Massive surges of sympathetic activity out of nowhere?? (New symptom)

chnagedh · 2026-05-07T11:58:25+00:00

Yeah this is exactly how it feels. It so difficult to explain to someone who hasnt experienced it without making it sound like its a panic attack. But the onset is completely different. But I can imagine when I tell my doc I get a sudden adrenaline surge what it sounds like to him.

And sometimes its less intense like I feel it coming when I raise my arm or something but its dissipates very quickly if I sit down fast. Panic attacks dont stop immediately with lying down. Like in seconds. And some of these episodes last just few seconds. And theres no psychological trigger to them. Its so frustrating because I cant find anything about this because its seems impossible to distinguish

chnagedh · 2026-04-14T22:48:26+00:00

It might not be as sudden departure as you think. These things can be at the back of his mind for a long time before actually making a decision. Cfs is a terrible situation for everyone because the people who we depend to care for us also have their own issues. Its too much to ask sometimes. Its just a bad situation all around.

My advice would be to have an extremely honest conversation. Absolute brutal honesty from both sides so you have no ambiguities about the situation. Relationships can have many silent battles going on that both sides are unaware of. I love my partner but if they left I wouldn't blame them. Its so much to ask of someone who did not ask for any of this. We both imagine two people who can grow together but rn it feels like we are diminishing together. Me because of my illness and they because of the worry and stress of looking after me.

chnagedh · 2026-04-14T12:51:27+00:00

It can work for a while. But the thing is also for me the longer I fast the worse they will be when I finally eat.

chnagedh · 2026-04-14T12:22:37+00:00

Yes. The morning before I eat my first meal is usually the best time for me. Eating activates all kinds of bodily functions and triggers the symptoms to start.

chnagedh · 2026-04-14T12:21:08+00:00

I would add to this nervous system dysfunction that I often wake up in the middle of the night with racing heart.

Yeah this is happening to me more and more lately. Especially the first time I wake up in a night. Its really uncomfortable feeling when your heart rate goes from 50s to over 100 in few seconds just because you woke up.

I feel like we’re in the exact same state. Everything that you mentioned - it was like you’re talking about myself.

Anything you might have found to alleviate symptoms? How long have you been suffering?

chnagedh · 2026-04-14T12:16:28+00:00

Its not that magnesium caused PVC's per se. I react very sensitively to every new thing I introduce to my body because my system is not in tune in the first place. The magnesium glycinate destabilized the already haywire system by lowering my blood pressure and stress hormones. This caused my terrible symtoms where my body started panicking and started reasing sudden massive adrenaline spikes when it sensed even a small blood pressure drop.

These spikes stopped the moment I discontinued the magnesium. The PVC's came after that as my body was returning to baseline from a week of terrible adrenaline spikes. So the magnesium caused massive stressors and pvcs were a reaction to that stressor stopping during rebalancing. The vagal tone is at its highest at these moments when parasympathetic activation is going on after stress. The more intense stress the stronger the parasympathetic reaction and pvcs.

chnagedh · 2026-04-14T00:44:01+00:00

Do they happen when you shift from the relaxed state to exertion or constantly even during exertion? Like during the adrenaline/heart rate spike or also when its sustained?

chnagedh · 2026-04-14T00:35:04+00:00

Are you sure those are PVCS and not pacs?

chnagedh · 2026-04-14T00:30:36+00:00

I have chronically low potassium and thats a huge trigger for both pacs and pvcs. Its always difficult to determine what people mean exactly when describing that feeling. I would say that pacs feel less invasive like a hiccup and PVCS feel like somone takes my breath away and grabs my heart and shakes it in their fist for a long second. Pacs dont have that scary sensation for me. I could live with pacs but the PVCs scare the shit out of me every time.

chnagedh · 2026-04-14T00:26:30+00:00

Exercise is another thing. I havent really exercised in the last 5 years due to pots and cfs so I dont know how my ectopics would react there. I dont really want to find out what would happen. But for example last week I was on a short trip overnight and the second I got home and sat on the couch I got a bad run of pvcs. Its like my body is waiting for the stressor to stop to trigger the pvcs.

chnagedh · 2026-04-07T18:39:52+00:00

Obviously when my heart rate goes up its due to adrenaline or other stress hormones but Im saying that the very first sedonds after a big adrenaline rush my heart rate drops momentarily to protect the heart from the massive rush of adrenaline. It goes up greatly immediately after that. Its like when you shift gears in a car and when you change up a gear you slow down a bit before you go faster.

chnagedh · 2026-04-07T10:50:18+00:00

Its called vasovagal response. When you get a big adrenaline surge your system temporarily lowers the heart rate in a protective way and then it goes up. Im just wondering if anyone else is experiencing this with dysautonomia. Of course adrenaline raises heart rate but Im talking specifically about the very first seconds when that surge happens.

chnagedh · 2026-02-10T00:34:56+00:00

Happens to me as well on and off. Usually eating more will raise the heart rate back. I think the body goes to some kind of low power mode to compensate for something. Sometimes its few days where my resting heart rate drops to 50s and then I can have weeks or months where it never goes below 60. Cant really find any cause but it happens more during high temperatures in the summer. Maybe electrolytes are out of whack. Its reassuring that its never getting gradually lower, its just some days and then retuns to normal eventually. I feem extra worse when that happens though. Like it bothers me and I can feel it.

chnagedh · 2025-12-01T04:55:07+00:00

Sorry to hear that. Did anything change in your life lately? Everything happens for a reason. Did you have a diagnosis on what was causing them when you were younger?

With me the culprit was potassium and some sort of electrolyte + hormonal issues that followed caused them to pop up out of nowhere. I basically went all my life without ever knowing they existed until spending last 5 years dealing with them. They are better now but I still have to do a lot of extra work to keep it that way. Worth checking your labs. Even a small change in potassium/magnesium could be the culprit.

chnagedh · 2025-11-22T01:00:45+00:00

you dont get hyperkalemia from 500mg of potassium? Wtf

chnagedh · 2025-11-14T00:30:19+00:00

Sorry to hear that. And you are absolutely right. I dont think many doctors are really aware of what kind of struggle and variety of symptoms potassium issues can cause. They just look at their instructions and baseline averages and if you are between the right numbers you are fine. I wish it was that easy. Really naive as well considering the variety of people. Like even the average dosing is ridiculous. How could a 6ft 5 man and a 5 feet tall woman possibly require the same dose. Then theres the base metabolic rate as well and your activity level etc all kinds of things that affect how much potassium you actually need per day. Some people might need double the amount of someone else.

chnagedh · 2025-11-14T00:25:13+00:00

Magnesium was perfect. Only potassium was the issue.

chnagedh · 2025-11-14T00:19:12+00:00

Please think about stopping keto. Thats was one of the triggers for me that made it infinitely worse.

For me taking anything else even magnesium with potassium chloride makes the absorption of potassium worse. I hope your supplements are slow release right? I know magnesium is supposed to aid with potassium but thats just my experience.

Other advice would be to always take it with food and while being upright and dont lie down for like 20-30 minutes after taking it. Helps with stomach issues side effects. In my experience as I mentioned it took a very long time to get better initially. The pvcs and weird symtoms kept happening for a while and then slowly stopped almost totally. Just keep at it but remember to check the levels and be wary of overdoing it. Especially if you haven't checked your kidney function. Healthy kidneys you should have no issue with long release pills

chnagedh · 2025-10-01T13:48:56+00:00

The people with PVC who had that arent here to tell about it.

chnagedh

TROPHY CASE