Can Ectopic beats be cured? - Atrial Fibrillati...

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Can Ectopic beats be cured?

Skunizzi profile image
23 Replies

Has anyone here experienced ectopic beats and actually cured themselves of it or is this a life long problem?

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Skunizzi profile image
Skunizzi
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23 Replies
BobD profile image
BobDVolunteer

Ectopic beats are a normal function of a healthy heart and not considered dangerous. Only when they become troublesome and frequent do we generally notice them. Healthy people have up to 200 a day on average but never do notice for the most part.

The simple deep slow breathing exercise which we were taught by Dr Sanjay Gupta is generally helpful in terminating runs of ectopics. Search Ectopics top right and I;m sure you will find details.

Vonnegut profile image
Vonnegut in reply to BobD

Thank you for that Bob. I get the occasional reading of SR with supraventricular ectopy on my Kardia which has concerned me though it never lasts long or involves an unusually high heart rate. Or are ectopics different?

BobD profile image
BobDVolunteer in reply to Vonnegut

Ectopic means out of place. Supraventricular means coming from above the ventricle i e from the atrium . It just means that the atrium sometimes starts the process at the wrong time. Irritating but not dangerous.

How bad have you got them? Mine are constant and troublesome, so need treatment. My EP put me on antiarrhythmic drugs which take away most symptoms for me. But I wouldn't take the drugs if the ectopics were not really troubling me, but they do, all day every day.

Mercurius profile image
Mercurius

There are two type of ectopics. Atrial and ventricular. Itself they are not very problematic, but for afibbers the atrial ectopics are harmful. Atrial ectopics can initiate and drive the afib. The bad news that you can only feel the ventricular as a skipped beat. Atrial ectopics are usually found only on the ECG strip. With experience sometimes could be detected as "splitted" pulse beat during wrist palpation.

Jhcoop55 profile image
Jhcoop55 in reply to Mercurius

I think your information may be incorrect as atrial ectopics is a completely different rhythm than AFIB. I have had as many as 2000 in a 24 hour period but my EP says it is of less concern than the ventricular ectopics which can be more worrisome if there is a large volume of them. Thankfully, in my case, the volume of ventricle ectopics is minimal.

Mercurius profile image
Mercurius in reply to Jhcoop55

In the cardiology literature the atrial ectopics are reffered as "drivers". I have an ECG device and I see on my ECG the atrial burden before the onset of my afib event.

Just one link here:

Atrial ectopy as a predictor of incident atrial fibrillation: a cohort study

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/242...

Jhcoop55 profile image
Jhcoop55 in reply to Mercurius

Thanks for the info. Interesting but fairly old study. I'd be curious if there are more recent studies given the prevalence of AFIB to really determine if there is truly a correlation between Atrial ectopics and AFIB .

As this report noted, the study DOES NOT establish a causal link between PACs and AF and further study is needed to determine whether PAC modification can prospectively reduce AF risk.

Mercurius profile image
Mercurius in reply to Jhcoop55

Ok, there is one newer Review on the topic.

I hope so that understanding of this connection will help the cardiologist colleagues to develop methods for preventing or reduce the number of afib events. At least for me it works. If I realised that I have PAC burden, then I walk quickly up and down and it suppress my PACs. With this manouver I can prevent my afib. Fortunatelly I have asymptomatic afib but number is high so I have lot of "experimnets" with controls to observe the effect of PAC suppression.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

djmnet profile image
djmnet in reply to Mercurius

Interesting read. Thank you. Of particular note (to me) was the mention of AF treatment resistance whether with drugs or surgical intervention. Confirmed for me my decision to take no drugs like beta blockers and anti-arrhythmics in an attempt to "control" it, and to forego completely any thought of ablation.

Mercurius profile image
Mercurius in reply to djmnet

Good luck for this battle.

I'm on the same route. Rejected the ablation and focus on the life style change. After reducing my weight and strong control of my blood pressure, now I have less freqently afib (basically half of the original) and my ECHO also reverted to normal.

Sam72- profile image
Sam72- in reply to Mercurius

I had the atrial ones that sent me into AFib last November for as I no my first time. My EP told me ectopics can drive AFib so I have to agree with you on this .

Elaine1951 profile image
Elaine1951

Since I started taking Hawthorne I've not had them. Couid be totally unrelated

Tracyt profile image
Tracyt

I had an ablation nearly 2 years ago and have been fine, but recently have started having ectopics. They are very annoying and keep me up at night. Not sure what causes them but am avoiding caffeine which helps.

philologus profile image
philologus

I think that it depends on the cause of the ectopics as well as the number as to whether it can be fixed or not.

If you watch some of the videos by Dr Gupta mentioned in an above post, you will learn that a very heavy ectopic burden can cause problems such as heart failure. HF does not mean that your heart has completely failed - it just means that it is failing to do its job as well as it should. HF is scored 1 - 4 for severity, 4 being the worst. Dr Gupta also says that if you can cure the ectopics then your heart can begin to heal itself.

My 30,000 to 40,000 ectopics a day were caused by taking Tramadol for arthritic pain. This heavy burden caused HF at level 4. Medication got it down to 20,000 a day and the HF went to level 3.

20,000 a day is still a pain in the %$£& and is unpleasant and very limiting.

If it is really bad you might be offered an ablation to try to reduce the rogue signals that are causing the problem.

Because of my arthritis I was unable to have an ablation so it was a case of "just make the best of it".

If you put "iodine" in the search bar on the top right of this page you will find the post that started me on a couple of week's research and which has now led to my ectopics being below 400 a day and my HF level going down to between 1 and 2 and improving still.

You will find a couple of my posts under "iodine" that explains what I've done in more detail.

Although it worked perfectly for me it may be that iodine is not the cure for everyone. As I said at the beginning of this post: it depends on the cause. Mine had a definite cause but stopping the Tramadol did not cure it. I put up with ectopics for about four years before I started taking iodine and that did the trick. I'm not sure what the mechanism for this was - whether Tramadol affects iodine uptake etc - but I will be looking into this when I have caught up with all the little jobs that were on the back-burner because of me feeling ill all the time.

I hope this helps, but please do your own research if you decide that iodine might work for you.

Best wishes,

George

Sam72- profile image
Sam72-

Hi skunizzi , all I can tell you is from my experience with ectopics over the years , mine started very young say early 20s , I actually was having them in labour with my son😩 so was put on beater blockers . Anyway there was a few things that triggered my ectopics!

1. Hormones drove them and when ovulation kicked in they invited my ectopics to a dance off .

2. Caffeine, Coke, lemonade, chocolate. Me and caffeine DO NOT MIX .

3. Alcohol, this in moderation is ok , but if j get a hangover the next day I pay big time .

4. Eating to much, full belly would start them off , infact sometimes just eating can start them off . Or just drinking water can get them going .

But I have had SVE runs of them , and got told they were harmless over the years . However I would say the last 5 years they started to give me a kicking, I am symptomatic so I feel everything. They have brought me a lot of anxiety and depression with them over the years . Then last November I had a run of them atrial flutter 💓 and BAM 💥 had my first episode of PAF !!! A good 7 hours of it . My EP told me ectopics can drive the AFib so they are hopefully going to try to ablate them on Thursday, I am on 10 mg of bisoprolol that I take morning and tea time . TBH I think I have had nearly every ectopic from every we're of my heart going , as the names of them I can't even pronounce . I had a implanted loop recorder in my chest for 3 years that I used to have checked every 3 months and that picked up all the ectopics but just in the last few weeks before it was about to be reamoved I went into AFib . My AFib at the moment comes every few years . I think I have SVT as well , we will see on Thursday if this is the case . Sorry for the long reply 🙄 but what my point is that ectopics can be a pathway for you to go into AFib as proven with me . I just wish they would have sent me to an EP years ago as now I have a severe dilated left atrium that wasn't there on a scan 3 years ago , so some damage is done now . I don't no if I will ever be ectopic free ? But if I no I can exercise a little without it turning into SVT or AFib I can live with the skippy the kangaroo heart now and then 👍🏼 hope this helps , what I would point out though!!! Is ectopics are not always harmless as are doctors and some cardiologists will tell us , had my last cardiologist done her job properly 3 years ago and seen that I had runs of ectopics that would then set off a steady fast heart beat for a few seconds I.E. Probably SVT or maybe AFIB? And sent me for an EP study ? I might not be in this position I am in now with my atrium. I hope this helps you with your questions about ectopic heart beats 💗

greg35 profile image
greg35 in reply to Sam72-

Hi Suzy hope your ablation goes well I had 2 this year for eptopics I have good days and bad days bad at the minute! My experience sound very like yours and I thought I had it cracked changing diet and supplements but been bad an now they are back big style my EP doesnt really want to know and is handing me over to another EP! did you find any medication helped ectopics!

Good luck for Thusday

Ingrid

Gwersey profile image
Gwersey in reply to Sam72-

I know it's a year ago you wrote this post Sam but, are you still getting ectopic beats?

Sam72- profile image
Sam72- in reply to Gwersey

Hi , no were near as many it’s fantastic now x

Gwersey profile image
Gwersey in reply to Sam72-

I'm happy for you x

Sam72- profile image
Sam72- in reply to Gwersey

Thank you , still get them but no my triggers now so they have become less frequent.

Gillie12 profile image
Gillie12

Hi Sam,

I'm so sorry to hear what has happened to you, I hope like with heart failure it can recover to a degree but if not hope you can still lead a fairly normal life.

II'm lying here having been woken by ectopics which I've suffered from for the last 2 years. They are very troublesome and without taking 160mg of SR propranolol a day (increased recently to this) I wouldn't be able to lead my normal busy life at all. I can't accept they are harmless, they feel awful and stop me in my tracks as I get ventricular and atrial ectopics in runs of every other beat so called 'bigeminy' which I was told by the dr in A&E that it will make me feel poorly as blood isnt circulating properly! They make me feel very unwell and I have to pass water so frequently it's a total nuisance. Apparently passing water is part and parcel of it as it affects kidney function! I have a prolapsed mitral valve which they said isn't the cause but can be associated with it which I don't really understand. I am waiting to see a cardiologist under the NHS but am considering going privately. I have seen an EP about a year ago but they can't ablate it as in difficult area to reach, so medication is the only treatment at the mo but it doesn't always work. Will see what else they can come up with. Thank goodness we have this site for support!!

All the best

Gill x

User8719 profile image
User8719

Hi Skunizzi, i haven't been online looling at this stuff since i got rid of my ectopic beats almost a year ago and felt that i should come on and share my own experience. I had ectopics develop after a very chronic stressful time. I lived with huge amounts of anxiety with them as they freak you out. I notice they would lessen when i went on holidays or relaxed. And come on strong if i was busy/stressing. One day i stopped drinking or eating caffeine. The difference was like day and night my ectopics went from hundreds a day to one and then zero. Sometimes if im really stressed and i get a boot of adrenaline i can get a couple but it doesn't worry me. I believe its all related to stress and anxiety which also affects digestion and then the whole system is agitated.

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