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Irregular heartbeat and swallowing

JTA
I am a forty-nine year old male.  I was recently diagnosed with reflux.  Six years ago I was diagnosed with Graves disease, which manifested as irregular heartbeats , that continue to this day even though my thyroid had radiation treatment and I am on synthroid.  The reflux has improved once I started taking prilosec,first 20mg then 40mg.  What I have started to experience
was a singular irregular beat after I swallow without food or water, but not every time,  often enough to where there is a direct correlation.  I mentioned this to the GI and he had no idea,  I have been in contact with my cardiologist and he does not seem concerned.  The irregular beats that I have quite often are disconcerting enough, I have had three holters and a stress test in the last six years and my cardiologist does not feel I have heart disease, but  this new irregular beat
after swallowing has me quite concerned. I am on atenolol,cardura, and accupril.  Any ideas?
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Avatar universal
To all who suffer from PAC's PVC's related to swallowing...
Please read as I suffered from this for many months. I went from Cardiologist to Gastro trying to find out at first what the feeling was that I would get as I swallowed food. I didnt know at first if it was my stomach or what the beating feeling was. One gastro actually said it was stomach spasms but he was totally wrong!  Finally after a month or more of suffering, numerous tests, including endoscopy, holters etc, I myself took my pulse as it was happening very badly one morning and found my pulse would stop during each swallow. It was crazy to me that no doctor had ever checked my pulse in their office, but I must admit that at first I didnt realize the whole thing occurred when I swallowed food. When I finally did realize swallowing was the cause, most doctors acted like there was no way that could be causing it. I demonstrated it was causing it over and over by eating in their offices and swallowing food to prove it happened with each swallow but I guess since they had no answer they pretended it was just coincindence. Anyway after I realized my pulse interrupted with each swallow that morning, I called my cardiologist who told me to go to the emergency room where they hooked me up to monitor me. I was getting strings of PAC's every time I swallowed food and sometimes with liquids. It was a terrible feeling. I went to the emergency room with a cracker and sure enough they saw the PAC's with each swallow of food. I was told it was benign yet it was awful to live with. I even cut down on eating it was so bad at each meal. Finally, I spoke to the chief of Gastro at a teaching hospital whom my local gastro referred me to.  He said there was no need to come there to see him because he was highly familiar with this problem. He said it was called eglutition tachycardia. Most cardiologists I saw never heard of it yet he knew all about it. He said it appeared to be caused by irritated nerves in the espohagus often from prolonged gerd or an unknown cause. He also advised me that it usually subsides in time. If not, he recommended trying calcium blockers. I perservered and sure enough after suffering about 6 months or so it subsided.  I took tagamet and or axid by prescription throughout the period to cut the gerd (acid reflux). Finally it subsided.  I can't tell you how many doctors, gastros, and cardiologists I went to before finding someone who knew about this disorder. It was very frustrating and aggravating.
If you'd like to e mail me to talk about any of this feel free to do so. ***@****  Best of luck to all who have this miserable disorder and wishes for a speedy recovery. By the way I do still get occaisional PAC's, but not often and not at every swallow.
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Avatar universal
A related discussion, Irreg. heart beat was started.
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A related discussion, Diarrhea after Eating was started.
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Avatar universal
Just wanted to put my 2 cents in  - I too have skipped beats.  Sometimes a ton, sometimes none.  I have 2 small children and don't get much consecutive sleep, so obviously that comes into play.  I am 31 and very healthy, dr says don't worry, but it is scary.  I think once I accepted the skipped beats (which feel like a catch in my throat) it got a little easier.  This is a bad week - I think the holiday tension is hyping me up.  Good luck to you all!
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Avatar universal
is this working
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Avatar universal
I have irregular heart beat, also have diaphram hernia and steady heartburn ,i take rolaids on a steady basis, I find my heart beat palpitations become verry active when i drink alcohol To the point where i have to sit down. have had all the tests and heart and blood pressure are good. there are times when palpitations do not happen for some time , But seem to be more freqent with age,     any commentswould be appreciated
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tom
I, like Carolyn, am subject to arrhymias particularly after eating something cold. I would actually get a nerve sensation in my upper midsection prior to an event. I went through cardiologists and GIs (monitors, endoscopy, ect) before being told that I had an irritated vagus nerve and hiatal hernia and to take prilosec which I am now on with substantial improvement. Nixing caffeine entirely has helped as has not eating with 2 hours of bedtime. My condition took 3 months to improve on Prilosec.
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Avatar universal
I have had annoying heavy heart beats since CBG, aortic valve replacement and repair for aortic aneurysm 2 months ago. I was put on Atenolol 25mg which helped but then induced PCVs one week later. I reduced the dosage to 12.5mg (1/2 25mg tablet) but side effects went away only after I began 6.25mg (1/4 25mg tab). I take this once a day and it reduces pounding just for about half day. My cadiologist refuses to believe this and says I should not take any medication and everthing is OK. The comment by JR - telling it like it is on Wed Aug 9, 2000 is very interesting since one cardiologist mentioned that there might be some injury or distortion of my diaphragm during CBG surgery and this was confirmed by post-op chest Xray. I would certainly like to contact JR (if anyone has his email I would highly appreciate getting it). Best of luck to JTA and all the rest of you.
Chris R.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I too have had several episodes of "missed beats" after eating.  After several EKG's, several holter monitors, echocardiagrams, even a tilt table test, I was told that I have PVC's and PAC's but I have a healthy heart.  I notice when I drink a lot of water my arrythmia seems to get worse.  When I exercise and my heart rate rises, the skipped beats start.  This almost made me stop exercising but when I found that everytime I came home from a power walk or rollerblading and didn't drop dead from all those missed beats I stopped worrying about them.  But definitely too much food and too much water sets them off in me to the point that drinking 8 glasses a day is something I don't want to do because I hate the feeling.  Even though I know my condition is benign it is still uncomfortable.  My cardiologist told me that as long as someone has a healthy heart, their heart can "skip beats all day long".  He told me of a patient that he has that is 15 years old and has a skipped beat almost every other beat.  He told me that this teenager is very healthy and in no danger.  I found it a little hard to believe but have spoken to many people young and old that have so many missed beats a day that they don't even pay attention to them.  It's too bad that some people wait and suffer the anxiety that often accompanies any heart related abnormality.  We hear about the athletes that die suddenly and think that could happen to us.  What we don't hear is that these athletes had underlying heart conditions or another physical problem that brought about their death. Being informed and taking good care of oneself is the best thing we can do.
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Avatar universal
I have had gastro esophogeal reflux disease for a long time and I'm on Prilosec which has helped that problem quite a lot. My gastro physician recommended surgery but I haven't had that. Recently, while on vacation and very relaxed I began to have arrythmia. It has happened several times a day and I noticed that eating sometimes brought it on or made it worse especially cold food like ice cream. I'm still waiting for my HMO to allow me to go and have a stress echo. This whole thing has concerned me since there is heart disease in my family. I found Charlie's comments about the vegas nerve very interesting. I'm 56 years old and have to stick around a number of years to help out a motherless niece and nephew who are young. Anyway, I found it comforting to know there are others with the same problem.
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Avatar universal
JR
lets all face it. anytime you change the orientation of the internal organs inside the chest cavity, it can trigger "weird" heart rythms. there is a phenomonon called natural heart rate varibility that causes a slowing of the heart (i can actually stop mine) just from contraction of the diaphram like when inhaling a deep breath! doctors refuse to accept the link between the vagus nerve and cardiac rythm, and therefore anything affecting the vagus nerve and the cardiac rythm. i know from experience and research that there is a link, for example reflux worsening pvc's, a cough triggering a psvt attack. bending over causing tachycardia.....and everybody knows about full stomachs and heart rythms! i dont know why they wont at least acknowledge the link. maybe because there is nothing to be done about it? "live with it" is the only medicine they can give, and thats hard on a doctors ego i guess (i know MANY of them). look into drugs that supress overactive nervous systems...
hell, just stay drunk all the time! (just kidding). you could do like me and study to become a doctor and beat them at their own game....best of luck
vagally yours
jr
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Avatar universal
Hello JTA,

I've monitored this forum a long time and have seen several people with the same complaint as you. In fact, there was one guy that could produce a PVC EVERYTIME he swallowed. And though his doctors were able to observe it, I don't think he ever got an answer as to why it happened. I too suffer from PVCs and am quite sure that sometimes they are aggravated by gastric problems (indigestion etc.) Search the archives here and I'm sure you will some postings that will help reassure you that you're not alone.

Good Luck
Bill M.

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238671 tn?1189755832
A single occasional irregular beat is unlikely to represent a serious problem, especially since you have had a number of normal cardiac tests. The swallowing is probably not related to the irregular beats, but even if it is in your case, there is not anything to do specifically to treat it.
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