Scared of Sudden Cardiac Death

[jsnichols23]

Hello,

I am new to this so here I go. I am scared of dying suddenly from cardiac arrest. I am a 29 year old male in reasonably good health but a bit overweight. I exercise at least 2-3 hours a week. About 3-4 years ago, I had all sorts of tests done. Echo, Ekgs, 24 hour monitor. Initially I was told I had a prolonged QT but then I had an appointment with a electrophysiologist, someone that studies electrical issues with the heart and he re-calculated my numbers and everything came back normal.

Now 4 years later I am having those same fears pop up again. Does anyone else have this fear? What have you done to combat this. My anxiety has made things difficult to go about my daily activities. I have been tracking my heart rates with my Garmin and I am consistently in the mid 50s for my resting heart rate and my sleeping rate dropped down to 45 a few nights ago for a short time but usually in the low 50s.

Any advice would be so very appreciated.

 

[yix]

I'm terrified of it. Especially because I have an increased risk of cardiomyopathy. My thought process is I'm going to live as healthy as I possibly can, I'm gona lose weight and eat right and exercise regularly and if it happens it happens, and I've done everything in my power to prevent it from happening.

 

[Adel]

Hello I also went through this fear. Long qt syndrome is really rare but medications can cause long qt. But electro cardiologist is someone who knows lot about this so I think he would know if something was wrong with your heart. Your heart rate can be low because you are fit as you say you exercise. I found some symptoms of this syndrome when I thought I had this and I found syncope, seizures, presyncope due to cardiac arrhythmias. There are actually more types of this syndrome. The most common are 1, 2, 3. 1,2 causes cardiac arrhythmias when exercising or being angry or scared, type 3 while resting or sleeping. And cardiac arrest while young is really rare. It’s in newspaper because it is rare. They don’t write about every single person above 80 who gets it so you can have a feeling that it is common. I think dying in car accident is way more probably than this. So try to stay calm even it is hard.

 

[bin_tenn]

It is indeed rare in younger people, such as your age. Especially more so than those much older. I understand this fear completely though, because I've been there. It still crosses my mind from time to time, especially when I hear of it happening. In fact, it happened to my dear mum in 2016, and she somehow survived! She's still here today, and doing well.

My advice: don't let this fear drive you. Allow the thoughts to rent some space in your mind, but don't hold them in. Let them come and go in due time. That's the best I know to say, that's what works for me.

 

[jsnichols23]

Thank you everyone for your replies. I really appreciate your feedback. I am trying to get through this fear. It doesn't seem as rooted to me as it once was. But it is certainly affecting me.

 

[URfine]

I’m older than you but have the same fears. I have had all of the test done and they’ve come back normal. You need to convince your mind to trust the doctors because , what’s the alternative?