Diltiazem Reactions For AFIB/PVC's

Posted by Larry @crashnam, Jan 19, 2018

Developed intermittent AFIB four years ago. Have had mild/tolerable PVC's for 35 years up to that point. PVC's got more frequent and "weird." Anyway, haven't taken many medications for any of it with the exception of Metropolol. Why? Because of side effects I read about. Recently, Dr. wanted me to try Amiodarone. I read about it, didn't want it. Next he prescribed Mutaq. I read about, didn't want it. A few years back one Dr. prescribed Diltiazem. Thought very seriously about it, but again, decided I didn't want it. However, between Diltiazem and the other two medications I mentioned, the Diltiazem seems more reasonable. So, I'm going to talk my Dr. into the low dose of Diltiazem (30 mg. to start two or three times a day), and pop one when I go into AFIB which is usually around 200 BPM, which is pretty fast. Since I also have numerous PVC's every day anyway, I'm still concerned that it will slow the heart down where the PVC's will feel even worse with all the different types of PVC's involved as well as hesitations. It's like a Catch 22. Need to get the heart rate down when I go into AFIB, but don't know if the Diltiazem will cause more problems with the PVC's or whether it might even help them a little. Has anyone had experience with Diltiazem and also has PVC's along with the AFIB?

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Dont know what pvc is but i take diltiazem 240 mg 1st aday and have hardly any a fib anymore.

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Has anyone ever used Diltiazem for episodes of AFIB? I average a couple of episodes a month lasting from 4-8 hours, but it's pretty fast. Problem is I have hundreds of PVC's everyday so I don't want to slow heart down to much because the PVC's would feel worse at a slower rate. I'm on metropolol everyday and eliquis. When the AFIB episode starts I was just curious if dropping a low dose Diltiazem would slow the rate down without any problems. Also, has anyone done an accurate count on how many thousands and thousands of different heart conditions there are? Just kidding. But it seems like there are thousands of them.

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Hi @crashnam

I'm tagging @fitchizumi @beahind and Mentors @jimhd @predictable as they've written about Diltiazem in various discussions, and I'm certain they would be happy to share their their insights with you.

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