Painful PVC's

[manatee-]

I began having, what I learned to be, PVC's in 1995. I became overly concerned about the skipped beats and in 1996 had my first panic attack. I was a State Highway Patrolman and was told by different doctors that stress was causing most of my problems. I was in pretty bad shape for a few years and was diagnosed with Post Traumatic stress disorder, due to some events that occured while on duty, and panic disorder. Over the last few years I have had an echocardigram,which was normal, Stress tests, worn Holter monitors and event monitors and other than having annoying skips my doctors have all said I was healthy and not to worry about the skips. The skips do seem more frequent when I am under stess. I take atenolol 25 mg twice a day and klonipin .5 twice a day. My question has to do with some recent symptoms. Sometimes while having a bowel movement or straining while exercising or while relly nervous I'll have a skip that feels painful or uncomfortable. I am guessing that if I have a skip while straining that the recovery beat is more forceful and causes some pain. Secondly lately when having sex sometimes I get very lightheaded. I have never passed out and it doesn't happen every time but it causes me to be a little nervous when having sex. I guess its a vicious cycle like worring about my skipped beats I began worrying about it happening which makes it worse. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. I really want to overcome all this and have made great strides over the last few years. I guess I just worry what the years of worrying and stress have done to me

[czech]

Hi, this is my first time to write. I really apreciate being able to read all the comments, it makes me feel better. Back in October I started having dizzy spells. Really bad, and finally I had an MRI done on my brain and coincidentally they were monitoring my heart and my heart rate dropped to 40, They freaked out and hooked me up to a heart monitor and thats when they saw the runs and runs of PVC's, I was having 25 or more per minute. They rushed me over to the emergency room and then stayed in the intensive cardiac unit for 5 days. Finally they diagnosed me with benign PVC's and later in the month did a heart catheretization to rule out any blockage too. That showed no blockage. They sent me home and I started feeling better after a couple of weeks, well that did'nt last, I started feelling dizzy spells again and so the doc started me on Toprol Xl today. I went to take my blood pressure earlier and pressure was normal but heart rate was in low 40's. That has happened to me several times now. Is it normal to have such a low heart rate? should I worry? Any comments would be appreciated.

[MistyEve]

Hi everyone,

I've been diagnosed hypothyroid and have spent the last year getting my thyroid replacement medication tweaked and regulated -- to where I am finally feeling pretty good in that respect.

I've had a couple of episodes lately that have me got me a little rattled -- and I'm hoping someone can help ...

This had happened twice now:

On Monday, January 14th, in a nice hot bath (just ready to get out actually) - I had two or three real hard - kind of "clutching" heart beats in a row that were a little painful.  It was the weirdest sensation - almost like something twisting or turning over in my chest -- and was centered on my chest directly between my breasts.

Really threw me for a loop and I nearly killed myself getting out of the water in case I had a heart attack and drown in there. [It's funny only in retrospect! ;).  I was able to shrug it off fairly quickly that time, because there was no contintuation of any pain ... just those two or three odd, 'painful beats'- and that momentary weird sensation.

Then yesterday, it happened again ... shortly after I'd come from a hot bath again -- I had been out just long enough to get dressed and come out here to boot up the computer.  This time it was only one hard, heavy - slightly painful beat - and that same weird  clutching sensation  - of something turning over in my chest.  My anxiety level really soared with this second onset -- coz I could no longer tell myself that this was just a one time oddity ... nothing to worry about.

So now I'm full of questions:

1.) Do nice hot baths normally "bring on" or contribute to PVC's or PAC's?

2.) On Monday morning - January 14th -- I started adding 50 mcgs of Selenium to my morning regimen of supplements that I take with my thyroid replacement medication. (Cal-mag; Vit C; Vit E; CoEnzymeQ10). (Selenium is supposed to help convert T4 thyroid hormone in the body to more readily usable T3 thyroid hormone). Do you think the Selenium could be a cause of the PVC's?  

3.) Are PVC's normally a bit painful?  I asked that question on the Thyroid Forum and nearly everyone said they experienced frequent palpitations but not with pain. (I was SO glad to find this forum for that very reason).  Again though -- the pain I experience only lasts for the duration of those odd beats  -- though the anxiety that I'm left with tends to keep me hyper sensitive to my heart beat for a while afterwards.

4.) I've experienced palpitations before -- kind of a wonky feel to my heartbeat ... like a surge and then a pause ... and then kind of a jump in my chest and my heart either calms right down ... or it races for another few beats and then calms.

  BUT - I've never had palpitations of any kind before that hurt even a little bit.

Oh ... I'm 47 yr old female - aside from the hypothryoid problem which took forever to figure out - and an age to regulate ... I'm in good health.

Thanks in advance for any insight you can offer

Nancy

[wilson-wilson]

Links to minerals/vitamins for PVCs/PACs

http://www.healthwell.com/healthnotes/Concern/Cardiac_Arrhythmia.cfm

http://www.healthwell.com/healthnotes/Supp/Potassium.cfm

For about 3 weeks now I have been taking one (1) Selenium pill, one-half (1/2) Magnesium pill, two (2) Omega3 Fish Oil caplets-three (3) times a day, one-half (1/2) aspirin, one (1) Tbs Gaviscon upon rising, two (2) glasses of Cabernet Sauvignon in the late evening and two (2) Tbs Gaviscon just before retiring, and my PVCs/PACs have reduced by, at least, ninety-nine (99.0%) percent!

[The above reflects -MY- (wilson-wilson's) results, and may not
reflect the results anyone else may, or may not have, following the above statement]

wilson-wilson

ps. I musta been lacking in something from above [wine maybe<G>]. If it [pvcs/pacs] change of course I'LL let y'all know. But this is the first week in 2 years I've had only a couple "SMALL" blips!

[Luna]

Hi. I am 55 yr. woman and have had several episodes of tachycardia and panic attacks in the past few years. All requisite tests have shown the heart to be fine, except that I have been told that I have a slight murmur and a premature beat. No mitral valve prolapse. Heart is healthy, etc. etc. For the past month or so I have been plagued with irregularities -- it is a skipped beat I guess. Feels like a pause. Sometimes causes a rush-like feeling throughout my body. At times it happens more than once a minute. It does not seem to happen at night when I am in bed and resting. More during the day. It is very disconcerting and troubling. I take my pulse a lot trying to get a handle on this and figure out what might be causing it. My work is not particularly stressful right now and my life is good. The holidays were stressful but they are over. I have been very careful with my diet, never did use caffeine, but now have even cut out decaf trying to find the culprit. After reading this website I am wondering...maybe there is no culprit. It sounds like this is something that happens to a lot of people and maybe I am giving too much attention to it and making it worse. Please, any comments would be appreciated. Thank you.

[arthur]

Beta blockers do at least three things:
(1) slow the HR, placing a kind of upper limit to the HR
(2) lower BP
(3) block the beta-adrenergic receptors in the body, including the ones in the PV foci

So the net effect is a slower heart, lower BP and, in principle, if your skips are being generated by foci sensitive to adrenaline, they can make you less prone to skips caused by adrenaline surges.  In my case, they worked fairly well to help avoid kicking in PAF due to PV foci when I exercised.  I don't think that they will stop skips that are generated as a direct result of PV foci firing, since those foci are always firing.  It's just that adrenaline can make them fire much stronger and cause more complicated arrhythmia to erupt.

The side effects of beta-blockers are primarily due to their inability to limit their action to heart tissue.

Of course, all the comments above are my opinions, and since I am not qualified to make medical opinions, should be entirely disregarded.

[paola37]

I have read different opinion regarding Toprol Xl - does it really work on pvc? Logically it should make things worst...
if it is meant to slow the heart rate down, I would think that the thumb would be more noticeable?  What am I missing about this product?  is 25mg per day a good starting dose? My primary care physician suggested to give it a try at 25 mg... it seems to help but now a whole lot - would 50mg do the trick? Any suggestion would be grealty appreciated -
Paola