skipped heartbeats

[bridgehorse]

hello, since 2004 i have been having skipped heartbeats..it's weird because sometimes it goes away, like recently i have not had any for 4 months, then it comes back again like recently..it happens mostly in the morning, and does not happen at night...sometimes when i brush my teeth it happens, when i shower etc...when i feel skipped heartbeat it stops then it either goes faster or stays slow after the skipped heartbeat.. i dont have any symptoms associated with the skiped heartbeat like chest pain, dizziness etc..why does it leave and then come back again after months?  do skipped beats mean there are clogged arteries or heart issues?  i do not have caffeine and i am a vegetarian on a meditteranean diet..i use olive oil, flax seed and have alot of  fresh garlic everyday..i also have co-enzyme q-10, 400 mg everyday...i am thinking that since this is NOT  a stable skipped beat issue that it might be just anxiety and neves etc..i dont know..but i know i am healthy with good cholestrol levels and blood pressure..i do drink red wine on the weekends however..i take enough potassium and i take l-carnitine and b-complex as well...sometimes the skipped beats go 3 or 4 times in a row then go back to a normal bpm of 68-72...i rarely get fast heartbeats, only if i drink red wine.

i will be 42 in june...i would greatly appreciate any answers that you can give me..thanks alot..

dan white
***@****

[msmma]

Hi Dan,

Welcome to the 'skipped beats' club.  : )

First thing first, it's important to get these checked out just to rule out any underlying heart disease, but from what you said it sounds like you are pretty healthy.

I feel what you feel from time to time throughout the day, and I went and had a Cardiac workup to check me out.  They were able to see that I have PVC's.  The Cardiologist told me that these are entirely benign, and will not hurt, or kill me.  They also do not alter life expectancy at all.  Of course he told me all of this AFTER they did an EKG, Holter, and Stress/Echo on me.  I have no underlying heart structure issues, or disease.

The one thing that most (if not all) doctors agree on, is that there is no real "known" cause for these things.  Some say caffeine, stress, smoking, and alcohol consumption can cause these too.  I am by nature, a high-anxiety person, so I'm sure that is playing most, if not all of the reasons for mine.

My advice would be to get them checked out for peace of mind, if anything.  Then once you get the "all ok" that they are benign, and your heart structure is perfect, then you'll be at the point I'm at.....which is battling the mind, and trying to learn to ignore them when they happen.  I have found that taking a daily Magnesium supplement is really helping me.  I take around 500 MG daily of Magnesium Oxide.  I will be switching to Magnesium Citrate soon, as everything I've read online suggests that Oxide is very low absorbable, and Citrate is one of the best ones to take.

--Mike

[Cleveland Clinic]

bridge,

Thanks for the post.

What you have are palpitations. Generally these are very benign. The first step is figuring out what your heart is doing at the time that you feel your symptoms. This is usually done with a heart monitor such as a Holter or Event monitor.

You can do a search for palpitations and see that many in the forum are affected greatly by this.  It is not at all uncommon for the symptoms to wax and wane over time.

good luck