Electrolyte imbalance and exercise

I am 45 years old and have over 1000 PVCs a day. Lately I have been walking 3-5 miles a day on the treadmill. I walk on average about 3.5 mi an hour. I have been doing this for about 4 weeks now. The past week my PVCs seem worse, especially when i relax. When I am sitting relaxed or falling asleep it feel like my heart has a pause. When I am falling asleep I jump and take a deep breath and then check to make sure my heart is beating. When I am awake I feel a pause, followed by a thump and I get really light headed. I have been reassured by several docs 2 cardiologists and 2 electrophysiologist that they are benign and nothing to worry about. I have had several of these episodes at work. It sounds crazy, but one of my biggest fears is that I am going to faint at work and everyone will know. Not that I am ashamed, but it seems when I tell people they look worried and wonder if I am going to die!!!!!!!! I want to know if anyone else has experienced this and if this could be from an electrolyte imbalance from exercising??

Thanks, it helps when you don't feel so alone with it!!!!

[CollegeGirl143]

if you where to get so dehydrated from exercising that it would cause an electrolyte imbalance, you'de have to be losing fluid pretty severely.. Are you sweating alot??? Hopefully you're replenishing what you've lost by drinking water while you're working out.. Kudo's to you for not letting the pvc's stop you from activity.. You're having alot of pvcs and seem to be pretty stressed about them! have you tried medication?? Since this is a new symptom (the increase with exercise) ide mention it to my cardio just in case

[sickofpvcs]

I am going to the doc tomorrow. I can't see the specialist, only his Physicians Assistant. I was on another 24 monitor in Dec and they mentioned going on meds. So I guess I am going to try them.

When I work out I drink TONS of water...2 16oz bottles. I do sweat a lot so maybe that is contributing to it. It is so funny, I always hated working out. I have never had my symptoms worsen until now. And now I soooooo want to keep going. It almost feels like one more thing is making me worse so I should not do it. Already there's no caffiene, no alcohol, no cold medicine etc. Hopefully I will get some relief with meds tomorrow. Thanks for understanding!

[CollegeGirl143]

yea i hope you find some relief too! Working out always made me feel better.. its hard to get started but once you do, its really worthwhile... i hope the medications work for you! 1000 in a day must be pretty crappy to deal with.. When i had svt bad, i had alot of pvcs, and a few runs of nsvt but nowhere near 1000 a day, now i only have the occasional pvc... Ive even started caffeine again (not much mind you, LOL) For me it was mind over matter. Let us know how the doctors appointment goes! Oh and if you're really worried about the electrolytes, they now have that stuff ( i think "smart water" does it) where they enhance the water with electrolytes.

[sickofpvcs]

You had svt? Did you have an ablation?? My sister had one about 7 years ago and is now almost symptom free.....The same doc I see cured her. I believe she had svt. Not sure though...I just know she is better. I am glad for that since her heart rate went up to amost 300 bpm when she was having an episode!

[sickofpvcs]

Forgot to mention I sure will try the Smart Water!!

[CollegeGirl143]

yes i did have svt, i was very symptomatic, ide have 3-4 episodes a day with a 250bpm + pulse that would last anywhere from a minute to hours or whenever they terminated it with adenosine.. My ep recommended ablation as the only viable treatment option since whenever i was having svt episodes, i would feel faint, or just plain old faint.. My first episode of svt i was aware of, i was standing next to a huge bay window , fainted, and bounced my head off it and cracked the window.. Im great now though :) ...thats great you guys have the same doctor with lots of experience.. im sure you'll be up and running in no time!

[anacyde]

Well, during my anorexic days I exercised two or three hours a day and went through a bottle of Milk of Magnesia on top of that.  It's a wonder I'm alive.  I do not recommend this ritual.  But even then I managed to not have any severe electrolyte imbalance.  A couple mild ones, but nothing I even needed a supplement for.  My point is that normal exercise on a normal diet would NOT cause you an electrolyte imbalance.

What you're feeling, the fear of passing out in public, sounds classic of anxiety.

[sickofpvcs]

CollegeGirl I am glad you are doing well! What a frightening thing to faint. How long did you have to go through all of that???????/

anacyde I know a lot of my condition is worsened by anxiety....I have had this for so long now I should be used to it!! It just gets worse with every year and I get no answers as to why......It's is making me crazy!!

[sb786]

Hi there :) Just wanted to ask you how did your pvcs decrease after a successful svt ablation?? Was the svt causing the pvcs somehow?? My doc did say that sometimes a cell in the atria (which triggers the svt) can also fire off and if the sinus node fires off at exactly the same time then neither electric impulses go through the av node so a cell in the ventricles fires to make the heart beat instead! (hope i explained that ok)

[CollegeGirl143]

i have no idea why my palps decreased after ablation, this isnt always the case, but it was for me :) So much about pvc's are unknown.. it sounds like you have a very intelligent cardiologist who is helping you understand your condition :) thats great!