link between pvc's and hiatal hernia?

[jailnurse]

i am a 39yo white male,hx of ibs,hiatal hernia,and just recently(in the past year primary htn)started with bp 180/120 last year lowered with nitro at work was in for cardiac cath that afternoon.results 0 luminosities.started on 50mg lopressor bid, now up to 250mg daily.3 mo after cath. ultrasound done,good heart function,mild thickening of ventricular wall,otherwise normal.was told over time the wall should thin out d/t effect of lopressor in relaxing heart muscle.have noticed bp is normalizing well,but continue to have pvc's,more frequent after meals.i was on nexium at one time stopped taking d/t cost.was not having any s/s of reflux,no problems with ibs or pvc's.now ive tried protonix,up to 300mg zantac,and rx strength prilosec,either no relief or alot of gi side effects.what else can i do,looking at seeing gi specialist for abd ultrasound to check status of herniation.are there any studies being done about possible correlation between pvc's and hiatal hernia

[marshaldillon]

I am not aware of any studies, but my PVC's are related to something going on in my stomach. I only have PVC's after I eat. It feals as if an air bubble pushes against my heart and causes it to skip a beat. If I can belch a few times, I get over it. My doc thoerizes that I have acid reflux and that somehow stimulates my vagal nerve when the acid splashes. Sorry for being gross, but that is what the doc says.

[missalisa]

Who is your doctor? I would love to talk to them. Where is this doctor based? I believe my own PVCs are caused by my hiatal hernia and GERD, which, sadly, were caused by 15 years of bulimia. Oh, the curse of being an American female. God. If I'd known then what I was setting myself up for. Gah. Oh well. Moving on. The PVCs came very suddenly two weeks ago, and I've had at least 2000 a day, every day, since. It is terrifying, but at least I don't get dizzy with them now. I just try to ignore them. But I notice a real relationship between eating - and what I eat - and how bad they get. Yesterday I ate no dinner, just to see what happened, and I had ZERO PVCs all night. First good night of sleep I've had in a long time. I need to find a Dr. who believe there is a link. My cardiologist shrugged when I told him. I've also noticed that on days when I run vigorously for an hour or more, I have far fewer PVCs than on days when I do no exercise or exercise moderately. But if I focus and listen to my own body - our bodies do, in fact, KNOW what is causing this, even if the conscious mind does not - I KNOW that if I have the hernia fixed, the PVCs will go away. The stomach is pressing the heart, and the heart is shrugging it off with an extra beat, like, "get off me!" I'm going to schedule a hernia fix op, and will let you all know the results. THERE IS LINK BETWEEN GERD AND PVCs! Oh, I also noticed that most people on this board are very articulate, which leads me to wonder if there is a higher occurrence of PVCs among gifted people? There are studies showing that most people have PVCs now and then and don't feel them. Gifted people feel more in a lot of areas - makes me wonder. I also wonder, too, if there is a link to core strength - abdominal wall strength - and PVCs. I am overweight, and carry most of it in the middle. I've dropped six pounds since being diagnosed with these things, and find they've gotten less intense, though not less frequent.

[marshaldillon]

My doctor is in Florida and knew the link between Gerd, acid reflux, and PVC's before I brought it up.

[missalisa]

Wow. I live in New Mexico. I guess that explains it, eh?

I need to find a good doctor somewhere else. Happy to travel for quality health care.

I was told by the secretaries that my cardiologist was great here because he likes to stroll around the lobby playing his guitar.

God help me.

[SassyLassie]

Oh  my gosh, that is no way to pick a cardiologist, because he walks around playing a guitar, mercy.

Well, I must be very gifted because I noticed every little "blip" and they drive me crazy. I know darn good and well that mine are DEFINITELY related to my hiatal hernia and tummy problems. You see, after I eat or drink lots of water, they act up; they will especially act up if I slouch in a chair or lie down, ugh, I hate them so.

I wish more docs would recognize this, maybe they will in the future and if all us keep telling them our symptoms and what they are associated with.

[jkfrench]

Mine are related to stomach and hormone issues too.  I have reflux  (mild) but I take protonix.  I was thinking that maybe that drug was causing some problems.  Mine have been acting up more and more over the last few months.  I HATE the way the skips feel after I drink a big glass of water.  The probem for me is, I get bad ones if I'm hungry and my stomach is empty or if I'm full.  No win situation.  Yesterday I ate a bowl of cereal that decided I needed a massage to help take my mind off them.  I went over to her house, and layed down on my stomach and when she moved from my legs up to my back the pvc's started.  The more she pushed down on my back the more pvcs.  My stomach was full.  As soon as I turned over, they stopped.  I notice most of my skips in my upper stomach too.  
Frenchie

[missalisa]

I'm tellin' ya, I am seriously tempted to go back to med school - at 40! - to specialize in this thing, because I don't think enough is being done about it.

[Jim0709]

You should know that most PVC's are harmless, I've had them for 32 years now. (I'm a 50 year old white male). I have had 5 near fatal heart attacks since July 2nd last year, I was in the cardiologist's office due to increasing frequency of chest pain. He did a routine EKG and came rushing into the room and told me that if I did not agree to be hospitalized that day, I would not survive the day. Obviously, I agreed and was admitted for an acute M.I., I underwent a procedure and a stent was placed into my left anterior descending artery. After the procedure, I was told that I needed a second surgery due to an arrythmia problem that I have, (actually, on my discharge summary from the army in 1976, I was told about this but the doctor said "don't worry, it won't bother you for another 30 years - that's the V.A. for you). Anyhow, on my 50th birthday, I found myself on the operating table once again (I've had 17 major surgeries, mostly gastrectomies and abdominal surgeries, was diagnosed with a hiatal hernia in 1992 after 66% of my stomach had been removed due to perforated ulcers) and an ICD was placed into my upper left chest. I lost my job in October due to having missed too many days from work (15 total days in the hospital due to heart condition) and my insurance went with it. I ran out of medication and suffered a major heart attack on November 17th. I was rushed into the cardiac cath lab and 3 more stents were placed in various arteries. I was released on the 19th and, while crossing an intersection to get to a local store was struck by an automobile. My left leg was damaged, but I was so pissed at the though of having to go back into the hospital that I told the driver to "leave me alone" and limped away. On December 18th, I suffered another major heart attack and my defibrillator shocked my heart back to beating correctly. I was released on the 22nd and suffered another major heart attack on the 31st of December. In all 3 of these instances, PVC's were noted on the moniter that I was placed on while in the ICU. Since I have a hiatal hernia which puts more pressure into my thoracic cavity, I cannot help but believe that there is a connection. When I do eat ( I have a great deal of diffuculty remembering to eat, the nerves to my stomach were severed in one of the gastrectomies in 1986) I fall asleep after about 1/2 hour. My right leg was shattered when I was pushed out of a 3rd story barracks window at Ft. Knox in 1976. my left wrist was shoved into my arm and was so badly broken that the doctor was going to amputate my left hand, but I refused to sign the consent form (even in the military, they cannot order you to loose a limb) and is now fused so that it does not move. The right femur had a stainless steel rod and two woodscrews placed in it, but something went wrong and the lower shaft rotated so that the screws wound up sticking into my muscle. Talk about pain! I have not had a pain free day/night since I was pushed out the window.
I have been diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy (ischemic, secondary in nature, along with the arrithymia disorder and severe congestive heart failure - my LVf is at 15%) Sometimes I wonder why I'm still here. All the E.R. doctors as well as my cardiologists tell me that I'm a walking medical wonder. I don't think so, I think I was put here to simply suffer.

[missalisa]

So, hernia/PVC people, listen to this. I have gotten my terrible PVCs under control in the past two weeks by doing the following (and by under control I mean I get maybe 1 an hour instead of 3 a minute as before):

I quit caffeine; I started running 60 minutes a day; I stopped eating big meals and now eat six small ones, no bigger than my hand; I dropped six pounds (and have 40 more to go); I sit up straight; I sit less and stand more; I am taking an herbal heart supplement with magnesium and calcium in it, three times a day; I began yoga, three times a week; I eat very little FAT now, other than nuts and olive oil.

I know this is not the way everyone wants to live, but one the days that I do all these things, I feel amazing and the palpitations are few and far between. The ones I do have now are very mild, and don't make me dizzy. I think treating the hernia is the key, in my case, and the best treatment for now is to drop BELLY FAT. Extra fat in the belly and chest will kill you, one way or another.

[Rob202]

Hi, I am new member and have been reading all the postings.  I do believe there is a connection between Hernias and PVC's and SVT's.  I had both onset at nearly the same time.  I have had PVC's mildly my whole life, but developed SVT's about the same time as hernia.
  
It's hard to believe that there would be no connection.
Just wanted to add to the "Stats".

[marya309]

Thank you for posting your symptoms. I too suffer from a hiatal hernia and pvc's/pac's.  It is so frustrating that so few doctors recognize the connection between stomach issues and their relation to irregular heartbeats.

After reading what you all have to say, I am thoroughly convinced that the hiatal hernia is aggrevating the vagal nerve.  The way I have described it to my husband is that the sensation feels similar to an involuntary muscle twitch like the kind you can get in your eye lid or for that matter anywhere else in your body...including an extra contraction in the heart muscle that causes the premature heartbeat!  

It seems to reason that if the top of the stomach (in the case of the hiatal hernia) is pushing up through the diaphragm, the pressure of this action can stimulate the largest nerve in the body the vagus nerve, that controls the all the stuff the body does to keep us alive without thinking about it like our heartbeat, breathing, digestion and so on.  This is a little far a field, but I own two dogs, I can scratch a certain spot on my dogs neck and his hind leg starts a thumpin.  The nervous system in dogs as well as humans has interconnections and relationships to parts of the body we would never expect.  Perhaps this is why acu-puncture works well for many people.  

Lastly, I do recognize a connection between what I eat and the number and frequency of irregular beats.  There is also a connection between stress levels and irregular beats.  I have best controlled these by exercise, staying a healthy weight and trying to eat foods that do not aggrevate the GI tract.  Tonight, I had an especially bad attack that I can contribute to my poor food choices for the day and a little added stress load.

I am 55 and in overall great shape, however with age the hernia and consequently the irregular beats have gotten worse.  Living with PVC'S and PAC's is exasperating, joy sucking and scary as hell.  I have been to the emergency room only to be told I have a very healthy heart and why was I admitted to the hospital?

There are enough of us around who suffer from this debilitating symptom (disease) that you would think a drug company would have come up with something to treat it.  In the meanwhile, it helps to know there are those of us who recognize the hiatal/pvc connection.  Thanks guys for being there for me.  My attack has stopped so I will now get some sleep.

May God Bless you all,

[FerdyBoy]

This is definitely caused (at least in my case) from the vagal nerve.  I suffered with the same arrhythmia problem for years, just after eating during digestion or consuming alcoholic beverages, and all of the doctors I spoke with never even mentioned the vagal nerve as being causative for the skipped beats or PVC's.  There seems to be VERY little research in this area---and diagnosis or knowledge  connecting the two also seems to be very rare.

So, I took matters into my own hands after doing MUCH research through forums such as this one.  Although I don't suffer from GERD or any other type of digestive disorders or acid reflux, I decided to try an acid reducing over the counter medication.  THIS WAS THE MAGIC BULLET!  75mg of Ranitidine (Zantac)----one first thing in the morning and one before dinner at night, and the arrhythmias WENT AWAY COMPLETELY.

Your results may vary, so please don't take this as medical advice--I just wanted to let you and the group know (and the MD's and cardiologists if they are reading this)  that there is a definite connection between digestive tract acid, vagal nerve stimulation (or destimulation) and heart arrhythmias.  

Good luck, and if you decide to try this and it works, God Bless.