Today, I went to the ER, erroring on the side of caution, believing the palpitations I was having was the result of a panic attack. I have had them before. I am a 25yo male, 5'11", 185lbs. My heartbeat stayed at of near 130 - 140 the entire 3 hours I was there except for when I was getting ready to leave. It eventually made it down in the the 100's. I also experienced and experience all the time an occasional missed beat. That occurred today more frequently than normal. The performed an EKG, blood tests, and chest x-ray and I was told that everything seemed to be in good working order. I then went to my family doctor. He wanted to put a holter monitor on me, but I don't have $700 to spend not having insurance at this time. This is not the first time it has happened. I get bad episodes every 1 - 4 months. My heart rate was 104 and he decided to put me on Cardizem LA 180mg to help regulate my heart rate and blood pressure. He wanted to give me a beta blocker, but I had objections to that since I am physically active and do not want to feel fatigued by my medication. I am no expert, but I kind of feel that I should get a second opinion on the medication idea. I mean, it is only 4 points over the normal range if I am not mistaken. Aren't there other ways to bring my resting bpm down over time. Is it critical that I be on this medication right now? While at the store later today and of course on the first day of the medication, I took the little machine test and it gave the results 144/82 95bpm. It seems like such a small decrease and something that may have been possible w/o medication. Oh, the rambling has begun....any suggestions would be helpful.