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Heart Disease (Expert Forum)
Heart palpitations
This forum is for questions and support regarding heart issues such as: Angina, Angioplasty, Arrhythmia, Bypass Surgery, Cardiomyopathy, Coronary Artery Disease, Defibrillator, Heart Attack, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Mitral Valve, Pacemaker, PAD, Stenosis, Stress Tests
Heart palpitations
by momof2rugrats, May 24, 2006 12:00AM
Hello, I am 28 years old and have been having heart palpitaions. I have been to my doctor and to the ER and they claim everything is fine. It gets really bad when I lay down at night. It usually keeps me up for at least 2 hours at night when they occur. It almost feels like my heart is beating so hard that it's choking me and it makes me cough. They come and go all the time for the last couple years. It's now getting to the point where it happens almost every night and now during the day also. Is there something I can do to prevent these. Please help!!
Doctor's Answer
by CCF-M.D.-MJM, May 24, 2006 12:00AM
Hello,
Sorry to hear about your frustration. Have you been to an electrophysiologist yet? Palpitations are the sensation of feeling your heart beat and can come from premature atrial or ventricular contractions, anxiety/depression, among other rarer causes. The first step is usually an EKG and holter monitor to correlated the symptoms with possible arrhythmias. It is usually PAC/PVCs.
Assuming it is PAC/PVCs, it is common to have the sensation of a pause then a thump often associated with a cough. These are worse at night because you are still and many people lay on their left side which brings the heart closer to your chest wall, making them easier to sense.
If a stress test, echo and other tests your doctor may want to order are normal, there is rarely any signficant life threatening problems -- unfortunately they can be life altering depending on the symptoms. If the symptoms are significant, the first step is a beta blocker. If the bb doesn't decrease the sensation or symptoms, in some highly symptomatic people an antiarrhythmic medication like flecainide is tried. This may reduce the frequency.
In rare circumstances, PVC ablations are done for monomorphic (originating from one site), frequent PVCs. We do not do these procedures often but we do them in rare circumstances.
An electrophysiologist is often the best person to address these problems. I hope this answers your questions. Thanks for posting.
Sorry to hear about your frustration. Have you been to an electrophysiologist yet? Palpitations are the sensation of feeling your heart beat and can come from premature atrial or ventricular contractions, anxiety/depression, among other rarer causes. The first step is usually an EKG and holter monitor to correlated the symptoms with possible arrhythmias. It is usually PAC/PVCs.
Assuming it is PAC/PVCs, it is common to have the sensation of a pause then a thump often associated with a cough. These are worse at night because you are still and many people lay on their left side which brings the heart closer to your chest wall, making them easier to sense.
If a stress test, echo and other tests your doctor may want to order are normal, there is rarely any signficant life threatening problems -- unfortunately they can be life altering depending on the symptoms. If the symptoms are significant, the first step is a beta blocker. If the bb doesn't decrease the sensation or symptoms, in some highly symptomatic people an antiarrhythmic medication like flecainide is tried. This may reduce the frequency.
In rare circumstances, PVC ablations are done for monomorphic (originating from one site), frequent PVCs. We do not do these procedures often but we do them in rare circumstances.
An electrophysiologist is often the best person to address these problems. I hope this answers your questions. Thanks for posting.
And as a young DCM patient who has been waiting for months to write a message (and could not) I ask that a moderator could stop all those messages about palpitation. That CAN BE an issue. But was already LARGELY discussed.
I have to say i posted re: palpitations and the dr. offered insight that was very helpful.. each post is different the answer may be the same but it gives the people suffering from palpitations some confort.
As for you not being able to get through i have found in the past if i wake up early at about 6 am or so i can get the post in. And i am on the west coast. So maybe that can help you get the questions you need answered.
Again i am not trying to minimize your frustration however i think palpitations are very scary. And the Drs. are very gracious in answering them and in a way that is simple to understand and are conforting. The other thing is that the drs. will also give guidance on how to go about getting your palpitaions diagnosed pointing very scared people is the right direction.
Like i said i had heart palpitations.. and went in to the dr. and was told to ignor them. That dr. did not to an ekg, event monitor, blood tests or anything. Saying i was not high risk 30 yr old female not over wieght non smoker no history and that palps are common. Then I posted here dr. told me it is probably nothing but to set my mind at ease request a 24 hr monitor and ekg. So i did. they showed some premature beats (nothing big) and sinus tach.. which was a good thing however they did record the palpitation.. by that recording they could see they were not life threatening they did a series of blood work and found that i had borderline high cholesterol and i was only 30 excercise 4-5 times per week. I slept a lot better that night knowing the palps were not life threatening and have modified my diet to get the cholesterol down. The thing is if it was life threatening i would have never been equipt with the information for the test to ask for or the questions to ask had it not been for this forum. So for that i am very greatful.
They are serious heart issues out there that no doubt deserve and need to be discussed much more and for those that have these serious heart problems , i understand the way they feel about palpitations being the continuous story/thread of the day, but one must also realise what most are bothered by is what most will discuss and talk about.
There are other discussion boards out there that persons might do well and benefit from, but here is where the doctors answers our questions even though most of them same redundant, reassurance is always the best therapy for benign palpitations, even though its sames to be in constant need every so often. Good health and a peace of mind to all.
I thank God everyday that I do not suffer as many as some of you do (several thousand per day), but most will agree that even ONE felt PVC is too many.
I went through the normal routine after getting these. I went to my Primary doctor, who after hearing what I was experiencing, referred me to get a Holter monitor. The Holter only picked up one 'early beat' in the 24 hours. Since I still had the referral, I made an actual appointment with the Cardio. He had me do a stress/echo, which came back completely normal for heart structure. They were also able to see what I was feeling, as I had them occur at the beginning of the procedure. It was at that point that I had a name to my dreaded feeling...PVC's. I was assured that they will not kill me, and that they will not lead to future problems. They normally do not treat them unless they become very bothersome for the patient. In a nutshell, I was told to ignore them, and live with them.
Fortunately for me, I get maybe between 15-30 per day of these things. I certainly feel each and every one though. I do wonder though, how many Doctors would not be so 'dismissive' of us if they actually felt these themselves. I can certainly understand why they get that way, seeing as there is little to no real solid research as to what causes these things to happen. Sure, they can suggest the usual things to 'lower' their frequency such as limiting your caffeine, alcohol, smoking, and stress. But even that is not 100% proof of stopping the PVC's. In my case, (and many others here I'm sure) where heart disease has been ruled out, yet we still have them, there HAS TO be a reason why they happen. You don't just go from never having these one day, to the next day having few up to hundreds.
Modern medicene is wonderful, and has done great things for many people. However in my case, personally, I feel that 21st century medicene has failed me. We can spend millions of dollars of research to come up with literally hundreds of medicenes that line your local pharmacy to treat 'benign, non-lifethreatening' symptoms for colds such as stuffy nose, sore throat, and cough. Yet there are hundreds (and thats just the ones on this board who knows how many for sure) who go through these awful PVC's each and every day, and we're constantly told that 'they are benign, and to ignore them'. Sure, they wont kill us (just like a stuffy nose wont), but the psychological impacts, and quality of life impacts can be devastating. That alone should warrant major comprehensive studies to determine WHY WHY WHY these things happen in people with no heart disease.
I'm extremely frustrated by this whole PVC thing....like others, I'm moving from scared to extremely angry about this. I'm 31 yrs old, with three young kids. I should not be worrying/dealing with this at my age....NOONE should, regardless of their age. There HAS TO be a reason for these PVC's, and it's extremely upsetting that it's being taken so lightly by the medical community.
For me, I started taking daily 400 MG's of Magnesium Citrate supplements, and they do help alot. I also have no caffeine at all, I dont smoke, or drink alcohol. I am 6'2, 196 pounds, and I exercise on a tredmill at least 5 days per week for 30 minutes at a time. See....I do all the things you are supposed to do, and I still have PVC's.....it just fuels my opinion even more that there is some common cause that is not found because proper research is not being done on PVC's.
Hang in there all,
--Mike
If so many people get them, then heck yes when it happens to them, they want to know what to do about it.
This forum's rules are two questions in a 6 month period. I've visited this board almost daily for one year and haven't been able to post, I'm frustrated just like you are. But I would never suggest to anyone here that they stop asking a question--any question, even if it's only important to them.
You caught me on a bad day. My mother and father both died in their 60's of sudden heart attacks (4 months apart infact). I think every question about the heart is important whether you think so or not. I might have BENIGN palpitations, but I still have concerns and worries and we're ALL human deserving of compassion and respect.
"PLEASE do not repost a question already listed on the site "
http://www.medhelp.org/forums/cardio/TheRules.htm
Using the archive one can find tons of answers to palpitations'questions (that are all very similar). I know it very well because at 30 years old I am an expert, I have tons of PVCs, bigeminy,trigeminy and sometimes v-tach because of my familial cardiomyopahty. I had an ICD implanted 4 years ago. Because of Vtach. I know very well that PVCs are very bothering. I do everything is known by medicine. I also go to a psycotherapist. I take betablockers. I take xanax. I am always following a diet (because of my cardiomyopathy).
I respect all. But I wanted to be respected. I would not ask here things that were already and continously asked. There are other spaces to talk about PVCs. Again, I suggest you the yahoo group People with PVCs: there you will find suggestions and tips that here you never will have from a doc. Those are tips of people who suffer. Like us