Weight and PVCs

[PVC man]

Do you find patints that are overweight or obese more prone to PVCs than if they are in good shape?

Also, is it common for patients who suffer benign PVCs to have a magnesium defieciency (sp?)

Finally, I went on Lipitor 20mg and thought that it gave me some weird runs of extrabeats; different from my usual PVCs.  Do you find this in practice?  My cardio is trying Niacin to lower my LDL but I know he will want to go back to a statin if Niacin does not lower it enough.  Maybe I shoud load up on CQ10 if he puts me back on?

Thank you for opening this forum.  It truly brings people like us a lot of peace of mind.  Keep in mind that a lot of times we have been told by MDs; "just don't worry about it," without being given answers first.

Well, you guys give us the answers so that we can get our lives back.

If Cleveland takes donations please let us know; I'm sure many of us would donate as we feel the clinic does a tremendous public service and we are grateful.

[PVC man]

Thanks for your help!!

[Michael J. McWilliams, M.D.]

Hello,

In the office I think doctors shy away from extensive discussions about normal heart PVCs because the longitudinal data shows that they do not significantly increase cardiovascular morbidity/mortality and we don’t understand the mechanisms that well.

Do you find patints that are overweight or obese more prone to PVCs than if they are in good shape?

I have not noticed any relation to weight and PVCs and don’t think one has been reported.

Also, is it common for patients who suffer benign PVCs to have a magnesium defieciency (sp?)

I haven’t seen this reported before either.

Finally, I went on Lipitor 20mg and thought that it gave me some weird runs of extrabeats; different from my usual PVCs.  Do you find this in practice? Maybe I shoud load up on CQ10 if he puts me back on?

I have never had a patient complain about increased PVCs with lipator or any other statin, it is usually concerns over muscle pain.  The data shows no benefit or harm to CQ10.  It does show brilliant marketing on behalf of CQ10 though – they make a lot of money because people take it with statins.

I am sure the Cleveland Clinic takes donations but I am not sure who to direct you to.  I should let you know the arrhythmia forum is not through the Cleveland Clinic.  When I was a fellow at the Cleveland Clinic, I was asked to help with the forum and learned a lot from it.  When I finished my fellowship, Medhelp asked me if I would be interested in continuing to run this new forum and I agreed.  The Cleveland Clinic is a great place and I am very fortunate to have trained there.  I have moved on to private practice in North Carolina.  Starting this forum was through the efforts of medhelp and I think they do a great job at providing people with an outlet to ask questions and hopefully learn about what we know and equally important, what we don’t know.

I hope this helps.  Thanks for posting.