Question: I'm male, 52 years, length 181 cm, weight 86 kg, non-smoker. I take no medication. I am a moderate drinker (about 2 glasses of wine Friday and Saturday). I am exercising one hour+ almost every day; cycling in the summer, skiing or hilly terrain walking in the winter, weight lifting two to three times a week. Been exercising, not heavy but very regularly, almost all of my life. I am eating Omega-3 and magnesium supplements since half a year.

My resting BP is usually around 125/80 although it varies a lot, it can be like 90/135 when I'm at work, and tends to easily peak even more when I'm stressed. My resting pulse is around 70 bpm and I can go over 170 bpm (e.g. when cycling) without feeling any pain, don't know what the XXXXXXX is.

Two years ago, after work-out, I felt sudden dizziness and a very peculiar feeling in the chest after weight-lifting. The second time it happened I went to a doctor, who did ECG and blood tests, and found nothing out of the ordinary. Since then I have noticed small "twitches" in the chest now and then, nothing big, until early this year. This time it lasted longer and I got more dizziness (almost a feeling of fainting), which scared me. I immediately went to a doctor-on-call, and got remitted for several tests ECG, blood tests, an 48 hour ECG monitor, heart stress test with ultrasound, and 24h blood pressure monitoring.

The conclusion was "benign observations of a few extra heart beats" but otherwise everything ok (I did not get to see the actual data) so I got no medical prescriptions, nor any further investigation. The recommendation was to "keep living and exercising as normal".

A few days ago the pulse suddenly went to 150 (with noticeable irregularity) for no obvious reason, while watching TV (this was after a few hours of earlier digging in the garden). The systolic BP went up to 170 for a short while. I called a medical help-line and they said that if the pulse hadn't went down after one hour I should go to the ER (otherwise not, as the beats were strong, and I had no chest pain or trouble breathing). The pulse eventually went down, and I felt alright the day after.

I have noticed that the pulse varies a lot from day to day, even when I am doing exactly the same thing. Yesterday at the gym I felt a few extra heart beats and lightheadedness while warning up in the cross-trainer, and the pulse quickly went from 130 to 160. I slowed down a little bit, took some water and waited for the pulse to go down, had no chest pain or breathlessness, so I continued my work-out session. The lightheadedness kept on almost the whole day though.

I have never felt intensive chest "pain", but often a feeling like muscle soreness in the chest, especially in the morning, but almost never while exercising. Sometimes I also have a strange feeling of "suction" slightly below the breast pit. I feel rather fit, but have noticed it takes longer to "get up in laps", especially while cycling.

My questions are:

Might I be in danger, should I go back to the doctors and demand this to be investigated further (or maybe seek another doctor)?

What is your recommendations concerning training, continue as usual, take it slower, do it in a different way?

What could possibly cause this, things such as blood sugar and TSH level seems ok according to tests. Could it be just stress, dehydration, my age, or can it be some other disease the doctors I have met haven't thought of?

Best regards /Per