The Doctors urged her to lower her stress levels whether it be "trying a yoga class" or "reading a book."

Disclaimer: When watching The Doctors, if you are a woman, you may want to use caution when looking at Dr. Travis Stork (a former Bachelor on ABC's The Bachelor). He has been known to make a woman's heart start palpitating.

No Strings Attached

Hollywood tried to define PVCs for us in the new movie No Strings Attached starring Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman. Emma (Portman), a doctor in residency, gives Adam (Kutcher) a Valentine's Day card that reads: "You give me premature ventricular contractions". He looks at her puzzled by the medical jargon, and she decodes it for him immediately: "My heart skips a beat." Hardy har har. Funnier if you don't live with them. But I'll try to remember that one for next Valentine's.

And for the record, Tinseltown, PVCs may be perceived as skipped beats but as we have learned, they are actually just premature beats that occur before the regular heartbeat.

And also for the record, I did not actually see the movie, but I read about that line on a movie review. The film critic was trying to demonstrate how genuinely funny the movie is.

Yeah, sure.

Figure Skater Ashley Wagner

Anyone that knows me knows that I'm a huge ice-skating fan. I love the Winter Olympics every four years, and I usually try to watch the U.S. Nationals and World competition every year. In fact, when I saw that I was having a little girl at my 20 week ultrasound, I jumped for joy that I would have someone to watch ice-skating with (just like I always did with my mom). Last week, much to my delight, my 2 year-old daughter decided she wanted to watch the "princesses on ice" with me as the U.S. National Figure Skating Championship was televised. We were watching the beautiful 18year-old Ashley Wagner (she was the alternate for the women's team last year at the Olympics) perform when the announcers mentioned that she was back on the ice after being troubled with heart palpitations last year. I kept meaning to google it and finally got around to it today. Ashley developed heart palpitations while in Sofia, Bulgaria last Feb. for the Jr. World Championships. She recalls, "My heart felt like it was about to fall out of my chest. I was dizzy. I couldn't breathe." Her coach explains that they did an EKG at the rink because they couldn't figure out what was wrong. "It was scary at the time," her coach said. Wagner said the problem initially began developing a few weeks before her trip. "It started out very, very mild," she said. "I'd be at home before I left, and I'd be sitting down and I felt like my heart would just stop moving... Then it would kind of beat faster to catch up... Once I got to Bulgaria, I was probably exhausted from the trip also and it just set everything off."

Hello, Ashley. Welcome to the crazy heart dance (this one might not be as fun as the dance on ice). Ashley said team doctors told her in Bulgaria that the palpitations were the result of stress and dehydration. After being checked out by the doctors, she went on to place third at Jr. Worlds. Once she got home, she made sure that strucuturally everything was okay with her heart and that she wasn't in any real danger. Now, Ashely says, "I just have to stay hydrated, and I have to stay calm." Wagner has been working on alleviating stress by giving herself down time and taking weekend jogs. She's been making sure to drink plenty of water.

What struck me most about Ashley was that yes, heart palpitations can occur in very healthy and fit individuals. Also, they start for many in their late teen years and early 20's. Mine also started when I was 18 and in my first year at college. I'm always so amazed when I hear stories like this one. I'm not alone. And neither are you. So if your palpitations are benign and you have a structurally sound heart, let's do what Ashley does. Stay calm and drink lots of water! And hey, a jog couldn't hurt either.

Crazy Heart

Several months a go, my husband and I sat down to watch "Crazy Heart," the 2009 musical-drama film starring Jeff Bridges (who went on to win the Academy Award that year for Best Actor) who plays a down-and-out country music singer-songwriter named Bad Blake. Blake tries to turn his life around after beginning a relationship with a young journalist portrayed by Maggie Gyllenhaal. I heart the movie but I especially loved the music. The original music was composed by T-Bone Burnett, Stephen Burton, and Ryan Bingham. Bingham and Burnett received the Academy Award for Best Original Song for co-writing "The Weary Kind," which Bingham also performed.

I have since downloaded "The Weary Kind" on my ipod and the soulful and haunting lyrics move me to tears every time. And although I'm sure the lyrics are all about booze, hard living, and lost dreams, something in it resonates with me. The chorus states:

And this ain't no place for the weary kind
this ain't no place to lose your mind
this ain't no place to fall behind
pick up your crazy heart and give it one more try

So although I've had a particularly rough end to the year with lots of heart palpitations, anxiety, fatigue, and stress, my soul tells me to "pick up my crazy heart and give it one more try."

"When My Heart Finds Christmas"

Harry Connick, Jr. croons this song, "When My Heart Finds Christmas" in his first Christmas album titled by the same name.

I don't know about you but when my heart finds Christmas it does a little palpitation dance. The hustle and the bustle of the season (God forgive me) makes me sort of dread the Christmas season. December and the even more bleak month of January are often hard months for me. And I know I'm not alone. Numerous studies as well as anecdotal evidence from distress centers and crisis workers confirm that there is an increase in both the numbers and severity of calls by depressed and anxious individuals during the holiday season.

The holiday season is often a period of frenetic activity, a time when people are trying to juggle work, an increase in social obligations, shopping, decorating, wrapping, entertaining and staying on budget. All this leads to a rise in both physical and emotional stress. It is also often a time for reflection. A time when others look back and see the losses they incurred--loss of a loved one through death, divorce or separation, loss of a job, or even loss of familiar social environment.

How can we manage the stresses of the season? I found an online article on wikiHow, and although its a bit long-winded, I think it has some good tips on how to beat the holiday blues. And whatever you do this Christmas season, don't start a major kitchen renovation in the middle of Dec. like we're doing this year. When you have to contemplate whether or not to get a tree because you're worried about the remodeling dust, you know you picked the wrong time of year to do it.

How to Sidestep Depression/Anxiety During the Holidays

1) Start early. As the adage “The early bird catches the worm" counsels, getting a head start on your holiday preparations can save you a lot of headaches later on. Gather your family members and quiz them on their favorite foods. Compile a list of your favorite meals, then select the ones that combine the best. Who ever said you can’t have spaghetti for a holiday meal? Do what works for yourself and your family. Reaching a compromise and an agreement early on takes the stress out of last-minute meal planning.

2) Shop ahead. If you have a mile-long list of people to gift this year, consider buying in bulk. Forget buying an individual gift for all your child’s preschool pals. Go to a warehouse which sells things in large quantities and earmark those items for larger groups.

3)** Remember the reason for the season. If you come from a Christian background, remind your children that Christmas is not about Santa Claus alone, but about celebrating Jesus’s birthday. We give and receive gifts as a reminder of his importance in our lives.

4) Manage your children's expectations. It will help prevent an embarrassing outburst on Christmas morning in front of Aunt Sarah when your child fails to get his favorite toy.

5) Make a mailing list. Use your Excel computer application, if you have one, to manage your addresses. Have your children help dig through old Christmas cards to find addresses of long lost friends and relatives. Allow your children to cut up the old Christmas cards to make new ones of their own.

6) Use an Advent calendar. Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. In order to help children deal with the anxiety of waiting, wrap little treats for the child to open each day after the beginning of Advent, or use a regluar calendar and put a special sticker on each day as it begins.

7) Get exercise. For those in the Northern Hemisphere, light is a precious commodity. Be sure to get out during your lunch break for a bit of sun exposure. Even on cloudy days, it can revive your spirit and give you the oxygen you require. Shovel snow if it applies to you. (HAAAAAAAA if you live in Texas like I do)

8) Get enough sleep. Have you noticed that when the days are shorter your need for sleep increases? It is a natural response. In a way, our bodies shut down. Honoring your need for rest is as important as ever.

9) Eat vitamin-enriched food. If the sun is weaker in your area, your daily dose of vitamins needs to come from your food intake. Take vitamins and drink fruit tea and lemon to stave off the common cold.

10) Communicate with your partner. Oftentimes, admitting you feel blue is all you need to reach acceptance that things aren’t always perfect.

11) Take time to celebrate with friends, or catch up with people you may not see often. A phone call to distant relatives or friends will brighten both your days.

12) Volunteer in your neighborhood. Helping others often gives a boost to your own spirit, and is a good way to meet new people and build new friendships. Is there a canned food drive? What about gift wrapping for a charity? Maybe a soup kitchen?

13) Celebrate the winter solstice. Mark off the days on your calendar to encourage yourself that a new beginning is right around the corner. Gather with friends to honor this age-old rite of passage into the season of renewal.

14)The winter solstice also marks the fewest number of daylight hours, and that can make getting out of bed difficult in the mornings. To create your own artificial "sunrise" in an otherwise dark bedroom, use a multi-light lamp hooked up to timer. There are other ways to Brighten-up-a-Dark-Room too.

**Something I would like to add to step 3. There is a wonderful movement going on called the Advent Conspiracy. The concept behind this movement is to recreate Christmas whereby we Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, and Love All. Check it out if you ever have an empty feeling of missed purpose during Christmas.

Broken Record

Although I was born in 1980, I do have many memories of listening to music on LP records. And with the ballads of Patsy Cline or the rock of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, came the inevitable popping sound as the needle met a scratch mark. If the needle jumped outward to the groove it just finished playing, it would repeat in an infinite loop, serving as the simile for things that continuously repeat ("like a broken record"). Sometimes I feel like my heart palpitations are like this "broken record." It's like for whatever reason, the pacemaker hits a groove and gets stuck. So my heart will be dancing in a perfect beat, and then the stressors of life scratch my vinyl heart. The pacemaker tries to make up for the missed beats and jumps ahead. And if I don't relax, my heart will start skipping in an infinite loop. Then I get up and take action (just like I did when I had to pick up the record player's needle and manually move it forward) such as deep breathing or a brisk walk, and then my heart goes back to its steady beat.

What I Have in Common with Her Majesty the Queen

What do I have in common with Queen Rania of Jordan? Well, besides the fact that we're both stunning brunettes (insert smiley face), it looks like she suffers from premature ventricular contractions just like me. Imagine, a royal queen suffers from these annoying irregular heart beats. It's not just a commoners disease. On a serious note, Queen Rania had a non-surgical heart procedure at the end of Sept. in an attempt to normalize her heart's rhythm. Although the article doesn't specifically go into detail about the procedure, it sounds like it was an ablation based on the description.

Jordan's Queen Rania undergoes treatment for irregular heart rhythm

It sounds like she is recovering and doing well. May she live happily ever after.

Lady Gaga: "I have heart palpitations"

Lady Gaga has revealed she suffers from heart palpitations.

The singer, real name Stefani Germanotta, says she needed medical attention after a recent gig.

'I have heart palpitations and... things,' says Lady Gaga, 24.

'But it's OK. It's just from fatigue and other things...

'The other day...in Tokyo, I was having trouble breathing. I had a little oxygen, then I went on stage. I was OK. But like I say, I don't want anyone to worry.'

Lady Gaga admits she's also been tested for lupus, because her aunt died from the disease in 1976.

'I'm very connected to my aunt, Joanne, who died of lupus,' she tells The Times Magazine.

'It's a very personal thing. I don't want my fans to be worried about me.'

My New Hero is...

a butter-loving, finger-licking, joke-cracking queen of melt-in-your mouth Southern cuisine...Paula Deen!



I picked up her book It Ain't All About the Cookin' because I heard that at one point in her life she suffered from a debilitating agoraphobia whereby she didn't leave her house for years. Fortunately I've never suffered from full blown agoraphobia but there have been times in my life when I haven't wanted to be in public because I was either experiencing uncomfortable PVCs or afraid I would start to get them outside my comfort zone. Paula Deen suffered from intense anxiety for over 20 years before she finally came to the end of her rope and realized that she had to start living. One morning she got out of bed and like a thunderclap heard the words to the Serenity Prayer--the ones that alcoholics use at Alcoholics Anonymous: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. At last she had got it. Deen writes, "Sure, I'm gonna die, I said to myself. My children are gonna die. Everyone I love is gonna die. But today has given me today and I'm gonna go out and live today. I won't die today." She started slowly and got better and better. She went on to start her own catering business, open two hugely successful restaurants, publish numerous cookbooks, have her own cooking show, star in a movie, and appear on Oprah! But through it all, she would still carry a brown paper bag in case she started to hyperventilate. Of course, she seldom needed it. And when life challenges presented themselves and she too began to suffer heart palpitations, she was smart enough to go to the doctor right away and tell him that her nerves were shot. She got on Zoloft and started feeling better. She is a shining example of a strong woman who has experienced intense anxiety and its effects, but has gone on to be successful and happily fulfilled.