Ectopic Beats

[CASS13]

Hi, this is my first time on this forum it is very informative! I am a 23 year old female who has been having palpitations for the past 3 years which have been increasing in severity and frequency. I recently went to a cardiologist who performed an ECG, which was normal and he brushed me off saying " i was fine" and I might just have ectopics.
However, these palpitations are becoming increasingly frequent and happen almost everytime i stand up after sitting or lying down, and last for 30 seconds or so. Very scary! They feel like a flutter in my chest and when I take my pulse (either in wrist or neck) my pulse stops and starts again continuously in an irregular rhythm.
I find they do worsen when I am sick (with the flu for example) or tired but they do not get noticeably worse during exercise.
I am unsure whether I should continue seeing a different cardiologist to sort this out or whether I should stop worrying about it!
Your input is greatly valued!
Thanks!

[chuparosa]

I agree with what everyone has said here.

Many people have found relief by eliminating caffeine, watching their sugar intake, and adding magnesium to their diet. Maybe that might help you.

Keeping a log/diary of events might help you discover what is triggering your ectopics.

[Mom2four85]

Have you gotten copies of all your results? That would be my first thing to do and take notes, ask questions to the dr if you don't understand something.

sometimes that "nothing" can be something or it could be anxiety, stress, our diet, sleep habits etc - it's always best to be safe

[itdood]

I'm guessing these are premature ventricular contractions, which are very common and usually benign.  Yours fit the benign profile in terms of symptoms and frequency.

The way I see from my experience, you have two paths.  More testing and/or medication to suppress the PVCs if they are causing you too much grief.

More testing:  
You can have further testing done if you want.  This could be an Echo, stress test, perhaps a nuke stress test.  all this will give you is peace of mind if OK.  I've been through all that + a cardiac MRI.   I found a little reassurance from all this, but not a complete reassurance where I can ignore them.  Your PVCs sound like they were much less than what I was getting.


As far as treating benign PVCs with meds

I tried mostly all of the blood pressure meds approach.  Beta blockers and calcium channel blockers.  for me they made it worse.

The next level up would have been anti arrhythmics.  Those are completely out of the question for me, as those are dangerous to folks with benign arrhythmias.

I tried the meds and nothing helped.  Testing helped a little bit in terms of reassurance.  Everyone is different and dealing with these is trial and error.

I've learned to live with them through life style changes and stress reduction, for now....