Diet pills gave me heart disease: Michelle Heaton reveals how obsession with slimming gave her terrifying cardiac condition | Mail Online

Terrifying legacy: Michelle Heaton is coping with her cardiac condition

The attacks last less than a minute, yet they are utterly terrifying. Once a month, and sometimes more often, former Liberty X singer Michelle Heaton is gripped by 'a hollow feeling inside. Then I feel for my pulse in my neck, and there is nothing. My heart has stopped.

'I start to cough and splutter, and then after a few seconds it starts again. But now it's like someone with no rhythm is squeezing my heart.

'It's on the beat then off the beat, fast then slow. And then it calms down after about 20 seconds. Every time it happens, I think I am going to die.'

When Michelle was stretchered away after suffering one such episode on crossing the finish line at the London Marathon last year, it was revealed that she had been suffering from unexplained arrhythmia  -  a catch-all term for problems with the heart rhythm  -  for seven years.

Yet, until now, the true cause has been a mystery. Experts have now told her she may suffer from atrial fibrillation (AF), the same cardiac condition that Tony Blair was diagnosed with.

Michelle, 31, first shot to fame in the 2001 TV talent show Popstars. Liberty X was formed by the five runners-up but went on to outstrip the winning band Hear'Say both commercially and critically, winning two Brit Awards.

The star admits: 'Often when I have had an attack, I have been with friends who have called an ambulance. But when the paramedics arrive, I'm fine and it looks like I'm making a fuss about nothing.'

There are about two million arrhythmia sufferers in Britain, and the causes of these conditions are notoriously difficult to pinpoint  -  mainly because of their unpredictable nature.

'I've seen countless doctors over the years but they said I needed tohave my heart rate recorded on an ECG machine during an attack for themto pinpoint the cause of my arrhythmia. I have even worn a portable medical monitor for weeks at a time but, of course, I didn't have an attack.'

Recalling the London Marathon collapse, Michelle says: 'I had completed the New York Marathon the year before and felt fine.

'I'dasked my doctor if it was OK to take part and he had said,"You won't die doing it but you may feel something is not right at the end."As it turned out, I had no problems.

'In London I took it quite slowly, I was running next to Sir Richard Branson and we crossed the line at the same time after five-and-a-half hours.

'Richard seemed fine but I had to sit down on the pavement immediately because I felt so bad.'

Source