premature atrial contractions

Good day; i would like to know if there are any vitamin or mineral deficiencies that would cause more pacs that usual. i was on enderal for years, the my doctor put me on atenalol 100's after my pacs increased in freqency. up to 2 aday 12 hrs apart. i had a cardiac ablation 6 yrs ago for a bout of svt. have not had svt since. i was on amalodipine for about 3 months which did no good. i have been off of it for 1 week. i am now on no beta blocker or calcium blocker at this time, but i have been subject to panic attacks before the atenolol or the amodipine. i am now taking 5 mg of lorazipam 2 times a day. i have or am trying to increase my magnesium intake and also potassium. am i ok with what i am doing? i would like to check if i may have a food alergy (allergy) to something i am unaware of i should avoid.      thanks so much for your time.

[Michael J. McWilliams, M.D.]

There is no magic bullet to stop PVCs or PACs.  Rarely they can be caused by deficiencies in magnessium or potassium, but most of  the time there does not appear to be a clear reason why they happen.  I do not know of any supplements that treat pac/pvcs that are studied (no just anecdotes).

If you are going to take magnessium or potassium supplements, make sure you talk to your doctor before doing it.  They may want to check some labs.

[martinlee43a]

How many Pacs a day is bad ? I sometimes have them every 1 minute for a about 5 to 10 minutes then they stop. Sometimes in the evening, and very rarely in the morning. thanks Lee Edwards

[marlinspike]

As I understand it, if your heart is structurally normal, even thousands a day are harmless. This is why everyone posting with symptoms should have themselves checked out - an ekg and echo-cardiogram will let you know what you are dealing with.

There are folks on here with thousands of pvc's a day, for 20 plus years, who have been told they are okay because the tests show their heart is structurally normal. Of course, many of us are struggling to accept this because the symptoms are so unpleasant.

Your heart beats 100,000 times a day so even a thousand pvc's is only 1% of the time. I have been having 3 or 4 missed beats a minute nearly all day today if that is any consolation. Four years ago when I was first found to have ectopics they were every 4th or so beat for hours at a time. even so, the doctors did the test and said I was fine. Hope this helps.