Hi,<p>I’ve been using a macbook pro on a daily basis for the past 10 years or so.
For the past 3 years or so, I’ve been using it constantly plugged in (charging) without an external keyboard/mouse.
This period closely matches up with the period I’ve been having heart palpitations.<p>I’m an otherwise healthy individual, 28 years old, no previous conditions, athletic body.
I go running 2x a week, and have a set of bodyweight exercises I perform DAILY, to keep in shape.
I have never smoked or had any relatives with heart issues.<p>I recently quit caffeine completely, since I was having more and more palpitations daily.
The symptoms have improved, but not disappeared.<p>Today, when my girlfriend came to pat me on my arm, she said<p>her: “Wow are you cold?”
me: “No, why?”
her: “You’re shivering”
me: “Ah, no that’s because, I’m touching my laptop. I have an electric current traveling through me.”
her: “OMG???”<p>And that’s when it hit me: I’m constantly being electrocuted on a daily basis by my laptop.
I’ve grown accustomed to the small current that’s traveling through my body for at least 8 hours a day.
I even adjusted my sitting posture, so that I’m always in full contact with my laptop, in order to avoid a partial contact (to avoid THAT painful sting).<p>I know that many of you know about this constant weird buzz, when for example You gently run a finger over your macbook, whilst it’s charging.<p>It can’t be healthy… right???<p>Are any of YOU experiencing similar symptoms or are in a similar situation?<p>Do You know of any research on effects of small current on the human body, over a prolonged period? (unlikely)<p>Are any of You encountering anxiety, tension in chest, near the heart ?
It is at least plausible, that you could run an AC current over your arms and over your chest.
This can cause a stimulus to your nervous system if the current is high enough to overcome the action potential.<p>A tingling sensation, muscle spasm and aching would be the cause for low levels of current and prolonged exposition.<p>But since you found the culprit, you would be easily be able to mitigate your exposure. Either by wearing latex or rubber gloves or proper grounding of your device, which should not shock you btw.<p>Above the action potential you muscles will contract and your nerves will give stimuli, which can cause tension and anxiety.<p>If you feel the shock sometimes you are definitely above action potential.<p>There is another threshold above the action potential, which will cause irreversible damage, heart failure or death. A residual current device is usually installed with your circuit breakers to prevent residual current above this threshold.
I'm really late on the reply chain, but hopefully you'll see this.<p>I wonder if there should be an inductor coil on the power cable. It sounds like some AC is getting through, and an inductor (which is essentially an electro magnet) basically shaves it off.<p>That's what the mystery box or tube is that you see on some other adapters and sometimes on accessory cables for things like keyboards with built-in USB ports.<p>Basically the higher the current, the more magnetized it becomes. Magnets are polar, which makes it behave a bit like a one-way resistor so AC can't flow through.
Have you stuck a volt-meter to your laptop to see if it is actually running a current through the body of the laptop? If it is, might be worth having the laptop serviced.