Skipped Beats, PVC's etc.

[Keevil]

I started again to have these feelings of skipped heart beats beginning on 7/23.  Sometimes maybe 2 per minute but may go as high as 10 per minute.  The come and go during the day which is very frustrating.  I have been taking 12.5 mg of Paxil CR for anxiety for about two years now.  I haven't had any issues with these skipped beats since 3/03.  Then all of a sudden they return.  In March I went to see a cardiologist I met during my anxiety issues and he assured me that my heart was in great shape and these skipped beats can re-surface and disappear just like that. In 2000 I developed anxiety symptoms and was treated for them.  I had numerous tests at a cardiologist's offce during this time since some of my anxiety symptoms were causing what I thought were heart issues.  I had a stress echo in 9/99 and a cardiolite stress test in 6/01.  All negative.  Twenty-one day event monitor, X-rays and numerous blood tests along with re-visits to a cardiologist since 2000.  
I am an avid cyclist and tennis player three times a week.  I drink coffee in the morning but it is a light caffeine version.  Alcohol on the weekends and sometimes during the week with neighbors.  I am not overweight and watch what I eat.  
Giving you all this backgound, why do these skipped hearts beats keep coming and going.  They create a very uncomfortable, anxious feeling when they happen and I am quite sure they feed my anxiety. Can I do anything about them.  Are they serious?    Do you have any advice or should I expect to live with them.

[mathesar]

I started getting PVC's about 6 months ago and they seem to be getting worse,Does anyone know what might cause PVCs to be much more frequent lying down versus sitting up? I only notice maybe 10 PVC's during the day but when I lay down to goto sleep I can get up to 6-10+ PVC's per minute and its very difficult to fall asleep,If I just lay there and try to relax rather than freak out they usualy reduce in frequency enough for me to fall asleep.. and If I sit up in bed they stop happening completly,anyone else experiance this? I've had a Echocardiogram / 24hr holter / Treadmill stress test done wich all came back normal except for PVC's .Doc says not to worry but should I go back considering they're increasing in frequency? ...This is becoming a very bad experiance =( I'm 30 years old,Male ..Thanks in advance.

[heartbeat]

I get skipped beats daily.  Sometimes they are really bad, about one every five minutes for a few hours.  Other times I go for weeks with maybe just about 5 per day.  I got them already when I was very, very young.  Now I'm a 74 year old senior and still get them.  So you see, you not going to die from them  :-) If you have been checked out by a cardiologist and your heart is okay, don't worry about them.

[Steve-UK]

Just my opinion but I think I found out why the seem more prominent when lying down (particularly face down) or lying on your left hand side...this is because the heart beats are felt more closely and sensed more in those positions...lie on your left with your right hand under your side and you can clearly feel every beat, more so on breathing out

I started with PVCs only 3 weeks ago, after a party where I had a few too many beers, the first week was terrible with dizzy fainting feelings and a tingling going up into my head/scalp, and the extra beats seemed almost every beat for a half hour 2 or 3 times a day...now I am having just 2 or 3 flutters a day and no fainting or dizzy feelings, ECG was normal and the Doc said my heart was good

[Mel22]

I really recommend taking magnesium supplements. My PVC's have all but vanished. Ask your doctor if it's OK for you.

[CLM]

Lots of good information from everyone here -- I hope that sufferers reading this will be encouraged to know that others are out there dealing with this also and that there are things that can be done to cope.  I am not sure, however, that anything short of an ablation can be done to get rid of pvcs/pacs.  Believe me, I have tried it all!  I am 37 and my last holter showed 10,197 pvcs in a 24 hour period (although they let up quite a bit at night and during exercise, so really I was feeling almost all 10K during waking hours!  Imagine that!!!)  so I do know what I am talking about.  I agree with Hankstar about betablockers.  A low dose on an "as needed" basis and/or an anti-anxiety medication is going to be your best bet if you have no underlying heart disease.  I have found that it doesn't do much to reduce mine (obviously, LOL!) and in fact, when I doubled up on it to try to get relief, my pvcs worsened quite a bit and began to turn into short runs of vtach.  Awful.  What does work is the support of friends, family and fellow sufferers.  Magnesium does help but it takes surprisingly high amounts to do so and should be done under the supervision of your cardiologist or internist.  I also think that omega3s are highly promising and when I am consistent my levels go way down.  In women, hormones do play a role (but what we are supposed to do about that is a good question).  Emotional or social stress is the WORST trigger of pvcs, so dealing with your "issues" is a great idea.

Perhaps most important is to change your attitude about them altogether.  Accept them instead of fighting them.  Invite them in (they'll show up anyway) and in doing so, you won't be as bothered by them.  That is not to say you should not take this "condition" seriously and do all the necessary tests.  Given the high numbers I endure, I am finding that I want to get second and third opinions about how to treat these from reputable electrophysiologists in my area.  I may even decide to do an ablation.  But in the meantime, I am learning to live with them and in doing so... I am getting far fewer pvcs!  Once upon a time, getting rid of the pvcs was my goal.  But when I began to shift my goal away from total elimination (impossible anyway) to LIVING with them successfully, things changed.  I still get scared when I get a run of them because that does feel very nasty and the body can't help but react.  But my reaction is much shorter and less intensely fearful than ever before and, you guessed it, they aren't at 10,000 plus anymore...

p.s.  YES, they always get worse when I lie down!  I can be ok sitting up, but when I am enduring a pvc "storm" time, as soon as I lie down at night they come every third beat or so.  It makes getting to sleep impossible.  I just ride it out and wait until I am so exhausted that I can't help but fall asleep.  Not much of a solution, sorry about that, but I have not found anything very helpful when they are so bad.  I have begun to resign myself to having some nights like that.  And so far, the storm has always let up... eventually.  I am very interested in the suggestion to try to go to sleep earlier and get up earlier... very simple but perhaps effective.  I'll try it!

[PAT65]

I just have to agree with you about living with the PVCs. I had my last holter in June on what I thought was a good day. Imagine my surprise when I still had 8,000+ PVCs in 24hrs. I had 9,000+   PVCs when I was not on any medication. The cardizem just doesn't work as well as the Dr. thinks it does. I think I've come to the conclusion that PVCs are "Normal" for me. Everybody is different and what might be normal for one may not be normal for another. I have started taking a low dose of xanax (.125mg) each evening to help with the sleep thing. A lack of enough quality sleep seems to be a big trigger for me. I used to take the Xanax only occasionally until a friend told me I needed to keep a certain level in my body. I just started so I hope it will help with the anxiety part of the PVCs because sometimes the "out of control" feeling can  be as bad as the actual problem. Keep me posted how you are doing with your thousands of PVCs. (