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Can fish oil cause palps

I have been taking fish oil for about 6 months and recently developed unexplained palpitations. I started to exclude certain things from my diet (take many supplements for weight lifting) to see if they go away. After much trial and error I stopped taking fish oil. The palpitations have gone away since. I'm very surprised at this. Has anybody had palpiations from fish oil. Could this even be possible that they would have caused them?
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Avatar universal
i was wondering "how much or how freq" have u been taking them. i beleive my palps are from taking too much at one time....it's a scary feeling...especially when they come freqly.   the directions say take 3 a day.....and i'm sure they meant am, noon, pm....but, i was taking all 3 at once in the am.  i plan to stop the 3 at once .....give my blood a couple of weeks to normalize; then switch to 1 in the am...noon...and pm.

if that doesn't fix it....i'll quit the fish oil then.
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Avatar universal
Hello:

I am a 45 year young female and never had any heart related problems until I found myself in the ER about 6 weeks ago and was told I had a premature heart beat but a healthy heart. After having taken Peramil for about a month I stopped taking them since they made me feel tired and drowsy and I found that the fainting part that used to come with the PVC's had become less severe. I also did not have the "I can't breath" sensation. I think I got those PVC's from being on a lot of planes, too much coffee, over the counter nose sprays and cold medicin. I have improved my diet now and stopped smoking and switched to decaf. I also started to do Yoga and began to run again. So far the heart beats did not improve that much. They come with some pain and and a discomfort in my chest and left shoulder. I often find my eyes to look different on days that I am doing less well and my vision is compromised as well. I really do not expect much from my cardiologist who told me to call him when things get worse, but in all reality he said I would most likely not die from it. My wellbeing is very compromised at this point and I am wondering if anybody tried accupuncture or went to a Naturpathic doctor for help and if so what was the experience like.

Thanks for any feedback you can provide.
Susanne
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Avatar universal
I wouldn't think the ekg would show strength of PVC heart contractions, but I'm assuming that's why the first questions my doc asked when I came to him with these symtpoms was if I felt tired, had any dizziness, shortness of breath or chest pains. I would think if the PVCs were affecting your circulation there would be additional symptoms other than feeling a skipped beat or slight pause. The reason I asked if doctors can identify the type of PVC through holter and ekg is because of something I read that I found very interesting. See below:

PVCs reflect activation of the ventricles from a site below the atrioventricular node (AVN). Suggested mechanisms for PVCs are reentry, triggered activity, and enhanced automaticity.

Reentry occurs when an area of 1-way block in the Purkinje fibers and a second area of slow conduction are present. This condition is frequently seen in patients with underlying heart disease that creates areas of differential conduction and recovery due to myocardial scarring or ischemia. During ventricular activation, the area of slow conduction activates the blocked part of the system after the rest of the ventricle has recovered, resulting in an extra beat. Reentry can produce single ectopic beats ,or it can trigger paroxysmal tachycardia.

Triggered beats are considered to be due to after-depolarizations triggered by the preceding action potential. These are often seen in patients with ventricular arrhythmias due to digoxin toxicity and reperfusion therapy after myocardial infarction (MI).

Enhanced automaticity suggests an ectopic focus of pacemaker cells in the ventricle that has a subthreshold potential for firing. The basic rhythm of the heart raises these cells to threshold, which precipitates an ectopic beat. This process is the underlying mechanism for arrhythmias due to excess catecholamines and some electrolyte deficiencies, particularly hyperkalemia.

Ventricular ectopy associated with a structurally normal heart most commonly occurs from the right ventricular outflow tract beneath the pulmonic valve. The mechanism is thought to be enhanced automaticity versus triggered activity. These arrhythmias are often induced by exercise, isoproterenol (in the EP lab), the recovery phase of exercise, or hormonal changes in female patients (pregnancy, menses, menopause). The characteristic ECG pattern for these arrhythmias is a large, tall R wave in the inferior leads with a left bundle-branch block pattern in V1. If the source is the left ventricular outflow tract, there is a right bundle-branch block pattern in V1. Beta-blocker therapy is first-line therapy if symptomatic.

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Avatar universal
Ed,

There are different types of PVC's (single, bigiminy, trigiminy etc), but if the heart is otherwise healthy, they are all usually deemed benign.

However, I think there is more to PVC's than the Doc's see on the ECG strip. I believe that PVC's can be "light", with minor heart muscle contractions, or "heavy", with strong heart contractions that can interfere somewhat with blood circulation. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the ECG or heart monitor differentiate the strength of PVC's, just whether they exist or not.
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Avatar universal
That's interesting that you have had similar experiences. My symptom onset was very sudden, but it coincided with a change in intensity in the gym and a much greater emphasis on cardio (entering a fat cutting phase). Since the PVCs have disappeared I have been gradually getting back into this demanding program, with some anxiety I must admit. But so far they have not returned. I am, however, taking more time warming up and cooling down and staying away from the fish oil tabs, which I upped from one to two a day before the palps started. It's a very mysterious thing and one I don't really like to dwell upon. I got my doc's assurance and that has helped a lot. In his opinion, hes he highly doubts it was the fish oil or any other supplement I am taking.
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Avatar universal
Ed.  I thought it was a coincidence, but I started getting a very low heart rate about 4 months ago right when I started taking fish egg oils 3 times a day and simultaneously starting an aggressive program with a personal trainer 3 times a week, and doing cardio 3 days on my own.  My cardio dr did not think anything off it though.
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Avatar universal
Well just to update. I have gotten my blood work and holter test results back. My blood work is normal. The holter monitor shows PVCs. The doctor said they are benign and that I can continue my daily activites and exercising. He asked how I was feeling and if the palpitations are still occurring. I told him they have not returned since I stopped taking fish oil. He didn't seem to have much interest in this. He did say if they return to call him. I feel very relieved that the palpitations were documented on the holter monitor at times when I documented them in the little diary they give you though and that my doc is confident they are not harmful to me in anyway to me. I was wondering though are there different types of PVCs? Do docs differentiate benign ones from more serious ones through holter analysis?
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Avatar universal
If your palps are benign, there's no harm in going back to try to pin down a cause (on a sample size of one, of course).  Like your awareness of them is going to get much worse?
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Avatar universal
Thanks for the response. I'm glad I'm not the only one getting palpitations from something that should be good for your heart. Besides fish oil, I do take a multivitamin, whey and caesin proteins, and glutamine. I restricted them all one by one and still had the weird beats. Out of all those things I didn't think fish oil would be the culprit. But I guess in my case it must have been. I had a pretty stressed out day today and figured if they were gonna return now would be the time, but they didn't. Just normal jitters no palps. So stress is out the window too. I'm wondering if I should go back on the tabs to see if they return just to confirm it in fact was what was causing my symptoms.
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Avatar universal
Yes, I've had the same experience!  I also had read in many places where taking Fish Oil was good for helping to eliminate PVC's, but in my case, it was the opposite.  And, it didn't stop there for me.  When I was taking Fish Oil, I had really weird dreams, and would wake up almost in a panic, having a terrible nightmare of some kind.  But, it definitely did increase the PVC's, in frequency, and intensity.  I have found that with other supplements also.  I take magnesium for the PVC's, and with trial and error, I have found that is pretty much the only one that seems to help, and not make things worse for me.  
    I have noticed when I take a multi-vitamin, it will sometimes irritate my heart, and also vitamin E has been a bad one for me.  I think you really have to be careful what you take, because I know that I did research the Vitamin E thing, and you have to make sure you are taking the natural form, and not the synthetic form, and it's really hard to tell the difference.  It doesn't matter if it says "100%" natural on it, that doesn't mean anything.  I'll post it here when I find it, but it's a difference of one letter in the ingredients, and a difference in price, which might be the more obvious thing.  The natural Vitamin E is quite a bit more expensive.  
    But, the side effects I sometimes get from multi-vitamins is nothing like what I get from the Fish Oil.  And, my brother gets palpitations sometimes, and he also had definitely noticed a link.  I guess it could just be a sensitivity for some people, because it's definitely not always the case, but it is something I definitely stay away from.  
    When I'm having alot of palps, though, I do eat more albacore tuna, because I read where eating that can reduce the dangerous types of arrythmias, and that always seems to be ok for me.  Good luck!  Val
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Avatar universal
Over the years, there have been conflicting reports of the effects of fish oil on pvcs, at least one mentioned by a doc at this site.  You might run a search here using the terms fish oil and pvcs or something like that.
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