Fears about ectopic heart beats and PSVT's. Doctor not concerned.

@jeanstewart I refuse to take beta blockers, my blood pressure is to low for them, normal for me is 117/75 o lower and heart rate between 59 and 75. The GP insists it will stop the ectopic heart beats,but I have heard others who have taken them say that they can make them worse.

Hello, I am sorry that I am just now answering your replies. I wasn't aware that I had any as I wasn't being notified, I just happened to come across this group again today and saw these. I want to thank everyone for your helpful replies.

@susieq1957 All the beta blocker is meant to do is to keep a lid on the heart rate when you ARE fibrillating. Any sustained HR over 100 beats per minute should be tended to at an ER if it goes any longer than 24 hours. The reason is that a rate higher than about 100 indicates RVR (rapid ventricular response). You can have a high atrial rate and live for years, but your ventricle needs a break and can't run a race 24/7. It needs rest, which it can't do AND keep up with the more rapid atrial rate if the atrium is fibrillating. So the beta blocker helps to keep the rate down, and it helps to keep the force lower for each contraction. And yes, some people find their BP gets too low and that their HR goes to low when on beta blockers, almost dangerously low. So, the cardiologist needs to know this if it happens. Some say that a beta blocker will also help with the arrhythmia, but it is more about rate control. It's not designed to be an anti-arrhythmia drug like flecainide, Multaq, propafenone, Sotalol, or amiodarone.

@gloaming My heart rate has never been above 100 BPM longer than a few minutes. When I wore the 7 day event monitor it was only in tachycardia a few seconds twice, the rest of the time it was in regular beats per minute. I will never take a beta blocker or anti arryhmic drug, I don't need them. I just want reassurance that the ectopic heart beats are not sinister, I know the ER doc says they aren't, but they feel so weird, it's hard to believe they're not.

@susieq1957 I gotcha. The medical community had decided that it is only when the burden (that's the term, 'burden') of ectopy reaches about 10% of all beats in a 24 hr period that they need to figure something out to ensure your longevity. There is some variation on that number, with some recent papers suggesting that the burden greater than 3% is not to be discounted for some patients who will do more poorly at that burden over time.
https://www.emjreviews.com/en-us/amj/cardiology/article/ectopic-beats-how-many-count/
So, ectopy and AF are semi-benign if they don't involve RVR, high sustained HR, and their total in a 24 hour period doesn't exceed 2% of all countable beats. It is when the patient presents with complaints about how they make that patient feel, how imposing or debilitating the arrhythmia is, that an EP will offer to try to ablate the tissue causing the extra beats. IOW, as much as the burden may be getting up there, a sympathetic cardiologist and EP will want their patients to feel and to live as normal as possible. Symptoms count! Quality of life counts. My EP asked me each time he saw me, 'We can control your heart with meds if you are interested, or I can try to ablate you and we'll see how that works.' He was making it clear, persistently, that I had options and needn't choose one over the other on HIS say-so. In turn, I always responded that ectopy made my life a living hell, and that I didn't want to run an endless series of trials hoping one AAD (anti-arrhythmic drug) would work well and long enough to make my existence a thing.

Once again, the science currently holds that ectopy offering less than a 2% burden is not likely to harm a patient.

You are a minority, as most people do not do their part. Also, that you are seeking God. Am curious as to what state you live in. I lived 15 years total, and the few people I know there now struggle greatly wit expenses because all so expensive. I am retired and would be struggling also.
For over 10 years, I have lived in Costa Rica. Fruits and veggies here are amazing. Yes, it is more expensive than years past, but I am able to live happily without a car, which frees up my finances. I have enough to spend, give and save.
God hears you whether it feels like He is not. I understand hard times. When Jesus was tempted, He told satan to be quiet. You are not alone or helpless.

@lindy9 I live in New Zealand and my goodness, prices are so high, it seems like every month things take another huge price jump. I was born and raised in America, I lived most of my adult life in Washington State, I met a Christian man on a Christian forum, we emailed and Skyped all the time then he came to America and we met. It hasn't been easy, I didn't realize what a huge culture difference there is between America and here. We have been married 13 years today. I get very homesick for home and my dear parents, they both are with the Lord now.

@susieq1957
Hi. I'm sorry to hear your situation. I'll share my similar story. I started having some kind of odd arrhythmias right around Y2K and finally dragged in to see a doctor, who sent me to a cardiologist, who put me on a Holter monitor. "Something odd there, but I wouldn't go further with things at the moment", he said. Swell. But I did start taking blood pressure meds, and added a low dose beta blocker (atenolol) soon after. But the first time I took a 25mg pill I felt like it was far too strong, so talked to the doctor and tried cutting the (already tiny!) pill in half. That seemed to help, reduce arrhythmias and some occasional tachycardias. In retrospect I'd probably been living with some of these all my life. It was circa 2015 that the PACs and PVCs went crazy, but a series of doctors shrugged them off. I'm quite certain I was far above any 10% "burden rate" but, well, I hadn't fallen over or anything, and the doctors didn't see any problems. Oh yeah, had how many ECGs and wore three or four different kinds of Holter or event monitors. I was impressed positively by none of this. I spent a perfectly miserable year and then, well, things improved, I survived, but still had enough to scare me silly - except that I'd seen far worse. I will say that without the beta blocker I would never have made it. BTW chocolate has some natural beta blocker effects, of course it's also full of calories, but heck, see if it helps, maybe one ounce of dark chocolate should be enough and you either see improvement thirty minutes later, or you don't.
So I wouldn't drag you through this story unless it had something of a happy-ish ending. About four years ago now I was reviewing my nutrition profile and thought hey, I'm not getting much vitamin A, so I did two things, I started taking a generic multi-vitamin that contains A, and I started eating these little "baby carrots" (that they carve out of big carrots), as the kind of harmless experiment I always like doing. Lo and behold the arrhythmias which had been truly burdening my life for 25 years, faded out by about 95%. Coincidence? What can I say. One apocryphal story for you.
Best wishes.

@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.