sherma57's Learning to live with them!!!

Hello All, hopefully with the indulgence of this Forum, I have moved sherma57's Post "Learning to live with them!!!" from the Heart Forum to the Heart Rhythm Forum. Apparently sherma57 posted it in the Heart Forum by mistake.

Well I guess I'm still here after suffering over a year now with PVC's.  Some days are good and some days are really really bad.  Over the last few months now they have been tolerable, only really affecting me when my period is starting - and I have had a LOT of stressful events take place ove the last few months and I mean really bad - but the ectopics stayed away - wierd or what!!.  Now they are back by the thousands a day especially after eating, this is what I find is strange.  I have MS but I can manage that, but after eating this is bad, so I don't eat.  I have now lost over 90 lb and look lke a walking skeleton, I was never over weight before just very muscluar and I am 180cm tall - I can't talk to my husband about them again because he just doesn't understand and he thinks I am crazy and anxious, well I do get wound up easilly, but that is just my nature.  I made my heading *learing to live* with them because I have had all the cardio work ups, been to see 6 different ones :) I refuse to take any medication even for my Multiple Sclerosis.  I am 43 (yikes) and in good health - take good excercise but after seeing so many cardios i am at my wits end.  when i said that I went through a realy tough time that was when I had a relapse and all the steriods arrived and nurses yadada - won't bore you with details, I had guests staying in the cottage (I live in france where I run a B&B etc) and I was walking around with a drip in my arm for over a week, but nothing happened.  On the run up to Xmas they were coming more freqently which I put down to stress, but now after the event they are worse than ever - more so after eating, so I guess at 110lb I'll be losing even more weight, so do you think that it could be that I have developed a passion for chocolate and anything that is sweet???  I'll be lookinglike Victoria Beckham shortly as I am now in a size 2 clothes.  Any advice would be appreciated.  Happy New Year to you all and I'm sorry I rambled on so much.

[Artaud]

Hi,

How many PVCs do you have on a Bad Day? Thousands on a bad day by your post. I see that you get them especially bad after eating. My most recent bad experience with PVCs lasted over a year, with more than 600 PVCs per day. Despite what seemed to me to be a large number of PVCs, my Cardiologist and Family Doctor were unconcerned. Many tests, such as 3 Holters and 1 Thirty Day Event Monitor over the last year, as well as several in-office EKGs did not reveal anything of concern.

The most peculiar aspect was a Swallowing Induced aspect of the arrhythmia, where I would experience PVCs every time I swallowed. My wife naturally thought I was nuts, and attributed it to some feeling of digestion and not an actual PVC. (Any of us that are acutely aware of our PVCs can tell the difference between stomach motility and our heart skipping a beat). Anyway, I urged her to take my pulse while I swallowed. Lo and Behold, she too could feel the PVCs occur. My wife works for my Cardiologist and she mentioned it to him. He attributed it to Vagal Stimulation.

I even wore a Holter Monitor and verified the PVCs while eating, but the Doctor did not feel that anything of significance, other than perhaps Vagal Stimulation, was occurring. Look up [ Vagus Nerve ] (minus the brackets) on Wikipedia.

The Vagal (Vagus) nerve is part of the Autonomic Nervous System. The Autonomic Nervous System is composed of Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nerves. Concerning the heart, the Sympathetic System will increase the Heart Rate. The Parasympathetic System is responsible for slowing it down. This comes in to play for the Fight or Flight Response for fear (sympathetic) and the need to return the body to normal upon the elimination of the fear (parasympathetic). Anyway, the Vagal Nerve comes down through the neck, along the esophagus, and apparently lies atop the stomach as well.

Since the Vagal Nerve is involved in many systems, including digestion AND the heart, it appears that it can be involved in arrhythmias (although Wikipedia seems to discuss Bradycardias more in the context of this nerve). Look up the Vagus Nerve on Wikipedia for a fairly good explanation of it’s purpose and involvements.

Anyway, trying to eliminate the swallowing induced component of my arrhythmia, I saw that other posters to this forum had similar problems, and a few of them cited losing weight as a way to resolve it. I tried this and lost about 30 pounds, yet the swallowing induced component continued. While researching on the Internet one day, I happened to read any article about Anorexics having arrhythmias caused by not eating, resulting in over-stimulation of the Vagal Nerve. I have been, most of my working life, a person that never ate breakfast nor lunch, though I had the habit of over indulging at dinner. To round out my day, I began to eat ½ a sandwich in the morning, and some simple snack at lunch. I then ate a single helping of my dinner, and a small snack later in the evening. Eventually, my swallowing induced arrhythmia subsided and then disappeared.

With your MS and apparent problems with arrhythmias and eating, I would give some consideration to Vagal Involvement. The MS need not have effected the Vagal Nerve directly, but if you are run down and have other problems, an imbalance may have occurred. Talk with your Neurologist and Cardiologist to see if they feel that the Vagal Nerve may be a contributing factor, and if so, what can you do to return your system to normal.

Happy New Year, may you prosper in Health and Friends.