@carbcounter That's wonderful that the Vitamin A has helped you so much. I take a real good brand of Vitamin A but have not noticed it helping with the ectopic heart beats. To be honest, I have tried every recommended vitamin, mineral and herb, nothing helps, it's so discouraging. The ones that feel the scariest are the ones when my heart is beating slow in the low 60's, I hate those. They also act up after drinking water, I don't drink it cold as I know that can be a catalyst. I dread eating because it causes them as does bending over walking, you name it. They have ruined my life. I used to love taking walks thru our lovely park that we live next too, but now I get panicky because the walk brings them on. I do have a hiatal hernia, but I have had it for years and my heart never acted up as badly as it has the last few years.
This week has been the worst so far. My husband is going to attend a two day Christian man's fellowship camp Friday, Friday night and all day Saturday, he'll be back Saturday late. I have begged him not to go, that I am terrified of being alone should the heart beats get worse. At first he said he would not go, but he then told our pastor at church how he wanted to go and I wouldn't let him. The pastor prayed for him, I heard it and the pastor saw me, he asked if prayers brought me peace, I was so angry at my husband doing this, I said they didn't, that at this time I needed him home, but the pastor took my husband's side and then prayed for me. I was so angry and scared, I didn't even listen to his prayer and I normally do. Well, I felt guilty and the next day told my husband he could go. He was so excited, he immediately signed up, it hurt my feelings so badly, he didn't even say he would stay home if I was really feeling badly that day. He says that my skips will get worse because I don't want him to go. That's so cruel for him to say, and not true, I would give anything to feel well and not be scared that he's going to be gone for a couple of days. I am even more dizzy than usual. I am so scared.
As I said in my original post, I am from America, I never had issues this badly there, it all started when I married him (we met on a Christian forum, we Skyped a lot and emailed. He came to America, we met, got married shortly after and I flew back to New Zealand with him) To be honest, I haven't been happy since moving here 13 years ago. The marriage has had some very rough times and I miss home even though I have no one back there but one Aunt who isn't well.
Anyway, sorry to bore you, I just wanted to share a few things.
@susieq1957 Yes, I saw some of your story in the previous messages and at the risk of keeping it too clinical, well, everything does run together, any kind of stress may aggravate some of these arrhythmias, it's not even "psychological" as such, it's a biological reaction when we get tense or excited. Which is why some might try to use psychiatric drugs as a treatment, though I've never tried anything like that. Actually my mother had occasion to, come to think of it, not really the same situation but also probably involving the same kind of crossovers.
The vitamin A idea was a wild shot but just anything to improve a diet might help some indirectly and - how about the chocolate?
I just want to say that a pulse rate in the low 60s is pretty much ideal, assuming you're just hanging around in the house and not running a 10k (and maybe even then!).
I've recently had some problems with bradycardia down in the 50s and even lower once or twice - felt fine but really didn't think that was normal, and it did not speed up easily. So I had a cup of tea for the caffeine and other active ingredients, moved around, and waited for my last (over)dose of beta blockers to metabolize. OTOH the body will just vary behaviors some from time to time, maybe it wasn't the beta blocker at all, who knows, we just have to cope as we can.
I do recall a time, at the start of my various arrhythmia adventures, one time before I took any prescription meds, and I was feeling some horrible dread that didn't seem quite justified even then but again, some kind of biological phenomenon - and may even have been related to over-consumption of certain junk foods, after than I swore off Doritos, anyway! I've also seen others posting about similar experiences, though never another mentioning Doritos.
Again, hoping through work or luck or faith or fate, or all of the above, you cope with the present and find better days soon.