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Dr. Andrew Rynne

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What Causes Sudden Sweating Along With Light Headedness And Rapid Heart Rate?

Hello! I am at a conference out of the county. I gave a keynote speech this afternoon and half way into it, I started sweater profusely -- the room was very hot and the heater was turned down. But a few minutes later, I felt light headed and like I could faint, though I ve never fainted before in my life, even after a serious accident. My heart felt like it might be racing, though, again, this isn t something that has ever happened to me when I m presenting or performing, though I do feel quite nervous and excited usually. I actually had to stop in the middle of the presentation and calm my body down before I could proceed. Now I am feeling a bit chilled and my shoulder and arm muscles feel a bit sore, like I m holding tension, and I feel kind of spacey. I made it though the presentation and was lucid and articulate the whole time, so nothing neurological was happening so as I can tell.
posted on Sun, 30 Oct 2016
Twitter Sat, 9 Mar 2019 Answered on
Twitter Mon, 11 Mar 2019 Last reviewed on
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General Surgeon,  's  Response
Hello,

There are quite a few possibilities as the presentation is atypical in nature. I will be listing them out in order of likelihood:

1. Hypoglycemic episode

This explains the headache, sweating and feeling better once meals were given however what goes against the diagnosis is that your blood report was clean. I would like you to get a cortisol level done to rule out decreased secretion of it

2. Seizure

Seizures can present the same way but you don't have a "typical" history of a seizure as there is no loss of consciousness or spontaneous micturation, defecation etc. However such seizures do exist and has to be evaluated for.

What goes in favor is the acute onset of the symptoms.

3. Migraine

Clustered episodes every year does explain migraine, what goes in favor is reduced headache after waking up but eating meals would not have reduced the symptoms.

I strongly suggest you approach a set up which has endocrinology, neurology and XXXXXXX medicine so that you can get the following tests done:

1. Serum cortisol
2. MRI Brain
3. EEG
4. Fasting blood sugar

I hope I was of help. If you have any further ones please get back to me. Sorry for the short delay in my reply, I just got back from the hospital.

Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.

Take care

Regards,
Dr Ivan R. Rommstein, General Surgeon
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What Causes Sudden Sweating Along With Light Headedness And Rapid Heart Rate?

Hello, There are quite a few possibilities as the presentation is atypical in nature. I will be listing them out in order of likelihood: 1. Hypoglycemic episode This explains the headache, sweating and feeling better once meals were given however what goes against the diagnosis is that your blood report was clean. I would like you to get a cortisol level done to rule out decreased secretion of it 2. Seizure Seizures can present the same way but you don t have a typical history of a seizure as there is no loss of consciousness or spontaneous micturation, defecation etc. However such seizures do exist and has to be evaluated for. What goes in favor is the acute onset of the symptoms. 3. Migraine Clustered episodes every year does explain migraine, what goes in favor is reduced headache after waking up but eating meals would not have reduced the symptoms. I strongly suggest you approach a set up which has endocrinology, neurology and XXXXXXX medicine so that you can get the following tests done: 1. Serum cortisol 2. MRI Brain 3. EEG 4. Fasting blood sugar I hope I was of help. If you have any further ones please get back to me. Sorry for the short delay in my reply, I just got back from the hospital. Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further. Take care Regards, Dr Ivan R. Rommstein, General Surgeon