pvc's and exercise

[manley]

I am a 46 year old male. Don't smoke or drink. I am not overweight and I have enjoyed very good health all of my life. I have had mild hypoglocemia since my late teens. In the last year I have started having pvc's. I don't have them often but when I do I usually have 3 to 5 in a row. I notice them on the onset of stress and when I eat certian things. I had my worst episode one morning just after breakfast and I started lifting some heavy items. Every time I would bend over and pick up something my heart would start skipping. This prompted a visit to a very good cardiologist. After extensive testing ( stress test, echo, holter monitor, bloodwork, etc.) I was told that nothing was wrong with my heart. The doc seemed to be very impressed with my stress test(he pushed me a long way)even though I had 2 skips toward the end.

I have noticed some pvc's just by taking a short walk and those are the one's that worry me. I don't understand. I can take a short walk and have 3 or 4 pvc's one day and the next day I can walk for miles in the woods as I hunt and never have a problem. I am now afraid to take those long hunting and fishing trips into remote areas, miles from my truck, thinking the worst will happen.

Is this fear reasonable or should I just go on and enjoy myself? Being miles from the nearest vehicle and having pvc's is very frightning. Any suggestions?

[anacyde]

Well, the same thing happens to me.  One day I get ten skips carrying groceries in from the car, the next day I can do an hour on the treadmill and nothing!  Or vice versa, some days I'm three seconds into the treadmill and I start with them, while the groceries provoke nothing.  There's no rhyme or reason, aside from some triggers I can identify that definitely make things worst.  Even at their best, they will come and go as they please.

I have been told, numerous times by numerous doctors - even the ones at the Cleveland Clinic - to exercise, live my life, enjoy it and STOP WORRYING ABOUT THE HEART, lol ;)  

Your workup sounds awesome, it seems you've got a healthy heart there.  Do the things you love, you've been given a clean bill of health.

[kitcurious]

Changes in body position prompt it.

PVCs are an inconsequential finding in a normal exam.

Also, I believe there is a tendency for them to happen when the heart is slowing down, like when falling asleep. This may explain while you got a few towards the end of your stress test, in a "cooling down" phase. I had them(or something that traced like crazy on the graph) pop up on the monitor at the end of mine. Dr. and nurse said "Whoa" and we all laughed.  Most of the time exercise will cause them to disappear, at least as long as the heart rate is increased.

Just about everybody gets benign PVC/PACs, but even people who feel them probably don't feel them ALL and some people are sometimes just feeling their heart beating strongly (also a palpitation) without having an ectopic and thinking that is ectopic as well. Other people have many hundreds of PVCs a day and don't feel a single one. Individual sensitivity to heartbeat is the problem, not the beats themselves.

If the (benign) beats themselves were the problem we'd all be handed out antiarryhthmics like vitamin C whether we feel them or not. Inderal would be in the water ;-)

The more you read about it the more you will cherry pick ideas that bother you, not seeing the forest for the trees.

I hope you feel reassured soon. Take care.