Low Thyroid causes irregular heartbeat, sleep apnea, panic attacks

October 10, 2010

A lot of what you're describing are low thyroid symptoms. Skipped heartbeats,

sleep apnea, panic attacks in the middle of the night all start with low

thyroid. Your pulse/heartbeat is primarily determined by thyroid levels. Too

low and you have a slow heartbeat, too much and you have a fast heartbeat. Too

low will also cause it to skip. I remember mine would " pause " occasionally in

the middle of the night and wake me up. beat, beat, beat, beat, pause; beat,

beat, beat, beat, pause, etc. I would force myself to cough, and it would

usually return to a regular rhythm. After raising my thyroid dose it went away.

When DH had it, I raised him 1/4 grain and it also went away.

Sleep apnea is similar. I'm assuming that moment when you stop breathing is the

" pause " I'd feel when my heart would skip. I also remember waking often from

drowning dreams. I'd be underwater in a lake or ocean, holding my breath, and

swimming towards the surface. When I'd finally break through, I'd awake with a

gasp, and inhale deeply, my heart pounding. This is probably from the

adrenaline being released to get my heart started again.

Panic attacks are when your blood sugar goes too low from too low cortisol.

Cortisol downregulates when thyroid is low. DH would get this about 3-5 a.m.,

which is hours away from his last meal, hence his blood sugar was low. Your

brain MUST have glucose or it'll die. If you have no cortisol to do this, your

body releases adrenaline instead, because it accomplishes the same thing of

getting your blood sugar up. Problem is, it also makes your heart race, and

makes you wake up in a sweat. He'd also have his nightmares then too. I

remember violent type dreams, like attack dogs chasing me. Once the thyroid

dose was raised, this went away too.

Marc, you once described your finance as someone who was cold and slept 10 hours

a day. Those are common hypo symptoms, so that could have been her problem.

If you were both able to get on and off Xanax with no problem, you're lucky.

Some become addicted, so it is not a drug I would lightly recommend to anyone.

Barb

> >

> > Good point marc I have to take Xanax a low dose .25 mgs every night when I

go to bed. If I don't there are times I will wake up in panic be it high levels

of E2 or a bad dream. Once this happens then I have them over and over again

until my body settles down.

> > Co-Moderator

> > Phil

>

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