Could my meds be making my PVC's and PAC's worse?

[Sunshine47]

I have been reading post and searching the net and found several sites that talk about some of the meds that I take. Some of the side effects of them are heart palps. I go to the doc Thursday so I might should ask. I can't understand if that is a side effect why he would put me on it. He is a good doc and tries to help me with my issues as much as he can. I TRUST HIM!!!! I take 200mgs of Metropolol, 6mg of Xanax, and 40 mgs of Pravastatin. Someone mentioned a calcium blocker. My heart has been fairly calm yesterday and today(SSSHHHHH I MIGHT JINX IT) and I have been very active. Last night when I laid down to go to sleep it started on a roll and I turned over on my back which seemed to ease it up. Does anyone else take these meds that can tell me if it makes their palps worse? I value everyones opinion on here. We are all in the same boat.
Take care and have a great new year.
Karen

[jennyjan]

I am reading all of you guys comments, because I was having cataract surgery and was very excited because I also was going to get a toric lenes at the same time to correct  my astigmatism , very bad eye-sight. However, in the process of during my rI got eye the anesthesiologist notice some PVCS  during the procedure and demanded that I see a cardiologist  before during  the other eye so that I did so excited about the eye that was fixed the eye surgery went well, I  can see willing to do anything the doctor said and take anything to get that other eye done. I was put on atenolol  50 MG  than they proceeded with the right eye surgery went well, I can see now but my body started to reject this atenolol, problems with my hip than cramps in my right leg unable to walk on that leg I was only suppose to be off work for 1 week  it turned in to eight weeks and the cardiologist  is telling  me that's not the atenolol,  at night I would jump up out of my sleep feeling like my heart have stopped in a cold sweat with bad leg cramps.  Finally I took charge of my body and went to my primary physician  and she took me off for 3 days and told me to start back on 25MG of atenolol and I told her the hell to  the no I stop drinking coffee,cokes and no Mcdonald and any of this other cabbage the sell us at these hamburger stands and I told God I but my heart in  Your hands and I came off all Valium / crazy ambient. And started on my vitamin  magnesium.  and doing my on research and looking for new ways I can improve.  I know everybody can't and want do this but we know our bodies don't just take and do everything the man tell you to do, if a doctor tell you to take something and you feel worse than before  you took the medication something  work research it out. You know your body take charge.

[Vanessica]

Hi everybody. I have been reading a lot of these PVC threads with interest as my husband has developed them and it's driving us BOTH mad! He is rather reluctant to see the doctor because waiting for test results can make stress/anxiety much worse and he doesn't want to go - but he is going to have to bite the bullet and do it or live in constant fear with a heart that isn't doing its job properly (or at least the signal is messed up). He isn't usually an anxious person, but his recent spate of health problems have caused stress and anxiety. He has had a cold then a week later developed a very sore throat, he has a ganglion on his wrist, a painful shoulder, a bad ankle, an eye that went bright red, a weird anal lump, painful trapped wind (one and off for years), bloating after eating small amounts and it's hard on a person to go through all that and still smile. Most of the other stuff has cleared up and it's really the heart thing that's causing the stress now. God just reading all that sounds bad! Can stress really do all that to a person? We joke that if he is still alive next week he will see the doctor. My standard of health is 'am I still alive? Then I'm fine'. Well you gotta see the bright side LOL.

Lolly I would not think Xanax would make PVC's worse unless you keep telling yourself they will (the brain is a powerful mass of worms and our bodies react to what we keep telling ourselves!) I was prescribed Clonazepam (similar to Xanax) because I am basically crackers and I take it with my usual Seroquel and sometimes I add melatonin into the mix for my insomnia. Anyway my husband has found these to be a great help for sleep and relaxing. They seem to slow the central nervous system down (the info sheet states they are prescribed for epilepsy) and if anything, should help your whole body gear down a little and relax.

When my husband first detected the PVC's when he checked his pulse about a week ago (although he has been having 'fluttery' feelings in the chest/abdomen area for 9 months) he had an instant mini-panic attack and he thinks his heart will stop because of the (what seems like) long pauses between beats and he can feel/hear his heart beat pretty much all the time. He has also been using an electronic cigarette and we were wondering if too much nicotine was the cause, so he stopped it. He is also taking some Omega 3 and a bone supplement which is high in calcium and magnesium as I have been reading all about the mag..... The bone supplement was left over from his severe, double ankle break and the subsequent bone eating disease he got from the hospital a few years ago when he broke his ankle. It has not been a good few years and it is awful to see my once healthy, panic free husband decline into anxiety, panic and health problems (like me really although I have worked mine out now for the most part).

All I can say is these PVC's or skipped ectoplasmic beat things are really having a terrible impact on our lives. I am terrified I will wake up next to a corpse (I know - they are not life threatening apparently) and my husband is practically planning his death! I have listened to his chest and checked his pulse and it feels/sounds wrong! It does maybe 15 - 20 or so normal beats, then there is a longish pause, then a strong beat and his pulse speeds up and slows down all the time. it's horrible! His dad also died of a heart attack at 57 so he is understandably worried. I am worried. Even the cats are worried!

He has also cut out caffeine and is trying to quit smoking which has annoyed him considering he had quit tobacco with the E Cigarette but had to stop that in case it was causing this crazy heart business. He is down to three or so a day which is pretty good and he is a very active 40 year old (god it sounds so old when I type it considering we still act like a pair of daft kids!) He doesn't drink at all but does partake in the odd spliff - but he has been smoking 'pot' since he was 15 so make of that what you will lol (come on we all have vices.......)

We are so very very very very fed up of this we might as well bloomin' die right now and get it over with! I just want life to get back to what we consider normal. Instead each day I think 'what new health problem will my husband have today? Is today the day his heart packs in?' They might be 'benign' but not from a mental health point of view.

Sorry for the long post but I am so very stressed right now.

[Hannah2006]

Hi. I was wondering what happened with your husband? Did they ever diagnose him with anything? Is he ok?

[LollyDel]

I have been diagnosed with 'situational anxiety' and have been taking a low dose xanax (.25mgs) prn for about almost a yr.  I always spike blood pressure readings when at the doc's office (up to 195/107) but when at home my readings are always around 145/80 to 128/70 on average.  So my doc gave me 20mg lisinopril to add to the xanax.  But I take only half a pill daily and it has helped along with the xanax(which was prescribed 3 daily as needed-but I rarely take that much - usually 2 and lately only one daily with the occasional 2 daily) - I also have a history of pvcs and lately have been experiencing them more frequently -no pain.  This morning I was talking with someone at work and felt my heart skip a beat and then my ears blocked and I felt like my heart had actually stopped and of course I got extremely anxious which probably made it worse.  Well my co-workers said I was starting to fall and sat me down.  Then I was ok - drank some water .  My question is I've only taken my bp med today (10mgs of lisinopril) and I was going to take my xanax but now am afraid it might make me worse.  I feel ok now.  But is this a normal event with a bp med?  Or are the skipped beats unrelated to the meds?

[upbeat63333]

Give the acebutelol a couple of more days. I had 28,000+/- pvcs/day and the EP I saw also refused to do an ablation because pvcs are BENIGN. ha ha ha ha (won't kill you, but at that frequency I wanted to die).

Anyhow, I was skeptical at first because I had tried three other BB with no positive effect, but I was desperate (and I didn't really want to die).

I started with 100mg (dividing the capsule in half and using other empty gel caps from some old vitamins I had). And I took it at night before I went to bed so that if I got tired from the BB, I would already be asleep!

It has been about three years now. But I seem to recall it did take a few days to be effective and I think after about a year I had to up it to 200mg/day.

I now have about 200 to 500/day but it is much better than 28,000! Hope it works for you too. Try it at night if you can.

[mzak69]

I'm dealing with the PVC issues too. I'm also on Toprol 25 mg twice a day (I don't know how you could function with 200mg, that would knock me out).

I'm trying the magnesium route. There are a few threads on here regarding magnesium for PVCs, check them out. Good luck! :)

[DeltaDawn23]

I have been on Toprol XR for Afib and it made me dizzy and dropped my bp too much.  The only way I could tolerate it was to break it in half and take it a.m and p.m.  Another EP gave me Atenolol instead and that helped more -- he said it does not pass the blood-brain barrier.  Less dizziness and I take up to 25 mg. in divided doses -- 1/4's.  I also take Xanax, four .25 mg. per day.  Dizziness is also a side effect of Xanax, but it reduces the adrenaline that the Afib causes.  I have been able to work by staying on this regimen.  I have to take breaks and do some breathing exercises, yoga and meditation have also helped me.  More sleep, less anxiety, no caffeine -- even chocolate -- have helped.  I am now on Norpace 100 mg. 2 x per day and it is so far controlling my Afib.  My doctor wants me to try Pravastatin, but I am reluctant, as any digestive trouble causes my arrythmia to flare up, and I have not been able to tolerate any of the statins so far.  If you teach, look into an FMLA leave (up to 12 weeks for one's own or a family members illness) or the Americans with Disabilities act.  I work for a state university and there is a professor there that has reactions to all kinds of chemicals and she has managed to keep teaching with help from the Disabilities Act.  You may be entitled to take a break in your day.  It's worth checking into.

My situation -- Afib -- is different from yours, but from reading the posts on this board, I believe some things are similar even though the cause of the arrthymia is different.  Try to identify triggers and avoid them.

Good luck . . . keeping you in my thoughts.

[MsHopeful77]

Thank you to everyone who has posted their comments. I'm a 33 year old teacher and I've been having episodes of PVC's for about 3 months. I have  1000 a day for about 10 days and then they will go away for 2 to 3 weeks and then come back. I was on fertility medicine (clomid) for a few months but I stopped taking that because I can't think about having a baby until these annoying tiresome PVC's go away. Plus I wondered if there was a correlation between taking these meds and then having PVC's. At first my cardiologist put me on Metoprolol and that made me cloudy minded and super tired. Then he put me on Atenolol and that did not stop it. I went to an EP and he said that he wouldn't recommend ablation for someone my age from the spot he sees the PVC's coming from. So now he has me on acebutolol 200mg twice a day. I've been on it for two days now and haven't notice any clearing of the PVC's does anyone now if this medicine takes time to get into your system? And has anyone ever had an ablation even though the doctor did not reccommend it? My quality of life has gone down the tubes. I may even lose my job in september when I go back to work because I can't focus with these missed beats and with the medicines being so strong I always need a 2 hour midday nap to make it through the rest of the day.

[Sunshine47]

Thanks everyone for the info. About the Xanax I am sure that I take 6mgs of it a day and sometimes more just according to how many PAC's and PVC's I am having. They are the tall white ones that have 4 sections and are 2mgs.I wish I were med free. I hate meds sometimes I think that they make you feel worse. I wish I could be normal like I was for the past 6 years. I miss it. It was grewat while it lasted. Thanks guys for your support.
Have a great new year!!!!!!
Karen

[Artaud]

Hi,

Side effects are not easy issues. For example, anti-arrhythmic medications can cause arrhythmias, yet they are still prescribed. Why? Because the risk of causing the arrhythmia is outweighed by the need to eliminate a potentially life threatening one. To reduce the chance of causing an arrhythmia using anti-arrhythmic medications, the patient is usually monitored carefully for changes that would typically lead to an arrhythmia, and such changes can often be observed in the EKG. Increased monitoring, whether it means an overnight stay at the hospital while the dose is initiated or if it means periodic returns to the office for EKGs, is often important for patients going onto Anti-arrhythmic Therapy.

Many medications can cause arrhythmias to some degree. Of a particular medication, it  may cause PVCs in some people, in other people, PSVT. This is why one should not take medication on a whim. Illicit drugs, such as the illegal use of cocaine, is well known to cause arrhythmias, sometimes fatal. Alcohol is also known to cause arrhythmias (trust me, this one I know ;-) Those of us with arrhythmias may have inadvertently been forced into a better life style due to our heart’s virtual barometer of what is good and what is bad. I can’t imagine the abuse that some “normal” people subject their hearts to, alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs, prolonged sleep deprivation, etc. I can’t even imagine doing these things to extremes, unless I want to significantly disturb my heart’s rhythm.

Metropolol, a Beta Blocker, should reduce your Heart Rate, which often reduces the number of PVCs that a person experiences. In addition, it reduces the contractile force of the Heart, which often causes the person experiencing PVCs not to feel them as strongly.

Xanax, a tranquilizer, is not associated with arrhythmias, and should, if the person has an anxiety component to their arrhythmia, possibly be of assistance in reducing the number of the PVCs.

Pravachol (AKA pravastatin) In the Pravachol verses Placebo table that I examined, Chest Pain was caused in 4% of the Patients, yet it was reported in 3.4% of the people taking a Placebo (sugar pill). The table continues with that only 0.1% of the chest pain was attributed to the drug. This means that 1 person in a thousand had chest pain. I found nothing to indicate that Pravastatin was implicated in causing arrhythmias.

One important point is that anyone on medications should use the same pharmacy every time they have a prescription filled. Pharmacies keep a running record of the medications that each person is prescribed. If you are subsequently prescribed another medication, and you purchase it at the same place, their computer system should alert them to possible contraindications between the medications, such as something likely to damage your liver or cause one of your existing medications to need to be adjusted in their dose. Even Supplements can cause problems. When you are on ANY prescription medication, ask the Pharmacist if the supplements you are taking (if any) may cause problems. You may be surprised what can happen between a prescription drug and a Mega Vitamin or other supplement.

Best of health in the New Year 2008

[Momto3]

Yes, it's possible that your medication(s) could be causing an increase of ectopic beats.  For some people they work well to suppress the extra beats; for others, they lessen the symptoms associated with the beats.  For some, they actually have a proarrythmic affect.  

I've taken Inderal and Xanax and didn't have any significant side effects.  Are you certain that you are taking 6 mgs of Xanax?  I'm not a doctor, but if it's not helping, maybe there is a different medication that would be better for you.  

Here's to a good PVC day : 0
Let's hope it continues!

[Tjalsma]

Many different medications can cause PVC's.  Oddly enough, medication to help stop them can make them worse.

I have had an increase in PVC's on all heart medications I have taken, only Toprol and Cardizem.

[dolfnlvr]

I can't speak for any of the other meds, but I take Metoprolol to EASE my PVC symptoms.  So, I wouldn't think that the dosage you are taking would cause it.  My dose is much lower than yours, so, using good ol' American logic, a higher dose should make PVC's better not worse.  Of course, American logic and science are not one in the same lol :-) so you should go ahead and ask your doc anyway.

Good luck.