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Heart Disease (Expert Forum)
Extra heartbeat/anxiety
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Extra heartbeat/anxiety
by Alslucas, Jul 08, 2004 12:00AM
I am a 33 year old female with no current medical conditions other than being overweight. Within the past 5 months I have been having what the cardiologist describes an an extra heartbeat. It's like a slight pause or hard heartbeat that lasts at most for 3 seconds. I have had three EKG's, an echocardiogram, a stress test, worn a halter monitor, and had complete blood workup. I do not smoke, drink, or consume much caffeine. Everything has come out normal except the holter monitor noted a few extra heartbeats. My primary physician and the cardiologist believe that it is due to stress and anxiety. I have been taking Buspar for 5 weeks. I haven't been anxious prior to the extra heartbeat occuring, but it's still happening. I have always done some excessive worrying, but never really felt extremely anxious until I started feeling this. I think about this happening most of the day. Even though I've actually seen 3 different doctors, I'm still concerned that something else is wrong. I'm not sure what else to do, but I know that this is scary and is causing more stress and anxiety. What do you suggest? Is it really possible for stress to trigger this to happen?
Thanks.
Thanks.
Doctor's Answer
by CCF-M.D.-MJM, Jul 08, 2004 12:00AM
Sorry to hear about your premature beats.
In reality, what you are going through is quite common. Premature beats can be caused by caffine, theophylline (tea), and stress/anxiety among others.
The good news is that palpitations are NOT a sign of cardiac disease. Given your normal EKG, echo, and stress test, you don't have anything to worry about from a cardiac perspective. It is hard though. Once you start to fixate on the premature beat, it becomes a problem of its own. It is easy for us to say relax and don't worry about it, but you are the one having the symptoms.
Beta blockers can be used to decrease the strength of the hard beat after the pause, but beta blockers have their own problems. They can make you tired and you have to take a pill every day.
My advice is to try not to focus on the symptoms and move on. If you can't, consider a beta blocker under your doctors supervision.
Hope this helps.
In reality, what you are going through is quite common. Premature beats can be caused by caffine, theophylline (tea), and stress/anxiety among others.
The good news is that palpitations are NOT a sign of cardiac disease. Given your normal EKG, echo, and stress test, you don't have anything to worry about from a cardiac perspective. It is hard though. Once you start to fixate on the premature beat, it becomes a problem of its own. It is easy for us to say relax and don't worry about it, but you are the one having the symptoms.
Beta blockers can be used to decrease the strength of the hard beat after the pause, but beta blockers have their own problems. They can make you tired and you have to take a pill every day.
My advice is to try not to focus on the symptoms and move on. If you can't, consider a beta blocker under your doctors supervision.
Hope this helps.
1. YES: stress can DEFINATELY cause missed heartbeats/ectopic heartbeats/other arrhythmias.
2. YES: stress can DEFINATELY cause missed heartbeats/ectopic heartbeats/other arrythmias!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO REALLY DO YOUR BEST TO TRY NOT TO WORRY! Especially given that:
3. The vast majority of the general/wider population have missed/ectopic heartbeats like you do - they just don't notice and/or don't care/worry about it.
4. Your testing looks fine: I know it's cliched and corny-sounding, but CHILL OUT and enjoy your life and look after yourself. I've been where you are now, and I really wish that I had done as I advocate above cos it sure would have saved me from a whole world of worry and anxiety this last 10 years..... Only just starting to sort myself out now in this regard. Do yourself a favour and stop worrying now!
BM.
If you read many of the posts in this forum you will find many people who are experiencing what you are. Ectopics are totally benign unless caused by heart disease, but since you don't have heart disease relax.
I personally have lived a long time with ectopics. They never killed me. They can be annoying however. My suggestion is that you focus and relax on other things.
I suggest that you loose weight and begin some exercising because that will give you the sense that things are OK and it will also reduce your stress anxiety.
I know exercise has always helped me when I've had ectopics.
Sorry to hear of your ectopics, they are horrible.
Someone asked about paxil. I am taking it and have found it to be most helpful, I feel heaps better, have much more confidence, and I have had no increase in palpitations as a result, infact I would say they have decreased quite a lot - which certainly proves that stress is a big trigger. I avoided taking an anti-depressant for years because of the fear of it upsetting my heart but it looks as though my fear has been unwarranted. I've been taking paxil for 6 months now with no ill effects at all.
Just my personal experience.
Good luck,
Best Wishes, Linda
p.s. My cardiologist recommended paxil as being the least likely AD to upset the heart.
p.p.s. I have had one side effect, just remembered - a little weight gain.
What would you suggest? Fixate on them, worry about them, don't listen to your cardiologist, get all in a tither and spend thousands of dollars going to cardiologists who will simply tell him exactly what the last cardiologist said?
Go to a good cardiologist. Get the tests necessary to rule out any heart disease or abnormalities. If things appear normal on the ECG. Then take it for what its worth. That's what he did, and the good doctor told him to not worry about it.
The fact is that I'm speaking from experience. When I first got PAC's I fixated on them terribly! There were time I would have one every few seconds when I would fixate on them. They nearly ruined my life. I then decided that the way to beat this is to simply concentrate on other things and to live as normally as possible. It's the same theory in overcoming any paranoia. You start taking steps that cause you to face your fears, and pretty soon you aren't afraid of them anymore. I never had one ectopic beat that caused me to be short of breath. Indeed I would run 3 to 4 miles with 2 to 3 ectopics a minute and be as fresh as a daisy when I got done. If his arrythmia was causing shortness of breath I would say further investigation was a must, and continue to search it out to find a suitable answer.
You obviously have a different arrythmia and different symptoms. It's illogical to compare your situation with someone who is having a few irregular beats a day. Also long QT syndrome is an entirely different matter and can indeed be fatal. By the way I eventually got AFIB, so I know what it feels like to have my heart jumping all over the place. But having AFIB was totally different than having PAC's! No comparison. With AFIB I felt an energy drain I never felt with PAC's.
When I developed a more serious arrythmia I sought aggressive treatment, and after two med failures I had an ablation which was a success. Which is what I would encourage anyone to do. But not for a few PAC's or PVC's, which I still get from time to time.
The bottom line was that if you read the posts of people on this forum you will find that most will say the same thing. Generally everyone says you learn to cope and live with them. The more you fixate on them, the worse they get.
It won't be easy, but what other option is there?
I wish it was as simple as relaxing.
When I am not bothered with arrythmias of afib and pvc's, no problems.
Glenn