Re: feel worse

"I don’t think it is after eating because it is more than six hours after food sometimes it happens in the night or early morning."

Food as well as prescriptions and supplements can have a delayed effect on heart rhythms and heart rates.  I know, I've been dealing with mine off and on for more than ten years.

I'll suggest one other thing and that is the possibility of sleep apnea.  People with sleep apnea rarely know that anything is wrong with them.  If you snore during sleep that is but one possible sign of it but not always.  

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=5510

Sleep apnea: The temporary stoppage of breathing during sleep, often resulting in daytime sleepiness. Apnea is a Greek word that means "want of breath."

The most common form of sleep apnea is obstructive sleep apnea. In obstructive sleep apnea, the muscles of the soft palate around the base of the tongue and the uvula relax, obstructing the airway. The airway obstruction causes the level of oxygen in the blood to fall (hypoxia), increases the stress on the heart, elevates blood pressure, and prevents the patient from entering REM sleep, the restful and restorative stage of sleep. In other words, sleep apnea causes deprivation of quality sleep.

The symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea include loud snoring and/or abnormal pattern of snoring with pauses and gasps. Other symptoms include excessive daytime sleepiness, memory changes, depression, and irritability. In some patients sleep apnea can contribute to high blood pressure, heart failure, stroke, and heart attack.

Obstructive sleep apnea typically affects middle-age, overweight men, and may affect women in later years. Obstructive apnea can be aggravated by alcohol, sleeping pills and tranquilizers taken at bedtime.

What is not mentioned in the above description is it also causes a rapid heart rate.  If your heart rate is rapid at night and early morning it could easily be from sleep apnea because you never know when it occurs - because you are asleep.  I know - I have it but I control it with a CPAP/breathing device and have done so for a couple of years now.  You can easily die from it and many do.

One cause (but not always) is being overweight.  If your BMI (body mass index) measurement is more than 25 then getting it under 25 should be your top priority.  (To calculate your BMI go here: http://nhlbisupport.com/bmi/)  It is overweight and/or obesity that causes a great deal of sleep apnea.  My BMI is consistently just under 25 but I do need to lose ten or twelve pounds to get to a more comfortable level.

How do you find out if you have sleep apnea?  I spent a night in a sleep clinic at a major hospital where they hook up about twenty four wires to you and monitor your heart rate, blood oxygen level and brain wave activity during sleep.  They do this via machines but also have a physician watching you through one-way glass.  If you you think that you'd be too embarrassed or too uncomfortable to get to sleep - it's not true.  If they diagnose you with sleep apnea at the sleep clinic they will bring you back for another night to determine which is the best CPAP and mask combination for you to cure the problem.  My insurance covered this $2,500 per night visit very well, only had about $50 out of pocket and I believe that it has saved my life.

The medical profession (but nobody in alternative medicine) can diagnose what you are dealing with and you can then choose how you wish to deal with it.