Sigh. PVC’s have me desperate. How to cope?

Oh gosh, I am sending you a big dose of empathy. Been there, done that. And, I promise you that this intensity can and does diminish. So here is my pep talk to you!

First of all, trust in the fact that you've been checked out throughly and your heart is sturdy and can handle these PVCs. Everyone has PVCs. Most people are completely unaware of them. They come, they go. It's part of having a human heart. I personally think it is good to pay attention to your heart beat and rate, so good for you for knowing and listening to your body. This will serve you well for the rest of your life.

I'm not a doctor, obviously, but I'm a life long dysrhythmia patient, born with a congenital heart rhythm disorder, undergone ablation via open heart surgery and I've had all sorts of variations of benign dysthymia's for 60 years. Benign does not mean fun or non-anxiety provoking, so I get it. So, my second piece of strong advice is to do the opposite of what you are doing and get busy again and now. The more you sit around and dwell on this, the worse it seems and believe it or not, the more they will happen because the more worked up you are about them, the more stress hormone you release and thus, the more extra beats your heart will produce. (Not very fair, is it!). So, no matter how scared you are, try super hard to get back to your regular routine and occupy your mind on everything and anything else but this. Make your self as busy as possible. Employ any friend, family member, co-worker, neighbor or who ever you can to help fill up your schedule morning to bedtime. Tell them what is going on and get them on board to help distract you! Do your favorite things and new things when you are not working. Go for walks, to see movies or a play, visit museums or exhibits, take a weekend trip away to a favorite place if you can. Volunteer. Get busy. Next thing you know, you'll notice you are not thinking about it as much and just like that, this intensity of the situation will decrease and the number of PVCs probably will too!

I hope someone explained to you that you probably have an irritated spot (foci) or two in your heart that is firing away. This happens even to healthy people and I think they are not quite sure why this pops up, though there is a definitely connection to stress, low electrolyte levels, sleep deprivation and a handful of other things such as too much caffeine and even simple meds people are using that are stimulants unbeknownst to them! You can figure this out. So my third piece of advice is to take a good inventory of what you are putting into your body (and I mean everything) and your lifestyle and make the necessary adjustments. I have had the best luck decreasing extra beats by simply pumping up my potassium level. Whenever I feel more PVCs or get runs of SVT (super ventricular tachycardia) I go straight to my potassium routine. Coconut water, watermelon, banana, baked potato and believe it or not, baby food banana are my go too foods and drinks to get this done. Usually, after a couple of days adding these items in generous amounts, I notice a tremendous decrease in the number of extra beats. I too use magnesium glycinate, as I find it to be calming. Some people like the slow release kind called Slo-mag. I also add a touch of sodium (salt) becuase I tend to keep that low in order to keep my blood pressure nice and low, but it's a double edged sword as when my blood pressure is low, I can get extra beats. So there will be some trial and error here with diet, but what you are doing is working with your electrolytes and trying to get them into a range that your heart likes. If you have a good relationship with your doctor, you could even ask for blood work with an electrolyte panel so you know your levels and see how they respond to a week or two of a potassium rich diet.

And finally, you mentioned the "stressful job." Of course, changing jobs is not that easy, especially if you are in one that is well paying or hard to find. If you have the means, consider some therapy and/or life coaching or career coaching, update your LinkedIn and really work to see how this aspect of your life can be managed. Don't automatically think that your boss will not be supportive if you ask for work modifications or changes. give them a chance. For sure, you should try to learn about stress hormones and how they affect the entire body and recognize your heart is giving you a wake up call with a benign stress sign that something needs to change. You can do this too and I wish you all the best in figuring out what can make your work life less stressful.

One last thing: the type of specialist for heart rhythm issues is an electrophysiologist. This is a specially trained cardiologist with a fellowship in electrophysiology. If you are not in with one, press for a referral. These folks are great because they get the psychological side of a dysrhythmia and things like frequent PVCs, so they have lots of suggestions and resources.

Lots of love and hugs to you. Good luck.

PVCs can be terrifying and hard to deal with. So you are not alone in your feelings. I have had them for over 20 years now. I had ablation on right ventricle which helped stop them from that location. However the left ventricle was the worst side and the most PVCs.

A recent holter monitor test showed 3 different areas causing the PVCs. I would have like to do ablation again but electrophysiologist wanted to try medications first. Now I am talking hundreds of thousand of PVCs and some what they call 3 in row which can really bother you with the feelings.

I was put on Mexiletine to see if could reduce them. I had a 2% overall reduction with it.

I am not a doctor but have had a ICD/Pacemaker since 2006 and on my 3rd device. How is your weight? Losing weight can help according to my electropysiologist especially if Atrial. You mentioned high stress job. A really trigger according to my doctors. Has anyone mentioned therapy for that? Breathing exercises really help. Just the deep breathing from stomach can really calm you down.

The problem I have expressed to my care team is that stress does affect the amount of PVCs I get. So when you get a lot your stress goes up and then your PVCs go up. That is why some therapy can help with that as much as medications.

Do you have and ICD/Pacemaker? If you have a ICD it will monitor your heart and abnormal rhythms. It is like having your own EMT in your chest. Now I know this may not help but when you realize that your ICD will kick in if your heart gets to far out or rhythm I can help you relax and help reduce the stress over it. And yes I have been shocked about 10 times in the 17 years I have had one. Usually my care team can adjust ICD/Pacemaker and or medications and it helps. You mentioned magnesium Were you told 400 mg? It is suppose to help reduce PVCs.

Where are you being treated? Is it Mayo? If so have excellent patient care on this. I do want you to know what you are feeling I have been dealing with it for 20 years. When I get my 3 month pacemaker results I see 250,000 (just an example) PVCs since last test and goes into 3 at a time and 2 at a time, etc. I have learned when they act up (PVCs) to try and breath deep. And address my stress. Do you exercise? Simple walking can help. I think you can probably feel stress building up prior to PVCs and that is the time if you can to do some deep breathing.

I would also asked about medications that can reduce the amount and be really honest with your health provider how much it is affecting you mentally.

Thanks for the replies. I’m thinking my next step has to be a food test. I don’t know what else to do. Every little thumb comes with an adrenaline dump. Even if I’m physically active, it’s strong enough to be noticed.

So distraction/exercise isn’t a viable solution. I can’t believe these came so fast. Within two months I’ve gone from 1-2 a day to 1-2 a min. That’s an astronomical increase and I can’t live like this 😩

Hello there. Thanks for reading again.

I previously made a post about four or five months ago, discussing my sudden onset of PVCs. They were very upsetting and troubling, and honestly felt like they were on the road to ruining my life. I realize that many people here would probably love to be in my shoes because I had a relatively low burden of around 500 a day but they were symptomatic and the ones I was having were quite distressing.

Please understand I mean no disrespect and completely empathize with those of you who have it way worse than me. My heart and thoughts are with you.

Anyhow, I had a gamut of testing, including Holter monitor stress, test bloodwork CT

All of it.

The doctor says I’m perfectly fine have no structural abnormalities and just suggested I continue on a magnesium supplement

Things had seemed to subside, and I feel like for a short time I have gotten my life back, but just the other night, at 8 o’clock at night, I felt “full“ like I needed to belch. It wasn’t an uncommon sensation, but I definitely felt that acid and burp type of feeling. Funny enough, I hadn’t eaten in 8 hours. Well, lo and behold, when I sat down and bent over to grab something off the floor, I started having consistent PVCs

I called my wife in the room and said watch this, using my Apple Watch to show her that bending over and straining would cause a bigeminal rhythm with PVCs every other beat and as soon as I would stop and sit up, they would stop

Of course, it was extremely upsetting, because I have never seen myself in that type of rhythm. I have no other symptoms. I did not get weak for lightheaded or have chest pain although I’m sure some of that might have come along if I had continued for more than about 30 seconds.

I tested this hypothesis three or four times with the same result each time and immediate alleviation upon sitting up. Of course, two hours later, when I no longer felt full, I could not reproduce this.

I sent a message to my electrophysiologist, and he basically just said yeah you are irritating something in there but it’s no big deal. I’m not sure that I want it to be my final answer. If something is being irritated, who’s to say it won’t get worse? If something is being irritated, isn’t there a way to stop irritating it?

I found an article about a surgeon who had positional PVC stimulation when operating in a certain body position, and he eventually had to have an ablation. Has anyone else had experience with this positional stimulation?

I am going to attach two strips that were taken just a minute or two apart

Thanks again.

You may of irritated the vagus nerve. It’s a long nerve that can play a roll with afib and pvcs. I’ve heard of people having problems like yours after they eat.
Good luck.

713, I take 400 mg once a day. When it was recommended to me by my Mayo Electrophysiolgist he did not specify a specific type.

I take a Puritan Pride product called, "Triple Magnesium Complex." The ingredients are, Magnesium Oxide, Magnesium Aspartrate, Magnesium Citrate. I believe on line I read, but was not told this by my electrophysiologist, citrate is the best.

When I told my Electrophsiologist was already taking it he recommended Mexiletine 150 mg and started with lowest dose. I was advised this is a quick metabolizing medication and has to be taken every 8 hours. Told within a day or two if not taken is gone from body. This is different from other rhythm medications that can be highly toxic and in body for long periods of time.

It did improve the PVCs but still there. I was warned that gaining weight will cause PVCs to go up especially atrial. I did gain weight during treatments for prostrate cancer but have been working on getting it down. Stress is also a trigger for PVCs.

Hi there! Thank you for the comforting and informative post. I know I am not the original author to the post, but I have been following this as I am having PVCs as well. Have you found that certain foods make them worse or overeating? I have found that I can’t have foods with high levels of tyramine and also greasy foods. I am going to stock up on your potassium routine items and see if that helps. PVCs can be so frustrating and at times when I have them, I say why me. I keep telling myself, things could be so worse. Sometimes even just little activity as carrying in groceries, carrying laundry, and going up a hill makes it start up. Thank you again and I would love to hear from you.

Samantha