PVC's and PAC's

[flutterfreak61]

I have done so much reading and see the PVC's and PAC's are normal heart activity.  It always reads that everyone gets "rare" or "occasional" PVC's and PAC's.  I would like your definition of "rare" or "occasional".

I sometimes get one a minute and sometimes get one an hour and sometimes get one a day?  I am just looking for the definition of this.  I think that even one an your is a lot but see others get many more than this.  Could you please clarify what you would consider this?

Also can you tell me if you were holter 100 people for a 24 hour period if 100% of these people would have some sort of PVC's or PAC's or ectopic beats during the day?  I have been told I have a normal heart and just feel these out of place beats.  I don't know who wouldn't feel them when your heart just stops and then restarts.  It is just such an awful feeling and find it difficult to beleive that everyone gets these.  I have talked to a lot of my friends and they don't feel their hearts beating strange at all.  This is just making me crazy!

[caregiver222]

A person with a "normal" heart will generally generate a couple of PVC's after a second cup of coffee. As yarrow stated, some people are more sensitive to these events.  If your cardiologist says "don't worry about them", don't worry.

[yarrow]

On one of my 24-hour Holter monitors, 4800 PVCs were recorded.  That is considered such a low number as to be boring.  Many on this board have been clocked at more than 10,000 in a 24-hour period.

The thing is that every normal human--every single one--has PVCs or some other form of ectopic beat at times, BUT only the hypersensitive among us are aware of them.

And your heart isn't really stopping, although it feels as though it is.  What's happening is that you have an early small contraction that is so tiny that you don't even feel it.  This is the 'Premature' ventricular contraction.  Then there's a very small delay until the next normal beat, and during this time the heart--which is elastic--gets a chance to fill up a bit more than usual.  To pump out this slightly larger amount of blood, the heart contracts more vigorously, which only makes sense.  This delayed beat you (and I) really feel:  It's a big BOOM to us.

But that's all that's going on.  The heart never stops beating in one of these episodes.  It's all a matter of timing.