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What Causes Skipped Heart Beats?

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Posted on Mon, 21 Jul 2014
Question: My husband has been taking Diovan, Omiprazole, Synthroid, Vitamin D, and Fishoil tablets once a day. He is 67 and has been doing this for years. He is exercises daily and is in excellent health. 2 months ago, he began having skipped beats. This comes and goes, and seems to me to be tied to events of stress like my daughter's graduation from college. He consulted not only his internist who specialty is cardiology, but a cardiologist who ran standard tests and had him on a heart monitor for 24 hours which showed nothing conclusive. They are still occurring and I suppose he will go to another doctor to get an opinion, but I was wondering if this situation may be due to a drug interaction, particularly the thyroid medication. He is on a paleo diet which has brought his weight and cholesterol numbers down dramatically and his thyroid numbers are good as well.
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Answered by Dr. Shehzad Topiwala (21 minutes later)
Brief Answer:
Thyroid

Detailed Answer:
Sorry to note his complaints.

I see you have mentioned that his thyroid numbers are fine. May I know if the thyroid labs were checked after he began the pale diet/ weight loss or before that.
Because as you have partially surmised, the thyroid dose may be excessive at the new weight he has achieved since thyroid dosing is often weight related. When the body gets more synthroid than it needs, one of the symptoms that may develop is an irregular heart beat/rhythm.

However, if the thyroid tests were ran after 4 to 6 weeks after the new diet and weight loss, and the TSH is in the range of 0.4 to 3.5 then it is extremely unlikely the synthroid is causing the skipped beats.

Amongst the medications you have mentioned, there is no significant interaction of these with synthroid to explain the skipped beats, especially if the the TSH and free T4 appear normal on the labs. Also make sure his blood (25 hydroxy) vitamin D levels are normal.
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
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Answered by
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Dr. Shehzad Topiwala

Endocrinologist

Practicing since :2001

Answered : 1663 Questions

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What Causes Skipped Heart Beats?

Brief Answer: Thyroid Detailed Answer: Sorry to note his complaints. I see you have mentioned that his thyroid numbers are fine. May I know if the thyroid labs were checked after he began the pale diet/ weight loss or before that. Because as you have partially surmised, the thyroid dose may be excessive at the new weight he has achieved since thyroid dosing is often weight related. When the body gets more synthroid than it needs, one of the symptoms that may develop is an irregular heart beat/rhythm. However, if the thyroid tests were ran after 4 to 6 weeks after the new diet and weight loss, and the TSH is in the range of 0.4 to 3.5 then it is extremely unlikely the synthroid is causing the skipped beats. Amongst the medications you have mentioned, there is no significant interaction of these with synthroid to explain the skipped beats, especially if the the TSH and free T4 appear normal on the labs. Also make sure his blood (25 hydroxy) vitamin D levels are normal.