Missed heart beats when eating

I am currently 48 years old and have problems with my stomach that started to get worse about 4 - 5 years ago - feeling of fullness when even small amount eaten plus pain and discomfort. For this I have been given Amitriptyline 25mg, which does ease the symptoms a bit. The worst thing is that I also get missed beats when I eat, something will set this off and it can continue for several weeks and then slowly ease off although recently it has been more persistent.  I find it starts if I have done any heavy lifting, a lot of bending or stretching (for example when I work in my garden), if I have a cold which includes a cough or sometimes if I do any strenuous exercise causing heavy breathing, although they do not normally happen at the time of exercise. I have read that low sugar or changes in hormone levels can have an effect on heart rhythm, is this so?
I take quite a high dose of statins for high cholesterol, from which most of my family suffer, and I have done so for over 20 years since statins started in the UK, I tend to blame this for how bad I feel as I have been changed from statin to statin to try and control the cholesterol level and some make me feel worse than others, my diet is restricted as I cant eat much anyway. Sorry for rambling but can you give me any suggestions as to what might cause these missed beats, I hate the fluttering feeling when this happens and it is really getting me down.  I have had an ultrasound done on my heart and a stress test, which was OK.

[Michael J. McWilliams, M.D.]

That is the million dollar quesiton -- what causes PVCs and how can I get rid of them.  There is not a great answer to what causes them.  Some people identify a clear cause -- stress, fatigue, hormones, caffeine, tea, chocolate, etc.  I have heard people say their PVCs get worse with eating but I cannot provide you with an explanation as to why.

Beta blockers will help a minority of people with PVCs.  It is good that you have a normal EKG and echo. This means you have a good prognosis with the PVCs.

I hope this helps a little.

[SassyLassie]

Hi~Your symptoms are similar to many folks on these forums that have a Hiatal Hernia. I have one, and I can certainly relate to the "full feeling" after you eat. I found if I eat when I am not uptight, or eat slower and "healthier" food, I do not experience that feeling as much.

Oh yes, those pesky PVC love to act up when the stomach/hiatal hernia act up. I know mine do. I hate them. These forums are such a comfort, I am just astounded at the number of folks that have PVC's and similar symptoms to mine. Keep reading, and you will see what I mean.

Glad your cardio tests are so good, that is wonderful.
Susie

[gnp_pal]

Hi everyone-- I feel for everyone with these missed heart beats. I have a lot of information for you and some remedies. In todays world I don't think the doctors care to much as long as their getting their money for your visit, or they've had them themselves-- you've got to do your own research. Look out for #1.
  I had these missed heartbeats for about 10 years and the symtoms (symptoms) are all
the same-- you feel like your missing a beat and a thump in your chest and also
you may feel a little light headed-- I'm sure you'll agree. You also won't likely feel these missed beats when your walking-- I'll tell you why.
  I've read about 3 books on the heart now and I wanted to understand this to help myself. I couldn't stand these missed beats and it didn't seem to matter to any of these doctors. They all
do what they can but they really don't know why they happen-- at least most of them don't. The best book you can read is the heart ecyclopedia and it's written by Gabrielle Khan and he's a professor
of cardiology at the university of Ottawa
in Canada-- I found it very informative.
  My missed heartbeats went away for
the last 3 years and they just have come back. I think it's from stress and anxiety right now as I have a lot to do for the upcoming year and I think that's affecting me-- I believe I'll get rid of them again. I'll give it to you straight.
  Firstly the biggest contributor to my missed heart beats was caffeine- for sure
I drank diet pepsi and coffee all day. About 3 cups of coffee and lots of diet pepsi-- both contain caffeine. I stopped
drinking caffeine totally and they went away. I use to have these missed beats
so bad that I'd have a little diet pepsi with a meal and they would come on. If I had other stresses to add on to that they
would feel like thunder in my chest- very
hard thumps -- quite scary.
  Now-- why is this happening?? answer
thru my research I found out that caffeine and stress both stimulate the adrenal glands and the sympathetic nervous system. When the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated it releases
adrenaline-- usually to help you-- example somebody wants to fight or attack you-- your system will release adrenaline to make your heart pump more forcefully to pump blood to your muscles so you can fight or run-- natures way of a defence system for you.
   If your drinking to much coffee and you also have a stessful life your system is going to be producing more adrenaline than it needs. What this does is it affects
the "sinus node" which is a highly specialized and sensitive set of cells that
conduct the electrical stimulous that your
heart requires to beat rythmically.  The sinus node is located in the upper right atrium of the heart. The heart has 4 chambers- 2 upper atriums and 2 lower
ventricles. The lower left venticle is the
main pumping chamber of the heart and
it's rersponsible for pumping out reoxygenated blood to the body.
  What this extra adrenaline does is interferes with the sinus node and causes
interference with the rythmic electical shocks that make the heart beat rythmically. To prove this to yourself you can do this and get rid of your missed beats very easy--only temporarily and I'll
tell you how. This would apply to people with healthy hearts only -- after you've been told your heart checks out medically.
  As I said above the problem is an over
stimulated sympathetic nervous system producing to much adrenaline-- medical books refer to it as epinephrine or nora
drenaline-- all the same thing.
  Here's how to get rid of them for about 3 hours in about 3-5 minutes-- it works great for me but I really don't like to do it
but it's a lot better than the missed beats.
   Take 5 mg's of valium or you may only need 2.5 mg's and at the same time
tale one ounce of vodca with a 50% alcohol contant-- 40% is OK in a rum or something and your missed heart beats will go away-- for sure!!!-- why is this???
  Because alcohol is a deppressant of the nervous systen and the valium is to sedate or calm down the nervous sytem.
If you do this you will see that I'm right. I've been taking valium for anxiety for 10 years and since then I've never had a panic attach either-- it's a graet safe drug and it's cheap. It does not affect your sex drive and it doers not affect your thinking and make you feel like a zombie.( like a lot of anti-deppresants)
  The doctors don't like to prescribe it-- why???-- because the pharmaceutical companies have told them it's bad and addictive so they can sell there expensive anti-deppressant drugs like
Zoloft and Paxil-- to name a few, I think
those anti deppressants make you feel wierd and that their dangerous for some people. The people that have these missed beats like I do are likely high strung people or have too much stress in their life and their system is going thru
a hormone imbalance-- much like a diabetic when the pancreas has to deal with an overload of sugars to break down
eventually something going to give and
you will soon be a diabetic-- look at all
the young people that are-- bad diets to high in sugars.
  The last thing I'd recommend is a beta
blocker called metoprolol-- its pretty strong and it blocks adrenaline going to the heart-- there are others as well and they all end in-- ol-- Persoanally I don't like them because they affect your sex drive and I'll only take them the odd time
when my missed beats are bad.
  I should add that they are not really "missed" beats but what they are is 2 beats happening almost simultaneously and not in proper rythym making them feel like a missed beat-as
an endochronologist explained to me.
  i HOPE THIS HELPED SOME OF YOU AND
I'D LOVE YOUR FEEDBACK AND YOU CAN E-MAIL ME BACK AT-----
-- ***@****-- Grant in Canada
Bye the way--I don't really buy into the
thinking that alcohol causes the mised
beats--probably the caffeine in the mix--
like coke or pepsi-- some people's systems can't handle caffeine-I'm one!!
               GOOD LUCK!!!

[LukeL]

I am just guessing, but as the heart sits right near  the esophagus, swallowing food might stimulate a nerve near the heart which makes you feel your pvcs more often. Although if a holter shows more pvcs while you are eating, then I am stumped.

I would love to see a study corelating  a eeg with an ecg, or a functional mri with an ecg while the patient does tasks like drinking, eating, reading etc. to see if stimulation of areas of the brain trigger pvcs.