Irregular heartbeat after eating spicy foods

[marshaldillon]

I am a 51 year old male. For several years I have had episodes of irregular heartbeat when I have severe indigestion. Recently I started having irregular heartbeat after I eat anything spicy. This is accompanied with a feeling that I need to belch. The irregular beat lasts about 5 minutes with very few regular beats during this period. I have no other symptoms. I wore a 30 day monitor, but never had one of these 5 minute episodes during this time. They only found PVC's. I also had a nuclear stress test which was negative. I am wearing the monitor again since these episodes have increased from one every two or three months to once per week, but no episodes yet.

My doctor gave me Prevacid to reduce the acid in my stomach to see if the irregular heartbeat will subside. Have you heard of this before? Is it dangerous for my heart to stay out of rythm for 5 minutes?

[Jerry_NJ]

Short periods of irregular heart beats is usually not serious.  

Have you eaten any spicy foods while on the monitor?  If that's the trigger, seems like the thing to do to me.

How do you characterize the irregular, extra, heavy, missing...?  Do you have to really be quiet to feel them, or do they "wake you up"?

[Brooke_38]

Hello...

There are many people who experience irregular heartbeats associated with spicy food. SInce your last event monitor detected PVC's, I would suspect the finding of this round of monitoring to probably show the same PVC's.

"Is it dangerous for my heart to stay out of rythm for 5 minutes?" If your symptoms are in fact  PVC's or PAC's (premature atrial contractions) the answer to that question is...No. You also mentioned that you had a negative nuclear stress test. That is a good indicator that your heart is in pretty good shape.

If it can put you at ease to know, there are people who go days to weeks to months to years having thousands per day...You're doing the right thing by having this investigated but I assure you, it doesn't seem to me that you are in danger from this:)

I hope that you feel a little less stressed over this and will be able to enjoy this holiday season...best of luck to you and Happy New Year!

[marshaldillon]

I ate a heck of a lunch to try to induce it...but no luck (or bad luck). I have the monitor for 29 more days so I will eat a pizza at some point which is a sure trigger. Thanks for your response!

Marshal Dillon

[marshaldillon]

Thanks for encouragement. I will find out once I have an episode which will usually happen within a week.