So I’ve always suffered with anxiety all my life, last year I was going through a lot of stress with work and in December I got stranded in Germany due to bad snow. I was having panic attacks with heart palpitations over Christmas then on Boxing Day I had sat down and I felt this weird thud/flutter in my chest. I’d never experienced it before and it scared the hell out of me. I was experiencing these flutters/thuds along with palpitations a few times everyday. I went to my GP who said it was probably anxiety and prescribed me propranolol. I had blood tests and an ecg which were both normal. She then referred me to have a Holter monitor but on the NHS the wait would be months to years. I went back to say the propranolol wasn’t really working and she did hear an extra beat. I’ve tried so hard to ignore the feelings and for a good few weeks it worked but some days it can be really bad which has lead me to go to A&E 3/4 times now and every time they do an ecg it is fine and they say it’s anxiety. I am convinced that I have heart problems and I’m going to die, my anxiety is very severe. I decided to pay private to see a cardiologist to get the monitor a lot quicker, I had a 48 hour monitor 2 weeks ago and still waiting for the results which is driving me mad. This week I’m experiencing more flutters/thuds it feels like it’s gone from a couple a day to over 20/30. I know this may not seem like a lot but when it happens it feels very distressing. I struggle sleeping a lot of the time because I panic thinking that I won’t wake up from this. I ended up in A&E again on Tuesday because the feeling felt even more extreme and regular but once again everything normal. I have decided to pay for private therapy to hopefully ease my anxiety. I’m so fed up with what’s happening to me, it has really taken over my life and I fear every single day. I just wondered if anyone else experienced this and if they found a way of coping? I already take magnesium and vitamin D tablets, which I thought did help to begin with but not so much anymore. I’m exercising more and trying to eat better and lose weight too.
Ectopic Beats ruining my life - Atrial Fibrillati...
Ectopic Beats ruining my life
It’s difficult I know, I was fobbed off by my gp doctors for years telling me I had anxiety. After years of ecgs been normal I finally got to wear a holter monitor which discovered I had Atrial fibrillation, which is an irregular heart beat. They put me on the correct medication and after a while I had an ablation and a follow up ablation a year later. I think once they diagnose you properly they can treat you accordingly and make you feel a bit better, your anxiety will subside and things will improve. Have faith, take some deep breaths and try to positive think, you will get your results soon and then you will get the proper help.
Know that there are millions of us with heart rhythm issues, and we’re most all trucking along in some degree of order. Get your specific issue nailed down with a treatment plan, make and execute your plan to achieve your goals to exercise and lose weight and then do the things you want, when you want. this thing is an unwelcome passenger indeed but don’t let it grab your “steering wheel.”
Fiirstly anxiety will exacerbate any heart rhythm problems so good for you looking into dealing with that issue. We all get lots of ectopic beats every day. Even perfectly healthy people . Most do not notice them but once you do they tend to become self perpetuating due to the anxiety.
Now there is a very good exercsie that you can do yourself which for many people stops the ectopics but in any case helps relax and is beneficial.
Relax and lay down comfortably with your limbs loose. Breath in through your nose and with your diaphragm, (stomach) not your shoulders. Pull you diaphragm down slowly pushing your stomach out to breath in and then pull you stomach up to try and meet your spine to breath out through your mouth. Slow your breathing down to less than 6 breaths a minute and keep that up for AT LEAST five minutes. With practise you can get even slower . Once I learned to do it properly it was like a light switch for my ectopics.
To quote a previous post here 'THE GOOD NEWS is that if our thoughts can make us sick, our thoughts can also make us whole.'
Suggest you look up James Nestor's book 'Breathe' on Youtube and also Patrick McKeown.
Try taking CoQ10 200mg (run it past your medics first)
Utilise spiritual beliefs as they give welcome relief from an entrenched mindset (I have used prayer & Nature immersion successfully).
Persistence pays off - you have taken some good first steps already!
You really are worrying needlessly. Whether you can eventually grow to realise this, I don't know, but the feelings you are having are not anything that will ever lead to anything bad happening. It's possible, like, me that one day you might develop a worse arrhythmia, such as atrial flutter or fibrillation, but that applies to us all. people like us with these "premature beats" are a little more likely to develop these other arrhythmias in older life, it seems.
Anxiety is a horrible thing. Tell me about it!
Steve
How much magnesium and vit D are you taking? Taking vit D increases your need for magnesium so you might not be taking enough. Have you had your vit D levels checked? A severe deficiency can cause anxiety. The breathing exercises are good for calming down.
The vitamin d tablets are just your normal supermarket type. The magnesium i have are both glycinate and taurate. I didn’t realise the vitamin d increases your need for magnesium. I haven’t had my levels checked I think I just decided to try various things to see if they would help.
Vit D tablets come in different strengths 400iu, 800iu 1000iu etc. It should say the strength on the bottle. Between 300 and 400mg of magnesium should be enough if you also ear magnesiu rich foods.
What is that sheet?
Hello Sammi Snap!
When you get an answer let me know.
OK, seriously, you have just described exactly my last 8 months and current situation.
I have had 2 ablations for PAF 9 years ago but, this current issue is Ectopic beats which are common after ablation, common anyway, and common with stress / anxiety. I felt that on this occassion, I was not getting any reassuring advice from my GP as each Doctor a saw contradicted the other one. Likewise, a visit to A&E prompted the same response as that of the Doctors, 'they are ectopic beats and we dont worry about them'. That is fine but it is not them that is getting them and when it one, takes your breath away and two, seems to make your pulse half of what it should be, you do panic.
OK. like you, I paid on this occassion to see my cardiologist privately (expensive) and received ECG and an Ecocardiogram. He was not worried by the findings but increased my Propanonlol dose from take it when you feel like it (quarter, half or full tablet) to two 20mg tablets per day for a 6 week trial period. The Propanolol will not stop the Ectopic beats but it will lower your blood pressure and heart bpm by about 10 beats. This scares the hell out of you because your pulse is even slower and after 4-5 weeks you have trouble walking distances (you do not get out of breath but your legs do not want to go the extra mile). It will reduce your anxiety which in turn is supposed to reduce the Ectopic beats, good luck with that one.
OK. Let me try to reassure you whilst currently trying to reassure myself. My Eco cardiagram was fine along with the ECG apart of course for the Ectopic beats. At times I am getting an Ectopic as every other beat but, I just feel tight chested (sort of out of breath but not panting). I can feel them slightly if I lay in a particular way when I go to bed. Apparently your heart only pumps 1/5 of the amount of blood during an ectopic beat and my consultant did not seem concerned about that. What may help is that he was able to show me that on an ECG your heart is actually beating at the normal rate but, you cannot feel the pre beat (Ectopic Beat???) in your pulse or see it on a Pulse Oximeter or Blood Pressure machine which makes you think it is only beating at 50% of what it should be and so makes you panic.
Like you I suffer from GAD and unfortunately, it does trigger Ectopic Beats and if not the trigger it magnifies them and prolongs them. I am going to assume that like me, you are in tune with your anxiety and cannot understand why when you are really stressed, over something that would stress all of us, your heart beat is probably normal and that when you relax, bang the Ectopic beats hit you. When you work that one out let me know.
The only observation I have made when it comes to me is that I am more conscious of my breathing when the Ectopics are bad. I think I tend to hold my breath a bit or over breath. I know for a fact that if I get totally distracted by something I am doing or watching TV the Ectopics calm down and my breathing goes back to normal. I can only conclude that it is the anxiety of the problem that is making it worse and prolonging it. The self monitoring and worry that it will get in the way of something you are looking forward to is possibly something else you will recognise.
All I can say is dont beat yourself up. I feel that either they have to treat my Ectopics which means another ablation or treat the Anxiety for which they seem totally reluctant to do.
I was holding my breath a bit whilst concentrating on writing this reply and I am missing every other beat. OK I will rephrase that, every other beat is an Ectopic, I am not missing a beat.
Feel free to contact me at any time.
Hi well done with that response. You summed up my description with feeling your chest is tight but you are not out of breath. I would say that on occassion it feels as if you have been out in the freezing cold and the air temperature has scarred your lungs and windpipe. My problem is that I become aware of the Ectopics only because of this tight breathing and that by becoming aware of it you make it worse. I think you tend to hold your breath a bit or start to control your breathing which in itself is not your natural unconscious way of breathing and so make it worse. All the best though
I’m currently experiencing more than my fair share of pvcs which can be every other beat for many hours, bigeminy. They also disappear, then come back again. I read all the horror stories at first, thinking I was going to have ventricular tachycardia, v fib and drop dead at any time, like you, I’m a natural born worrier and stress addict 🤣, well a year in to this ectopic adventure, I haven’t dropped dead yet,I have continued working and most importantly had fun, I hope your therapy works as well for you as it did for me. All the best 👌🏻 i have had no pacs on my holters recently which gives me hope for my Af being at bay for a while yet, touch wood.
Thank you to everyone that has replied. I’m so relieved that I’m not the only one that’s been feeling this way. Although I wish I could take them away from you all. It’s definitely not a nice thing to go through but I think the anxiety of having them is so much worse. Once I get my Holter monitor results and I know they are harmless I think I will be able to cope a bit better but at the moment I just think I have some crazy arrhythmia that’s gonna lead to cardiac arrest. Even though I don’t feel ill with these sensations as people say I don’t get dizzy, I don’t faint or feel chest pain. The only pain I really feel is a discomfort from palpitations on an evening when I’m trying to sleep but I know that’s my anxiety. I just want my life back.
On the cardiac arrest front, there would be something the experts would pick up on tests, until they say there’s a problem, there is no problem, in my first prolonged Af attack my heart went up to 300 bpm, I didn’t die, my blood pressure was fine. You will be fine, once you’ve convinced yourself of this.
My doctor got concerned when mine hit 175, your doctor must have been having Kittens. 😀
🤣 I was in resus and they threw me around a bit and put me back in sinus, I genuinely though that was it for me, since my first ablation I’ve only hit 180, so even if ablations fail, they still help in my eyes.
did they not offer a second ablation? I had 2 as first one made it worse to a degree. I was hitting 175 before second.
I finally got my 48 hour monitor results back and it’s completely normal. They only found 4 potential extra beats which again the cardiologist said was completely normal for anyone. Only problem is I had the monitor 3 weeks ago and in the last week I’ve experiencing more sensations which feel worse to before. Should I accept the results and carry on with my therapy hoping that once my anxiety is under control it’ll pass or would you ask for more tests? I feel like nobody believes me when I’m having these feelings, everyone just says it’s your anxiety but it feels so very real.
Hi Sammi. I suggested that you are probably in touch with your anxiety and like me, get angry when they seem to attach it to everything. There is a distinct difference in the anxiety you are sufferring from now. This is a response to a clear reason (Ectopic beats) unfortunately, we are in a catch 22 situation in that the Ectopics are probably a response to something you got anxious about and got over. The Ectopics like to come in just as you get your breath back and then take it away again. This unfortunately spikes a new anxiety which, keeps the Ectopics going. You will notice that they will go away or get better when you are distracted. I know from experience that it is hard to ignore them but, it will go back to normal.
Thank you that helps a lot! I definitely felt more anxious last week due to other reasons and waiting for the results as well of course didn’t help the situation either. You’re more than likely right, I think my anxiety manifests over time and it’s coming out with these etopics even though I may not feel anxious at the time they happen. I do find the days I’m more distracted it doesn’t happen so much. Last weekend I barely felt a thing because I wasn’t at work and I was happy doing my own thing.
Hi Sammi have you had your iron and ferritin levels checked? Low ferritin (stores of iron) can cause these symptoms even if your serum iron is normal. Below 30 is iron deficient but optimal levels are over 100 for women. Low iron can definately cause panic attacks, heart irregularities and a general anxiety
I did have blood tests done but I don’t think they checked my iron or ferritin. I’m going to call my doctor tomorrow and go through the results and explain how it’s still happening. Hopefully she will send me for more tests so I can get more answers.
Get them printed off, ferritin is overlooked by gps and they often say its normal when its not. Try to relax for tonight. I know its easier said than done but if there was problem, stressing will make it much worse so be strict with yourself. When you begin to worry just stop the thought as it comes and don't dwell on it. Your being proactive, your doing all you can and you are getting somewhere. Are you still in your stressful job?
Thank you I really appreciate your help. I’m definitely trying not to worry, my therapist says the same stop my thoughts when I think what if, might or maybe but it’s very difficult. Yeah I’m still in my stressful job and it only got worse unfortunately.
Oh no, would definately help if you didn't have that added stress but its not so easy just to switch careers is it. Maybe your run down and deficient in some vits and minerals with all the constant stress. Low B12 can have a massive impact on your body, maybe look into that side and help things with diet etc? Wishing you all the best Sammi can really feel the anguish through your messages xxx
hi Sammi25, i was about to post regarding my own ectopic beats but then i came across yours and it describes exactly what i’ve been through. i’ve just recently had it, same like you, feeling of thuds and flutters here and there. there are days when it only occurs 3-4 times then gone for a day or two. the next day it’ll go mad again in my chest, fluttering almost the whole day and end up me going to A & E. i got anxious, panicked and of course im palpitating, my bp gone up (i also have high bp - on medication) but that was because of me being extra anxious.
and same like you, ECG always came back normal (done it 4 times already within this month). done test for thyroid, xray, checking my electrolytes and all is good.
however i’ve been referred to a cardiologist this saturday and waiting for that appointment feels too long!
oh ya i also seen a therapist regarding my anxiety and i hope it’ll help me.. whatever it takes to help me too.
keep on updating your condition and ill update mine once i saw the cardiologist.
hoping everything will be okay for us!
It’s crazy how many of us actually suffer from the same thing. I never even knew these things existed until it happened to me. I really hope you get some answers from the cardiologist. I generally do believe it is just stress and anxiety that has manifested over the months but actually convincing myself this is another story. They will probably give you a holter monitor. Mine came back completely normal, I think it only showed 3 or 4 ectopics but what baffled me was it happened when I didn’t have the symptoms. When I thought I had symptoms nothing showed on there at all so I’m struggling to accept that maybe all this is in my head. Im debating what to do next, I really want to go back to my cardiologist and have more tests at least an echo to rule out structural issues but then I think how many more tests can I have until I convince myself that nothing is wrong. I guess that’s what the therapy is for. Let me know how your appointment goes and feel free to message me at any time, if you’re anything like me you feel alone in this and get so depressed.
Hi Sammi25,
Sorry to hear that ectopics are ruining your life. I can say I am close to understanding that. I am positive that anxiety is so connected to arrythmia. At least that is my experience. My humble advise to you would be: I understand that you have not been through any ablation neither your holter shows arrythmia and your occasional EKG s are good. You seem to be following up with the doctors as well. And you are determined to make some life style changes, if I am not mistaken you are only 30. All these sounds positive.
I know it is easy for me to say it but pls note I have been through more serious phases of arrythmia. I would not be worried that much as whatever arrythmia you have seems to be benign for the moment. Imagine being in arrythmia each time you have an EKG or in your holter. Or imagine you have been through ablation(s) or surgery or on blood thinners.
I think you may consider doing 3 things. One, find the best available healthcare you can and keep on monitoring the issue closely and patiently. I would not mind spending on this as this your health. Do not let the arrythmia progress while you wait for the available healthcare, pay and get it if you can. Two, make all the lifestyle changes, weight, relief, diet, exercise. And three, forget about your ectopics, as they are not necessarily meaningful and dangerous in and of themselves. Unless your doctor says otherwise.
Good luck and I hope you feel better.
I relate to so many of our groups heart issues, that I decided to update all on my latest exposure to this crazy making afib journey including ectopic beats.
I've been on this ride since 2019. Afib diagnosis 9/11/2019.
20 months of medications tried, discontinued and replacement meds tried again. Each time hope and disappointment.
Then, New hope Cardioversion.
Two jolts no change still in afib fulltime with high HR controlled to about 90 BPM when awake and lower when sleeping. If doing anything that takes strength 150 BPM immediately. Lots of nap time needed due to almost constant fatique.
Then hope, referral to EP, suggested PaceMaker with defibrillator. Great let's do it. Feel safer and all that, it malfunctioned in recovery and began shocking my heart every 15-20 seconds until the BIG blue magnet was located and taped to my chest right over the ICD.
Relief from what the doctor described as "not harmful", shocks! It was 62,000 volts? Yes but of only DC current. No problem if you are a spectator.
Overnight stay to get a tech to come and fix the device settings.
Medication adjusted to bring down HR.
Heart rate responded well and went home. Then I contacted my EP for follow up and when he asked if I had any last questions, I responded "ablation?"
He was not excited at first, but a second call two weeks later and we set the date April 29, 2021.
So all happened and I went home in total and complete NSR.
Kept up-to-date visits 3 months, 6 months then one year. Felt Great! No blanking period for me. I am NSR all the way.
Then this April , yes right now, a funny long beat? Delayed by a nano sec, What a problem???
Maybe. PVC. NO. It can't be.
I was planning to celebrate two years of Wonderful, clear NSR.
Sorry , you are, that is your heart is experiencing several PVC's per hour at about one every 13 beats per minute. Your EKG no longer says, NSR.
Afib? No, no, no not at all. Just
Ordinary ectopic beats, that can be somewhat controlled with medication.
Medication? Somewhat controlled? Are you saying forever?
It appears that you have a rogue electrical , that is your heart has random Neurological Premature Ventricular Contractions. This feels like a missed beat, but is mostly tolerated well by most patients.
Oh, so what do I do???
Just take your medications as prescribed. Don't smoke, eat the things you love, reduce stress and walk, but avoid running. Doc, I'm 77 years old you think I can run? No way, both my knees are bad. I can't tie my shoes or put my socks on without getting light headed .
And NO I don't drink. I am afraid I will fall down and be sent to some rehab facility.
So what's next? Come back in June for your regular follow up.
Thanks for all your help doctor.
Now my fellow forum that's the up-to-minute from me and my heart felt journey.
If you have read this far, thank you for allowing me the space to get it all out, off my chest so to speak.
Love&hugs
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