Comfort For PVC Sufferers

I was searching posts tonight and I found this one.  I wanted to post the link to this doctor's response from 2003.  It knocked my anxiety down a few notches, and I know many of you need this also.

I don't think they'll mind an in-house link ;)

http://www.medhelp.org/forums/cardio/messages/34339.html

[anacyde]

Quoted from that link:

11/13/03 by CCF-M.D.-RCJ
Roxanne,

Thanks for the post.

So, in patients with structurally normal hearts, neither PVC, bigeminy, nor NSVT carry an adverse prognosis.  Some cohorts, such as from Framingham, have shown increased incidence of heart disease in their populations of PVC patients.  However, the key to interpreting these studies is to recognize that their populations were higher risk.  Studies that have examined younger people have found that nearly half of healthy young adults have PVCs, mostly asymptomatic.  So in someone like yourself, who has had long-term PVCs, the PVCs are extremely unlikely to be the harbinger of bad news to come.

My own work performed here at CCF found no increased incidence of mortality in patients with palpitations as compared to asymptomatic people.

Magnesium has not been shown in a decently performed study to have an effect on either the frequency or sensation of PVCs.  Some people claim that it helps them, however.  No other supplements have definitively been shown to be effective, although some of our readers have developed regimens that are effective on a case-by-case basis.

The bottom line is that you have to decide to live with them, which certainly can be hard to do, or to treat them.  The decision to pursue treatment is your decision.  If the PVCs are bothering you badly enough, then you'll seek treatment.  But if you decide not to seek treatment, you can at least be reassured to know that the PVC should not cause you any harm.

Hope that helps.