Skipped Heartbeat

[onecs75]

I am a 34 year old male and I have been having skipped heartbeats for over a month now. I first noticed them during my cooldown period; after benchpressing heavy. Since then I will have 10 to 20 skipped beats a day to hundreds. At the worst it will be 4 to 5 a minute, but those episodes will only last for like 10 minutes tops. I have continued to work out and still feel healthy. I still do 30 minutes of strenous cardio a day. The only downside is that I am currently deployed on a ship (Navy) and I dont have the access to a cardiologist to get confirmation that they are not dangerous. I guess I just want somebody to tell me that I'm going to be fine, and by what I have read it seems that I will be. Its just scary, but other than the annoyance of the skipped beats, I feel healthy....do you think that I have nothing to worry about?


This discussion is related to Skipped Heart Beats (PVC's ? PAC's).

[erijon]

Please keep in mind that Calcium Citrate has the risk of the following side effects;

•nausea/vomiting
•loss of appetite
•unusual weight loss
•mental/mood changes
•bone/muscle pain
•headache
•increased thirst/urination
•weakness
•unusual tiredness

In addition, it should only be avoided or only taken under a doctor's care if you already have any of the following;

•kidney disease
•kidney stones
•little or no stomach acid (achlorhydria)
•heart disease
•disease of the pancreas
•a certain lung disease (sarcoidosis)
•difficulty absorbing nutrition from food (malabsorption syndrome)

One should always check with a medical professional before starting any new treatment including over the counter supplements as there can be many factors that may not be know. This is a case of ask your doctor first.

Jon .

[californiaparalawyer358]

(I am not a doctor, chemist, pharmacist, etc., just a common PVC sufferer)

I have had PVC's for many years, and my doctor told me to increase my calcium/magnesium supplementation.  THIS HAS PROVIDED HUGE RELIEF FOR ME.  The same day I started taking calcium supplements in addition to my multi-vitamin, they were pretty much entirely cleared up.  (I still get them occasionally, but they are not nearly as frequent, and do not feel as powerful as they used to.)

I have found that calcium citrate (liquid calcium) works better than calcium carbonate (pills).  Taking the supplements with or after meals, drinking plenty of water, getting enough sleep, avoiding triggers such as alcohol, cigarettes or other drugs including caffeine or worse type drugs, all this has helped to reduce my PVC's, but nothing has been as effective as introducing 1,000mg of calcium into my daily diet through mineral supplementation.

The only product I have been able to find and have used is from Wellesse (brand name)... Calcium with Vitamin D... it's fairly inexpensive and should be easy to find.  

I have had several friends and family who get PVCs and almost all of them have reported to me that they have gotten similar relief by increasing their MAGNESIUM, POTASSIUM and/or CALCIUM levels through healthy dietary supplementation or eating differently.

Hope this helps in your case, I know how bothersome and sometimes very worrying these can be, especially if one gets a lot of them suddenly.  See a doctor asap to put your mind at ease if needed.

[itdood]

Probably PVCs.

I've had episodes like this myself.  They come and go.

I've had every test under the sun (even a cardiac MRI), some of them twice in the last year due to a really bad flare up in Jan-2009.  No problems were noted.

At a basic level you should have an EKG and a stress test just to be sure everything is OK.  Move on from there if those warrant more testing. Would they at least be able to do that on the ship?

You mentioned "cool down" PVCs, these are called recovery PVCs (during exercise recovery).  Up until about 2007 these were considered completely benign.  A recent study noted that long term follow-up of folks with recovery PVCs had a higher incidence of cardiac mortality.  Interestingly enough it was also noted that folks that took statins lessened or eliminated recovery PVCs.  This suggest some sort of CAD correlation but these types of conclusions are not formal and more study is needed.  I had recovery PVCs too and also had family history of significant CAD.  I started a statin for the family history issues and high cholesterol and since then haven't had recovery PVCs.  I also know this issue well enough to expect this could change at any moment.

Benign PVCs (if you have the benign variety) are really impossible to treat.  There are many reasons.  Try checking out the Heart Rhythm board here on medhelp instead.  There's a wealth of rhythm related issues there.  Determining if they are benign will require at a minimum an EKG, stress test, event monitor, and an echo.  Once your baselines are established and if these are benign you should do yearly follow-ups to see if there are any changes.

[kenkeith]

The link shown has good information regarding your question.  If you have followup qestions you can post on this thread or address your question to the heart rhythm forum.  Take care

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Heart-Disease/Skipped-Heart-Beats-PVCs--