decaf.jpgStorytime. Several years ago, I kept getting this feeling like my heart was skipping a beat, or that it was beating double occasionally. I had lots of tests done, and it was determined that I have mitral valve prolapse (MVP), a really common heart disease–but no big deal in my case. The bigger news was that my doctor told me to try avoiding caffeine to see what would happen.

So I stopped drinking soda and coffee (I didn’t drink much to begin with), and like flipping a switch, the heart fluttering STOPPED. I was amazed.

When doing some research about mitral valve prolapse and caffeine, I came across this list of symptoms of MVP that sounds just like HSP symptoms. I wonder if there is a connection?

Difficulty concentrating ~ Palpitations of the heart; skipped or irregular heart beat ~ Panic attacks, with pounding heart beat ~ Hypersensitive startle reflex ~ Sensitivity to drugs, including alcohol, caffeine, and medications (caffeine prevents the natural absorption of catecholamines [blogger note: adrenaline is a catecholamine], so that they linger in the body.) source

Digging a little deeper, sure enough I find a mention of people with MVP having traits similar to HSPs (on Elaine Aron’s site, no less!) I guess I wasn’t the first brilliant mind to make the connection. Or maybe I’m just crazy and think everything is related to HSP….

So I wonder, those of you who identify as HSPs–do you get heart “flutters”? Do you have mitral valve prolapse?

Related Post: Caffeine is my kryptonite